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About 50 door pre-hangers and suppliers took in Fenestration Canada’s seminar on NAFS-08 compliance in the Ontario Building Code at the Hilton in London, Ont., Sept. 12. This was just one of three sessions held across Ontario in September. The sold-out room was brought up to date on the new rules coming into effect Jan. 1 by Fenestration Canada technical consultant, Jeff Baker, J.F. Kogovsek of Maxam Marketing and a panel consisting of Haya Soghrati of Can-Best, Claudio Sacilotto of Intertek and Jennifer Wren-McDonald of Exova.

About 50 door pre-hangers and suppliers took in Fenestration Canada’s seminar on NAFS-08 compliance in the Ontario Building Code at the Hilton in London, Ont., Sept. 12. This was just one of three sessions held across Ontario in September. The sold-out room was brought up to date on the new rules coming into effect Jan. 1 by Fenestration Canada technical consultant, Jeff Baker, J.F. Kogovsek of Maxam Marketing and a panel consisting of Haya Soghrati of Can-Best, Claudio Sacilotto of Intertek and Jennifer Wren-McDonald of Exova.

Fenestration Canada executive director, Robert Rivard, and president, Skip Maclean, opened the proceedings by commenting on the good turnout and emphasizing the importance of association membership in these times of changing government regulation. Baker led off with a thorough overview of the NAFS air/water ingress requirements for swinging doors, which all products installed in Ontario will be required to meet in the new year. He emphasized some of the points in the Canadian supplement to the NAFS standard, including a provision that allows manufacturers to provide doors with a higher standard of resistance to water ingress than air. Of special interest was the NAFS requirement for all wood in doors to be treated with a preservative–several pre-hangers

in the room commented that this is not how their suppliers deliver products presently. Baker discussed the various terrain types and climate areas within Ontario that affect the performance grade doors must meet. He also warned that pre-hangers should not rely on the lax enforcement standards of the past, as some lawsuits in Ontario have focused inspectors’ minds on the issue and insurance companies have been lobbying for tighter enforcement of the rules.

The test lab panel assured attendees that many products sold in Ontario presently will pass the new standard. They offered some tips on how to keep your testing costs down, mostly by being prepared, having a plan and testing the largest size of product possible. There was some discussion of the ultimate futility of making tight door systems when no standard exists to rate the quality of the installation. Bob Hamilton of Hamilton Windows offered the insight that these changes are all due to the airtight nature of modern building construction. Water comes into modern houses, he said, because “you can’t suck water through a six-inch pipe, but you can suck it through a straw.” Kogovsek then gave attendees some advice on how to manage their testing without breaking the bank. He showed some statistics for performance requirements that would meet code in most areas of the province, and advised pre-hangers to choose inventory that covers the fat part of the market and leave higher performing products to specialist suppliers. He showed how testing requirements can proliferate quickly with different designs and advised pre-hangers to choose which designs to test with an eye to costs.

If you missed the seminar in your area, you can catch it at Win-Door. See page 18 for details.