Proposed 2012 Houston Code Amendments

**Expected adoption in June 2015

Interested persons are invited to review, comment or submit code change proposals for consideration in the future adoption of the Construction Code. The City of Houston currently enforces the 2006 version of most construction codes, and has begun the process of preparing local amendments to the 2012 codes. The Building Code Enforcement Branch is currently reviewing the 2012 series of model codes for possible amendment and adoption in the City of Houston Construction Code. The Construction Code updates will include the following codes:

2012 International Building Code (IBC)

2012 International Residential Code (IRC)

2012 Uniform Mechanical Code (UMC)

2012 Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC )

2014 National Electrical Code (NEC) - Adopted on September 24, 2014. To view the code, refer to the Current Code Amendments Section below.

Click Here to download the Building Code Change Proposal Form

Click Here to download the Residential Code Change Proposal Form

The amendment packages above do not contain the unamended portions in the model code. The model codes can be purchased through the respective publishers at www.iccsafe.org, www.iapmo.org or www.nfpa.org. 

The proposed amendments were developed by Building Code Enforcement staff with the goal of minimizing the number of amendments to maintain the code as close as possible to the nationally promulgated codes ensuring the City of Houston stays current with the codes adopted throughout the country. Each amendment was justified as to its impact and necessity. Historical amendments that were not necessary were removed, such as pointers, clarifications or reworded code language with the same intent.

Interested persons are invited to submit proposals for code change amendments in writing. The code change proposal form is available by clicking on the respective Code Change Proposal Form above. Proposed amendments need to be justified with an explanation indicating whether it increases safety, maintains a reasonable level of safety in a cost effective manner, or addresses unique local conditions. The Plumbing Code, Mechanical Code and Electrical Code Change Proposal comment period is closed.  The Building Code Change Proposal form must be submitted by January 14, 2015 and the Residential Code Change Proposal form must be submitted by February 1, 2015 in order to be reviewed for inclusion in the updated code amendments.

For questions, please contact Sheila Blake by email at [email protected].

 Current Code Amendments

The Houston Amendments to the current adopted codes are listed below. The amendments, along with the model codes, constitute the City of Houston Codes. Note: The City of Houston does not have the model codes available; they must be purchased separately.

Other Code Related Documents 

Code Adoption History for Houston Codes 

List of Adopted Codes - A table of the adopted codes including the names and phone numbers of their publishers

Past Code Amendments – Only the code amendments from previous code cycle are available.

Codes