While the U.S. construction industry faces a confluence of challenges, including stagnant productivity, costly delays, and persistent hesitation towards innovation, the Off-Site construction industry can be part of the solution. Utilizing Off-Site services can accelerate construction timelines by 20 to 50 percent, providing superior energy efficiency, tighter building envelopes, significant cost efficiencies, improving construction quality, and attractive employment for a new generation of the construction workforce, among other benefits.
Off-Site construction is a modular building, modular component or panelized system which is wholly or in substantial part fabricated or assembled in manufacturing plants for installation – or assembly and installation – on a separate building site and has been manufactured in such a manner that all parts or processes cannot be inspected at the installation site without disassembly, damage to, or destruction thereof. These systems must be constructed in compliance with certain standards and codes.
Inspection and plan review of modular components requires both specialized expertise as well as the means to conduct inspections in factories which may be miles away from the final jobsite. Where a state or local government does not have the necessary expertise, staffing, or resources to facilitate these activities, off-site construction can be significantly stalled or prevented altogether. Third-party agencies like ICC NTA can be leveraged to provide this expertise, often resulting in quicker turnaround times without impacting quality or department revenue.
With a network of auditors, ICC NTA is able to provide support throughout the review and inspection of Off-Site construction, effectively reducing the burden on local AHJs. Off-Site solutions include plan review, engineering services, and inspection services. ICC NTA is a member of the International Code Council Family of Solutions and is fully accredited to the standards set forth by the Code Council for third-party Off-Site solutions. These standards provide a pathway for third-party inspections and plan review approvals.
The Code Council, in partnership with the Modular Building Institute (MBI), developed a coordinated set of standards that cover the entire off-site construction process, capturing best practices and supporting a consistent approach to verifying compliance. The standards apply to all componentized, panelized and modularized elements in both commercial and residential buildings, except manufactured housing.
– ICC/MBI Standard 1200-2021: Standard for Off-Site Construction: Planning, Design, Fabrication, and Assembly. Standard 1200 provides requirements for designers, manufacturers, transporters and assemblers to assure that off-site construction components are produced under a quality assurance/ quality control process and that they can demonstrate compliance with building code requirements.
– ICC/MBI Standard 1205-2021: Standard for Off-Site Construction: Inspection and Regulatory Compliance. Standard 1205 address the compliance verification process including permitting, in-plant and on-site final inspections, third party inspections, the role of Industrialized Building Departments, state modular programs and the AHJ.
The two standards provide an off-site construction specific mechanism to assure compliance with any edition of the codes. They do not provide alternatives to existing code provisions but rather a process for verifying compliance given that part of the construction process occurs in a factory and not at the final jobsite. Sample ordinance verbiage is provided in the Foreword of each standard to help in the adoption process. The Standards were developed by a diverse committee of experts including state program administrators, manufacturers, third-party agencies, and designers. These standards are intended to sit alongside existing codes and standards to provide the process whereby off-site construction compliance with state or locally adopted building codes and standards is verified.
For construction professionals in need of better Off-Site solutions, contact ICC NTA for a consultation. Contact ppodawiltz@icc-nta.org.
