Maine Gets Its First Statewide Code

It’s long been known that sunlight reflected from low-E windows can melt vinyl siding, but the management of a “green” Las Vegas hotel is confronted by a similar problem on a vastly larger scale. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, sunlight that bounces off the curved glass façade of the new high-rise Vdara hotel creates a moving hot spot — dubbed “the Vdara death ray” by employees — in the hotel pool area, causing guests to complain of burned hair and melted plastic cups. The hotel’s owner, MGM Resorts International, is reportedly evaluating possible solutions. A mobile solar-powered outdoor grill would seem to be one option. Beginning this month, builders in Maine will be subject for the first time to a statewide building and energy code. The Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code took effect on December 1, at which time all existing local building codes became void, although municipalities without a local code don’t have to comply with the new statewide code until 2012. The new code gives communities the option of conducting their own inspections or leaving them to state-certified third-party inspectors — a provision that raises a red flag for some builders. “We have real concerns that there won’t be enough [inspectors],” Associated Builders and Contractors of Maine president Kathleen Newman told the Augusta Kennebec Journal. “And that will delay projects.”