AAMA preps for next code cycle

During the Codes Working Group meeting June 1 at the AAMA Summer Conference, Julie Ruth, P.E., consultant to American Architectural Manufacturers Association, based in Schaumburg, Ill., provided an update on AAMA’s activities in the 2009/2010 code change cycle for the International Code Council, Washington, D.C.AAMA is bringing several code change proposals forward during the cycle including: revisions to AAMA 507 regarding applicable glazing systems; several revisions to daylighting standards; a revision to the definition of a storefront system to include systems without doors; and revisions to dome-rise skylight and tubular skylight standards. Read an article by Ruth about the last cycle and predictions for the coming cycle from the November 2008 edition of Window & Door magazine.Code hearings for the 2009/2010 cycle start in mid-October in Baltimore. Final action hearings for most of the structural proposals will take place in May 2010, and hearings for the energy codes and the International Residential Code will take place in fall 2010. In 2011, the ICC will introduce the new codes, Ruth said. “Between now and [the hearings in Baltimore], we need to develop positions on what everyone else has submitted. This time around, I’m anticipating that we’re going to have even more to look at,” Ruth said.Steve Strawn, product compliance policy manager at Jeld-Wen Inc., Klamath Falls, Ore., agreed that the group faced a challenge to review all of the other industry-related proposals. “The sense is that we’re going to see an awful lot of activities related to energy,” he said. “Our job through the summer is to get to the point where we can get all of the proposals together, figure out what is important, and have some level of approval by the next meeting.”