About ten years ago, I worked on a job where an
entire set of freshly poured concrete steps had to be jack-hammered to bits and
replaced. Human nature and a building code
violation led to that. The problem first came to light because all
sorts of people were stumbling when they tried to climb the steps. I almost fell on my face when I tried to
ascend them while carrying a box of electrical parts.
As it turned out, the steps were poured with a rise
of about 8 inches on the first two steps.
Most building codes adopt a maximum rise of 7-3/4 inches. No inspector caught the infraction, but so
many people were tripping on the steps the superintendent on the job checked
the measurement and discovered the problem.
The stairs had to go.
We are all accustomed to lifting our feet to clear a
maximum of 7-3/4 inches. An increase of
only 1/4 inch is enough cause us to stumble and create a hazard.
Yesterday, I saw my first bluebird of the year and
was reminded of those steps.
As always, I felt pretty thrilled about the bird sighting. Bluebirds are the most certain sign of
spring. This year’s bluebird was looping
around the birdhouse I fastened to the post in my front yard a few years ago. As I watched the bluebird, I noticed that he
was swooping down to the entry hole in the front of the house fairly often and
picking away at the opening to make it bigger.
I have noticed in past years that bluebirds have shown interest in the
house but never actually used it for nesting.
Curious, I checked online to find plans for building
mountain bluebird houses. After looking
through a few plan sets, I discovered that they prescribed entrance holes with
a measurement of 1-9/16 inches. Instilled
with this information, I went out to measure the hole in the birdhouse when the
bluebird flew off to grab something to eat. Sure enough, I had a bluebird code violation
on the house. The opening in my house
was about 1-1/4 inches—about 1/4 of an inch off.
That’s when I thought about those concrete steps.
Mind you, this was not the same as an elephant
trying to squeeze through a cat-door. I
watched the bird go in and out of the house several times. I have seen many other bluebirds do the same. They seem to fit in the opening, but codes
are generally codes for a good reason.
As soon as I discovered the violation, I grabbed my
cordless drill and made a code-compliant mountain bluebird hole in the house. I am hoping for a family in the house this
year. Final inspection by the female is
pending.
--Mitchell
Hegman
Don't forget to make the kitchen female-standards compliant. :)
ReplyDelete