Province urged to adjust building codes in wake of another destructive Calgary hailstorm
Hail-prone areas should have different construction requirements, says researcher
Tens of thousands of homes in north Calgary were left with shredded siding and damaged roofs after last week's destructive hailstorm, leaving many wondering how to prepare before another storm inevitably strikes.
Last week in Livingston — a community hit hard by the storm — Julian Brimelow of the Northern Hail Project said there are many unknowns about how hailstorms will evolve with the changing climate.
What he does know is that the storms will keep coming.
So are Calgary's homes built to survive this kind of weather? Brimelow doesn't think so.
"Unfortunately, vinyl siding and shingles are probably the worst thing you can have in your house in the event of a severe storm like this," said Brimelow.
"If I could wave a magic wand, [for] certain communities that are prone to hail, there would be different building codes in place to make sure that you do have siding that's hail resilient and shingles that are resilient to hail."
Brimelow says an estimated 36,000 homes were affected last week, and he predicts the insured damage costs will be similar to the $1.2 billion hail storm in 2020, since the airport and at least 16 WestJet planes were hit.
Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal is advocating for changes to provincial building codes.
He says recently constituents have been asking the city to make bylaw changes to ensure their homes are protected from hailstorms. Many of their homes were damaged last week for the second time in four years.
But he says that's out of the municipal government's jurisdiction. Instead, it's the federal government that creates building codes, while the province can adjust them.
"These areas that are prone to these kinds of damages every second year, every third year — let's make sure that the builders are required to put in the material that can withstand these kinds of storms in the future," said Dhaliwal.
Vinyl vs. other materials
Mairead Walsh, a building envelope consultant with Keller Engineering, says it's incredibly important that homeowners move toward more durable exterior materials — especially in parts of the city often hit by severe hailstorms.
"There are other products on the market, like fibre cement siding or traditional stucco, that have more hail resistance than vinyl siding," said Walsh.
She says there's an environmental element to it, too. When vinyl is damaged by hail, it often ends up in the landfill.
And with an ongoing labour shortage in the construction industry, she worries there isn't enough time for appropriate training and installation when a catastrophic event requires a sudden, significant increase in labour for repairs.
But she does recognize cost is a major barrier, as durable materials are often much more expensive than vinyl.
"I think over time, as other materials become more and more and more common, the cost will come down and eventually we may see enough of a correction that we will see more fibre cement products on the market," she said.
"I don't think it will ever fully outstrip the amount of vinyl that's installed, but I do think we will see a narrowing of the gap."
Cost-benefit analysis
For Dave Turnbull, president of Enerspec Energy Consulting, the relative affordability of vinyl is precisely why it's so prevalent across Calgary.
He says that in itself is why governments likely won't have an appetite for changing building codes — especially during an affordability crisis.
"One thing that codes have to do now is they have to take into consideration a cost-benefit analysis. So it might be rather difficult just because of the exceptional cost difference between going from vinyl to the next step up," said Turnbull.
Plus, the federal building code for 2025 has already been finalized, he says, so the earliest possible time to see changes to that would be 2030.
The provincial government does technically have the latitude to adjust the code, but Turnbull says there's a movement to have a harmonized building code across the country.
A spokesperson for Ric McIver, Alberta's minister of municipal affairs, says current building code requirements include mitigations to protect against environmental conditions.
"However, builders and homeowners are free to exceed minimum code requirements and choose materials that would make their home more resilient to extreme weather in their area," said Ashley Stevenson.
Back in Livingston, a brand new condo and townhouse complex was among many buildings hit last Monday.
But the damage was minor, and Logel Homes' sales and marketing manager Reilly LePage attributes it to fibre cement siding and ChamClad.
"If there's an option to increase the exterior and spend a little bit more on that fibre cement or a more durable type of siding, I think last week taught us that that's a good investment," he said.
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With files from Helen Pike