UPDATE ON IRC/UDC TASK FORCE

At the April 30, 2009 WBA Board meeting, the Board of Directors passed a motion approving participation in an International Residential Code (IRC) / Uniform Dwelling Code (UDC) Task Force with the building inspectors.  The mission statement of the Task Force is the following:

The mission of the Task Force is to have Wisconsin code officials and builders conduct a joint review of the 2009 International Residential Code (IRC) in an effort to determine whether an altered version of the IRC could be a viable base code for the state of Wisconsin in lieu of the current version of the Uniform Dwelling Code (UDC). 

A couple of items regarding this mission statement are worth noting. First, WBA has repeatedly emphasized with the Task Force that our participation in this review does not mean that WBA would support adoption of some version of the IRC upon completion of the Task Force’s work.  Second, the mission statement reflects the idea that, even if there was ultimately movement towards using the IRC as the base code for Wisconsin, the IRC would still be modified to address issues of concern and not adopted in total.   Discussions in the Committee have also reflected that any movement towards the IRC would not change the current code adoption process.  In other words, any changes in the code would go through the administrative rule process, and would be subject to public comment, as is currently the case. 

The Task Force Chair is WBA member Mike Coello, and the Vice Chair is building inspector Richard Paur.  In addition, WBA Building Code Committee Chair Chad Wuebben and Vice Chair Mike Marthaler are on the Task Force.  Other WBA members participating include Mary Schroeder, Mark Benkowski, Alan Quick, Bryan Tom, Jim Wozniak, Brett Wittig, Neal Solheim, Bob Flanagan and Bob Franklin. 

The Task Force has been meeting on a monthly basis, with its most recent meeting being held on August 25th.   The Task Force has been going through the IRC section by section, and identifying areas that are different from the UDC.  So far, the Task Force has reviewed three chapters of the IRC (building planning, foundations and floors) and identified over 100 differences from the UDC.  These items are being listed in a spreadsheet.  This spreadsheet should be useful tool for WBA members to evaluate the IRC versus the UDC, and whether or not moving towards using the IRC as a base code makes sense for Wisconsin. 

Minutes from the IRC/UDC meetings: May 26, 2009,  June 30, 2009, July 28, 2009, September 29, 2009, October 27, 2009, November 17, 2009
For a copy of a spreadsheet listing the differences between the two systems {Click Here}.  

In regard to the spreadsheet, please note that this is a work in progress, and this version of the spreadsheet has not yet been reviewed by the Task Force to ensure that the discussion from the last meeting.

Please contact Pat Stevens if you have any questions or comments regarding this matter.