The American Wood Council (AWC), an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) member and accredited standards developer, has released a guide on deck safety to encourage compliance with the latest building codes during the 35th annual Building Safety Month. Founded by the International Code Council (ICC), an ANSI member and accredited standards developer, Building Safety Month 2015 is focused on the theme Resilient Communities Start with Building Codes.
In its effort to highlight deck safety, the AWC has published the latest version of Design for Code Acceptance #6-Prescriptive Residential Deck Construction Guide DCA 6. The organization is also offering a complimentary webinar to discuss recent updates to DCA 6, as well as a Twitter chat with safe deck information from ICC and the North American Deck and Railing Association, using hashtag #SafeDeckChat. AWC's vice president of technology transfer John Showalter also wrote an article highlighting the importance of deck safety.
"Most deck failures occur during the warmer seasons," said Mr. Showalter. "We are asking builders to take time this month to become highly conversant in proper deck design and to check that existing deck structures are still compliant with building codes."
Building Safety Month typically includes an overall theme as a broad effort to promote the understanding of building safety and sustainability, and is celebrated by jurisdictions worldwide during the month. President Barack Obama proclaimed May 2015 as National Building Safety Month, encouraging "citizens, government agencies, businesses, nonprofits, and other interested groups to join in activities that raise awareness about building safety."
ICC has also released an agenda for Building Safety Month's weekly sub-themes:
Week One // May 4-10
Don't Get Burned - Build to Code
Week Two // May 11-17
Bounce Back Faster from Disaster - Build to Code
Week Three // May 18-24
Water Safe, Water Smart - Build to Code
Week Four // May 25-31
$ave Energy - Build to Code
ANSI supports Building Safety Month and applauds the efforts of the ICC, AWC, and many other members of the ANSI Federation and the broader standardization and conformance community for their important work on standards and other documents that help to bolster safety in the construction and maintenance of buildings in the U.S. and abroad.
For more information about Building Safety Month, click here.