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Building Code Glossary

Defined terms from the International Building, Residential, Fire, Mechanical, Plumbing and Energy Codes — quoted from the code, compared across codes, and linked to the chapters that use them.

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A building code is a machine built out of its own vocabulary. Whether a space is a mezzanine or a story, whether an area is one fire area or two, whether a room is habitable space — each of those is a defined term, and each decides which requirements apply. Get the definition wrong and every calculation downstream of it is wrong too.

These pages take the defined terms out of the code chapters published elsewhere on this site, quote each definition with the chapter it came from, and — where two or more of the I-Codes define the same term — set the versions side by side, because that is where the wording quietly differs. Each page also lists the chapters that actually use the term, so you can read the requirements that move when the definition moves.

The text transcribed here is the 2009 model edition. Jurisdictions adopt different editions on different dates and amend them locally, so treat every definition as a starting point and confirm it against the edition your authority having jurisdiction has adopted.

Prepared by Harth as generated collection navigation. Evidence and review scope are recorded on each linked page.

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Labeled code-term definition diagram: Building Code Glossary
Defined terms from the International Building, Residential, Fire, Mechanical, Plumbing and Energy Codes — quoted from the code, compared across codes, and li…

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