EDITORIAL: Re-examine how we build

Having had numerous reports about damages to roofs and houses following the recent passage of Hurricane Elsa, reports are that the National Housing Corporation is set to embark on a major house rebuilding programme and Government will also be seeking to retrofit roofs.

Word of this came from Minister of Housing and Lands, Dr. William Duguid, recently, as he and a team of officials were doing assessments in the wake of the damage from Elsa. He indicated that there is a lot of design work to be done in terms of how the country moves forward with roof building and roof design from now on and heavy focus apparently will be placed on offering members of the public hurricane straps to retrofit their roofs.

“When we rebuild these houses, we will be very specific on focusing on using roof straps and strapping the house to the foundation as well. I think that a lot of the houses that we are seeing problems with, both with the freak storm and with the hurricane that just passed, there are a lot of houses that did not have hurricane straps, and those that may have had some type of hurricane straps, did not also have the strapping from the foundation onto the house itself,” Duguid reportedly explained.

Now there has been much talk amongst the Barbadian public about the long-proposed Building Code. Based on reports, the enabling legislation for the mandatory use of Barbados’ National Building Code is not yet in place and as such, apart from the planning process, there is no building control to ensure persons in the residential and commercial sector abide by the code.

The Barbados National Building Code, it is said, details the technical standards and requirements for the design and construction of buildings in respect of issues concerning structural sufficiency and durability, fire safety, health and amenity, which are regarded as essential minimum provisions in the public’s interest.

Standards for the manufacture, use and testing of building materials, components and systems are also included to support the administration of the Code and promote the economic development of the industry. The Code takes into account the particular climatic and geological conditions of Barbados, especially the nature of the Caribbean environment and the region’s susceptibility to hurricanes and earthquakes. There is no legislation in place as yet, however, for its mandatory use. Some say we have dragged our feet on this aspect, and given what we have seen with Hurricane Elsa, we may need to revisit this whole notion of a building code.

From what we have heard, there is a Revised Building Code, but we are yet to hear about implementation and enforcement. While the Barbados National Standards Institute (BNSI) was previously said to merely be the author of the Code, the Building Standards Authority (BSA) was identified as the agency responsible for enforcing it.

However, we do acknowledge that the Barbadian public and those in the construction arena do not have to wait until the building code is in full effect to recognise that they have a responsibility to become more aware of safe and modern practices in engineering and building. However, it would be useful if we had some common ground to work on and this is where the mandatory Building Code would come in.