Important Changes to the NBC 2020: Home-Type Care
(Kevin) Hsiao-Feng Wu, Technical Advisor, Codes Canada
Video chapters
Video transcript
Introduction
Hi, my name is (Kevin) Hsiao-Feng Wu and I am a Technical Advisor supporting the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes—also referred to as the CBHCC.
This committee is the federal-provincial-territorial body responsible for developing and maintaining the National Model Codes in Canada.
I am a member of the Codes Canada team at the National Research Council of Canada.
Codes Canada acts as the secretariat to the CBHCC, providing administrative, technical and policy support, including publishing the National Model Codes.
To learn more about code changes and provisions in the National Model Codes, or about Canada’s national model code development system, please visit CBHCC’s website.
This presentation is part of a video series led by the CBHCC on the key technical changes incorporated in the 2020 editions of the National Model Codes.
This presentation will focus on important changes related to home-type care in the National Building Code of Canada 2020.
New occupancy classification
There is a demand for affordable housing for the aging population in a home-type environment. Prior to the publication of the 2020 Codes, care occupancies were subjected to the requirements of the fire safety provisions for large buildings in the National Building Code of Canada (NBC), which, among other things, require sprinklers.
Sprinklers, along with the other design requirements, increase construction costs, making it difficult (financially) to justify the construction of, or conversion to, small home-type care facilities.
To facilitate the creation of these facilities, a new subset of care occupancies called home-type care occupancies (Group B, Division 4) has been introduced in the NBC 2020 and National Fire Code of Canada (NFC) 2020, providing prescriptive solutions for these types of environments.
Research was conducted to establish an equivalent level of performance on evacuation to Code-compliant designs, without needing sprinkler systems. They looked at walking speed, travel distance, staff ratio, and the target population’s characteristics. This work resulted in the introduction of this new occupancy classification. These occupancies are made up of a single housekeeping unit that would follow the requirements under Part 9, with enhanced requirements for egress and fire detection and alarm systems if no sprinkler system is provided. At this time, home-type care occupancies are limited to detached houses.
The NBC 2015 requirements for care occupancies were based on protect-in-place measures (such as sprinklers) that compensate for the difficulty of conducting a full evacuation of these facilities. The new prescriptive requirements in the NBC 2020 address building design—by ensuring adequate means of egress—that allows the full evacuation of residents in a timely manner. Some of the compensating measures for home-type care occupancies include limits on the number of occupants, limits on where the occupants receiving care can be located in the building, as well as enhanced alarm and detection requirements. This new occupancy type within Part 9 of the NBC (Housing and Small Buildings) allows for the construction of small care facilities—or the conversion of existing homes and small buildings into care facilities—using construction techniques and expertise already familiar to designers and builders of other small residential buildings.
It is worth noting that many provinces have already made amendments to the NBC in their legislation to provide options for safe and affordable care in homes through enhanced means of egress and fire detection and alarm systems.
Now, three options are proposed in the Codes.
Option 1: Status quo
Option 1 (no change) considers children’s custodial homes or convalescent homes for ambulatory occupants residential occupancies with sleeping accommodations for up to ten occupants.
Option 2: Protect in place (modified)
Option 2 outlines that home-type care occupancies for no more than ten people with unspecified mobility abilities must comply with the requirements for Part 9 detached houses and be sprinklered.
One thing to note is that the use of the term “ambulatory” was problematic. Authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) have to judge human capabilities, but this only applies to a single point in time. The ambulatory capability of occupants can change over time (months or years, or even from a good day to a bad day). Therefore, this terminology was avoided when developing the home-type care requirements.
Option 3: Enhanced evacuation
Option 3 adds a new set of requirements for home-type care occupancies with no sprinkler system:
- a maximum of four residents without particular mobility issues are allowed, only staying on the ground floor;
- the building can only be one or two storeys, and
- in exchange for not having a sprinkler system, two means of barrier-free egress are required, with a maximum travel distance of 30 m, as well as an enhanced fire detection and notification system, and emergency lighting.
A fire safety plan is required, and an explanatory Note has been added to the Code to specify that staffing requirements are to be determined by the applicable regulatory authorities.
All in all, this new occupancy type and the related requirements will make it easier for home-type care facilities to be developed in a more affordable way, while keeping safety considerations a top priority.
Conclusion
This concludes the presentation about important changes related to home-type care in the National Building Code of Canada 2020.
How to get involved
To participate in the code development process, visit the CBHCC’s website to find information about upcoming events and meetings, to submit a code change request, to comment on proposed changes during an open public review, or to volunteer to participate on a code development committee.
How to access the Codes
The National Model Codes are published by the National Research Council of Canada.
Visit Codes Canada publications web page on the NRC’s website to purchase a paper copy of the Codes or to access them in free electronic format.
Thank you.