Rhode Island

Statewide summary — confirm with your building department before designing

This audit re-sourced the whole row. The earlier audit worked from Rhode Island regulation SBC-2-2004, an eighth edition based on the 2003 IRC, which has been superseded. The governing document is 510-RICR-00-00-2, RISBC-2 Rhode Island State One and Two Family Dwellings, adopting the 2021 IRC, effective December 1, 2025. Two values had to be changed as a result. Winter design temperature corrected from 9 to 0 F. The 9 F figure came from the 2004 regulation. The current Table R301.2(1) gives "0 degrees F in Prov. County, 5 degrees All Other," so 0 F is the Providence County value and the more demanding of the two; outside Providence County the adopted figure is 5 F. Wind speed corrected from 110 to 125 mph because 110 mph is below the adopted basic wind speed of every single Rhode Island municipality. Section 2.4 of the regulation tabulates basic wind speed V for all four risk categories town by town, taken from IBC Figures 1609.3(1) through (4). At Risk Category II the values run from 121 mph at Jamestown to 137 mph at Westerly, and 125 mph is the adopted value at Providence and Pawtucket, with Cranston and Warwick at 126 and 127. The table also flags wind-borne debris regions with # for speeds above 130 mph within a mile of the mean high coastal water line and * for areas at 140 mph or greater, which catches most of the Narragansett Bay and south shore towns; a coastal project cannot use this row. Ground snow load. Rhode Island is unusual in filling this in itself, and the min and max now come from Section 2.4, which gives a ground snow load and a flat roof snow load for each of the 39 municipalities. Ground snow load runs from 25 psf at New Shoreham on Block Island to 40 psf in the northwest tier: Burrillville, Cumberland, Foster, Glocester, Lincoln, North Smithfield, Smithfield and Woonsocket. 35 psf covers Coventry, Exeter, Hopkinton, Johnston, North Providence, Pawtucket, Richmond, Scituate and West Greenwich; the remaining towns including Providence are 30 psf. Do not confuse the two columns of that table: the flat roof snow load is 30 psf everywhere except New Shoreham at 25, and it is a different quantity from the ground snow load. There is a genuine conflict inside the regulation itself and both halves are recorded here. Section 2.3 contains two consecutive amendments to R301.2. The first says "Delete IRC Table R301.2 and Figures R301.2(1) through R301.2(4) and substitute the Table in Section 2.4 of this Part," which is the per-municipality table described above. The second says "Delete and substitute the following" and then prints a single statewide Table R301.2(1) reading 30 psf ground snow load, severe weathering, 40 inch frost line depth, moderate to heavy termite, slight to moderate decay, and seismic design criteria "None." The min and max columns here follow the Section 2.4 municipal table, because it is the more specific provision, it is the table the first amendment expressly substitutes, and it is the only one of the two that can be applied to New Shoreham without contradicting itself. The statewide 30 psf of the second table is retained in ground_snow_load_psf, where it is consistent with both provisions for most of the state and is the Providence value. Frost line depth 40 inches is confirmed by both provisions: Table R301.2(1) states 40 inches and Section 2.4 lists 3 feet 4 inches for every municipality except New Shoreham, which is 2 feet 6 inches. Seismic design category B is retained from the USGS ASCE 7-16 design maps read at Site Class D and Risk Category II at Providence, Warwick and Newport, but note the direct conflict: Rhode Island's own adopted table enters "None" in the seismic column for buildings within the scope of this code. Both are recorded; B is kept because it is the physically meaningful value and because the state entry is a scoping decision rather than a hazard statement. Termite moderate to heavy and severe weathering are confirmed. Confirm your own lot with the local building official.