Accessibility, Adaptability, Visitability

Removes the exemption for houses from the accessibility objective so that new requirements for adaptability and visitability requirements can be applied to houses. 

Adaptability requirements include grab bar backing behind bathtubs and around toilets, as well as wider doors and lower light switches in houses.

Visitability requirements include visitable paths of travel and a washroom with a wide turning circle – applicable to a percentage (0 to 100%) of houses – as deemed by AHJs.

Applying the accessibility objective to houses will lead to significant accessibility requirements for houses in future codes – negatively impacting affordability and consumer choice.

Wider doors will impact floor plans and design of spaces and grab bar backing will add cost.

Visitability could present a risk to builders if the percentage of new houses to which these requirements are applied by the AHJs exceed market demand.

The tile industry issued a notice that the warranty on foam backer boards will be void if grab bars are installed.

Grab bar backing may be helpful to renovators and owners installing grab bars in showers, bathtubs and around toilets.

Alteration to Existing Buildings

Adds new requirements to address renovation of houses and buildings for energy efficiency.

Contains basic requirements to bring existing housing stock up to base-level energy efficiency (9.36. Tier 1).

Potential challenges with enforcement that will need to be closely monitored and potential issues with application to additions (to which the new code requirements will apply).

Potential for consistent set of national requirements for renovations that gradually increase the energy efficiency of existing housing stock while considering practicality and addressing many house-as-a-system related issues.

Door and Windowsill Protection

Mandates sill protection beneath all doors and windows and potentially sloped sills (to be confirmed when approved).

Another supporting proposed change requires lower insulation levels in the rough stud opening (RSO) and no insulation at the sill to allow for drainage of the RSO.

Inclusion of the RSO in the “second plane of protection” is a significant shift for many builders – at least in some regions – who currently face-seal the window/wall interface and seal the joint with low expansion foam for airtightness. Sloped sills¹ under all doors and windows would present challenges to the industry.

Potentially fewer call-backs or warranty claims for those experiencing issues.

Radon and Soil Gas Ingress

The most significant new requirement for radon would require a ‘passive’ radon stack extending from below the slab up through the roof (without a fan).

Passive stacks would apply to each new house and/or dwelling unit in contact with the ground.

In some types of houses, e.g. stacked townhouses, it can be challenging to install a passive radon stack.

Builders would need other acceptable solutions like a capped side-wall vent  (CGSB 149.11), or an actively-vented side-wall vent (CGSB 149.12) in the codes to avoid having to apply for an alternative solution for each install – even an active (with fan) radon mitigation system. 

Passive stacks may portray a false sense of security of acceptably low radon concentrations. Builders may face increased liability to be held responsible for an acceptable  indoor radon concentration rather than simple construction specs.

Previous requirements were ineffective and often waste of money since the required radon pipe stub (2020 NBC) was often in the wrong location and left unusable because connecting it to the roof would require too many turns forcing mitigators to close it and create a new connection to the sub-slab space.

Overheating of dwelling units

Mandates whole-house air-conditioning for all homes in locations where the July Design Temperature is above 26°C (see Table C-2 in Appendix C of the National Building Code for your location).

Designing and installing whole-house mechanical cooling for living spaces and basements and crawlspaces will add significant cost in regions where it is currently not being installed.

Potential liability being added for builders being responsible for preventing injuries and deaths from overheating in homes.

Additional electrical capacity needed for heat pumps or conventional air conditioning systems may require larger electrical panels and transformers which could add substantial cost.

Where the space heating equipment is a heat pump, this new requirement may be low-cost or even cost neutral, where the electrical service does not need upgrading.

Energy Efficiency for New Construction

Contains important updates to the tiered energy efficiency requirements (NBC 2020) including a maximum solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) in the prescriptive path, a prescriptive point system for all tiers, prescriptive packages for tier 1 and tier 5, and new energy use intensity metrics. 

CHBA considers the requirement for Tier 5 as too stringent and not necessary to meet Netzero performance targets as demonstrated by CHBA member builders.

The maximum solar heat gain coefficient for windows helps reduce overheating of high-performance homes. New prescriptive points system adds many new measures to reach targets for all tiers and prescriptive packages for tier 5 adds options previously not available.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Introduces – for the first time – greenhouse gas reduction with a new objective and technical requirements in 6 performance levels A to F (similar tiered energy targets)

Provinces will have to pair the GHG Levels with the minimum required energy tiers.

It sets emission factors for each province to classify home energy equipment based on fuel.

No credit/relaxation is given for zero-emission renewables (PV solar) on homes and emission factors (EF) are out of the control of builders.

While BC, MB and QC have EFs of 0 (clean grids), ON has an EF of 56, AB’s has one of 180 for electricity. The homes’ energy use will be multiplied by these factors to determine the GHG performance level.  The same energy efficient home in different provinces will lead to significantly different emission levels.

All emission performance levels are published, which offers an insight of future requirements (like tiered energy targets).

Prescriptive requirements were added allow a simpler classification by equipment and fuel-type.

Lateral Loads

New requirements for wall framing and sheathing to withstand wind and seismic loads may require thicker wood sheathing, more or stronger fasteners and limit the location of windows. These changes apply everywhere in Canada, not just in BC.

It is likely that these changes will be significant and – because they are quite complicated to apply – it can be assumed that many AHJ’s will require professional involvement.

One small exemption was introduced for small and compact home designs.

Future-adapted climatic loads data

Provides future projections for local wind, snow, rain, and temperature data to the respective maximum loads between today and 2070 considering the worst global warming potential.

New loads will be today’s loads if they are higher (eg. snow) or future loads if they are higher (eg. temperature). No lowering of loads.

Many sets of data are provided but not used in requirements, yet, allowing best-practice builders to voluntarily improve the performance of their homes.

Wind and snow load return periods

Will change return periods from 1-in-50 to 1-in-500 year for wind and from 1-in-100 to 1-in-1000 years for snow to create ‘uniform risk’, which means more consistent and reliable safety across all regions and all building types across Canada.

While wind and snow load equations have been calibrated (no more load factors), it is possible that resulting constructions may change in some locations.

This approach takes into consideration more of the peaks (near extreme climatic values). This eliminates the need for load factors.