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A funny thing happened when Hurricane Andrew (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Andrew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Andrew) came through South
by spc476 10y ago
A funny thing happened when Hurricane Andrew (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Andrew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Andrew) came through South Florida. Homes built in the 1950s (way before "modern building standards") did much better than those build in the 1980s and very early 1990s.
While building standards exist to ensure a base minimum of safety and quality, that's it---it's a base and there's no real reason to exceed it (it just adds expense). The older homes were built more conservatively (the Brooklyn Bridge is something like six times the strength it needs; compare to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940)) built "just to spec").
- kalleboo 10y agoSomething else also happened in the intervening period - we got a lot better at calculating that base minimum of safety and quality. They used to overbuild stuff not because they wanted quality and were happy to pay for a bunch of extra material, but because they weren't sure exactly how much was required so they had massive safety margins. I reject the thesis that removing building codes would RAISE the quality of buildings. I'm sure builders would love to dial down the material used a couple more steps so that it stand up just long enough for the big bad wolf to come along.