Florida Building Experts Release Surfside Working Group Building Professional Recommendations

11/02/2021

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – To help ensure Florida never experiences a tragic building collapse similar to the Champlain Tower South collapse in Surfside, Florida should consider establishing mandatory minimum structural inspections and post-occupancy whole building safety inspections, a coalition of professional engineers and building experts recommend.

The Surfside Working Group’s Florida Building Professionals Recommendations  are focused on preserving the long-term health of buildings by assessing environmental and other degradation of structures and their systems over the life of the building.

Spearheaded by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Florida and the Florida Engineering Society, the Surfside Working Group (SWG) coalition of professionals met more than a dozen times over four months. Members of the coalition include:

  • Florida Structural Engineers Association
  • Florida Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers
  • International Concrete Repair Institute
  • Building Officials Association of Florida
  • Florida Association of American Institute of Architects

All structures require periodic maintenance to extend lifespan and to ensure structural integrity from exposure to the environment. Among the mandatory minimum structural inspection recommendations from the SWG are:

  • All buildings not exempt from the Florida Building Code that exceed 10 occupants and greater than 2,000 square feet.
  • First Structural Recertification Inspection 30 years after first occupancy, with re-inspections required every 10 years thereafter.
  • Building closer to corrosive saltwater environments, which are more aggressive in degrading concrete and steel, should have their first Structural Recertification Inspections 20 years after first occupancy, with re-inspections required every 7 years thereafter.
  • Further details about types of inspections, building sign off and costs of inspections and repairs can be found in the full report.

“Any time a structure fails it’s a serious issue.  The building design and construction community needs to understand why it happened and if necessary, make changes that could prevent a similar failure.  Knowing that the Florida Legislature is likely to take action in their next session as a result of the Champlain Tower South collapse, the engineers in leadership with FES and ACEC of Florida felt it was our responsibility to provide expert guidance to our lawmakers.  We assembled this group of building professionals to review the current state of Florida’s building codes and laws and develop a consensus on changes that would make all existing buildings in Florida safer,” Scott D. Martin, PE, LEED AP, Chair of the FES/ACEC-FL Surfside Working Group and ACEC-FL President-Elect.

The Surfside Working Group’s Florida Building Professionals Recommendations has been shared with the Florida Legislature. 

ABOUT FES & ACEC-FL: The FES and ACEC-FL are the state’s leading organizations representing Florida’s professional engineers. FES represents more than 2,700 individual engineers working in private industry, government and higher education. ACEC-FL represents more than 350 engineering firms working in the transportation, water resources, energy and structural sectors. Learn more by visiting www.fleng.org.