Building codes are the wonderful rule set for construction practices. Without standards, homeowners get roofs with 12 layers of roofing and electrical junctions held together with zip-ties.
Never assume a contractor will avoid doing something ridiculous if left unsupervised. When it comes to roofing, they know you’ll never get up there to see what they did.
Since most of what we do is following an insurance claim, building codes are even more valuable to the property owner. This is because the costs you incur due to the enforcement of the local building code are typically covered by most insurance policies.
The more strict the rules – the better your insurance-provided repair. If your contractor doesn’t know something is code, they may try to sell them to you as an upgrade rather than get them covered as a code requirement.
Always confirm coverage for building codes before getting started, as it definitely changes things. It is commonly called “building code coverage”, but is known properly as “Ordinance and Law” coverage.
The single most overarching code requirement throughout all of the construction is that of complying with the product manufacturer’s instructions. Manufacturer’s instruct the use of additional protections and installation methods which make for an infinitely better system than other similar products applied without such strict guidelines.
Additional roof protections most commonly include items such as self-adhered waterproof membrane (the best roof-insurance in existence), drip edge, new metal flashing, proper vent and pipe flashings, proper skylight flashing, and sometimes even the requirement to replace items.
during re-roofing. As you can imagine, a roof with none of this protection is obviously going to be a much lesser product than a roof system with all new protections and new skylights.
Never assume your insurance company estimate is compliant with the building code. Also, don’t assume they will be accepting or cooperative when these issues are pointed out. In our experience, we have settled thousands of claims with proper building code applies only to have the same argument for the next thousand.
If you have questions about how this may apply to your build, reach out to us over the on contact page.