Building-Code Evaluations

Not all communities adopt and enforce building codes or have equally stringent building codes, nor do all communities enforce their codes with the same vigor. Yet the effectiveness of local building codes can help predict how well some structures in your community will fare in a hurricane, earthquake, or other natural disaster.

ISO’s Building Code Effectiveness Classifications help distinguish the various levels of community building-code adoption and enforcement.

The concept is simple: municipalities with effective, well-enforced codes should demonstrate better loss experience when a catastrophe strikes. Buildings located in such communities — constructed according to current codes — likewise should experience less severe loss.

Photo courtesy of NOAA/Department of Commerce

ISO collects information on the building codes in effect in a particular community, as well as how the community enforces its building codes. We then analyze the data using our Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS™) to determine the level of building-code enforcement. Insurers can use the gradings to determine property insurance values or grant premium credits for buildings constructed under strictly enforced codes.

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the Northridge earthquake in 1994 accelerated the development of the BCEGS program. BCEGS encourages the implementation and enforcement of effective building codes, resulting in safer buildings and communities that suffer less damage when disaster strikes.

Building codes and Hurricane Andrew
After Hurricane Andrew, photos taken in several parts of south Florida showed homes on one side of a street completely destroyed, while homes on the other side were still standing. Later inspection determined that, in many cases, construction of the destroyed buildings was well below the standard required by the building code in effect.

BCEGS: A program that works
Here are a few more examples of how improved building codes can reduce damage from natural disasters:

• Studies of disasters from the Northridge earthquake through Hurricane Katrina graphically demonstrate that effective building-code enforcement reduces loss in catastrophic events.

• A 2005 study conducted by a council of the National Institute of Building Sciences concluded that funds directed toward hazard mitigation before an event reduce losses by almost four dollars for every dollar spent. The federal government supports that concept by recognizing communities that effectively institutionalize natural hazard mitigation strategies in their building-code adoption and enforcement by making predisaster grants available to them.

• The Louisiana State University Hurricane Center conducted a study of residential wind damage following Hurricane Katrina. Their findings show that “economic losses, which include damage to buildings and contents, would be reduced an estimated 65 percent” if the buildings in the affected area had protected building openings, improved roof-deck connections, and improved roof-to-wall connections.

Are you interested in the details of how we assess building codes in a community and how the community enforces its codes? Follow the link to learn more. To request more information, click here or call ISO Customer Service at 1-800-888-4476, option 6.