Students will update building code drafts

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The building inspector said the students' help will save the county money and time.

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

CHAMPION — Trumbull Career and Technical Center's architectural drafting class will put its drafting skills to work this school year to help provide area builders with modern building code drawings.

David Zofko, Trumbull County's chief building official, and his assistant Tom Gladd recently decided to have updated drawings made for builders — both amateur and professional — who come to the Building Inspection Department for residential building permits.

A small percentage of people making changes to their homes or putting up sheds, decks or additions have complete drawings when they apply for their permit, Zofko said. For the rest, guidance on the building regulations comes from a building official and from the drawings.

So far in 2006, about 300 people have come to the office seeking permits for such projects, and about 230 of them received a drawing of some sort to give them guidance, Zofko said.

Most of the drawings had not been updated in quite a few years, and many were hand-drawn and photocopied enough times to make them a little difficult to read, Zofko said. The county also adopted the state's building regulations this year and needs to incorporate them into the drawings, Zofko said.

Earlier help

Gladd, a Mecca Township trustee who was involved in the construction of the gazebo in Mecca Center several years ago, recalled that the township had received help from the students in the architectural drafting class at TCTC on that project.

The students had drawn up the concept for the gazebo and built a model, Gladd said. Later, the school's building trades class helped build the gazebo. Gladd thought the students might be a good fit for this job, too.

A couple of conversations with David White, the program's instructor, confirmed that the class would be able to help, Gladd said.

In all, the students will use their new state-of-the-art computers and architectural software to update around 25 drawings, Gladd said. The students' equipment is sophisticated enough to provide drawings even in 3-D.

Eventually Gladd hopes he will be able to provide the drawings on his department's Web site in an Adobe Acrobat portable document format (.pdf).

Saving money

Zofko said the students' help will save the county money. He estimated that an outside contractor would charge between $10,000 and $25,000 to do the same work. Having a staff member do the work would possibly take years, Gladd said.

For the students, the work will be an opportunity to use their skills on a real-world project, White said. Zofko has also offered to provide references for the students and give them field experience by having them tag along with his inspectors as a sort of field trip.

"They spend a lot of time looking at drawings just like this, so the timing's perfect," White said of the project. "It's a great idea to pair the kids with the community, to show off what they have learned."

runyan@vindy.com

Sunday, October 15, 2006