Countless accidents still occur in homes across the U.S. and globally where codes are poorly understood or used improperly. The expanded Building Safety Month will help bridge these gaps and provide a broader platform to share the sphere of knowledge among architects, engineers and skilled industry veterans so that families, businesses and communities can be safe, strong and sustainable.

Wikipedia describes a building code, or building control, as a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. Building codes have a long history. What is generally accepted as the first building code was in the Code of Hammurabi which specified:

• 229. If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.
• 230. If it kills the son of the owner, the son of that builder shall be put to death.
• 231. If it kills a slave of the owner, then he shall pay, slave for slave, to the owner of the house.
• 232. If it ruins goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re-erect the house from his own means.
• 233. If a builder builds a house for someone, even though he has not yet completed it; if then the walls seem toppling, the builder must make the walls solid from his own means.

The Law of Moses stipulated a specific construction requirement which is also an early form of a building code. The Bible book of Deuteronomy, chapter 22 verse 8, states:

• “In case you build a new house, you must also make a parapet for your roof, that you may not place bloodguilt upon your house because someone falling might fall from it.”

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I’m a proud member of the American Society of Home Inspectors – ASHI. In May ASHI members will be available to help answer questions and promote residential building safety. We at SafeHome Inspections are proud to be a part of that important initiative where we’ll help create community-wide recognition and understanding of building safety and sustainability. To that event we’re sharing the Building Safety Month Toolkit as seen on www.buildingsafetymonth.org.

Listen to Danny Lipford @ Homefront Radio with Jack Armstrong

2011 Building Safety Month Public Relations Downloadable Toolkit:

Tips On How To Have A Successful Building Safety Month Event – Video

Public Relations Toolkit Cover Sheet

2011 Building Safety Month Logo

2011 Building Safety Month Poster - Download Low Res | Download High Res

Letter to the Editor Template

News Release Template

2012 Proclamation Template

Step by Step Support for Building Safety Month

Strategies for a Successful Building Safety Month Event

What is Building Safety Month? - Download Low Res | Download High Res

2011 Building Safety Month Children Activities:

CODiE & CODEtte Children’s Activity Book

CODiE & CODEtte Children’s Sticker

2011 General Building Safety Brochures and Publications:

Benefits of Building Permits

Building Codes: How do they Help You?

Building Green – Living Better

Building Technology: Then and Now

Careers in Code Administration

201Flood Cleanup: Safety & Salvaging

Mold: Tips on Prevention and Control

Prevent Accidents, Save Lives: Pool Spa and Hot Tub Safety

Safety First – Disaster Preparedness: Tips for Your Home & Family

Safety Tips from Your Building Inspector

www.HelpWithMyBank.gov

Most of us know we should rein in our energy use. But to be successful, it’d help if we knew the best way to do it. So scientists asked more than 500 people, “What’s the most effective thing you can do to conserve energy?” The results were illuminating.

More than half the participants focused on conservation by curtailment: switching off the lights, changing thermostat settings and driving less. Only 12 percent went for efficiency: using compact fluorescent bulbs, insulating the house or driving a hybrid car. But scientists say that it’s actually these moves that yield the bigger energy savings. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Shahzeen Attari et al., http://bit.ly/bEtA6W]

The study authors think that a big factor is that curtailment is easier to imagine doing—while efforts to improve efficiency would involve, for example, doing research about new appliances or cars, and spending money up front to buy them.

But if people knew more about the actual energy requirements of their activities versus the savings available through efficiency, they might be spurred to act. To quote physicist and energy expert Arthur Rosenfeld: “Energy efficiency is like a Saudi Arabia under our cities.”

—Karen Hopkin

Source:

Most of us are familiar with the popular TV show, Deal or no Deal. The show has a good formula for how to negotiate: There is pressure, tension, drama and expectation; it follows a lot of the patterns of negotiating.

Negotiating the deal is sort of a lost art. Not everybody knows how to negotiate because in the past we didn’t have to. This week Roland Nairnsey, new home sales expert, shares his top seven negotiation tip to bring everybody up to speed.