What a Water Heater Can Teach Us About Code Reform

Nov 05, 2024

One of my many jobs within the local government was the manager of a city’s building department. The building department is responsible for the administration, review and inspection of construction to ensure that it's in compliance with the state building code. This department is also responsible for consumer protection by verifying that construction — whether completed by a licensed contractor or a property owner — has been constructed properly and safely.

The state building code is a multivolume library of regulations. It covers everything from the beams that hold up the roof to the screws that hold together the walls. There is no shortage of construction projects that require a building permit. All of these regulations are intended to protect us and ensure our buildings don’t fall down. There are a lot of pieces to a building, and each one should be reviewed.

The volume of permits that the building department handles can vary wildly based on many factors, most of which are external to a city. This might include a developer deciding to begin construction on a new subdivision because interest rates changed. Or, there may be a larger number of new decks because a new contractor focused marketing and labor in the city. Just as quickly as these permits appear, they can also disappear.

This rush for building permits is unpredictable, and my city was not alone in having limited resources to hire an army of code officials. As the manager of this department, I had to work with building officials to allocate staff resources and keep pace with these fluctuating demands. Regardless of volume, permits and inspections needed to be completed in an efficient, timely manner.

I learned a lot about water heaters while managing the building department, and I've found that these lessons can apply to the administration of the city's many other codes and ordinances.

Each of us has a water heater in our homes and workplaces. It’s so integrated into our lives that the building code requires it as a condition of occupancy of a building. We need to have hot water and we just expect it to be on demand until it is not.

At least once in our lives, we have all also turned on a shower that never got hot or walked into a puddle in the basement. Water heaters do fail, so it’s not a matter of if but when. The "when" is usually at the most inopportune time, like Friday night or Thanksgiving morning. We are so accustomed to hot water that its failure becomes an urgent emergency to repair. When a water heater goes bad, we want to get it replaced as soon as possible.

A water heater is a complicated piece of equipment for the building official. A water heater is the convergence of electricity and water, which can prove fatal when mixed improperly. The water heater also creates hot water that can scald and burn. On top of all of that, our municipal water systems have varying water pressures that require pressure-reducing valves, while our energy codes require pressure tanks to keep the hot water in the tank. These valves and tanks are important but are less common in older homes. Finally, once installed, we want to make sure all of the fittings are properly installed so the water stays in the tanks and pipes.

The building code informs us through multiple volumes how to review and check all of these variables. For the building official, there is a lot to inspect to confirm a property owner is safe. This review starts with a building permit application to confirm that the installer understands all the parts that need to be checked — or installed if missing. Once installed, an inspection is then required to confirm that the installer actually did what they said they would.

The two worlds of a property owner and a building official collide when a water heater breaks.

For a property owner, the water heater usually leaks or fails to work in the evening, on a weekend or on a holiday when city hall is not open. The repair is urgent because we have all grown accustomed to our warm shower, and we cannot wait days or weeks to seek approval from the building official to commence the work. The other struggle that emerges is that, once the work is complete, the inspection will be scheduled in the middle of the work day within a window of four to six hours.

For their part, the building official wants to make sure that the property owner is aware of all of the code requirements so that the completed installation is safe. Permit departments are like well-oiled machines that process all permits equally, whether you're replacing a roof or building a new house. This orderly machine can accept and review large volumes of permits. They review these permits in the order received, which takes time, and reject any permits that are missing critical information, which adds time.

The struggle with processing a permit for a water heater is that the water heater usually fails on a weekend or holiday when city hall is not open, but the need to replace it is urgent. The building official also has to take time to review the permit and inspect each water heater. So, either the property owner replaces the water heater without a permit or they wait an extraordinary amount of time to receive a permit. In my experience, the former resulted in many mistakes that could have caused serious injury.

The struggle we observed with water heaters is that most homeowners and plumbers were willing to apply for a permit and have an inspection, but they did not have the luxury of time to complete the process. The building official also wanted to review each water heater, knowing the potential danger an improperly installed water heater could cause.

The water heater inspired us to think about the approach to administering the code and inspections differently.

First, the building code gives the building official discretion to determine whether a water heater is an emergency repair. If the official determines that it's an emergency, the water heater can be replaced prior to the application for or issuance of a permit. So, we streamlined the application process so that, once a “water heater replacement” box was checked, the only information needed was the property address and who was installing the new water heater. This application could be reviewed by administrative staff, bypassing the long queue for plan review with the building official. This allowed repairs to occur immediately and without delay.

Second, although all the parts of a water heater replacement are regulated through multiple volumes of the building code, the installation of a water heater is pretty standard in every home. So, the building official distilled these volumes of regulations into the key elements that would be inspected and placed these elements on a checklist with pictures. This document gave property owners an idea of what to look for and be aware of when installing a water heater.

Finally, the scheduling and exact time for the arrival of a building inspection is as precise as the cable company. Most of us do not have a day or even half-day to wait at home for a building inspection. To simplify this, the building inspector requested photographs of the installed water heater. The illustrated elements checklist was the guide, and three or four photographs generally provided enough information to determine whether the water heater was installed to code. If there was any doubt in compliance, an in-person inspection or phone call could be scheduled.

The water heater taught me that even the most complicated of inspections could be simplified and streamlined, increasing the efficiency of our resources. We actually repeated this approach to other permits like roofing permits, which made it easier for residents to complete the permitting process while fulfilling the building official’s responsibility to review for compliance with the building code.

The water heater taught me that reforming the administration of the code is as important as reforming the code itself. In this case, the building official was not comfortable with abolishing permits and inspections of water heaters. I respected that professional determination, so we needed to get creative in our approach through the interpretation and administration of the code. Through a couple of minor changes, we could achieve both the inspection and the ease for residents. Ultimately, the result was an easy process to verify compliance with the building code.

We can apply the lessons of the water heater beyond the building code and apply this lesson to the development and zoning codes. All of our communities have complicated requirements and processes that have been adopted and implemented over time. Shifting our approach to administering these codes is within the discretion of technical staff and the next smallest step we can take.

Edward Erfurt is the Director of Community Action at Strong Towns. He is a trained architect and passionate urban designer with over 20 years of public- and private-sector experience focused on the management, design, and successful implementation of development and placemaking projects that enrich the tapestry of place. He believes in community-focused processes that are founded on diverse viewpoints, a concern for equity, and guided through time-tested, traditional town-planning principles and development patterns that result in sustainable growth with the community character embraced by the communities which he serves.