The International Code Council (ICC) has announced it will begin a holistic review of the International Residential Code (IRC), the national model construction code for one- and two-family dwellings that ICC updates every three years.

As rising construction costs continue to exacerbate this nation’s housing affordability crisis, ICC is establishing a Board IRC Review Committee (BIRC) to identify potential changes that can reduce construction costs and simplify the code without weakening its existing life safety requirements.

The review will be led by an academic research team consisting of three U.S. universities, which will be assisted by an Advisory Committee of building code experts that will include participation by NAHB. The research team has issued a call for public input to guide the research team’s work. This input will help identify provisions in the IRC to improve through future ICC code development cycles. The BIRC webpage hosts a public comment portal that will be open through Nov. 28, 2025.

NAHB members are encouraged to provide their feedback by responding to this brief survey by Friday, Nov. 14. Your input will help inform the comments that NAHB will submit to ICC to improve future editions of the IRC.

Please contact Gary Ehrlich, NAHB director of construction codes and standards, at [email protected] if you have any questions or need additional time to complete the survey. Please include the phrase “IRC Review Feedback” in the subject line of your email

To help NAHB members and HBAs address rising construction costs when their states and local jurisdictions consider building code updates, NAHB has developed a 2024 I-Codes Adoption Kit. The kit offers a number of resources including a list of significant changes in the 2024 IRC, a cost impact study for adoption of the 2024 IRC, and recommended amendments for states and jurisdictions considering adopting the 2024 IRC.