Tennessee Adopted Codes

[jrharvey]

Im curious if anyone in Tennessee could assist in helping me decipher this confusing mess. Most of my work is in NC where we have a statewide code that all cities and counties must adopt. When I have done work in Tennessee its always been a mess and from what I am told each city/county can adopt a code and even add its own ammendments. I had a multifamily project in Nashville a few years back and the state told me the adopted code was one thing and Nashville told me they adopted the newer code and had their own ammendments and a lot had to be changed.

This leads me to my upcoming urgent care project in Morrisville TN and we are being told the code is 2018 IBC but the state fire marshall has adopted the 2021 IBC. If this is true I dont get the point of a state code. I get the feeling something isnt right or there is a misunderstanding. Also would like to avoid another mishap that happened a while ago on an old project that was submitted to the county and was reviewed, approved and permits issued only to find out later that the county had no jurisdiction and needed to go through a review and get permits at the city level.

I know its a long shot but if anyone is familiar with that area it would be super helpful.

 

[tbz]

1. 1st google the AHJ building department for the location of your project and look to see if they have a current posting of all the codes to be enforced.
   1. You start very local at the town level, if they don't have a building department they should be able to direct you to the correct department.
   2. If striking out call the general line for the Police Department, NOT 911, and ask them
   3. You could also call the local Fire Department General line or Volunteer service if they don't have full time.
2. I would also call them to re-confirm because if you are looking at a website, the information could be outdated, so call for confirmation.
3. Trust nothing provided by the client, nor the design professional without confirming on your own.
4. Then compare the design professionals drawings to see if the codes they have designed the project too matches what the AHJ states needs to be followed.

The fact that you got burned once and came to this website for more information is a plus, but this site can only help with interpretations of specific codes and their sections you proved in question form.

I would not go by the site being able to tell you which codes you need to use for your project, which seems to be the question at hand.

 

[Yikes]

Also look at the online municipal code for the city, and look for a division called “buildings and construction”, then go to the place where it talks about adopted codes:

https://library.municode.com/tn/mor...nces?nodeId=TIT12FICOCO_CH3COCOAD_S12-301COADhttps://library.municode.com/tn/met...nodeId=CD_TIT16BUCO_CH16.08BUCO_16.08.010ADRE

You can also try up.codes, but it is best to first go directly through the municipal website, in case these 3rd party codes services haven’t picked up recent updates. Here we can see that most of Tennessee is on one statewide code, but Knoxville has adopted its own code, and Nashville + Davidson County has adopted its own code:

 

[Yankee Chronicler]

UpCodes promotes themselves as being up-to-date and correct, but my state has only one code (no county or municipal variations allowed) and I've found two errors in the UpCodes version of my state's IBC, so I don't regard UpCodes as definitive.

 

[Sifu]

My experience there was similar. At that time locals had their own, state fire had their own, state health facilities and licensure (also fire) had their own, and some local fire had their own different from everyone else, throw in CMS and it got even uglier. Not sure what has changed other than the editions each has adopted. I remember plans having to be designed to the most restrictive of several different codes, and in many cases there was no "most restrictive" and DP's had to figure out how to design for different (equivalent) codes on the same plans.

Probably not misunderstanding much, I think it may still be somewhat messy, but it is similar in most states without their own state code.