Tennessee Building and Residential Codes

The Codes Enforcement section of the Fire Prevention / State Fire Marshal’s Office enforces statewide adopted fire and building construction safety codes and standards.  The codes in force in Tennessee are the 2012 International Building Code (IBC) and 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) with local amendments and exceptions.

Building Code Compliance Software for Tennessee

Plan Analyst code compliance software programs make it easy for building officials, architects and other designers to quickly perform commercial and residential building code plan reviews / code studies.  Plan Analyst for the 2012 IBC and Plan Analyst for the 2018 IRC simplifies the plan review / code study process enabling compliance to specific code years.  This proven software allows modifications to accommodate local amendments, where applicable.  Users have the ability to add code requirements and to add to the checklist.  Changes can be made permanent by changing the data file using the setup section of Plan Analyst, or specific reports can be edited for special conditions.

Plan Analyst Calculators: Deck – Sign – Beam & Column

Plan Analyst Deck, Sign and Beam & Column Calculators are additional simple and effective design and code review software tools that will quickly become your go-to resources when working on associated tasks.

Users of Plan Analyst in Tennessee have included:

City of HendersonvilleAllan Associates Architects PLLC
City of Mt. JulietClements & Wimsatt
City of MaryvilleGresham Smith & Partners
City of South PittsburgHnedak Bobo Group
City of Spring HillMarcus DiPietro Architect
Montgomery CountyStephen R. Elliott & Associates

Building and Residential Code Resources in Tennessee

Energy Code Compliance Software for Tennessee

See the latest on Tennessee energy code adoption at the U.S. Department of Energy website, including the use of COMcheck and REScheck Energy Code compliance software. COMcheck enables architects, builders, designers, and contractors to determine whether new commercial or high-rise residential buildings, additions, and alterations meet the requirements of the IECC and ASHRAE Standard 90.1.  REScheck product enables builders, designers, and contractors to determine whether new homes, additions, and alterations meet the requirements of the IECC or a number of state energy codes.

DOE’s EnergyPlus™ is a whole building energy simulation (BEM) program that engineers, architects, and researchers use to model both energy consumption (for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and plug and process loads) and water use in buildings. It supports a number of public and private-sector tools and services including EP3EP3 is a user interface for EnergyPlus™ designed to streamline workflows for building energy modelers. EP3 is well-suited for tasks like modeling ASHRAE 90.1 Appendix G baselines and evaluating energy efficiency measures in new and existing buildings.

The “Building Codes Assistance Project” also provides information on Tennessee’s building energy codes.

FEMA Building Code Adoption Tracking

The FEMA Building Code Adoption Tracking program reports on the status of hazard-resistant building code adoption in each state. Tennessee is in FEMA Region 4. Read the 2024 Region 4 fact sheet showing the annual metric of the percent of communities adopting hazard-resistant building codes in Tennessee.

AIA and ICC

American Institute of Architects – AIA Tennessee represents architects in the state.  There are over 3,500 registered and reciprocal architects in Tennessee.

Tennessee has ICC Chapters throughout the State.

Tennessee code adoption status on the ICC website