Florida Building Code

The Florida Building Code (FBC) is the statewide building code of Florida, United States. It is developed by the Florida Building Commission and based on the International Building Code family, with Florida-specific additions for hurricanes and high winds. The FBC is often described as the strictest building code in the United States for wind resistance.

Origins

Before Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida had more than 400 separate county and municipal building codes and no unified wind standard. Andrew destroyed about 63,500 homes. The 1994 South Florida Building Code created the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ), and a 1998 state law created the unified FBC. Its first edition took effect on 1 March 2002, including the HVHZ provisions and Florida's Roofing Application Standards (RAS) and Testing Application Standards (TAS).

Editions

The code is revised in cycles, often following hurricane experience:

2007 edition and 2009 supplements: after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, added roof replacement rules, including mandatory re-nailing of roof decks and potential evaluation and correction of roof-to-wall connections.
2010: significant changes to wind load design and wind speed maps.
5th edition (2014): changed underlayment rules, eliminated No. 15 asphalt felt and introduced self-adhering underlayment applied directly to the deck.
6th edition (2017): consolidated steep-slope underlayment provisions.
7th edition (2020): adopted ASCE 7-16 wind loads, added sealed-deck underlayment requirements to improve secondary water resistance, and extended roof deck attachment and roof-to-wall connection provisions to all applicable wood-deck structures.
8th edition (2023): in effect from 31 December 2023.
9th edition (2026): scheduled, as of November 2026, to take effect on 31 December 2026.

High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

Miami-Dade and Broward counties form the HVHZ, with stricter design and testing requirements. Design wind speeds by risk category are:

Miami-Dade: 165, 175 and 185 mph (265, 282 and 298 km/h) for categories I, II and III;
Broward: 156, 170 and 180 mph (251, 274 and 290 km/h).

Impact testing of building materials is carried out under TAS 201, 202 and 203.

Product approval

Roofing products and other building envelope components sold for use in Florida must be approved, either through the state's Florida Product Approval system or, for the HVHZ, through Miami-Dade County's own approval process. Both maintain searchable databases of test results, drawings and installation instructions.

Existing buildings

About 4.7 million Florida homes predate the 2002 code. Renovations, additions and other permitted work, including many reroofing projects, must comply with the current edition. A review after Hurricane Milton in 2024 reported that no homes built after the unified code was adopted in 2002 were destroyed.