I live in a really rural area, and luckily there aren't many building codes that are enforced here!!!! I've been building a little barn out on the property, and no I didn't get a "Permit". No it's not built to ""Code""!!!! I've had a good portion of it done for several years now, and it's gone through some serious s#$t!!! Winter days with negative 50 wind chills (Minus 46 c) Oppressively hot Summer temperatures, winds with gusts to 60 mph (97 kph) hail, snow, blizzards, deluges of rain!!! It hasn't been hurt even a little by what Mother Nature can throw at it.
I recently learned that the "Depth" necessary for foundation footings where I live had been declared to be 43 inches (109 cm,) to prevent frost heaving. My house has an addition that was built onto it in 1971. It has foundations that go down 36 inches. (91 cm) It's been standing for 46 years! Nearly half a century!!!! It hasn't heaved, or moved even the tiniest bit. So how did the ""Suggested"" depth get changed??? How did the ""Required depth"" in more populous areas get determined???
The building codes are determined by a committee!!!
Somebody says "Who should we get to be on the committee"? And right away "Industry Experts" are called to serve. You get a couple of these "Experts" on the committee, making the decisions, and if even one building somewhere somehow has frost damage, this is enough reason to change the "Codes".
The concrete companies love having representatives in these positions of power because this one change in the "Code", forces a 19% increase in their sales for every building constructed.
After Hurricane Harvey's devastation dries up, I GUARANTEE you that "Codes" will be strengthened!!! (Especially because the bureaucrats at the flood insurance program screwed up, and this disaster will bankrupt the entire program.) This will cause hundreds of thousands of Americans to be unable to rebuild. They'll be homeless, and their car will become home.
This is all because the so called "Experts" are good at forcing the Public to spend it's own money (Which the Public often can ill afford,) while at the same time these experts fail at doing what they're supposed to be doing!!! The Addicks, and Barker Reservoirs, along with the Levee at Columbia Lakes all failed to hold enough water.... Despite their purpose of being built to prevent flooding, they weren't built well enough, and or maintained well enough to do their job. The levees at the 9th Ward in New Orleans failed, killing people, yet the bureaucrats responsible were never indicted for manslaughter.
These things are supposed to be for the Public's protection, but they're just lies. Buildings built "To Code" fail miserably in every Natural Disaster. Bridges, Dams and levees are supposed to be maintained by our overlords and masters, but they also fail over and over and over again.
these systems as I said are nothing but lies, and the truth is they are just an excuse for extractive extortion.
I'm going to share a video by a friend of mine (Used with permission) that shows a solution to the rampant homelessness in Houston we will soon be seeing. A small family could have a roof over their heads (Not finished, but at least closed in,) for $7,000!!!! They won't be able to take advantage of this, because of the extortion, and bureaucratic bullcrap that they will be subjected to.
