Industrialized Housing and Buildings
Summary of Building Code Council Meeting April 16, 2008
The Texas Industrialized Building Code Council (Council) held its forty-eighth meeting in the meeting room on the 7th floor of the E.O. Thompson Building on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. Vice-Chairman Ravi Shah presided over a quorum of nine members.
Orientation – Donna L. Lipke, IHB Program Manager, presented an overview of the Chapter 1202 of the Occupations Code, Industrialized Housing and Buildings Statute and of the IHB program requirements for the new members of the Council.
Staff Reports
Executive Office – Bill Kuntz, TDLR Executive Director, informed the Council that the Department is in the middle of the strategic planning process and explained briefly how the process works.
General Counsel – Brad Bowman, Assistant General Counsel, reminded the Council about the Open Government training that is required for all members of advisory boards and that the meeting notebooks contained information about how to complete the training. He asked that each member forward a copy of the certificate showing completion of the training to the Department.
Licensing Division/Industrialized Housing and Buildings – Chloe Whalon, Licensing Program Specialist in charge of the licensing team that handles the IHB program registrations, presented a brief overview of the registration population for manufacturers and builders under the IHB program. Donna L. Lipke reminded the Council that the IHB section was taking steps to turn all of the licensing activities for the IHB program over to the Licensing Division. The Licensing Division currently handles the manufacturer and builder registrations for the IHB section and in the future will also handle the registration of the third parties and design review agencies.
Compliance Division/Industrialized Housing and Buildings – Donna L. Lipke updated the Council on the status of the IHB program, including number of units labeled and shipped, number of inspections, manufacturers certified since last meeting, the status of builder audits, and the revenue generated from decal sales. Questions were raised concerning the income from decal sales for FY 08 and how this might affect fees for the program. Bill Kuntz informed the Council that the Department performs a fee review each year in the fall and makes a determination at that time if fees should be increased or decreased.
Enforcement Division/Industrialized Housing and Buildings – Karen Cox, Enforcement Division, provided the Council a breakdown on Enforcement data for the IHB program for fiscal year 2007 and for the current fiscal year.
Adoption of Building Codes
Action: The Council approved the adoption of the 2006 International Codes and the 2008 National Electric Code as amended in Rule §70.101 with an effective date of October 31, 2008, provided no substantive comments were received on the adoption and amendments as proposed in the Texas Register. * If comments are received, then a meeting to consider these comments will be scheduled.
Discussion: Donna L. Lipke informed the Council that the proposed rule amendments had been filed with the Texas Register, but would not actually be published until April 18, 2008 and that the public would have 30 days to make written comments on the proposals. Ms. Lipke indicated that the majority of the amendments were related to the residential requirements of the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and the energy chapter of the 2006 International Residential Code (IRC). The energy code amendments are necessary to assure that the codes are at least as stringent as the 2001 IECC as required by Chapter 388 of the Texas Health and Safety Code. The energy code amendments proposed for the IHB program are based on the recommendations of the Energy Systems Laboratory at the Texas Engineering Experiment Station of The Texas A&M University System, the agency charged with determining if proposed amendments are substantially equivalent to the requirements of the un-amended 2001 IECC. Other amendments include the following:
- Revised the standard chapter of the 2006 International codes to adopt the 2008 NEC in place of the 2005 NEC
- Deletion of the electrical chapters of the 2006 IRC as these chapters are based on the 2005 NEC
- Clarification that the requirements of the IHB statute and rules govern where conflicts exist with the adopted codes
- Adoption of the Texas Accessibility Standards in place of the accessibility requirements of the 2006 International Codes
- Adoption of the 2006 International Existing Building Code for alterations of industrialized buildings
- Addition of equipment shelters as an example of an S2 occupancy group in the 2006 International Building Code
At the request of the Council, Ms. Lipke explained the process for adopting the new code editions. The proposed rules as published in the register establish the effective date of adoption of the new code editions and this date must be at least 180 days after the Council approves the adoption. In addition, manufacturers must be notified at least 180 days prior to the effective date of adoption of the new code editions. Public comments are accepted for 30 days after the adoption is proposed in the Texas Register. If any substantive comments are received, then another meeting of the Council will be scheduled to consider the comments. The proposed rules will then be presented to the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation for approval. Once approved by the Commission, the rules become effective 30 days after publication for adoption in the Texas Register.
New members of the Council were interested in the reasons for adopting the 2008 NEC and not the 2005 NEC. Ms. Lipke explained that the adoption cycles of the International Codes and the NEC were different so that the publication dates for new code editions were never the same and that the Department has already adopted the 2008 NEC for the electricians program. The Council decided at the last meeting that it would be better to be consistent with other programs in the agency to adopt the 2008 NEC.
The Council expressed an interest in reviewing code amendments made by other agencies, such as the Department of Insurance, to determine if these amendments should be adopted for the Texas IHB program in the future.
New members of the Council were interested in the determination that the 2006 IECC was less stringent than the 2001 IECC. Jack Burleson with the International Code Council (ICC) explained that SB 5 as passed by the Texas Legislature in 2001 adopted the 2001 IECC as the energy code for those areas of Texas identified as affected counties and non-attainment areas. These counties and areas are required by statute to meet the requirements of the 2001 IECC. Adoption of later code editions must assure that the later editions are at least as stringent as the 2001 IECC and the Energy System Laboratory is the entity established by statute with the authority to make the determination as to whether a code or code amendment is at least as stringent to the 2001 code. Non-attainment areas are those areas so designated under Section 107(d) of the federal Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. Section 7407), as amended – basically non-attainment counties are those areas designated as not attaining the minimum federal standards established under the federal Clean Air Act. Affected counties are those counties so identified in SB 5 – affected counties are counties that have been identified as at risk of becoming non-attainment areas. The purpose of SB 5 was to assure that the air in this state is safe to breathe and meets minimum federal standards established under the federal Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. Section 7407). One method of meeting this goal was the adoption of a statewide energy code that would help to reduce the emissions from power plants by ensuring a more efficient use of energy. The amendments to the IECC and the energy code chapter of the IRC were approved by the Energy Systems Laboratory as necessary to make the 2006 energy code at least as stringent as the 2001 code.
Kevin Walsh with ModSpace had some concerns over adoption of the 2006 energy code because he felt that the modular industry was at a disadvantage since there is no consideration for the fact that many of the modular buildings will be used in multiple climates zones, not just one climate zone, and that some guidance was needed on how to provide multiple-climate zone compatible buildings. Although these buildings may be designed to meet the building envelope requirements for multiple climates, the sizing of the heating and cooling equipment is dependent upon the actual climate zone where the building will be installed. The Council indicated that this may be something to look at for the future, but that it should not affect the adoption now of the 2006 codes. Ms. Lipke also indicated that this was an issue over which the Council might not have any control as the mandate to meet the energy code requirements and reduce emissions by conserving energy consumption came from the Texas Legislature.
Kevin Walsh also asked if the ICC had completed the public hearings to update the 2009 International Codes with adoption of the 2008 NEC as a referenced standard. Jack Burleson with ICC indicated that the preliminary public hearings had been held to adopt the 2008 NEC in the 2009 International Codes and that the final vote would occur in September 2008. Some members of the Council indicated that many of the cities were also in the process of adopting the 2008 NEC at this time. Adoption of the 2008 NEC by the Texas IHB program would not just be line with the Department’s adoption of this code for the electricians program, but would be in line with adoption of this code by the local jurisdictions.
Questions were also raised over the adoption of the code appendices, in particular appendix P of the IRC that requires the installation of sprinkler systems in one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses. Ms. Lipke indicated that the appendices were only adopted if referenced in the rule adopting the codes and that appendix P of the IRC was not one that would be adopted.
Approval of third party inspectors, third party inspection agencies, and design review agencies
Action: The Council approved third party inspectors whose applications were found by the Department to comply with the criteria for approval as outlined in Department rule 70.23. The following inspectors were approved.
- IHI-155, Michael A. Faller, NTA
- IHI-156, Michelle M. Schrock, NTA
Recommendations for agenda items for the next meeting – Recommendations for agenda items for the next meetings include an update on the Department’s strategic planning process; coordination with other agencies on code amendments; rules and procedures for re-manufacturers; electronic submittals of approved documents; and substantive comments on the proposed adoption of the 2006 International Codes and the 2008 NEC.
Selection of date for next meeting – The Council directed the Department to schedule a Council meeting for May 2008 for consideration of substantive comments on the proposed adoption of the new code editions. *This meeting would be a one agenda item meeting covering only the substantive comments. Otherwise the Council directed the Department to schedule a meeting for sometime in October 2008.