Masonry Magazine January 2001 Page. 26
INSPECTION OF MASONRY
A Look at the Requirements
in the MSJC and the IBC
By Stuart Beavers and Phillip Samblanet
Inspection of masonry construction will be performed more frequently in the near future due to requirements in the 1999 MSJC (Masonry Standards Joint Committee) Building Code Requirements for Masonry Structures (ACI 530/ASCE5/TMS402) and Specification for Masonry Structures. (ACI 530.1/ASCE 6/TMS 602), and the International Building Code™™ (IBC). Whether you favor inspection or not, these documents require inspection of most new construction, and as they are adopted we will see more inspection on our projects. The need for inspection is increasing in every facet of building construction, as assurance that construction complies with the plans and specifications is being desired by owners, and especially by insurance industries and the federal government who so often have to pay for extensive repairs or replacements when buildings that are not constructed properly fail. More rigorous inspection is due in part because of the drastic difference in performance of well-constructed and poorly constructed buildings of all types. Investigators of buildings after natural disasters commonly report that a significant cause of damage is improper construction (Figures 1 and 2). Excessive damage due to such poor construction is unacceptable, and many believe that inspection will help produce higher quality construction, as it has in other industries.
MSJC INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS
Minimum inspection and quality assurance provisions were added to the 1999 edition of the MSJC Code and Specification to address concerns that the design stresses in the code are based on "inspected masonry construction" implying a minimum construction quality in conformance with the MSJC Specification. These new inspection provisions are intended to provide a minimum level of quality assurance to ensure the structural integrity of the structure. They do not address non-structural items such as flashing, sealants, coatings and appearance.
Three levels of quality assurance were developed based on the method of design and the importance of the structure. Structures that must maintain their function immediately after natural disasters (i.e. hospitals and fire stations) are classified as essential structures and must be inspected to a great degree (higher level). Methods of design and construction that are more typical in nature do not require as extensive an inspection program as methods employing more elaborate design and construction methods. Figure 3 shows a simplistic flow chart of how to determine the minimum level of inspection required based on the building's importance (essential or non-essential) and the design method. MSJC Code Tables 1.14.1.1, 1.14.1.2 and 1.14.1.3 show the minimum quality assurance requirements for each level.
IBC INSPECTION REQUIREMENTS
The inspection provisions in the International Building Code (IBC) were based on the MSJC requirements, but in the development of the IBC they were modified in some very important ways that the designer, specifier and contractor must be aware. Many of these changes are helpful, while others make things very confusing.