Some concerned building code freeze could leave new builds in NC decades out of date

Last week, the state legislature overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of a bill that puts a freeze on some residential building code updates, impacting energy efficiency and structural safety standards of new homes for years to come.

The provisions in House Bill 488 ban sheathing inspections in most of the state that would ensure that parts of the frame can withstand category 4 hurricane winds.

"As construction techniques have evolved over the number of decades, sheathing has become a significant structural component and obviously we associate that with life safety," said David Rittlinger, a code interpretations supervisor who serves as staff to the North Carolina Building Code Council.

While sheathing inspections can still be required in some communities including coastal areas, strong winds from previous hurricanes in the state have reached more than 150 miles inland and climate scientists predict storm intensity and area will grow in coming years.

Steven Webb is a director of legislative affairs with the North Carolina Home Builders Association, a trade group that lobbied in favor of HB 488, says adding another inspection requirement is costly and unnecessary.

"We feel like a sheathing inspection would slow up the building process and really slow down builders putting more houses on the market," he said.

Some building safety experts are concerned that cost shouldn't be the top priority.

"It just makes no sense to me to compromise the durability and safety of a structure," said Roy Wright with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety.

The new law also freezes the addition of energy efficiency upgrades from the building code.

The NC Home Builders Association reached out to eight builders across the state to estimate the additional costs of such requirements, which they calculated to be about $20,000. Webb says builders would have to upend their current building process to add more insulation, including switching from 2x4 to 2x6 building materials, which he says would be costly.

"All those things add up, not just the materials, but also the labor that it takes to do those things," Webb said.

A lab with the U.S. Department of Energy estimated the added cost to be far less, about $4,700 to $6,000, and that savings on energy bills would pay off the upfront costs in a few years.

"Based on the expert analysis that we've seen, the $20,000 estimate was pretty overinflated, and undersold the benefits of these building code updates to homeowners," said Zach Amittay, a southeast advocate for E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs).

Amittay likened buying a new home in North Carolina with outdated code to purchasing a new smartphone with Windows 95 software.

"They're really buying an inferior product," he said.

North Carolina's last major residential building code updates happened in 2018, but Rittlinger says they were based on older energy standards.

"It's really more of a equivalent to be in somewhere between 2009 and 2012," he said.

Now, it's possible that comprehensive changes to residential code will not happen until 2031. Many neighboring states update residential building codes every three years.

"On the energy efficiency side, you got to look at a long term versus a short term gain," Wright said.

The new law strips authority from the state’s Building Code Council, currently appointed by Governor Cooper, and directs the appointment of a new council in 2025 with a mix of seats appointed from the House, Senate, and newly-elected governor.

"Obviously, politics got involved with that," Rittlinger said.