New Code for Post & Pier ?

[PauHana]

My friends are building a post & pier house. The footings and piers are massive, shear walls on all corners and also in the middle of a 40 ft house.
Then they were required to bury the footings in compacted base course out to five feet.

Is this really in the new code or just architectural over kill?

[Tom.Yost]

I've heard from a concrete guy (a few months ago) that if you don't include engineering calculations specific to this area, footings are required to be much bigger than necessary. It sounded like building code for non-volcanic areas was adopted as part of an effort to be uniform.

I've asked my architect for the calculations for the post and pier home we are about to start, so I should have firsthand knowledge in the coming weeks.

[Rob Tucker]

I'm going through this with a job right now. Either way the county is making the permitting process slower and more expensive. Affordable housing will be increasingly elusive.

12" footings are becoming 18" footings. A 50% increase in concrete.... or you can put more money into engineering calcs.

[kalakoa]

Either way the county is making the permitting process slower and more expensive.

Only for those who bother with permits -- others can simply use the precedent set by TMT, and claim that their religious convictions are more important than the rule of law.

"That's no shack ... it's a church."

[Seeb]

Did the county council approve a code change are they just making it up.

[Rob Tucker]

They adopted the 2006 code.

[Seeb]

But did they make these recent changes. Or is this the 2006 code now being enforced.

[Seeb]

From the start they should have adopted the IRC cook book for single family residences. It's so simple that you don't need an engineer

[PauHana]

Rob:
You had a product,I believe it was called "fast form" at one time. Would that work instead of cutting up 100+ feet of 2 X 12 for forms? It pains me to waste good lumber for a single use.

[Rob Tucker]

True. But I really couldn't get anybody interested in it and when I finally sold off my inventory I did not reorder.