BUILDER: COMMON SENSE NEEDED

If the book on the BOCA code is considered the bible for builders and building inspectors, it certainly leaves room for more than one interpretation.

And when it comes to enforcing BOCA, which stands for Building Officials Code Administrators, Cape Girardeau City Hall should apply common sense to projects involving building renovation.

So says contractor Elmer Kellerman, who was in charge of renovating the LDD Inc. building at Minnesota and Independence. The project, completed in November took 10 months, two months longer than it should have because of BOCA interpretations, said Kellerman.

A Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce building task force and city officials will meet to discuss dealings between builders and city inspectors and other issues. The task force grew out of a Chamber of Commerce membership survey that revealed problems between builders and City Hall. Members of the task force are expected to be named next week. A time and place for the meetings will be announced.

Kellerman, who has spent 30 years in construction, said because the city insisted on following the code to the letter of the law, he spent too much time at City Hall.

Complicating matters was the fact that during construction Kellerman referred to the 1993 BOCA code while Cape Girardeau was using the 1990 code. The city changed to the 1993 code Friday.

"We could have gone to City Hall twice and taken care of everything we needed, but instead we had to go back four times," said Kellerman. "We had every intention of following the building code, but there was just too much red tape to deal with," he said.

Kellerman works for BMC Building Management and JM Walters and Son of Metropolis, Ill. BMC Management oversaw the LDD project.

Kellerman said that when JM Walters and Son seeks a building permit in Metropolis, which also uses the BOCA code, it usually gets one in a day or two. "It would take a month and a half to get the same permit in Cape Girardeau," he said.

Cape Girardeau Supervisor of Inspectors Rick Murray said what applies to one builder should apply to all. He said he has instructed city inspectors to follow the code to the letter of the law to avoid any appearance of favoritism.

Murray said Cape Girardeau enters into a partnership with builders, architects and developers to make sure there are no unanswered questions about construction. "It's necessary to get all parties together on the same project to make sure we are as fair as possible," said Murray. "Sometimes that can be time consuming, but it's the best way to handle it."

Kellerman said one Cape Girardeau inspector agreed that it made more sense to provide added protection along walls of the building to keep fire from spreading through the rest of the building than to merely comply with a fire-rated ceiling. But another inspector told him the ceiling also would have to be built according to the BOCA code's fire-rated requirements, said Kellerman.

"It makes no sense to protect a ceiling if the structure around it is going to collapse from a fire," Kellerman said. "We decided to just comply with what both inspectors said, but it delayed the project a couple of months. If they had told us what needed to be done at once, we could have saved a lot of time."

Murray said city inspectors are required to provide the same information to all contractors. "What happens sometimes is that the timeliness of what one inspector says one day and what another inspector says another sounds like there are conflicting messages," Murray said. "The BOCA code says that both the walls and ceiling are supposed to adhere to fire-related requirements."

Kellerman said common sense comes into play more often when the BOCA code is applied to existing buildings than to new ones. He said new buildings can be constructed to fit existing codes to the letter, but common sense is necessary when applying the 1993 BOCA code to a structure built when there was a different code.

"We're doing a bank addition right now," Kellerman said. "The code calls for 7 inches of clearance on steps and 11 inches of tread. Sometimes you have to compromise because of the way the building was originally built. With 15 feet from floor to floor, I'm not sure it's going to work out exactly to 7 inches. We want to comply with the code, but sometimes you have to go off by a little to make it work."

Murray said any contractor can appeal a ruling by an inspector. "There is a board of appeals that meets once a month to take care of that," he said.

Another bone of contention is adhering to the original drawing of a building when changes are needed. "There are times when you discover that it's more cost efficient to depart from the original drawings during the building project," Kellerman said.

"Rather than allow for that, the city said we had to go back and change the drawings to fit the alterations. That seems like a waste of time to me because it just delays the project, and in no way involves a violation of the building code."

Murray said that rule is in place to protect the architect as well as the builder. He cited a case in which a contractor made changes without the architect's knowledge.

"We stopped the project until we could inform the architect and owner of the changes in the project," Murray said. "They thanked us for that because, as it turned out, we ended up saving them money by making them stick to the original drawings or come up with different plans. The changes the contractor wanted to make would have ended up costing more in the long run."

Kellerman said the delays he experienced with the LDD renovation didn't translate into a significant increase in cost. However, if an owner of a building were trying to meet a deadline to avoid paying rent on two places, lost time could be translated into lost money.