Attic ventilation is addressed in the International Building
Code® (IBC) and International Residential Code® (IRC). The
International Code Council (ICC) publishes both publications, yet,
curiously, the attic ventilation requirements contained in these
publications are not identical. Although the latest versions of
these codes were published earlier this year, many jurisdictions
still use the 2009 edition; I will discuss both codes and editions
and address some issues I found confusing.
To ease the discussion, I compiled a summary chart showing a
side-by-side comparison of the attic ventilation requirements
excerpted from the codes (see Figure 1). The
chart also includes section references indicating where the
requirements can be found within each code. I encourage you to
refer to this chart as...
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