• Welcome to the new and improved Building Code Forum. We appreciate you being here and hope that you are getting the information that you need concerning all codes of the building trades. This is a free forum to the public due to the generosity of the Sawhorses, Corporate Supporters and Supporters who have upgraded their accounts. If you would like to have improved access to the forum please upgrade to Sawhorse by first logging in then clicking here: Upgrades

Contractor and Tradesperson education

Darren Emery

Registered User
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
504
Location
Manhattan, Ks
Wondering how other building departments go about educating their GCs and tradespeople on code changes, or changes in level of enforcement? We used to send out a quarterly newsletter, but it never seemed to have much reach. Have tried email for a while, but I get the feeling no one reads email these days. Web pages? Text? Webinars?

Exploring options right now, would appreciate hearing what's working for others.
 
Stakeholder meetings, which very few attend, monthly luncheons with the same few attendees. One on one, in the field or on the phone as questions arise...everyday. IMHO most don't care until it affects them in some way, then they get interested.
 
Education by correction. Some learn faster than others and some get held back a grade. Then there's the dropouts. The AHJ spent plenty of resources on Equity Training. Pollution control (NPDES) was a yearly ordeal but as far as code training....well not so much.
 
Afraid I agree with all the responses. We used to do a quarterly newsletter, it would make it to the office, never to the field. Have tried meetings, ad nauseum, but nobody shows. More staff there than attendees.

If it is something big, I will post it at the top of our webpage, and leave it there for a few months.

More than anything, education by correction notice.
 
I was contacted by a rep from a major manufacturer of construction products recently. He wanted my input for some training he was preparing for contractors. One of the points I made was that too many believe that knowing and understanding code is someone else's responsibility. Lots of AHJ's and importantly trade organizations and manufacturers offer a lot of resources, but so few take advantage of it.
 
In Michigan we are required to have 1 hour of code review before we can renew our license. Not enough in my opinion, but something.
 
In Michigan we are required to have 1 hour of code review before we can renew our license. Not enough in my opinion, but something.
If the topic is just what is new in the code, an hour should be long enough. Especially if there is only one trade involved.
 
We had a few jurisdictions that pushed hard to get contractors to attend a 1-2 hour worst things not to do on sites coffee briefing. They held them like 3 times a year.

They handed out a small 1/3 of a page flyer on each of the failed inspection reports they gave out, and noted want to save money by not failing some many inspections, If you are reading this, it is because you just failed another inspection, want to save time and money in the future.

Spead an hour or two .....

They got a good turnout and they focused on the chapters, what's in the book, like 20 minutes of IBC & IRC how to find at a glance information and then the biggest things that they saw between each meeting and then some.

One of the jurisdictions would pass out a small paper with every plan review and inspection, what codes are enforced and a link to the AHJ website were they had links to all the codes and standards.

It read before calling and questioning the inspector on information a contractor should already know, look-up the code section noted on the inspection report at one of the links on the following website. I am paraphrasing the wording here, but you get it.

This also drastically reduced the number of calls and gave the contractors a source for looking things up when they had questions.

Then there are those to ignorant to learn and well, you know how that goes.

But unless you have a good crew willing to take the time on a program, the one on one lesson learning is about it.

I forget who said it at a code hearing, but pick your poison, either be a building/code inspector or a 2nd grade teacher, both deal with the same level of audience.
 
Honestly, all of these contractors (each trade) should be required to have a certain amount of continuing education each year. The only ones who actually do, are the ones licensed with the individual state and not per municipality. Example is Illinois Plumbers license which requires 4 hours each year for renewal. Until we have the requirement for it, we all have to deal with either bribing them with free donuts and coffee for a 1-2 hour class in our offices or educating them in the field via failed inspection reports.
 
Everyday and every inspection is an educational moment/opportunity

Education by correction. Some learn faster than others and some get held back a grade. Then there's the dropouts. The AHJ spent plenty of resources on Equity Training. Pollution control (NPDES) was a yearly ordeal but as far as code training....well not so much.
Yelp. Education by correction. We tried to have an energy code class for the 2018 IECC. Flyer's, emails, telling every on we seem. It was also Free. 4 hrs. & done by a preferred provider. Got 2 contractor :mad: . The rest were all inspectors with in 2hrs. drive, including 2 State inspectors. Most because CEU's are needed & expensive.
 
My State is switching to an online system for us and maybe they will get some folks on the other side of the counter to attend....But I gotta tell you...Most of it has sucked so far....With the exception of the few times we got Glenn to do them...
 
Top