Consolidation of the Building Codes
August 23rd, 2010
On January 1, 2003 the new International Code Council (ICC) began operating. During a joint annual conference the existing code authorities including BOCA, ICBO, and SBCCI voted to consolidate their services, products, and operations into a new ICC. This consolidation unites the leading building safety experts under one common goal. ICC will continue to service ICBO, BOCA, and SBCCI with regional code products as municipalities and states transition to I-Codes that have no geographical boundaries. This is a long awaited move by those who are involved with building codes in multiple geographical locations.
Since building codes are the law, adherence to the building codes is not optional. Model building codes are codes developed on a “national” level to give specific guidance to construction methods. These national codes are then adopted by State code officials for their areas of responsibility. Local code bodies then adopt the State code and can add local requirements. Thus building codes are backwards from what many assume them to be. The local codes can supersede the State and National codes if local code officials desire more stringent regulation. Miami Dade is an example of a local area with stricter codes as would be codes in California. In these areas where hurricanes or earthquakes are more frequent the local codes more specifically address these requirements.
There have been three major national building codes from which states could base their codes upon. Consolidation of these three national codes (BOCA, ICBO, & SBCCI) is a welcome transition for those seeking to understand and or enforce codes in their areas.
By kacey
Posted in: Roof Inspection, Roofing Specifications
This entry was posted on Monday, August 23rd, 2010 at 8:49 pm and is filed under Roof Inspection, Roofing Specifications. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
