Since my posting last October regarding Carbon Monoxide sensors, the code revisor’s offices and the state have been busy making changes.  There is a lot of confusion regarding the imposition of the new requirement, and different players putting their hands on the regulations.  Originally it seems the legislation adopted a requirement, separate from the building code, requiring CO alarms for existing dwelling units by 2013.  They gave the State Building Code Council the ability to move that date up, which the Code Council did, making the deadline imposed by the Building Code earlier.   There has been a lot of press and objection to the requirement as adopted by the Code Council, and they are not done with it yet.

However, it does appear that in the last few months, the Building Code as finally adopted reverted back to the legislature’s required deadline of 2013, and exempting some owner occupied single family homes.

But they are not done.  On February 15, 2011, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM the State Building Code Council’s Carbon Monoxide Alarm Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will meet in Olympia at the GA (governmental affairs?) building to review the rule-making background, rules adoption, and impacts of carbon monoxide legislation and code requirements.

SO… the code requirement now is less restrictive than what was in place last October, but could change and become more or less restrictive than currently adopted. There is also the prospect that a federal law could be passed to require carbon monoxide sensors, and that could trump all of this state or local regulation.

If you have any questions we can answer, please feel free to leave a comment or contact us directly.  We look forward to continuing this conversation with you in our future posts!