Building a dream home involves many new and exciting challenges that often require extensive planning and research. Homeowners usually begin the process by spending countless hours searching for the perfect home plan and location that fits their lifestyle and needs, followed by interviewing several contractors for home construction. Decisions then must be made about every material and feature that will be included in the exterior of the home, as well as the design of the home’s interior. But what happens if after all of your hard work and planning, someone informs you that features of your dream ranch house plan or two-story house plan are not allowed in the area you are building?

To avoid such a potentially devastating setback, homeowners should familiarize themselves with building codes at the very outset of their home construction project. Building codes outline the minimum safety standards that must be met in various aspects of construction. These codes can include sanitation, electrical, ventilation, plumbing, and fire safety regulations as well as energy conservation. Complex and confounding, the average homeowner is not expected to understand every single building code, or even be familiar with the hundreds of codes within construction. However, it is important to be aware of the building code system in order to understand how it may affect your dream home. When purchasing pre-drawn house plans, it is essential to have your local contractor or design professional review the house plans prior to building and make sure all local codes are being met. It is much easier and less expensive to modify your home plans before building.

Within the United States there are four “Model Codes” that reduce risk during construction:
• The Building Officials & Code Administrators International, Inc. (BOCA)
• The International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO)
• The Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc. (SBCCI)
• The Council of American Building Officials (CABO)
These four are guides to hundreds of similar but different local building codes. Different municipalities favor different model codes, but are typically the same within a region.

Building codes are important for both individual homeowners and the community at large. These codes are set up to ensure the personal safety of homeowners and the economic well being of the community. They help homes to conserve energy and they protect future homebuyers from misleading purchases. It is important to ask potential contractors about the various building codes for every style of home that is being built whether its ranch home plans or two-story home plans. Also, be sure to seek out local building code information for your municipality. Codes are constantly being updated and changed, so it will be of value to have notes prepared to compare with the builder to ensure they are updated on the latest rules and regulations. After some initial research, you may determine that some changes may need to be made to the original design of your home. These changes may possibly take some time and money, but it will be beneficial to learn about this information before your home is in the finishing stages of construction. The more information you obtain will result in fewer problems during construction and a beautiful finished home to enjoy for years to come!