Determining degrees of combustibility of building materials—national building code of canada

Abstract

Abstract Many jurisdictions are attempting to replace the prescriptive specifications in their building codes with performance based requirements. However, if this transition is not carried out prudently, the changes could make the codes more difficult to interpret, harder to administer and, instead of providing an equitable foundation for the selection of construction materials and building designs, render those codes unnecessarily restrictive. To illustrate some of the difficulties which can be faced when changing prescriptive specifications to performance‐based requirements, suggestions about how the prescriptive specifications regarding combustible and noncombustible construction in the National Building Code of Canada could be replaced with performance requirements based upon ‘degrees of combustibility’ of building materials are outlined.