Builders Take the Lead for a Better Building Code

Six members of the Greater Birmingham Association of Home Builders in Alabama and the Builders Association of South Central Kentucky have volunteered to deliver the NAHB voting guide to their local code officials in advance of November’s online voting period for the next round of building and energy code changes.

The BIA of Greater Louisville, Ky., and HBA of Greater Kansas City are tied with five volunteers each.

In fact, more than a quarter of all HBAs have identified at least one volunteer to carry out this important mission.

As they step up from HBAs throughout the Federation, it’s clear that home builders have gotten the message that it takes only a few simple steps to ensure better building and energy codes – and those steps start with them.

It’s the One and Done campaign, in which volunteers agree to connect with at least one code official or other International Code Council governmental voting member in their communities. NAHB staff will help the volunteers identify code officials in their area who are eligible to vote.

The assignment: Let the code officials know that home builders share code officials’ concerns that changes to the codes result in a positive outcome for the building’s safety or energy efficiency and also be be cost effective and not favor one particular manufacturer’s new product.

And when NAHB has put the finishing touches on the code voting guide,which highlights the changes most important to the industry, these volunteers have committed to delivering the guide to that official to make sure that he or she gets online to vote.

It will all happen quickly: The online voting period is slated to be open for only two weeks, not giving volunteers a lot of time to ensure that the code officials understand the builders’ points of view. Fortunately, the volunteers are ready.

It’s not too late to be part of the solution to better building codes. Sign up to connect with a local official and deliver the guide by filling out the form at nahb.org/oneanddone.

“How our code officials vote is going to affect how we build houses in the future,” NAHB Construction, Codes and Standards chair David Sowders told members of the board of directors at the Midyear Meeting in July. The One and Done camapign, he said, is “critical to our industry.”