Hey guys and gals,
My town adopted the 2003 IBC for most of its building codes. When I google it I get amazon trying to sell me both the International residential Code and the straight IBC..for $169.00
Questions:
1) Is there any free website for viewing the codes (live in Illinois)
2) The website for my town is listing these codes as the ones they use
- 2003 International Building Code (IBC)
- 2003 International Fire Code (IFC)
- 2003 International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC)
- 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC)
- 2003 International Mechanical Code (IMC)
- 2005 National Electrical Code (NEC)
- 2004 Illinois State Plumbing Code
- 1996 BOCA National Property Maintenance Code
Besides for the IL State plumbing code (free on line) are all the others in the IBC and / or IRBC books? (or am I totally confused)
3) I’m remodeling a single family home so do I need both books?
4) If i need the books, does anyone have spares they want to sell?
Thanks in advance for your help
Kyle
Replies
Someone here from Illinois may be able to answer your questions or better still you need to contact whoever does your inspections, plan reviews, etc for your town and ask them what book(s) to buy. Generally building codes are adopted on a state wide basis although some states don't do it that way. Also, model codes are often modified by the state, town, etc. If a local building official tells you that you are under the IBC 2003 with no local modifications my might be safe to purchase it on line.
Obviously online companies just want to sell you something - "here take this book - it should be close enough...".
Free web sites: my state used to have it's residential codes online (modified IRC2000). When we went to IRC2003 that was no longer the case. Also there was a change in the way the actual printed published books were done. There seems to be a new way ICC is handling copywrite issues - I believe they have gotten more strict - they want to sell books. You will find some segments, excerpts, etc on line, but I don't think you will find a complete code book.
The IRC and the IBC are 2 different codes. My state uses IBC for commercial buildings and IRC for single family, duplex and townhomes. Elsewhere, some states/towns/etc use IBC for everything - I think NJ does - for example.
FYI - you might be better off to borrow a book - or maybe your library has one in it's reference section to look through to see if it is something you really want to buy. They are not the easiest things in the world to navigate. If you want to do this for a living, you should buy as least the building code book. The sad truth is probably 80% or more of building professionals don't have a code book(s), and/or really couldn't navigate one of they had it unless they took many hours to study it - which they are too busy to do. The target audience is architects, (building) engineers, and a segment of the guys who actually do the building on-site. IMO those "building for dummies books" like code check are too generic to actually use to make decisions where mistakes can cost $hundreds or even $thousands to correct.
Thanks so much for your help! Really inforamative, I must have to consider myself one of the internet generation....totaly forgot about the library...DUH (to me)
thanks again!
Ah.... it was an idea...
I haven't been to the library in probably 5 years... 90% of my reading is done online and if I want a book I usually buy it. BTW - I do own code books... but for me they are tools that helps me do my job...