West Virginia

Statewide summary — confirm with your building department before designing

No value on this row was changed by this audit. Seismic design category A is confirmed: the USGS ASCE 7-16 design maps service, at Site Class D and Risk Category II under the IRC single parameter method, returns short period design accelerations of 0.165 g at Charleston, 0.163 g at Huntington, 0.129 g at Martinsburg and 0.099 g at Morgantown, all inside category A. Note that Charleston and Huntington clear the A to B threshold by only a small margin, so a site specific reading at an unfavourable site class could land in B. Termite risk of moderate corresponds to the IRC moderate to heavy band, which is the standard reading for West Virginia and matches what neighbouring Virginia jurisdictions adopt. The remaining values could not be checked against any adopted West Virginia table and are unverified. Wind speed of 105 mph sits between the ASCE 7-16 contours and is reported rather than adjusted, because the project has not settled whether to round up to the next contour. Frost depth of 30 inches is plausible for the state but was not confirmed against an adopted figure. Ground snow load of 20 psf describes the Ohio valley population centres and badly understates the Allegheny highlands, where the ski country around Davis, Canaan Valley and Snowshoe carries several times that; anyone building at elevation must take the number from the county. Winter design temperature derives from ASHRAE data that no West Virginia jurisdiction was found to have adopted into its own table, so it remains unestablished. IRC Table R301.2 is filled in by the local jurisdiction and the number that governs your lot is the one your building official has adopted. Source: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/ws/building-codes/ SNOW LOAD AUDIT, 2026. snow_load_min_psf and snow_load_max_psf are left null, and no value on this row was changed by this pass. West Virginia publishes no ground snow load. The State Fire Commission's State Building Code, 87 CSR 4, filed 5 May 2022 and effective 1 August 2022, adopts the model codes by reference in section 87-4-4.1 and contains no snow table, no snow map and no county list. Section 87-4-7.3 says why in its own words: "Throughout the national codes, adopted in subsection 4.1 of this rule, there are discretionary provisions or amendments which require further action by the adopting local jurisdiction in order to adapt these codes to various local conditions. The appendices are not a part of the code and must also be adopted by the local jurisdiction to be enforceable. It is therefore the intent of this rule to further authorize each local jurisdiction to further complete, by order or ordinance, those respective areas which are indicated to be completed by the adopting 'jurisdiction'." IRC Table R301.2 is precisely one of those areas. The delegation goes further than that. Adoption itself is optional. Section 87-4-7.1 refers throughout to "each local jurisdiction adopting the State Building Code," section 87-4-7.2 makes the adopting jurisdiction responsible for enforcement under W. Va. Code 7-1-3n and 8-12-13, and W. Va. Code section 15A-11-5(d) places enforcement of the State Building Code on the respective local jurisdiction. A great many West Virginia counties have never adopted it and have no building inspection at all. Across much of the state there is consequently no enforced snow load of any kind, and "the West Virginia value" is a fiction. Where a jurisdiction has adopted, the governing number is the one that jurisdiction wrote into its own Table R301.2 by order or ordinance. The 20 psf in ground_snow_load_psf is not drawn from any West Virginia government document. It describes the Ohio valley population centres and badly understates the Allegheny highlands; the ski country around Davis, Canaan Valley and Snowshoe carries several times that. Anyone building at elevation must take the number from the adopting jurisdiction. One thing outside the four values audited, flagged here because it affects how the rest of the row should be read: 87 CSR 4 sections 87-4-4.1.a and 87-4-4.1.h adopt the 2018 International Building Code and the 2018 International Residential Code, together with the 2015 IECC for residential buildings and the 2020 NEC. The ibc_edition and irc_edition columns on this row record 2021, which does not match the current rule. Those columns should be corrected separately. The rule carries a sunset of 1 August 2027.