I once had a sales man come in selling a 100 ton press and he told me everyone else makes a 2000PSI press but we offer a 5000PSI press at no more cost. That’s about the same as your breaker example. My grandfather was a plasterer during the depression and he said when they would ask him if the wall was plumb he would say yes sir we make them plumb or over plumb.
I had a builder out once to look at an addition I wanted and I asked him about his last project and it was a 12 million dollar home. I asked him how in the world do you get a house to cost so much and he started in on the gold plated this and that and the front porch made from marble that was picked out and sent direct from Italy for this job. Copper roofs etc. He then commented on the specs I had drawn up on my addition and the interior wall finish, saying in the 12 million dollar house they got half inch drywall nothing as nice as I was asking for. I said are you kidding and he said nope that’s code and all they asked for. I asked him what he thought of my walls and he said it’s what I have in my house and what he just put in a church he belongs to.
I think you could start at the footer and go to the roof cap and find things that would be in excess of code. I wouldn’t say building to code is good enough. After all it has been studied and made into law. The fact that code keeps changing upward shows there can be more.
I had a builder out once to look at an addition I wanted and I asked him about his last project and it was a 12 million dollar home. I asked him how in the world do you get a house to cost so much and he started in on the gold plated this and that and the front porch made from marble that was picked out and sent direct from Italy for this job. Copper roofs etc. He then commented on the specs I had drawn up on my addition and the interior wall finish, saying in the 12 million dollar house they got half inch drywall nothing as nice as I was asking for. I said are you kidding and he said nope that’s code and all they asked for. I asked him what he thought of my walls and he said it’s what I have in my house and what he just put in a church he belongs to.
I think you could start at the footer and go to the roof cap and find things that would be in excess of code. I wouldn’t say building to code is good enough. After all it has been studied and made into law. The fact that code keeps changing upward shows there can be more.