October 11, 2026
Weekly Tip: Advocate for the adoption of modern building codes that are based on the latest climate science. These codes can help to ensure that new homes and businesses are built to withstand the impacts of climate change, such as more intense storms and wildfires.
How This Helps Your Business: Positions you as a leader in your field, can lead to new business opportunities, and helps you build a reputation as a contractor who is committed to quality and safety.
How This Helps Make Your Community Resilient: Helps to ensure that your community is built to last, which can save lives and property in the event of a disaster.
MORE INFO: Building Better Today for Tomorrow’s Disasters
Building codes establish the minimum standards for how homes and buildings are constructed. But as communities face changing weather patterns, more intense rainfall, stronger storm impacts, and growing wildfire exposure, those standards need to keep pace with the risks.
Modern building codes incorporate advances in building science, engineering, materials, and lessons learned from past disasters. For contractors, understanding and supporting stronger standards is an opportunity to improve the quality of construction, protect homeowners, and help communities avoid costly damage in the future.
There are several areas where updated building standards can make a meaningful difference:
- Wind resistance: Stronger roof-to-wall connections, improved roof attachment, impact-resistant openings, and continuous load paths can help buildings withstand severe storms.
- Wildfire protection: Fire-resistant roofing and siding, ember-resistant vents, and appropriate construction details can reduce a home’s vulnerability to wildfire.
- Flood resilience: Elevating critical equipment, using flood-resistant materials where appropriate, and following updated flood elevation requirements can reduce damage and recovery costs.
- Water intrusion: Better flashing, roof assemblies, drainage, and moisture management can help prevent costly damage during extreme rainfall.
- Structural performance: Updated engineering and construction requirements can improve how buildings respond to local hazards.
- Beyond minimum code: Voluntary standards and programs, such as the IBHS FORTIFIED program, can provide additional protection beyond what local building codes require.
Contractors can influence these improvements by participating in building code discussions, working with local building officials, and sharing practical experience with home builders associations and policymakers. Your knowledge of installation methods, material costs, construction challenges, and real-world building performance can help ensure that stronger standards are both effective and achievable.
Business impact
Staying ahead of building code changes helps contractors prepare for new requirements, avoid compliance problems, and demonstrate expertise to customers. Understanding resilient construction practices can also create opportunities for specialized upgrades, retrofits, certifications, and projects where homeowners want greater protection than minimum code requirements provide.
Contractors who can explain why stronger construction matters may also differentiate themselves in a competitive market. Homeowners increasingly need guidance on which improvements offer meaningful protection and how to prioritize their investments.
Community impact
Stronger building codes can have benefits that extend across entire neighborhoods. When more homes are built or upgraded to withstand local hazards, communities can experience less property damage, fewer disruptions, and reduced demand for emergency repairs after disasters.
Over time, better construction standards can also help protect public resources by reducing the scale and cost of rebuilding. The greatest benefits come when communities adopt appropriate standards and ensure they are consistently implemented.
You should know: Fortified Structural Solutions brings expertise in FORTIFIED construction and certification, helping demonstrate how enhanced building practices can provide additional protection against severe weather. The Association of Professional Builders offers education and professional development resources for builders, while CertainTeed provides building products, technical information, and training that can support code-compliant, resilient construction.
A practical starting point: Find out which edition of the residential building code your community currently uses and whether any updates are being considered. Contact your local building department or home builders association and ask how contractors can participate in the discussion. Then identify one resilience improvement you can begin recommending to homeowners today, even if local codes do not yet require it.
Building stronger communities starts with building better homes. Contractors have the experience and influence to help make that happen.
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