Most homeowners assume that if a house was legal when it was built, it will stay that way. The surprise comes when you open ...

As the United States faces a mounting housing affordability crisis, a debate is intensifying between home builders and code officials over how best to balance costs, safety, and long-term efficiency ...

Building codes usually come up in the context of safety – a properly constructed building can help prevent injury or death from fires, earthquakes, and extreme weather. But they’re also essential for ...

Solving some of the problems associated with homelessness will require more creative and realistic building codes to allow improvised, cheap, but still safe and healthy options. At the end of July, I ...

For the past 25 years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has helped develop building codes, the construction standards that help houses survive hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes. Now, ...

The wake of Hurricane Andrew in Dade County, Fla., in August 1992. Fifty-four people died in the storm, which caused over $27 billion in damages and led to Florida’s adoption of a statewide building ...

PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County officials voted to update their local building codes, but those codes won’t go into effect for several months if they are adopted at all. The Washington State Building ...