The Florida Building Code

[Building]

Anyone have any experience owner-building a cottage or cabin with this nightmare?

They basically expect everything to be fully engineered.

Anyone have background dealing with it and actually successfully completing an owner built project in Florida?
I am seriously regretting buying my country property there based on what I'm encountering.

[MountainDon]

Is this the version you are required to comply with?
http://publicecodes.cyberregs.com/st/fl/st/b400v10/index.htm

If you can design and build within the prescriptive methods additional engineering should not be necessary. For sure there will be details in the FL that are not in codes in many other parts of the country. But then FL does have much of itself in the high velocity hurricane zone. 

G/L

[Building]

They require engineering stamps for the roof and the floor.

Also, the 'requirements' of that code are second only to theFederal tax code as far as total ubnavigability by someone who doesn't make it their lifes work to understand it.

[MountainDon]

If you use factory made roof trusses and floor trusses, those usually come with the required engineering papers. But that said, the way I read the section on floors (Chapter 5) regular joists are permitted by code as long as they as grade stamped and meet the spans listed in the tables. The roof chapter does not seem to have standard rafter tables; everything is reserved. I won't even try to understand that other than to say that past failures may have pushed the rules towards only using engineered trusses. Sometimes those are a really good deal though.

How big / small a cabin or home are you wanting to build?

It's true the building code book is not easy to fathom at times. It is not meant to be a DIY guide.  If built on a concrete slab according to the code the main  floor requirements can be dispensed with as the slab is the floor. Add factory made trusses and all that is left are the walls, as far as the basic structure goes.


Don't be too discouraged, the FL code does have areas that are extra strict because of weather conditions. Much of the code will be the same as it is in other states. One big difference comes in the area of enforcement. Some locations are very lax; little to no enforcement. That can work to the disadvantage of a neophyte builder as a sub standard building with safety issues can result. We have seen as few of those here.


If you have a plan or just ideas and questions, there may be answers available from some of our members.

[Building]

I'm a long time lurker here.
Part of the reason I read this forum instead of others is because its full of do-ers rather than naysayers who insist that nothing can be accomplished without hiring twelve consultants. 

I'll definitely be posting a lot of questions now that the building phase is nearing.