Pennsylvania is taking comments on the 2024 building codes until February 2, 2027

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 08:43:13 -0400

Pennsylvania’s Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council opened a 120-day public comment period on the 2024 editions of the International Code Council’s model codes on Monday, October 5, 2026. Comments close on Tuesday, February 2, 2027, according to the Department of Labor and Industry’s notice in the October 3 Pennsylvania Bulletin. The International Code Council is a private standards group that rewrites its building, residential and energy codes every three years, and Pennsylvania adopts them, with its own changes, as the Uniform Construction Code, the statewide building code. Re-roofing permits in Conshohocken are reviewed against the edition in force, which today is the 2021 code.

In the last round, the 2021 codes came out on January 31, 2021, and took effect in Pennsylvania on January 1, 2026, 1,796 days later.

The 2021 codes took almost five years to reach Pennsylvania permits

Days in each phase of the 2021 code adoption, from publication to the effective date

Dates from the council's September 2024 report, the department's timeline and its council page. Phase lengths computed from those dates. Source: pa.gov

Phases of Pennsylvania's adoption of the 2021 codes
Phase	Start	End	Days
ICC publication to council review	2021-01-31	2022-10-13	620
Public comment and committee review	2022-10-13	2024-01-16	460
Hearings and council report	2024-01-16	2024-10-01	259
State rulemaking	2024-10-01	2025-11-08	403
Publication to effective date	2025-11-08	2026-01-01	54

Source: pa.gov

How the 2021 round went

The council started its review on October 13, 2022, 620 days after the codes were published. It opened a first 120-day comment period that November and a second one on May 1, 2023, which its report says was needed “due to advertisement issues with the first public comment period.” Technical advisory committees, panels of volunteers from the trades and code enforcement, reviewed the comments and posted their reports on January 16, 2024. The council then held three public hearings by Zoom, on February 1, February 29 and March 28, 2024, approved its final report on September 12, 2024, and sent it to the department on October 1. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission approved the rule on October 16, 2025, it was published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on November 8, 2025, and it took effect on January 1, 2026.

The department’s timeline document had planned for the rule to go live on July 13, 2025. The rulemaking phase, from the council’s report to publication, ran 403 days.

Milestones of the 2021 adoption and the scheduled dates of the 2024 review
Date	Cycle	Step
2021-01-31	2021 codes	International Code Council publishes the 2021 codes
2021-11-15	2021 codes	Council opens comment on extra sections to review
2022-02-13	2021 codes	Comment on extra sections closes
2022-09-08	2021 codes	Council publishes its list of extra sections
2022-10-13	2021 codes	Council starts its review of the 2021 codes
2022-11-12	2021 codes	First 120-day public comment period opens
2023-05-01	2021 codes	Second 120-day comment period opens after advertising problems with the first
2023-09-07	2021 codes	Comments assigned to technical advisory committees
2024-01-16	2021 codes	Committee reports posted
2024-02-01	2021 codes	First public hearing (east)
2024-02-29	2021 codes	Second public hearing (Pennsylvania Bulletin notice)
2024-03-28	2021 codes	Third public hearing (west)
2024-05-02	2021 codes	Council begins deliberations
2024-09-12	2021 codes	Council approves its final report
2024-10-01	2021 codes	Final report submitted to the Department of Labor and Industry
2025-10-16	2021 codes	Independent Regulatory Review Commission approves the rule
2025-11-08	2021 codes	Rule published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin
2026-01-01	2021 codes	2021 codes take effect in Pennsylvania
2026-10-05	2024 codes	120-day public comment period opens
2026-10-08	2024 codes	Council meeting with a 2024 code review update on the agenda
2026-11-05	2024 codes	Next scheduled council meeting
2027-02-02	2024 codes	Public comment period closes
2027-04-08	2024 codes	Scheduled council meeting
2027-08-05	2024 codes	Scheduled council meeting

Source: pa.gov

What the council reviews

The council has 21 seats, appointed by the governor and the General Assembly, for code officials, engineers, architects, builders and local officials. The department’s page lists three seats vacant, including the remodeling contractor’s seat and a borough official’s seat. Under the Pennsylvania Construction Code Act, the council can keep a new or amended provision out of the state code if it finds the provision inconsistent with the act or otherwise inappropriate. The act lists what it may weigh: the effect on public health, safety and welfare, economic reasonableness and financial impact, and technical feasibility. When the council rejects a new provision, the act keeps the earlier edition’s version in force.

The council also reviews a list of extra sections, ones the International Code Council did not change but that the council chose to reopen. The 2024 list has 31 entries across five codes. In the residential and energy codes it includes the two tables that set insulation and window requirements for ceilings, walls, floors and basements.

Extra sections the council approved for review in the 2024 cycle, by code
Code	Entries on the list	Insulation tables among them
International Building Code	3	none
International Residential Code	13	Table N1102.1.2 and Table N1102.1.3 (listed twice)
International Existing Building Code	3	none
International Energy Conservation Code	9	Table R402.1.2 and Table R402.1.3
International Mechanical Code	3	none

Source: pa.gov

What Pennsylvania changed on roofs last time

The council’s 2021 report lists no Pennsylvania change to Chapter 9 of the residential code, Roof Assemblies. That chapter applies here as the International Code Council published it. The state’s changes near the roof are in Chapter 8, roof and ceiling framing and attic ventilation, and in the energy chapter.

Pennsylvania kept its own wording on attic vents from earlier editions. The minimum net free vent area, the open area of the vents after screens and louvers, stays at 1/150 of the attic floor area, or 1/300 when 40% to 50% of the vent area sits high in the attic near the ridge. Conshohocken’s re-roofing addendum asks the same question in its own words. Pennsylvania also strikes the national line that vents must keep out birds, rodents and snakes.

Pennsylvania also kept a lower minimum for ceiling insulation. R-value measures how well insulation slows heat, and a higher number insulates better. The Department of Energy’s county guide puts Montgomery County in climate zone 4A. For that zone Pennsylvania’s 2021 residential code sets a ceiling minimum of R-49, while the International Code Council’s 2021 energy code lists R-60.

Minimum ceiling insulation by climate zone, Pennsylvania's 2021 residential code against the ICC's 2021 energy code. Montgomery County is in zone 4.
Climate zone	Pennsylvania 2021 IRC ceiling R-value	ICC 2021 IECC ceiling R-value
1	30	30
2	38	49
3	38	49
4 except Marine	49	60
5 and Marine 4	49	60
6	49	60
7 and 8	49	60

Source: pa.gov

Roof and attic sections in Pennsylvania's adoption of the 2021 International Residential Code
Section	Subject	How Pennsylvania adopted it in the 2021 IRC
R802.3	Ridge board	Adopted with girders added to the supports allowed at each end of a ridge beam
R806.1	Attic ventilation required	Kept Pennsylvania's 2018 wording. Drops the national line requiring vents to keep out birds and rodents
R806.2	Minimum vent area	Kept Pennsylvania's 2015 wording: 1/150 of the vented space or 1/300 under listed conditions
R806.3	Vent and insulation clearance	Kept Pennsylvania's 2018 wording: nothing may block air from eave vents and 1 inch of space between insulation and sheathing
Table N1102.1.3	Insulation minimums by component	R-49 ceiling insulation in climate zone 4 against R-60 in the ICC's 2021 energy code
Chapter 9	Roof assemblies	No Pennsylvania modification listed in the council's report

Source: pa.gov

What this means for a roof job here

Nothing changes for a permit filed this fall or winter. Conshohocken’s addendum says all work must conform to the 2021 International Residential or Building Code, and that holds until a new state rule takes effect. If you are planning a replacement over the next couple of years, ask the borough’s Licenses and Inspections office at 610-828-1092 which edition will apply on the date your roofer files, and see the guide to roofing permits in Conshohocken for the forms.

Anyone can comment, homeowners included. The form asks for one code, one chapter and one section or code change number per submission, with a recommendation to adopt, not adopt or adopt with changes, the wording you propose and your reasons. The council’s page says a form that covers more than one section will be discarded. The department has also reopened applications to serve on the technical advisory committees, and the application asks for a resume in PDF form.

What the 2024 code comment form asks for
Field	What to enter
Code	One of the 2024 codes such as the 2024 IRC or 2024 IECC
Chapter	The chapter of that code
Section	One section or ICC code change number per form
Recommendation	Adopt or Do Not Adopt or Adopt With Modification
Proposed changes	The wording you want
Justification	Why the council should accept it

Source: paebrprod.powerappsportals.us

Caveats

The comment period starts the review. It sets no new requirement and no effective date for the 2024 codes. The council’s next meetings are scheduled for November 5, 2026, April 8, 2027 and August 5, 2027, and none of the dates on the council’s page is a date for a final rule. The 1,796-day figure describes one round, which included a second comment period after advertising problems with the first. The ceiling insulation comparison sets two different documents side by side, Pennsylvania’s adopted residential code and the national energy code, and the 2024 editions may set other values. Climate zone comes from a 2015 federal guide that maps zones by county. Questions about the rule go to the department at 717-787-3806, option 1, as the notice says. Checked October 13, 2026.

Building code | Conshy Roofers

Pennsylvania is taking comments on the 2024 building codes until February 2, 2027

How the 2021 round went

What the council reviews

What Pennsylvania changed on roofs last time

What this means for a roof job here

Caveats