BUILDING CODE COMMISSION
Ruling No.: 24-04-1638
Application No.: B-2023-21
IN THE MATTER OF Subsection 24(1) of the Building Code Act, S.O. 1992, c. 23, as amended.
AND IN THE MATTER OF Sentences 9.13.3.3.(1) and (3) and 9.15.6.1.(1) of Division B of the Building Code.
AND IN THE MATTER OF an application by Michelle Arlene Beauchamp, Homeowner, for the resolution of a dispute with Adam MacDonald, Chief Building Official, City of Sarnia to determine whether the waterproofing method used for the as-constructed below grade foundation wall provides sufficiency of compliance with Sentences 9.13.3.3.(1) and (3) and 9.15.6.1.(1) of Division B of the Building Code at 1495 Hunt Street, Sarnia, Ontario.
Parties
APPLICANT Michelle Arlene Beauchamp Homeowner Sarnia, Ontario
RESPONDENT Adam MacDonald Chief Building Official City of Sarnia Sarnia, Ontario
Hearing Details
PANEL Stephen Wong, Chair Christina Kalt Leszek Muniak
PLACE via Video Conference
DATE OF HEARING March 6, 2024
DATE OF RULING April 5, 2024
Appearances
Michelle Beauchamp Homeowner Sarnia, Ontario Applicant
Richard Lammers Onus Paralegal, PC Tecumseh, Ontario Agent for the Applicant
Peter Saunders Building Science Representative Henry Company Scarborough, Ontario Agent for the Applicant
Adam MacDonald Chief Building Official City of Sarnia Sarnia, Ontario Respondent
Brianna Anic Deputy Chief Building Official City of Sarnia Sarnia, Ontario Designate for the Respondent
RULING
1. Particulars of Dispute
The Applicant has received a permit to make structural repair to the foundation of an existing one-storey residential dwelling. During the repair, the Applicant received an Order to Comply under the Building Code Act, 1992, to provide parging with not less than 6 mm of mortar on the exterior surfaces of the new below-grade foundation walls at 1495 Hunt Street, Sarnia, Ontario.
The subject building is a Group C, one-storey, residential dwelling of combustible construction with an approximate building area of 140 m2.
The dispute between the two parties centers on whether the waterproofing method used for the as-constructed below-grade foundation walls without 6 mm of mortar parging provides sufficiency of compliance with Sentences 9.13.3.3.(1) and (3) and 9.15.6.1.(1) of Division B of the Building Code at 1495 Hunt Street, Sarnia, Ontario.
Following the hearing held on March 6, 2024, the Commission requested additional information from the Agent for the Applicant (the "Agent") regarding the apparent discrepancy between the manufacturer's installation instructions for the Blueskin® WP 200 product, which does not require parging of below-grade unit masonry walls and Canadian Construction Materials Centre (CCMC) Evaluation 13297-R, which has a condition requiring below-grade unit masonry walls be parged before the application of the product.
A response was received from the Agent, which contained an e-mail from CCMC indicating that the condition for parging was imposed by the National Building Code of Canada (NBC) 2005, not by the CCMC and that CCMC could test and evaluate the Blueskin® WP 200 product, if requested to do so, in order to determine whether the condition requiring parging in the original approval could be waived.
2. Provisions of the Building Code in Dispute
9.13.3.3. Preparation of Surface
(1) Surfaces to be waterproofed shall be prepared in accordance with the instructions of the waterproofing material manufacturer.
(3) Unit masonry walls that are to be waterproofed shall be parged on exterior surfaces below ground level with not less than 6 mm of mortar conforming to Section 9.20. coved over the footing.
9.15.6.1. Foundation Walls Below Ground
(1) Concrete block foundation walls shall be parged on the exterior face below ground level as required in Section 9.13.
3. Applicant's Position
The Agent submitted that the new foundation had been backfilled at the time of the inspection by the building inspector. The approved building permit drawings indicated that the foundation walls would match the existing foundation and that the below grade unit masonry foundation walls would be parged, as per Sentences 9.13.3.3.(3) and 9.15.6.1.(1) of Division B of the Building Code. However, the parging was not applied. Instead, a product called Blueskin® WP 200, which is a self-adhering membrane consisting of an SBS rubberized asphalt compound, integrally laminated to a blue, high density cross-laminated polyethylene film, was applied directly to the unit masonry foundation walls without parging.
The Agent indicated that Part 9 of Division B of the Building Code has prescriptive provisions for fluid applied dampproofing and waterproofing. The Agent indicated that, since the original development of Part 9 of Division B of the Building Code, many products have entered the market with no new requirements or allowances being added to Part 9 of Division B of the Building Code to recognize the new technologies.
During the hearing, the Agent called upon the representative of Henry Company, the manufacturer of the Blueskin® WP 200 product, to provide information regarding the product. The representative advised that the Blueskin® WP 200 product had been evaluated by CCMC and that the product is intended to be applied directly to unit masonry foundation walls with an adhesive. The representative noted that the manufacturer's instructions specifically state that "Parging of concrete blocks is not required." However, upon questioning, the representative could not provide information regarding how the product was tested in order to obtain CCMC approval, whether this was done for below-grade unit masonry foundation walls without parging. The representative did note that he was not aware of any failures of the product on foundation walls after installation was completed.
4. Respondent's Position
The Designate for the Respondent (the "Designate") submitted that the parging required under Article 9.13.3.3 and Subsection 9.15.6. of Division B of the Building Code had not been provided over the new below-grade unit masonry foundation wall. The Blueskin® WP 200 product, along with its required adhesive, was directly applied to the unit masonry surface.
The Designate stated that the supporting information provided by the Applicant for the Blueskin® WP 200 product, used without the required parging, does not confirm that the product sufficiently complies with the prescriptive requirements of Part 9 of Division B of the Building Code and does not appear to be an acceptable alternative to the required 6 mm of mortar.
The Designate further indicated that the revised drawings, approved on May 9, 2022, showed that the original concrete foundation was to be replaced by a unit masonry foundation wall. The Building Department had added two separate red-line notes indicating that parging was required over the below-grade unit masonry foundation wall, as per Subsection 9.13.3 of Division B of the Building Code. The compliance issue was first discovered by the building inspector during the backfill inspection that took place on July 13, 2022. The new foundation had already been backfilled at this time. No questions or comments relating to the notes added to the approved plans that required parging over the unit masonry foundation wall had been received by the Building Department prior to this time.
The Designate also indicated that the Building Department reviewed the Technical Data Sheet submitted for the Blueskin® WP 200 product, as well as CCMC Evaluation 13297-R. The Designate noted that although no Minister's Ruling was available for this product, CCMC Evaluation Reports have been accepted in the past by the Building Department, provided that the conditions and limitations identified in the CCMC Evaluation Reports have been met.
The Designate submitted that a condition of the CCMC Evaluation Report for the Blueskin® WP 200 product states that "Unit masonry or poured-in-place concrete walls shall meet the surface preparation requirements of the NBC 2005, Division B, Article 9.13.3.4.". This NBC 2005 Article states that below-grade unit masonry walls that are required to be waterproofed must be parged on the exterior surfaces with not less than 6 mm of mortar. The Designate further submitted that the Blueskin® WP 200 product was not evaluated in the CCMC Evaluation Report as an alternative to the parging requirement of Article 9.13.3.4. of Division B of the NBC, 2005. Based on this, the Building Department could not reasonably determine that the application of the Blueskin® WP 200 product without parging sufficiently complies with the 6 mm parging required by Article 9.13.3.3 of Division B of the Building Code.
The Designate stated that a letter was received from a Building Science Representative at Henry Company. This letter cited ASTM approvals and a reference to Part 5 of Division B of the Building Code/NBC. However, the identified ASTM standards are not referenced in Part 5 of the Building Code. A similar letter was received from the engineer stating that the Blueskin® WP 200 product does not require a cementitious parge over unit masonry foundation walls. It is the opinion of the Respondent that this statement from the engineer does not waive the prescriptive requirements of Part 9 of Division B of the Building Code or the Conditions and Limitations outlined in the CCMC Evaluation Report for the use of this product.
The Designate further noted that a set of revised drawings were received on October 26, 2023. The revised drawings included a note from the engineer stating that, as per the manufacturer's instructions, for unit masonry foundation walls, parging is not required. This revised submission was not approved by the Building Department for the same reasons outlined above.
5. Decision
It is the decision of the Building Code Commission that the waterproofing method used for the as-constructed below grade foundation wall does not provide sufficiency of compliance with Sentences 9.13.3.3.(1) and (3) and 9.15.6.1.(1) of Division B of the Building Code at 1495 Hunt Street, Sarnia, Ontario.
6. Reasons
i) The Commission heard evidence that the installation of the Blueskin® WP 200 product does not meet Conditions and Limitations outlined in CCMC Evaluation 13297-R, which state that "Unit masonry or poured-in-place concrete walls shall meet the surface preparation requirements of the NBC 2005, Division B, Article 9.13.3.4.", and more specifically, that the Blueskin® WP 200 product was installed directly over the unit masonry foundation walls without parging.
Sentence 9.13.3.4.(1) of Division B of the NBC 2005 states that: "Unit masonry walls that are to be waterproofed shall be parged on exterior surfaces below ground level with not less than 6 mm of mortar conforming to Section 9.20." Therefore, it is the Commission's opinion that sufficiency of compliance with the corresponding Sentences in the Building Code, Sentences 9.13.3.3.(1) and (3) and 9.15.6.1.(1) of Division B of the Building Code, has not been achieved.
ii) Although the Commission heard testimony from the manufacturer's Building Science Representative that no parging is required over a below-grade unit masonry foundation wall prior to the application of the Blueskin® WP 200 product, the Applicant's parties did not provide sufficient technical evidence to support this claim. In response to the Commission's request for additional information, the Commission heard that although CCMC could not waive the stated parging condition, an application for modification of the CCMC Evaluation Report is an option that is available should the manufacturer wish to seek to modify the Conditions and Limitations set out in CCMC Evaluation 13297-R. The Commission notes that the manufacturer has not yet pursued this option.
The Commission also notes that the Applicant has not submitted technical information to the Respondent for review to demonstrate that the installation of the Blueskin® WP 200 product on the as-constructed below-grade unit masonry foundation wall without parging would achieve the level of performance required by Sentences 9.13.3.3.(1) and (3) and 9.15.6.1.(1) of Division B of the Building Code in respect of the objectives and functional statements attributed to these Sentences.
Dated at the City of Toronto this 5th day in the month of April in the year 2024 for application number B-2023-21.
Stephen Wong, Chair
Christina Kalt
Leszek Muniak