(A) Approval required. All materials, arrangements of materials and methods of construction of prefabricated buildings or structures or prefabricated parts of buildings or structures, before being used, shall be approved by the Code Enforcement Officer and the City Engineer as complying with the requirements of this chapter.
(B) Certificate of compliance. Before the Code Enforcement Officer shall approve any prefabricated assembly, the contractor, or, if there is no contractor, the owner of the property, shall furnish to the Code Enforcement Officer a certificate, signed by a testing agency approved by the Code Enforcement Officer, of compliance with the requirements of this chapter. The certificate shall specify that the assembly has been inspected by the agency and complies with all of the requirements of this chapter. If mechanical equipment has been installed in an assembly in such a manner that it cannot be inspected by the Code Enforcement Officer, the certificate shall also specify that the equipment complies with the requirements of this chapter pertaining to the equipment. All compensation of the certifying services shall be paid by the contractor or owner of the property furnishing the certificate. Failure on the part of any approved certifying agency to make the required inspections, or the making, by any approved certifying agency of false or improper certificates, shall constitute grounds for cancellation of approval of the agency by the Code Enforcement Officer.
(C) Tests and expense. If it appears to the Code Enforcement Officer that tests are necessary to determine the stability of the structural design of any prefabricated assembly, the Code Enforcement Officer may require the tests. During the tests, the assembly shall be subjected to loads acting at the same points and in the same direction as the loads that would fall upon it in the completed structure. The Code Enforcement Officer may also require reasonable tests to be made on an assembly to determine its durability and weather resistance. These tests shall be made in accordance with the standards of the A.S.T.M. insofar as such standards are applicable. The expense of the tests shall be paid by the contractor or, if there is no contractor, the owner of the property before the assembly is approved.
(D) Inspections. In the case of prefabricated construction, the Code Enforcement Officer shall also inspect the placement of prefabricated assemblies at the building site. The Code Enforcement Officer, in his or her discretion, may make a continuous inspection during the assembling of sidewalls and roofs, in which event the contractor, or if there is no contractor, the owner of the property, shall pay to the Code Enforcement Officer the costs of the inspection.
(E) Materials. All materials, arrangements of materials and methods of construction of prefabricated buildings or structures, or prefabricated parts of buildings or structures, shall comply with the standards prescribed in the currently adopted building code, pertaining to prefabricated materials and construction, and in addition, as to all matters not fully governed by this chapter pertaining to materials and construction generally. All materials and assemblies shall be grade marked or labeled unless the material or assembly is a type that is not marked or labeled in the construction industry.
(F) Loads. Prefabricated assemblies shall sustain, without failure or undue deflection, test loads equal to the combined dead load and the minimum live load strengths prescribed by this subchapter for construction generally. Due compensation shall be supplied for loss of material in connection with the installation of pipes, conduits or other equipment. Panels that are required to be tested shall be tested after all chases and cavities for equipment have been cut. No additional material shall be removed from any prefabricated assembly during construction of the building or structure.
(G) Connections. Bolts or other devices designed to connect prefabricated assemblies shall be capable of developing the strength of members connected and to resist wind loads as specified in the provisions of this subchapter pertaining to construction generally. Connections consisting of bolts or other devices between roofs and the supporting walls shall be capable of withstanding an uplift equal to not less than 5 pounds per square foot of horizontally projected roof area in addition to withstanding the other stresses specified herein. Individual units or sections of prefabricated assemblies of either wall, roof, floor or ceiling, shall be so connected that joints shall be weather and wind proof; and the joints shall be properly caulked in the approved manner and covered, on the weather side, with approved battens or other approved weather covering.
(Prior Code, § 12-169) (Ord. 3035, § 1, 9-5-1995)