NADRA Weighs In on Potential New Deck Codes

Mark Guthrie, Randy Shackelford, PE, and John Kozal, PE, from NADRA’s Main Code Committee attended the 2027 ICC Code hearings in Orlando, Florida the week of April 28^th to hear proposals that pertain to the decking and railing industry.  In order to get ready for the hearings, NADRA’s Main Code Committee reviewed the recommendations from the Decking Code Subcommittee headed by Jon Levey and the Railing Code Subcommittee headed by Gary Kauffman.

Those recommendations were placed on a formal spreadsheet explaining the proposals and the reasons for either supporting it, opposing it, or staying neutral.  Special thanks goes to Gary Ehrlich, PE from NAHB for attending NADRA’s Code meetings before the formal hearings giving clarification or advice on proposals that affect his NAHB membership, which in turn, affects NADRA’s membership.

There were 29 IRC (residential) proposals and 10 IBC (commercial) proposals heard by ICC’s Committee Action Hearings (#1) that NADRA believed we needed to watch in order to support or oppose.  For most of the proposals, NADRA’s stance coincided with ICC’s Committee’s vote with a few exceptions.  Those exceptions are the result of hearing the proponent’s reasons in person at the ICC hearings which gave better clarification hence the exception.   NADRA CODE Committee has created this collaboration with like minded organizations representing the outdoor living industry.  It is extremely important for NADRA to be at these hearings and that NADRA continues to be the leader of these discussions so we can assure a continued common sense approach to CODE.

There are three (3) steps for a proposal to be heard and possibly be accepted into the 2027 IRC and IBC Codes.  The 2^nd step will require Mark, Randy, and/or John to attend the 2^nd round of hearings to be held in Cleveland, OH the last half of October.  This is October 2025 session is extremely important because proposals that NADRA agrees or disagrees with will need to be watched closely so we don’t have a proposal that negatively impacts the Decking and Railing Industry.