By Redwood Kardon, Douglas Hansen, Michael Casey

A field guide to building a safe house

The essential original. Six hundred of the most common building-code questions answered. Contains residential construction-code information gathered from more than 2,500 pages of major model U.S. building, plumbing, and electrical codes. Completely updated to the current International Residential Code, Uniform Plumbing Code, Uniform Mechanical Code, and National Electrical Code.

This conveniently sized, spiral-bound book is specifically designed to be used on site for quick reference. The durable laminated pages withstand abuse on the job site. Easy-to-use flip chart format summarizes national code specifications. It includes 100 line drawings and 36 tables and is ideal for homeowners, inspectors, and builders working anywhere in the country.

Code Check is a field inspection guide and not a formal code interpretation. The ones who decide what is "to code" are the authorities administering the building permit process in your area. Contact your building department early and often during the course of a construction project.

The current editions of the model codes have a 2003 cover date (2002 for electrical), though some jurisdictions take years to adopt these current codes. For the broadest geographical application of this book, notations to the significant changes between the current and former codes are summarized on the inside back cover.

Codes referenced in Code Check:

ICC / IRC 2003 / International Residential Code
ICBO / UBC 1997 / Uniform Building Code
IAPMO / UPC 2003 / Uniform Plumbing Code
IAPMO / UMC 2003 / Uniform Mechanical Code
NFPA / NEC 2002 / National Electrical Code
ICC / IBC 2003 / International Building Code

The code changes referenced on the inside back cover compare the codes in this table to the 2000 IRC, UPC, UMC & 1999 NEC.