Earthquakes and Residential Building Codes

With the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile the question of building codes come to mind. Most of the building is Haiti were destroyed during the earthquake undoubtedly because of the lack of or poor enforcement of appropriate building codes. There are several stories on the web about a company building - the Digicel building, which was constructed using American Building codes, remained standing with no major structural damage. A testament to use of the right building codes.



Building codes cover everything form fire codes, parking requirements, green space, fencing, min and max room sizes, qualifications for the various professionals working on the building, installation methodologies, building material requirements and hurricane / flood / earthquake resistance requirements.

The death toll from the earthquake in Chile was approximately 700 people vs the estimated 230,000 in Haiti despite the existance of more "solid" building structures in Chile. The structural damage to major structures in Chile was also not as devastating as was the case in Haiti. Chile is more strict in enforcing its building codes. Here in the US, regions prone to earthquakes such as California have taken drastic action to improve on existing building codes equipping structures and building processes to better deal with earthquake forces. This is not just done for new constructions, but older buildings are also retrofitted with improvements to cope with earthquakes.

Without getting too complicated in determining how various building codes cope with earthquake forces, we will share a resource where you can get the building codes for residential dwelling construction.

You will find in your searching of the web building codes area available at the state and city level. You can search for say "NYC building codes" and you could land at the following link
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/model/model.shtml
These state and city level code books are region specific and may not offer the information you are looking for especially for residential construction.

One of the closest things to a universally adopted building code is the CABO One and Two Family Dwelling Code book.
The book is well illustrated, easy to read and not too expensive.

For what seems like overkill with all the legislation surrounding building construction in the US, there is the underlying fact that the enforcing the right building codes goes a long way in minimizing the damages incurred during natural disasters such as earthquakes.