Building Code Exception Downplays WIND in Tulsa

[PonderInc]

Did anybody catch the article in the TW about Tulsa's exception to the International Building code that allows "fire-down pins" instead of bolts to anchor homes to their foundations?  Sounds pretty goofy for people living in the middle of tornado alley.

Tulsa World Article

Quote from the article by Phil Mulkins:
When the Tulsa Building Code was adopted, an "exception" was added permitting "pneumatic, fire-down pins" in place of anchor bolts — a practice that makes home construction easier, faster and cheaper for builders but riskier for homeowners.

The bolts are half-inch, threaded steel rods embedded in the concrete slab and sticking several inches out of slab. Their placement is designed for passing through holes drilled in exterior-wall soleplates to hold the walls to the slab with nuts tightened over washers. The bolts must be wired in place to the slab rebar before the concrete slab is poured, so that they stick up, out of the slab, where the walls will eventually stand.

The IRC foundation-bolt requirement was written to toughen structures against straight-line winds and tornadic uplift. The shoot-down pins are easier to install — builders just nail a wall unit together with 2-by-4s, stand it up on the slab where they want it and fire the pins through the soleplates into the slab. The pins are barely more than -inch in diameter and penetrate the concrete by only three-quarters of an inch to 1? inches. The walls are then braced in place to the slab and roof trusses are lifted onto the walls and "tacked" in place there. This is all stiffened with plywood nailed to the outside of the walls.  

I guess if your house blows away, the builders think: "Hey, more work for me!"  Hilti thinks: "Hey, more sales for us!"  And the homeowner says: "Toto, I don't think we're in Tulsa anymore..."

[TheArtist]

I was frustrated by a lot of things that the builder "Better Bilt" did when I had my studio built recently. This was one of them, though the least problematic. I just thought it would be standard procedure to anchor the building to the foundation, but its not.... its just sitting there. And its a small building lol. You would think you would really want to anchor something like that down. But they didnt even use the "fire down pins".  

I am adding a new front facade myself that will extend out a few feet on either side and a storage closet to one side for yard stuff, so am hoping to anchor the building down at least a little bit by putting down anchor bolts in those sections of the foundation.

Every time a storm comes along my stomach ties up worrying about a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of mural work, painted on canvas, being blown away.

[EricP]

Oh that's wonderful..

[spincycle]

Well, after the storms yesterday and then again today causing wind damage to both the BOK Center and the One Tech Center, maybe the powers that be will pay more attention to the fact that these building codes protect our citizens instead of letting builders off the hook. It is best for EVERYONE in the long run.

And just from a common sense view point, maybe the folks that approve the building of these buildings will maybe not build glass houses in tornado alley. CRAZY!!!!

[blindnil]

It wasn't the new arena -- the BOK Center -- it was the BOk Tower that sustained damage. The arena held up well.

[PonderInc]

The BOK Tower (aka The Williams Tower) wouldn't have sustained any damage except that the window cleaners (or somebody) left their platform suspended from ropes up against the building.  (The thing is raised and lowered on ropes/pulleys, and basically hangs against the building.)  Instead of lowering it to the ground at the end of the day, they raise it up and tie it off "out of reach."  You'll often see it just hanging against the building 20 floors up.)  

The wind picked up the platform and repeatedly bashed it against the building like a battering ram.  That's what caused the damage.

I've been in the Williams/BOK Tower through many storms over the years that I worked there.  It's built to sway, not break.  I'd feel quite safe there, in fact.  

I don't feel safe in newly built homes b/c I've seen they way they're slapped together.  The fact that they're not anchored properly to the foundation is crazy!  Of all the building codes for Tulsa to make an exception to, that one is pretty weird!

[Kenosha]

Wind?

There is no wind in Tulsa!

Bah!

(says the guy who spent all evening anchoring his now leaning trees in the front yard.)