Big Savings from Better Codes

Practical building codes are critical to ensuring the safety and quality of every new home. But some proposals to change them are excessive, overreaching or seemingly created to benefit product manufactures significantly more than the home owners.

Last year, NAHB led countless efforts that successfully removed or excluded unnecessary measures from building codes—provisions that would have greatly increased builder costs without a corresponding benefit and ultimately, impacted housing affordability.

Many of these mandates focus on products or techniques regarding fire safety, air quality and energy efficiency.

The combined impact of just a select number of such provisions that NAHB helped exclude from building codes is equal to an approximate savings of $1,200 per housing start in 2017.

Go to nahb.org/value2017 for more about the financial impact of these code exclusions. Additional examples of the value of NAHB membership will continue to be highlighted throughout the coming months.