For a building in Colorado, start with the city or county building code, because the state has no general building code for private buildings, and then check the state rules that apply everywhere: the 2026 NEC adopted by the State Electrical Board (effective August 1, 2026), the Colorado Plumbing and Fuel Gas Codes on the 2024 IPC and IFGC (State Plumbing Board rule effective August 14, 2026), the energy code a city or county must adopt when it updates any building code under C.R.S. 30-28-211 and 31-15-602, the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code in the wildland-urban interface, and the C.R.S. 9-5 accessible housing standards. If the project is a public school, charter school, junior college, or licensed health facility, DFPC reviews it against 8 CCR 1507-101 (2021 IBC, IFC, IMC, IEBC, and IECC with the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code); factory-built structures, and hotels, motels, and multifamily buildings where no building department exists, go to the Division of Housing; and state agency construction follows the Office of the State Architect’s list, which starts from the 2024 IBC. AI can flag conflicts; the design professional and the reviewing agency decide compliance.
Which Colorado codes apply to a set of drawings?
The Office of the State Architect’s Building Codes page says it plainly: Colorado has no statewide building code, codes are adopted and enforced primarily at the local level, DFPC adopts building codes for public K-12 schools and health facilities, and the Division of Housing enforces codes for manufactured homes and factory-built buildings and adopts and enforces codes for site-built hotels, motels, and multifamily buildings in jurisdictions with no codes. Most private projects are therefore reviewed by a city, town, or county building department against its own ordinance, with five statewide layers on top. First, electrical work: under C.R.S. 12-115-107(2)(a), as HB22-1362 restates it, the State Electrical Board adopts minimum standards governed by the most current National Electrical Code, a city, town, county, or qualified state institution of higher education may enforce more stringent standards if it sends the board a copy, and the NEC or the board’s standards prevail over the 2021 or 2024 IECC, the model electric ready and solar ready code, or any local or state energy code where they conflict. Rule 1.5 of 3 CCR 710-1 incorporates the 2026 NEC with an effective date of August 1, 2026, and Rule 1.5(C) requires permit applicants for EV power transfer infrastructure to meet the multifamily requirements of the Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code as they existed on June 1, 2023. Second, plumbing and fuel gas: Rule 1.2 of 3 CCR 720-1, effective August 14, 2026, makes the listed chapters of the 2024 IPC and IRC Chapters 25 to 32 the Colorado Plumbing Code and the 2024 IFGC, except Sections 412 and 413, with the IRC fuel gas sections the Colorado Fuel Gas Code; the rule asks any local government with more stringent standards to send the board a copy, and C.R.S. 12-155-106(4.5) makes the Colorado Plumbing Code prevail over energy codes where they conflict. The state issues electrical and plumbing permits and inspects only outside local inspection programs, and its permits page lists the counties that run their own. Third, energy: C.R.S. 30-28-211 and 31-15-602 tie a county’s or municipality’s energy code to the date it updates any building code (below). Fourth, wildfire: under C.R.S. 24-33.5-1236 and 24-33.5-1237, added by SB23-166, a governing body with jurisdiction in the wildland-urban interface and authority to adopt building or fire codes must adopt a code that meets or exceeds the board’s codes within three months of the board adopting them; the codes apply to new construction, additions that increase a footprint by 500 square feet, exterior alterations or repairs affecting 25 percent or more of the exterior, and added wooden decks, not to interior alterations, and DFPC says the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code was established on July 1, 2025 through 8 CCR 1507-39. Fifth, accessible housing under C.R.S. Title 9, Article 5. The state agencies that act as the building department for their own building types are described below.
DFPC’s codes are in 8 CCR 1507-101. The current version, effective December 30, 2025, adopts as building codes the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code (2023), the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code (2025), the 2021 IBC, IMC, IECC, IEBC, and IRC, and NFPA 170 (2021); as fire codes the 2021 IFC, NFPA 3 and NFPA 4 (2021), NFPA 99 (2012), and NFPA 170; for life safety and health facility construction NFPA 101 (2012), NFPA 101A (2013), NFPA 99 (2012), and NFPA 3 and 4 (2015); and a list of NFPA standards for fire suppression systems statewide, including NFPA 13, 13D, 13R, 14, 20, and 24 (2019), NFPA 25 (2020) with a Colorado amendment, and NFPA 72 (2019). Rule 3.4 keeps the code in effect at permit application for the work that permit authorizes, Rule 3.5 sends electrical work to the State Electrical Board’s rules, and Rule 3.6 sends plumbing work to the plumbing board’s rules. DFPC’s own adopted codes page lags the rule: it still lists the 2021 International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, does not list the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, and links the August 14, 2025 version of the rule; cite the current rule and confirm with DFPC. DFPC’s electric ready and solar ready guidance says projects submitted for DFPC building permits after August 14, 2025 must meet that code, with separate plan sheets for Electric Ready, Solar Ready, and Electric Vehicle Ready work. Projects submitted before July 1, 2021 stay on the earlier codes.
The energy statutes set dates rather than one edition. As amended by HB22-1362, C.R.S. 30-28-211(3.5) and 31-15-602(3.5) require a county or municipality that has building codes and updates one or more of them on or after July 1, 2023 and before July 1, 2026 to adopt an energy code that achieves equivalent or better performance than the 2021 IECC and the Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code, and one that updates on or after July 1, 2026 to adopt and begin enforcing an energy code that achieves equivalent or better energy and carbon emissions performance than the Model Low Energy and Carbon Code, each at the same time it updates the other codes. Codes adopted or updated before July 1, 2023 needed one of the three most recent IECC editions, and the county statute lets a county of fewer than 30,000 people stay on one of the three most recent IECC editions if it applied for and was not awarded a state code adoption grant. The Colorado Energy Office’s building energy codes page says the Model Low Energy and Carbon Code is based on the 2024 IECC with Colorado amendments, was published September 2, 2025, and absorbs the electric ready and solar ready code, and it links a map of energy codes by jurisdiction. The same act required the Office of the State Architect and the Division of Housing to adopt an energy code at least equivalent to the 2021 IECC and the electric ready and solar ready code by January 1, 2025, and one at least equivalent to the low energy and carbon code by January 1, 2030. So the energy code on a Colorado permit depends on when that jurisdiction last updated its codes; get the ordinance and its adoption date. All checked November 7, 2026.
Public schools, institute charter schools, charter schools, and junior colleges are permitted by DFPC’s Building Codes Branch. Its School Construction page requires a permit for all work that is not maintenance or service, processes applications online, and requires the project to identify three standards in the code analysis when they apply: ICC A117.1 (2017), ICC 300 (2017), and ICC 500 (2020). The submittal checklist asks for a code analysis and code plan, one digital set of all drawings, specifications, and documents, a statement of special inspections with the inspectors identified before the permit issues, documentation of compliance with the IECC, the fire review, a site plan, a sealed soils report and sealed structural calculations where required, and half of the calculated fee before plan review. The fire review is on DFPC’s Fire Code Plan Review form, which requires a state-certified Fire Inspector III plans examiner and, under 8 CCR 1507-30, is returned to DFPC within twenty business days of a complete submittal. Fire alarm, sprinkler, kitchen hood, underground fire line, and other system drawings are deferred submittals. A local building department can qualify as a Pre-Qualified Building Department under Section 4.1.2 of 8 CCR 1507-101, and the school can notify DFPC that it has delegated to one; delegated building inspectors and special inspectors must be identified before construction, and DFPC will not issue the permit until it has vetted them. Health facilities belong to DFPC’s Health Facilities unit, which has enforced the Life Safety Code in health care facilities statewide since July 1, 2013 under HB12-1268, requires permits for new construction, renovation, additions, system upgrades, and changes of occupancy, accepts only drawings that reference DFPC’s adopted codes, and asks for a functional program letter and an NFPA 99 risk assessment that assigns a category from 1 to 4 to every room. DFPC also enforces the wildfire code where a governing body asks it to: its enforcement page offers delegation agreements for plan review and inspection.
The Division of Housing’s Building Codes and Standards Section must review and approve the design and construction plans of factory-built residential and nonresidential structures before construction, inspects the installation of manufactured homes and multifamily residential structures, and, where there is no building department, reviews and inspects manufactured home foundations. Its rules, 8 CCR 1302-14, which the page says are effective July 1, 2026 (the rule history says June 30, 2026), adopt for factory-built structures and for site-built hotels, motels, and multifamily structures where no standards exist the 2024 IBC, IRC, IMC, IFGC, and IECC, the IPC edition the State Plumbing Board adopts, the NEC edition the State Electrical Board has adopted at plan submittal, the 2023 Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code, and, for factory-built structures only, the 2024 IFC, the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, and the ICC/MBI 1200, 1205, and 1210 off-site construction standards. A multifamily structure there means at least three dwelling units in a Group R-2, R-3, or R-4 building or IRC townhouses, and manufacturers may keep using the previous codes for up to 180 calendar days after a new code takes effect.
State agency construction follows the Office of the State Architect. Its Exhibit A, Approved State Building Codes (Rev. 10/2026) applies to construction at state agency and higher education facilities and lists the 2024 IBC (effective July 1, 2025), IEBC, IRC, IMC, and IECC, the Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code, the Model Low Energy and Carbon Code V2 (effective March 30, 2026), the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, the 2026 NEC, the 2024 IPC and IFGC, and the NFPA standards and IFC as adopted by DFPC; projects are designed and reviewed to the codes in effect at architect and engineer contract execution, but the electrical and plumbing boards enforce the codes in effect at permitting. Exhibit A has three stale entries: it lists the 2024 IFC as adopted by DFPC while 8 CCR 1507-101 adopts the 2021 IFC, it dates the 2026 NEC July 15, 2026 while Rule 1.5 sets August 1, 2026, and its notes still mention the 2015 IBC for accessibility and the 2018 IBC for factory-built nonresidential structures, so confirm with the State Buildings Program. Under Exhibit B, the state’s code review consultants or an approved agency building official review the schematic design, design development, and construction documents and issue a Compliance Notice before bidding.
Accessible housing is set by statute. C.R.S. 9-5-102 and 9-5-103 require housing built with state, county, municipal, or private funds to meet ICC/ANSI A117.1, which 9-5-101 defines as the standard or any successor standard the International Code Council issues, so the statute does not fix an edition; DFPC names the 2017 edition for school projects. Section 9-5-105 exempts privately funded detached residences and privately funded projects of fewer than seven residential units and assigns accessibility points that rise with the number of units, met with Type A and Type B dwelling units; 9-5-106 requires an implementation plan approved before the building permit; and 9-5-104 gives enforcement to the Division of Housing for factory-built residential structures and where there is no local building code, and to the local building department elsewhere. Federal accessibility law still applies. Permit routing is on the Colorado page and the Denver page, and the model codes have their own guides: IBC, IFC, IECC, IRC, IPC, IFGC, and NFPA 70.
Gather the code analysis, the reviewing agency, and each discipline’s Colorado references
Collect the cover sheet and code analysis with every code and edition cited, the occupancy, construction type, area, height, and occupant loads; the site plan with fire access and water supply; the life safety plan with rated assemblies and fire protection systems; floor plans, elevations, sections, and the roof plan with any solar-ready zone; the structural drawings with the soils report, design loads, and statement of special inspections; the mechanical, plumbing, fuel gas, and electrical drawings with panel schedules, reserved capacity, and EV parking counts; the energy compliance documents; the sprinkler, fire alarm, kitchen hood, and underground fire line drawings planned as deferred submittals; exterior materials, vents, decks, and defensible space details if the site is in the wildland-urban interface; the accessible unit plan and implementation plan for housing; and the specifications.
Add the city or county, its building ordinance and the date it last updated its codes, whether the state or a local program inspects electrical and plumbing work, whether the project is a public school, charter school, junior college, licensed health facility, state agency project, factory-built structure, or a hotel, motel, or multifamily building where no building department exists, the site’s classification on the wildfire code map, the residential unit count and funding source, and the permit application date. Download the rules from the Secretary of State’s Code of Colorado Regulations (8 CCR 1507-101, 3 CCR 710-1, and 3 CCR 720-1), DFPC’s checklists from its School Construction page, and the state building codes from the Office of the State Architect.
Trace the Colorado codes and reviewers through the set
| Review question | Sources to compare | Decision to record |
|---|---|---|
| Who reviews | Project address, owner, use, funding, licensure, delivery method | Record whether the city or county, DFPC, the Division of Housing, or the State Buildings Program reviews the plans, and flag a school or health facility set filed only with a local department that has not been named a Pre-Qualified Building Department. |
| Code editions | Cover sheet, code analysis, general notes, local ordinance, permit application date | Confirm the 2021 IBC, IFC, IMC, IEBC, and IECC for DFPC projects, the 2024 list for state agency projects, or the local ordinance, and flag editions borrowed from another jurisdiction. |
| Electrical | Electrical notes, one-lines, panel schedules, EV parking plan | Confirm the 2026 NEC for work permitted from August 1, 2026 or a stricter local code, and the multifamily EV power transfer infrastructure Rule 1.5(C) requires. |
| Plumbing and fuel gas | Plumbing and gas notes, riser diagrams, fixture schedules | Confirm the Colorado Plumbing and Fuel Gas Codes on the 2024 IPC and IFGC, and flag an IPC 2021 or Uniform Plumbing Code reference left in the notes. |
| Energy and electric ready | Energy notes, compliance reports, roof plan, panel schedules, parking plan | Match the energy code to the jurisdiction’s update date, and for DFPC permits check for separate Electric Ready, Solar Ready, and Electric Vehicle Ready sheets. |
| Wildfire resiliency | Site plan, wildfire code map, exterior materials, vents, decks, landscape plan | Record whether the site is in the wildland-urban interface and whether the work is new construction, an addition of 500 square feet, or an exterior alteration of 25 percent or more. |
| DFPC submittal package | Statement of special inspections, IECC documentation, Fire Code Plan Review form, deferred submittal list | Check that special inspectors are named, the fire review is signed by a Fire Inspector III plans examiner, and sprinkler, alarm, hood, and underground drawings are listed as deferred. |
| Accessible housing | Unit matrix, accessible unit plans, implementation plan, code analysis | Check the accessibility points under C.R.S. 9-5-105 for projects of seven or more units, the ICC A117.1 edition cited, and the implementation plan the permit depends on. |
Fire code sheets continue in the IFC guide and existing buildings in the IEBC guide; sprinkler and alarm deferred submittals in the NFPA 13 and NFPA 72 guides, the fire sprinkler checklist, and the fire alarm drawing checklist; commissioning and integrated testing in the NFPA 3 and NFPA 4 guides; health facilities in the NFPA 101, NFPA 99, and FGI guides; storm shelters in schools in the ICC 500 guide; energy in the IECC guide and solar-ready roofs in the solar PV checklist; wildland-urban interface sites in the IWUIC guide; special inspections in the special inspections guide; and accessible units in the ICC A117.1 and Fair Housing Act guides and the accessibility checklist. Neighboring state codes are in the Utah guide, the New Mexico guide, the Wyoming guide, the Nebraska guide, and the Oklahoma guide.
Example: a public school addition drawn from a city project
Hypothetical example. A school district plans a classroom addition of about 12,000 square feet at a public elementary school in a mountain county, on a site in the wildland-urban interface. The architect reused the code analysis from a recent city library project, which cites the 2024 IBC and IFC; the electrical sheets cite the 2023 NEC and show no Electric Ready, Solar Ready, or EV Ready plan sheets; the plumbing notes cite the 2021 IPC; the statement of special inspections leaves the inspectors to be named later; and the team plans to file with the county building department, which DFPC has not been notified of as a Pre-Qualified Building Department for the project.
A public school addition is permitted by DFPC’s Building Codes Branch, unless the district notifies DFPC that it has delegated to a Pre-Qualified Building Department. DFPC enforces the 2021 IBC and IFC in 8 CCR 1507-101, not the 2024 editions; its guidance applies the Colorado Model Electric Ready and Solar Ready Code to permits submitted after August 14, 2025, with separate Electric Ready, Solar Ready, and EV Ready sheets; and the current rule adopts the 2025 Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code. 3 CCR 710-1 adopts the 2026 NEC effective August 1, 2026, and 3 CCR 720-1 bases the Colorado Plumbing Code on the 2024 IPC from August 14, 2026. DFPC will not issue the permit until the special inspectors are identified. Confirm the reviewing office, the code editions, the electric ready sheets, and the wildfire code requirements with DFPC.
The architect rewrites the code analysis on the codes DFPC enforces and adds the wildfire code basis, the electrical engineer adds the three electric ready sheets and moves the notes to the 2026 NEC, the plumbing engineer moves the notes to the Colorado Plumbing Code, and the district names its special inspectors and applies to DFPC, or notifies DFPC of a Pre-Qualified Building Department, before construction. The finding is a citation and routing conflict; DFPC decides compliance.
Review a Colorado set with Groundbook
Upload the current drawings and specifications to Groundbook, and state the edition, amendments, and review scope in your instructions. Colorado’s rules are free in the Secretary of State’s Code of Colorado Regulations, the session laws are on the Legislature’s site, DFPC posts its checklists and guidance, the Division of Housing posts its rules, and the Office of the State Architect posts its code exhibits. Upload 8 CCR 1507-101, 3 CCR 710-1, 3 CCR 720-1, 8 CCR 1302-14 where it applies, the city or county ordinance, and the DFPC or State Buildings Program checklists as code files, with the 2021 or 2024 I-codes the project uses, the 2026 NEC, the NFPA standards, ICC A117.1, and the Colorado model energy and wildfire codes from copies you are licensed to use where the license permits uploading them. See how Groundbook works with local and licensed codes.
Compare the cover sheet, code analysis, life safety plan, and every discipline’s general notes with the architectural, structural, fire protection, mechanical, plumbing, fuel gas, electrical, energy, and accessibility documents. Flag IBC, IFC, IMC, IEBC, or IECC editions that do not match the reviewing agency in my instructions, electrical notes not on the 2026 NEC, plumbing or fuel gas notes not on the 2024-based Colorado codes, missing Electric Ready, Solar Ready, or EV Ready sheets for a DFPC permit, wildfire code requirements missing for a site in the wildland-urban interface, unnamed special inspectors, and accessible unit counts or implementation plans that do not follow C.R.S. 9-5. Use the supplied rules, statutes, ordinance, and model codes and cite both sources.
Groundbook compares the set with reference documents you upload, including licensed codes and standards you hold, and links each potential finding to the note or sheet and to the Colorado rule, statute, ordinance, checklist, or model code. It has no built-in library of licensed codes, runs no calculations, and does not design anything. It does not decide whether DFPC, the Division of Housing, the State Buildings Program, or a local department has jurisdiction, which energy code a jurisdiction had to adopt, or whether a site is in the wildland-urban interface; each finding is a question for the responsible design professional.
Document review does not certify compliance, issue a permit or certificate of occupancy, or replace the design professional, the local building official and fire department, DFPC, the Division of Housing, the State Buildings Program, or the state electrical and plumbing inspectors.