Building Codes Buffonnery

I am old enough to remember when craftsmen used to sit on their lunch buckets and discuss how to build better houses. They were not so much worried about codes but about the quality of work being done. The responsibility to build well was theirs. The codes have only removed responsibility from the craftsmen and left them with nothing but a profit motive. What else is there? The government has determined everything and the guy who builds is just the person who assembles the government approved house.
Meanwhile, the massive amount of law enforced has not guaranteed anywhere near ideal results. The abundance of codes really just locks in by-gone technologies. The vapor barrier requirements are a perfect example of government laws screwing up the housing industry. With millions of houses too tight we have been seeing massive re-fits to remediate mold and various rot problems connected with the over-zealous air infiltration standards made into not choice but into law. We all had to act like idiots because the government said so.

We are not lacking laws. We are lacking proper morality to do the best workmanship God will inspire us to do. Moral people will produce better buildings because they want to. Heavily regulated, immoral men will produce sub-standard products as a reflection of who they are. I say lose the stupid codes and reinvigorate the business by giving the trade back to the craftsmen. We need to think about producing people with a stronger sense of good morals as relates to this trade, not producing an ever expanding code. Laws will not help us. Better men in the trade will. We need to be changed into better men not just better followers of government codes.

This is partly why I work to promote the rebuilding of Christian culture.

Don Schanzenbach

First published as commentary at GreenBuildingAdvisory.com