Builder magazine online just published an article about the ever changing code process for building new homes in the US. It’s an interesting article about something that every modular home builder and factory lives with every day as do site builders. Modular folks however encounter these building codes differently than site builders because of the approvals and inspections before the house is even off the production line.
Here is the “Builder” Article:
Are Building Codes Revised Too Often
is the latest state to take up this debate, but the question is national in
scope.
The ball is now in the court of Pennsylvania’s General
Assembly, which has two bills before it that, if passed, would mandate how
frequently the state’s Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council (RAC)
must consider adopting the latest building codes, which the Washington-based
International Code Council (ICC) revises every three years.
Until recently, reviewing and revising codes were pretty
much rote exercises in the
Pennsylvania adopted ICC’s 2009 codes for construction, energy efficiency,
remodeling, gas, plumbing, and fire with only minor omissions, says Frank Thompson,
RAC’s chairman and owner of Sweetwater Builders, a general contractor based in
Cranbury Township, Pa.
What changed the game was the passage, in 2011, of House
Bill 377, better known as Act 1. That legislation gave the Council, which was
established three years earlier, more authority over the code adoption process.
The bill requires a two-thirds majority within RAC before any updated code is
accepted.
