Builder

DECEMBER 2016

EDIT NOTES

WE STAND

COMMITTED

TO REPORTING,

ANALYZING, AND

WEIGHING THE

TRADE-OFFS OF

ENGINEERING

THE SAFEST,

HEALTHIEST

HOMES

POSSIBLE.

HEALTH KICK

Are healthier homes the next big thing? BUILDER joins

builders on the path to finding out.

BY JOHN MCMANUS

John McManus

Editorial Director,

Residential

Construction

C

ustomer satisfaction for home builders in Mesopotamia

almost 4 , 000 years ago was codifi ed and, litera lly, etched

in stone. Of 282 laws Hammurabi, the sixth king of

Babylon, had inscribed on 12 stone tablets, fi ve address

the residential built environment. Two of them read as follows:

• 229 If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not
  construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in
  and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death.


• 232 If it r uins goods, he sha ll ma ke compensation for all that
  has been ruined, and inasmuch as he did not construct
  properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re-erect
  the house from his own means.

Do right by your customers as a builder at that time, and all went

on as it should. If not? Well, justice called for “an eye for an eye.”

Eugene J. Heady, a partner in the Atlanta offi ce of law fi rm Smith

Currie, notes that Hammurabi’s Code establishes the concept of civil

damages, whereby one must pay compensation for defective work.

Laws that apply to built environments evolved, and building

codes have come down to us over thousands of years. Whether it’s

antiquity that we focus on or the present, it seems to be that people

naturally gravitate around a notion of agency and accountability for

architects, engineers, product and materials suppliers, and builders

when it comes to the safeness, health, and strength of homes.

As author Tom Woolley writes in Building Materials, Health and

Indoor Air Quality: “... the health impacts of buildings are still poorly

understood and rarely taken into account as a key priority when

buildings are designed or renovated.”

At BUILDER, our job on this subject is clear. The science of

healthy homes—or what may make them unhealthy—is, as Woolley

suggests, poorly understood, evolving, and full of uncertainty. We

stand committed to reporting, analyzing, and weighing the trade-

offs of engineering the safest, healthiest homes possible. Also, given

research by the NAHB and Dodge Data & Analytics that indicates

homeowners will pay more for a healthier home, we feel it will be a

service for us to get on that path of learning to shed light on where

the near-term and longer-term opportunities lie.

Ultimately, residents’ satisfaction, health, and well-being are in

all our interest, no matter what era we’re living in. B

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