Kansas

Statewide summary — confirm with your building department before designing

No value on this row was changed by this audit. IRC Table R301.2 is filled in by the local jurisdiction, not by the state, so treat every figure here as a summary and not as your lot requirement. Seismic design category A is defensible statewide: under ASCE 7-16 at Site Class D and Risk Category II, Wichita, Topeka, Kansas City and Dodge City all band to A on short-period spectral response, with the full determination putting them at B, a distinction that does not change residential requirements. Kansas has the second lowest seismic hazard in this state group after Minnesota. Ground snow load 20 psf matches Topeka and the Kansas City area under ASCE 7-16; Wichita and Dodge City are 15 psf, so the stored figure is conservative rather than wrong. Ultimate design wind speed 105 mph is the ASCE 7-16 interior base contour at Risk Category II, but every Kansas site checked sits at about 110 mph, so 110 is the reading to stand behind and 105 under-states the state by one contour. Frost depth 36 inches is set locally in Kansas and was not verified against any government source. The termite designation moderate encodes the IRC moderate-to-heavy band, which is the expected band for Kansas, but this was not confirmed against a Kansas authority. The winter design temperature is ASHRAE 99 percent data, is not published by any Kansas authority, and is unverified. Snow load audit, August 2026. Kansas has no statewide building code for houses at all, so there is no state ground snow load to record and both range columns stay null. The only building-related code with statewide force is the Kansas Fire Prevention Code, the State Fire Marshal regulations at K.A.R. article 22-1, which at 22-1-3 adopts the 2006 International Building Code and the 2006 International Fire Code by reference for fire-safety purposes and which K.S.A. 31-134(b) gives uniform force throughout the state. Dwellings are carved out of it in terms: K.S.A. 31-133(a)(3) and (a)(4), the authority for those regulations, each provide that "Such rules and regulations shall not apply to buildings used wholly as dwelling houses containing no more than two families." Nothing in article 22-1 sets or maps a ground snow load. Adoption of a residential code is left entirely to cities and counties. The Kansas Corporation Commission energy office states on its building energy codes page that "Because Kansas is a home rule state, the responsibility for adoption and enforcement of building energy codes lies with local jurisdictions," and the only statewide standard it identifies is the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code for new commercial and industrial structures under K.S.A. 66-1227, with a disclosure form rather than a code for new homes under K.S.A. 66-1228. I looked for a Kansas ground snow load map, table or county list at the State Fire Marshal, at the Department of Administration facilities office and at the Corporation Commission, and found none; the Department of Administration code pages have been reorganised and the former building-code FAQ now returns HTTP 404 at admin.ks.gov. None of the four existing values was changed. Seismic design category A was re-confirmed against the USGS ASCE 7-16 design maps service at Site Class D and Risk Category II, which returns short-period design accelerations of about 0.097 g at Wichita, 0.108 g at Topeka and 0.108 g at Coffeyville in the southeast; all fall in category A on the single short-period parameter the IRC uses, while the full two-parameter determination puts all three in B. Ground snow load 20 psf, wind speed 105 mph and frost depth 36 inches have no Kansas government source and remain unverified.