Nevada building code plan review: local adoptions, State Public Works and State Fire Marshal codes, and the 2024 IECC

Which Nevada codes apply to a set of drawings?

Nevada has no single statewide building code for private work. NRS 278.580 lets the governing body of any city or county adopt a building code and requires it to include the seismic provisions of the International Building Code and standards for investigating seismic hazards such as surface rupture and liquefaction, and NRS 278.585 requires all persons and political subdivisions to comply with the appropriate city or county building code, except as NRS 393.110 provides for schools. Other statutes put specific requirements into every local code: NRS 278.583 makes construction comply with the National Electrical Code in the form most recently approved by the city or county; NRS 278.582 sets water-use standards for plumbing fixtures; NRS 278.584 requires at least one baby changing table, accessible to both men and women or one for each, in a permanent public building with a public restroom constructed on or after October 1, 2017; NRS 278.5846 requires single-stall public restrooms in buildings constructed on or after October 1, 2021 to be usable by any person and bars gendered signs on them; and NRS 278.586 lets a local government require sprinklers in a new dwelling unit of 5,000 square feet or more of livable space, but in a smaller unit only after an independent cost-benefit analysis and a finding at a public hearing, or a finding that the site would unreasonably delay firefighter response. Three state agencies adopt their own codes on top of the local layer. The State Public Works Board sets the minimum design standards for state buildings in NAC 341.045, and under NRS 341.100 the State Public Works Division’s Deputy Administrator for Compliance and Code Enforcement is the building official for all buildings and structures on property of the State or held in trust for any division of state government, with final authority to interpret the building codes. The State Fire Marshal enforces fire prevention laws and adopts regulations under NRS 477.030, including the codes it adopts by reference in NAC 477.281 and amends in NAC 477.283. The Director of the Governor’s Office of Energy adopts the energy code under NRS 701.220, which makes it the statewide minimum that every local government with a building code must incorporate and enforce.

For state buildings, the Public Works Division’s adopted codes list and NAC 341.045, last amended by R072-24 effective November 15, 2024, adopt the 2024 IBC, IEBC, and IRC with references to the International Plumbing, Electrical, and Mechanical Codes replaced by the Uniform Plumbing Code, the National Electrical Code, and the Uniform Mechanical Code; the 2023 NEC; the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code, with the minimum fixture count taken from IBC Table 2902.1 instead of the plumbing code’s table; the 2024 Uniform Mechanical Code; the Department of Justice’s Americans with Disabilities Act publication; the 2024 IECC; ANSI/ASHRAE 90.1-2022; and the Nevada Earthquake Safety Council’s guidelines for evaluating surface fault rupture, land subsidence, and liquefaction hazards. The IBC amendments in NAC 341.045 replace the ICC A117.1-2017 references in Chapter 35 with A117.1-2009, change “more than 75 feet” to “more than 55 feet” in Section 202, require fire alarm loudspeakers or horns to reach at least 80 decibels throughout the protected property, put the fire command center in a room separated by at least 2-hour noncombustible construction with an exterior door and require its systems to be tested at least annually, exempt unoccupied electrical, mechanical, and storage rooms under 400 square feet, janitor closets, and individual offices from visible alarm notification, add a nonrefundable deposit of 1 percent of project valuation to the permit application, and let the building official issue annual permits to state agencies with qualified tradespersons and design professionals. Subsection 2 has state buildings use the seismic, basic wind speed, wind exposure, frost line, and roof live and snow load standards of the city or county where they are built, unless those are less stringent. The division’s list, marked revised 2/13/2024, says the code edition is set by the date plans are first submitted, that designs to the 2018 editions could be submitted until six months after the December 2024 adoption, and that submittals after June 30, 2025 must use the new codes; the regulation’s history gives November 15, 2024, so confirm the date that governed a submittal near the change with the division.

The State Fire Marshal’s adoption is in the middle of an update. The approved regulation LCB File R205-24, filed February 27, 2026, amends NAC 477.281 to the 2024 IFC with Appendices B, C, D, F, and H, the 2024 IBC, the 2024 IEBC, the 2024 IWUIC with Appendices A and B, the 2024 Uniform Mechanical Code, and the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code, and moves the NFPA standards forward, among them NFPA 13, 13D, 13R, 20, and 72 to the 2022 editions, NFPA 14 and 96 to 2024, and NFPA 25 to 2023, with NFPA 54 replacing the International Fuel Gas Code. Its NAC 477.283 changes lower the high-rise threshold in the IFC and IBC from 75 feet to 55 feet, require an automatic sprinkler system throughout any building of more than two stories in all occupancies except R-3 and U (open parking garages and airport control towers are exempt), require casino occupancies to be designed as Ordinary Hazard Group 2, require sprinklers where the required fire flow is not available and the fire authority approves that remedy, require paved all-weather fire access roads (temporary construction roads excepted) and address characters sized by distance from the street, require emergency responder radio coverage in buildings with an occupied floor more than 55 feet above the lowest fire department access and in below-grade buildings, set audible alarm levels of 90 dBA in mechanical equipment rooms and 80 dBA elsewhere, and require locked stair doors in buildings other than high-rises to unlock on a fire alarm, a sprinkler waterflow alarm, or a power failure. The division’s Fire Protection Engineering page says it will enforce the 2024 codes effective January 1, 2026, which is earlier than the filing date, and the NAC 477 on the Legislature’s site, revised 6/26/2026, still prints the 2018 editions and, in NAC 477.465, the 2016 NFPA 13 and 13R; cite R205-24 and confirm with the State Fire Marshal which edition applied on your submittal date.

Energy follows a published-edition rule. NAC 701.185 adopts the IECC in the form most recently published unless the Director gives notice that it is not suitable for Nevada. The Governor’s Office of Energy’s state adoption page says the 2024 IECC is adopted as published effective August 18, 2024, and its rulemaking page records revisions effective March 12, 2025, which the revision notice shows include adding the Uniform Mechanical Code and Uniform Plumbing Code where commercial sections cite the International Mechanical and Plumbing Codes. NRS 701.220 lets a local government adopt more stringent standards if it reports them to the Director, and bars any standard that mandates fewer than 4 1/2 or more than 7 air changes per hour for an attached or sprinklered residence, or fewer than 4 or more than 7 for other residences. The office’s local adoption page still lists the jurisdictions that adopted the 2018 IECC, so take the local energy code from the building department. All checked November 7, 2026.

Most private projects are reviewed by the city or county building department, whose building official NRS 278.570 provides for and whose plans examiners NRS 278.577 requires to be certified in counties of 100,000 or more. Four local examples, each read on the jurisdiction’s own site: Clark County’s Building Department adopted the 2024 IBC, IEBC, IRC, ISPSC, Uniform Mechanical and Plumbing Codes, and IECC and the 2023 NEC, each with Southern Nevada amendments, for all new permit applications except standard plans from January 11, 2026. Ordinance 5271, passed July 15, 2025, adopts the 2024 IBC with the Southern Nevada Amendments, which committees of Southern Nevada building officials wrote with votes from Clark County, Henderson, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Boulder City, Pahrump, Mesquite, and the Clark County School District, and which amend, among other sections, the high-rise provisions of Section 403, seismic design in Section 1613, and special inspections in Sections 1704 and 1705. The City of Las Vegas adopted the 2024 IBC, IRC, IEBC, ISPSC, Uniform Plumbing and Mechanical Codes, IECC, IFC, and IWUIC and the 2023 NEC by ordinances approved July 16, 2025, effective January 5, 2026, six days before the county’s date, so a set filed in early January 2026 needs the date of its first submittal. In the north, Washoe County adopted the 2024 ICC codes and the 2023 NEC effective July 1, 2025, with the 2024 Northern Nevada Amendments of the Northern Nevada Chapter of the ICC, the 2024 Uniform Plumbing and Mechanical Codes, and the 2024 NFPA 54 and 58, and has required the 2024 editions for all submittals since January 1, 2026; the City of Reno adopted the 2024 codes and the 2023 NEC on July 1, 2025 with the Northern Nevada Amendments and accepts only the 2024 editions from January 1, 2026. Both northern lists name the 2024 International Mechanical Code and the 2024 Uniform Mechanical Code, so ask which governs your mechanical scope. NRS 278.583 deems each newly published NEC edition approved by a city or county unless its governing body disapproves it within 60 days of publication, while all four local lists read here name the 2023 NEC; confirm the electrical edition with the building department.

Buildings on state land go to the State Public Works Division instead. Its Permitting and Code Enforcement page requires a division permit for every project at a state-owned facility that constructs, enlarges, alters, repairs, moves, demolishes, or changes the occupancy of a building or installs or alters electrical, gas, mechanical, or plumbing systems, and NRS 278.580 says a city or county need not review plans or inspect construction for a structure of the State or the Nevada System of Higher Education unless it contracts to. Applications go through the division’s iWorQ portal. The division’s process and plan submittal requirements, updated 11/2025, ask for documents signed and sealed under NRS 623, 624, and 625, a site plan for every project, and a cover sheet whose basis of design gives the building code edition with the Nevada adopted standards in the code analysis, the site area, allowable area and height with the code sections used for increases, occupancy groups, construction type, required separations, sprinkler and alarm requirements, zoning, roof and floor live loads, seismic zone, wind speed and exposure, allowable soil bearing, design occupant load, and deferred submittal items, which need the building official’s prior approval. Supplemental documents may include the project manual and specifications, a geotechnical report whenever the plans reference one, structural calculations for new or altered structure, and COMcheck for HVAC and lighting alterations; a third-party reviewer’s approval stamp must appear on every document if one was used, and work that affects a fire protection system also needs a State Fire Marshal permit. The same file gives a minimum of 10 to 15 business days for plan review in one place and a minimum of 10 business days, with 7 for resubmittals, in another. After review the division issues an approved-to-bid letter, needs signed acknowledgments of any statement of special inspections before the permit, and issues a certificate of compliance or occupancy after the final inspection. Its July 2025 Agency Annual Permit policy limits annual permits to remodels of no more than $100,000 that do not change occupancy, add occupant load, alter egress, structure, or fire-resistive construction, or alter a fire alarm or sprinkler system enough to need recertification, and that need no oversight from the State Fire Marshal, State Health, the Division of Manufactured Housing, or the Division of Industrial Relations.

Fire plans follow NRS 477.030. The State Fire Marshal’s regulations apply statewide, but its enforcement authority does not reach a school district (except as NRS 393.110 provides) or a county of 100,000 or more or a consolidated municipality, except for state-owned or state-occupied buildings and where the local fire chief asks. In a county of 700,000 or more whose codes stay at least as stringent as the latest IFC, IBC, and IWUIC within two years of each edition, its building code regulations apply only to state-owned or state-occupied buildings, public schools, and jurisdictions that request them. In smaller counties the State Fire Marshal must, on request, delegate its duties by interlocal agreement to a local government whose staff and programs are equally qualified, and its interlocals page lists agreements with, among others, the City of Elko, Elko, Humboldt, and Nye counties, the East Fork, North Lake Tahoe, and Tahoe Douglas fire protection districts, and the University of Nevada, Reno. Where the State Fire Marshal reviews, applications go through its Mobile-Eyes portal with a fee set by valuation under NAC 477.750, and its plans submittal checklist asks for two sets with a dimensioned site plan, the building code analysis, schedules of rated assemblies with their assembly numbers and sources, mechanical capacities, fire and smoke damper locations, and hood and grease duct details, emergency lighting and power and equipment shutdown, fire apparatus access roads, fire flow, hydrants, and water supply, sprinkler plans and hydraulic calculations submitted by a contractor the office licenses with a designer who holds NICET Level II or a Nevada engineering license or an equivalent certification, and fire alarm plans with battery calculations and wiring diagrams under a similar rule. NAC 477.465 requires sprinkler calculations to show at least 10 psi of pressure above the system demand. NAC 477.750 sends plans to the State Fire Marshal when a local review waives or grants a variance from one of its minimum standards. Wildland-urban interface rules differ too: the State Fire Marshal’s amendments delete IWUIC Chapter 5 and send vegetation management plans to the code official and the State Forester Firewarden, while Washoe County adopts IWUIC Chapter 5. Among local fire codes, Clark County adopted the 2024 IFC with Appendices B, C, D, H, P, and Q by Ordinance 5321 effective January 1, 2026, amended effective May 6 and July 1, 2026 (county fire code), and the City of Las Vegas adopted the 2024 IFC and IWUIC effective January 5, 2026. The fire code editions enforced in Washoe County and Reno were not read for this guide; confirm them with the fire agency that serves the site.

Schools and public buildings have their own rules. NRS 393.110 has the school district in a county of 700,000 or more run its own building department to review school plans; elsewhere school plans go to the county or other local building department, with no separate State Fire Marshal approval for plans that department reviews, or, where no local department exists, to the Public Works Division, a private certificate holder, or another county’s department. NRS 338.180 requires plans for public buildings and facilities owned by a public body to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and its regulations, including the ADA Accessibility Guidelines in Appendix A of 28 CFR Part 36, the federal minimum guidelines at 36 CFR 1190, and the Fair Housing Act, says compliance with the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards alone does not satisfy it, sets signage rules for corridors leading to toilet rooms, and bars gendered signs on single-stall public restrooms. The Public Works list names the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, NAC 341.045 adopts the Department of Justice’s ADA publication without an edition, and the statute names the guidelines in Appendix A, so record which accessibility standard the design follows and confirm it with the reviewer. Permit routing is on the Nevada page, and the model codes have their own guides: IBC, IFC, IECC, UPC, UMC, NFPA 70, and IWUIC.

Gather the code analysis, the reviewing office, and each discipline’s Nevada references

Collect the cover sheet and code analysis with every code and edition cited and the basis-of-design items the reviewer asks for (site area, allowable area and height with the increases used, occupancy groups, construction type, separations, sprinkler and alarm requirements, zoning, live loads, seismic and wind data, soil bearing, occupant load, and deferred submittals); the dimensioned site plan with fire apparatus access roads, hydrants, and fire flow; floor plans, sections, roof plan, elevations, and door and window schedules; the life safety plan with exits, rated assemblies and their listing numbers, and firestop systems; the structural drawings, calculations, geotechnical report, and statement of special inspections; the mechanical drawings with equipment capacities, fire and smoke dampers, and hood and grease duct details; the plumbing fixture count; the electrical drawings with emergency lighting and power; the sprinkler and fire alarm drawings with hydraulic and battery calculations and the contractor’s and designer’s credentials; the energy compliance reports; the accessibility plans, restroom layouts, and signage schedule; and the specifications.

Add who owns the land (the State, a school district, another public body, or a private owner), the city or county and whether a fire agency holds an interlocal agreement with the State Fire Marshal, the date of the first submittal, the project valuation, and whether the building has a casino, child care, care facility, or other use the Nevada amendments name. Read the statutes and regulations on the Nevada Legislature’s site, the state building codes on the Public Works Division’s page, the fire submittal rules on the State Fire Marshal’s engineering page, the energy notices on the Governor’s Office of Energy page, and the local adoption and amendments on the city or county site.

Trace the Nevada codes and reviewers through the set

Fire code sheets continue in the IFC guide, the IBC Chapter 9 guide, the means of egress guide, the IBC Chapter 7 guide, and the IBC Chapter 4 guide for high-rise provisions, sprinkler and alarm documents in the NFPA 13, NFPA 13R, and NFPA 72 guides, the fire sprinkler checklist, and the fire alarm drawing checklist, wildland-urban interface sites in the IWUIC guide, fuel gas in the NFPA 54 and NFPA 58 guides, energy in the IECC and ASHRAE 90.1 guides, structural loads in the ASCE 7 guide, special inspections in the special inspections guide, fixture counts in the plumbing fixture count guide, and accessible details in the ADA Standards and ICC A117.1 guides and the accessibility checklist. The local building codes guide shows a published finding from a Southern Nevada project, where the structural notes assigned a seismic design category that the 2018 IBC table, unchanged by the Southern Nevada amendments, put one category higher. Neighboring state codes are in the California Building Code guide, the Oregon Structural Specialty Code guide, the Idaho guide, and the Utah guide.

Example: a state office building on state land in Las Vegas

Hypothetical example. A state agency plans a three-story office building of about 60,000 square feet on state land within the City of Las Vegas. The architect reused a private-sector template: the cover sheet names the City of Las Vegas as the building department, the code analysis cites the 2024 IBC with the Southern Nevada amendments and ICC A117.1-2017 for accessible details, the fire protection notes say no sprinkler system is required for a Group B building of this area and construction type, and the plumbing fixture count comes from the Uniform Plumbing Code table.

The building is on state land, so under NRS 341.100 and NAC 341.036 the State Public Works Division’s building official checks the plans and issues the certificate of occupancy, and NRS 278.580 does not require the city to review plans for a structure of the State. NAC 341.045 adopts the 2024 IBC but replaces the ICC A117.1-2017 references in IBC Chapter 35 with A117.1-2009 and takes the minimum plumbing fixture count from IBC Table 2902.1 instead of the Uniform Plumbing Code table. The State Fire Marshal’s amendments, which NRS 477.030 applies to state-owned buildings even in the larger counties, require an automatic sprinkler system throughout a building of more than two stories in all occupancies except R-3 and U. NAC 341.045 still takes the seismic, wind, frost line, and roof load criteria from the city where they are not less stringent. Confirm the reviewing office, the accessibility reference, the fixture count, and the sprinkler basis with the Public Works Division and the State Fire Marshal.

The architect moves the submittal to the Public Works Division’s iWorQ portal, changes the accessibility reference to A117.1-2009 with the ADA basis the division lists, and redoes the fixture count from IBC Table 2902.1, and the fire protection engineer designs a sprinkler system with a separate State Fire Marshal submittal before the division issues its approved-to-bid letter. The finding is a jurisdiction and citation conflict; the Public Works Division’s building official and the State Fire Marshal decide compliance.

Review a Nevada set with Groundbook

Upload the current drawings and specifications to Groundbook, and state the edition, amendments, and review scope in your instructions. Nevada’s statutes and administrative code are free on the Legislature’s site, the Public Works Division and the State Fire Marshal post their adopted codes and checklists, the Governor’s Office of Energy posts its IECC notices, and Clark County, Las Vegas, Washoe County, and Reno post their adoptions and amendments. Upload the NRS and NAC sections that apply, R205-24, the city or county ordinance with its Southern or Northern Nevada amendments, and the agencies’ checklists as code files, with the 2024 IBC, IRC, IEBC, IFC, IECC, and IWUIC, the 2024 Uniform Plumbing and Mechanical Codes, the 2023 NEC, ASHRAE 90.1-2022, and the NFPA standards the project relies on 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, electrical, energy, and accessibility documents. Flag a reviewing office or permit portal that does not fit the land ownership, city or county, and school status in my instructions, code editions other than the ones the reviewer in my instructions adopts, a building of more than two stories without a sprinkler system where the State Fire Marshal’s amendments apply, a high-rise analysis that uses 75 feet instead of 55 feet, sprinkler calculations without at least 10 psi above demand, fire protection drawings without an office-licensed contractor and a NICET Level II or Nevada engineer designer, energy documents not on the 2024 IECC or the local amendments, and accessibility references, baby changing tables, or single-stall restroom signs that do not match the supplied Nevada statutes and regulations. Use the supplied statutes, regulations, ordinances, 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 Nevada statute, regulation, 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 the Public Works Division, a city or county, a school district, or the State Fire Marshal has jurisdiction, which edition governs where a regulation, an agency page, and the codified text differ, or whether a local amendment applies; each finding is a question for the responsible design professional.

Document review does not certify compliance, issue a permit, plan approval, or certificate of occupancy, or replace the design professional, the city or county building official, the State Public Works Division’s building official, the State Fire Marshal Division, the local fire agency, or the Governor’s Office of Energy.