Here's a good resource and about as easy to search as any code could be. This is the 2003 International Residential Code - a good model to follow.

2003 - IRC (from Seattle with some local amendments)



From Chapter 6 - wall framing


Thanks to Outhouse for this find!

(Note: These PDF files cannot be printed from Adobe Reader. If you want to save or print a drawing or section you will have to use a screen capture program such as Snagit.)

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(Note: These PDF files cannot be printed from Adobe Reader. If you want to save or print a drawing or section you will have to use a screen capture program such as Snagit.)

There may be a way around this, depending on your computer. On my computers the Adobe Acrobat program caches a copy of any file it opens. In my case (Win XP) if I use windows explorer and go to...
D:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Temp  
There I can find all the temporary files the laptop OS has deemed necessary to keep, including the PDF's.

(Your file location, drive letter, exact naming, may vary, but that should get you on the right track.)

Look for the PDF file name and there you go. If you can't find it at first try looking for it with the document open in your reader. If it shows up then, try copying it from that temp folder to another location; then close the reader and open the copied file and see if you can print/save.

I can open it from there (right click | open with | Adobe Acrobat) and usually print or save to another location. Some PDF documents are internally protected to prevent that and I haven't tried this with the above mentioned files. But it does work on some other sites that prevent printing/saving the PDF's in the way they originally open.  

I have one variable that may enter into this. I run Adobe Acrobat Pro, not the reader. Pro is the program that allows making of PDF files. I don't think that should make a difference, but.... just to lay out all the facts...

BTW, Snagit is a good alternative when all else fails. Or sometimes a simple screen capture (Print Screen) and pasting the result into an image editor works.

I haven't got them to print yet except with a screenshot as mentioned, but I did download a chapter to my computer.  Get the Firefox extension called Unplug - then it goes to the file root and displays it.  Then hit the save with Firefox button and it will save the chapter to your computer.

Now I found out that another of my Firefox extensions called Down Them All will copy the entire book to your computer in a few minutes.  Still not printable but it will get you a local copy.

They've got that thing locked up tighter than a drum! Just need a password or a brute force password cracker.  
I do have a complete local copy now as well tho'.  Thanks for the DownThemAll info, Glenn

The code book publishers are among the most protective publishers around. I guess they have to be since they charge about 10x what any normal publisher would charge for the same book.  Their publication expenses could be higher as well.

I'm impressed that the City of Seattle was able to put it on-line at all.

FYI, After wading through a number of the pages I notice that the "tweaking for Seattle" has been done by using strikethrough text for the non-applicable sections, and adding some of their own revised rules to the pages. This is good as the original text can still be read. Entire chapters are noted as being supplanted by Washington State regs, but the entire chapters are still there in original IRC 2003 form.

Basic screen capture:  If you are running Windows.  Open a blank document like Word, or Wordpad, or whatever.  In another window, position the portion of the page that you want to acquire.  Press Alt,  PrintScreen. 

Go back to your blank document, and press Control V.  What ever was showing in the other window will copy to your document as an image.  You can edit the size of it by grabbing a corner of it with your courser, and shrink or enlarge it. 

Its an old DOS trick that still seems to work works.

Very true. Basic screen capture works, but it only captures what's on the screen. That can be saved as an image file, but that's it. It's non editable text. Trying to save the entire code book that way would take more time than I'd care to expend. Cataloging and indexing the results wold be a nightmare to me. OMMV.

IF you use Firefox as your browser, and you all should, IMO, there is an add-on called "Down Them All" that can be used to save all pages off the Seattle code site. You can then have the PDF files all conveniently at hand, but Adobe still won't let you save, print, edit, copy text, etc. And that's fair as it is a copyrighted book/document.

Most public libraries have the books in the Reference Only section, or at least whatever code is used in the area.

Very interesting.  If anyone needs the Residential Sprinkler Code in read-only form, I can post the link.  It took awhile to find it too.

I don't need it, but I've an appetite for collecting information. 

Thanks

Here's the link to download all the NFPa documents, read-only.  Let me know if there are any problems with the link.

http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/list_of_codes_and_standards.asp