Table Comprehension in Building Codes using Vision Language Models and Domain-Specific Fine-Tuning

Building codes contain critical information for ensuring safety, regulatory compliance, and informed decision-making in construction and engineering. Automated question answering systems over such codes enable quick and accurate access to specific regulatory clauses, improving efficiency and reducing errors. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems are essential for this task as they combine the precision of information retrieval with the generative capabilities of language models. However, tabular data are challenging to extract as they often involve complex layouts, merged cells, multi-row headers, and embedded semantic relationships that are not easily captured by traditional natural language processing techniques and Vision Language Models (VLMs). This paper explores and compares two methods for extracting information from tabular data in building codes using several pre-trained VLMs. First, a direct input method is used, where the image of the page is input directly into the VLMs, which are then tasked with answering questions based on the image. Second, an indirect input method is introduced, which involves converting an image of a page containing tables into the LaTeX code and then answering inquires based on the LaTeX-based input. The experiments find that the direct input method generally resulted in higher accuracy than the indirect input method. To further improve the performance, we fine-tuned each VLM using Low Rank Adaptation (LoRA) on a domain-specific tabular dataset. The fine-tuned models exhibited substantial improvements, with Qwen2.5-VL-3B-Instruct achieving relative accuracy gains exceeding 100%. Our results highlight the potential of parameter-efficient fine-tuning methods to adapt powerful VLMs for understanding complex structured data in specialized fields, such as building code interpretation and regulatory compliance.