Seeking firmer ground
Homebuyers are nervous about Oklahoma’s new status as “Earthquake Central.” Homebuilders have noticed, and recently attended a workshop to talk about ways to meet their customers’ concerns.
Oklahoma’s still relatively new status as U.S. “Earthquake Central” has homebuilders taking steps to meet buyers’ concerns and demands.
They’re looking harder at building code requirements, as well as the products and procedures they use to meet them — or they better be.
Buyers are anxious, and owners are not hesitating to call on builders to complain about perceived earthquake damage even years after they’ve bought a house.
So, the talk at a workshop this week was as much about spreading risk and countering liability as it was about construction techniques.
About 80 builders and others showed up for the 50 spots for the meeting at the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association on Britton Road east of Broadway Extension.
Edmond builder Caleb McCaleb, education chairman for the association, said pretty much all the would-be buyers he sees now come in with earthquake questions. He put together the workshop.
Builders really have no choice but to take extra steps to meet the new concerns of the marketplace, he said.
“It’s going to cost you a little bit of money — not a whole lot of money — but it’s going to help you sell your houses,” McCaleb said.
Sean Hutson, territory manager for Simpson Strong-Tie Co. Inc., went into some detail on the building code’s seismic design categories, the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale (from MMI I, not felt, to MMI X, extreme) and how they relate to the Richter scale: It’s complicated.
He placed the blame for structure damage squarely where it belongs: on gravity (think about it). He referenced Sir Isaac Newton.
That’s how basic this stuff is: Force equals mass times acceleration. Conscientious builders really are hitting the books.
The bottom line, Hutson said, is that if builders are building to code, then they are meeting the minimum requirements for structural soundness and safety.
How to build to code? Provide a continuous load path, and follow wall-bracing provisions of the code.
See? Easy. And I am so kidding. Building a house — from getting the financing to popping a cork in celebration with the new homeowner — is like building a house with a herd of cats.
If you can get them and afford them. Cats are scarce. There’s a construction labor shortage.
So, while Oklahoma is still enviable for its affordable housing, prices are going up based on economics.
Add “earthquakes” to the reasons why: extra diligence, extra wall bracing, extra attention to foundations, tall chimneys and other especially susceptible house parts.