HOME DESIGN : A SPECIAL ISSUE OF ORANGE COUNTY LIFE : ROOFING REQUIREMENTS

All cities in Orange County have adopted the minimum required by the Uniform Building Code, a 900-page document from the International Conference of Building Officials that sets forth regulations to make buildings safe.

Amendments to the UBC spell out classifications for degrees of roof fire retardancy, rated on a measure of flame spread. Class A is most resistant to fire, such as concrete or clay tile and even wood shakes or shingles that have

been pressure-treated with a flame-retardant chemical. Class B includes asphalt shingles. Class C includes composition shingles or any materials of non-combustible construction, as tested according to the fire code.

Further amendments currently in the draft stage, if approved by individual cities, will become effective Jan. 1, 1990.

Here are the minimum fire retardancy requirements in the cities of Orange County:

City: Anaheim Requirements: Class C City: Brea Requirements: Class C City: Buena Park Requirements: New roofs must be at least Class C; if any repairs are made on more than 50%, entire roof must be replaced with fire-retardant materials. City: Costa Mesa Requirements: Class C City: Cypress Requirements: Class C City: Dana Point Requirements: Class B City: Fountain Valley Requirements: No current requirement that wooden shakes or shingles be treated with a fire retardant; codes to be amended later this year. City: Fullerton Requirements: Class C; no more than two layers of roofing materials unless an engineer can prove that the house can sustain the third layer. City: Garden Grove Requirements: Class C only on wood City: Huntington Beach Requirements: Nothing beyond UBC City: Irvine Requirements: Wooden roofs must be pressure-treated with a fire retardant. In cases of re-roofing, if more than 50% of the roof is to be replaced, entire roof must be pressure treated with Class A or Class B fire retardant City: Laguna Beach Requirements: Class C; Class B requirement in fire-hazard zones such as hillside and canyon areas City: La Habra Requirements: Class C City: La Palma Requirements: Class C; fiberglass, if used, must be Class A. There is also a color ordinance: white, light gray, green, yellow and blue are forbidden; tan, sand, and lighter earth tones are permitted. City: Los Alamitos Requirements: Nothing beyond UBC City: Mission Viejo Requirements: Roof coverings must be fire retardant except in types III (steel or iron, poured concrete), IV (heavy timber) and V (wood structure) buildings, where ordinary roof coverings may be used if a multi-family unit is no more than two stories in height, has no more than 3,000 feet of projected roof area and is a minimum of 10 feet from the extremity of the roof to the property lines on all sides except for street fronts. Class C roof coverings may be used on assembly areas, commercial structures and single-family houses if they are no more than two stories in height and have no more than 6,000 square feet of projected roof area. City: Newport Beach Requirements: Wood shingles must be Class C City: Orange Requirements: Class A roofing materials required east of Santiago Boulevard, (wildland areas); west of Santiago Boulevard, nothing beyond the UBC City: Placentia Requirements: Nothing beyond UBC City: San Clemente Requirements: Class B City: San Juan Capistrano Requirements: Class C; when re-roofing, fire-retardant treatment is required by city ordinance unless the re-roofing is less than 10% and hence not roofing but “patching” City: Santa Ana Requirements: All new construction must use Class C fire-retardant wooden shakes and shingles. Re-roofing of standing roofs made of wood shakes or shingles may be done with the same material as the original. City: Seal Beach Requirements: If re-roofing involves more than 50%, entire roof must be replaced with Class B construction. City: Stanton Requirements: Class A City: Tustin Requirements: Class C City: Villa Park Requirements: Nothing beyond UBC City: Westminster Requirements: Class A or B at the discretion of the builder or homeowner; non-combustible buildings of steel or concrete must have roofs of the same material City: Yorba Linda Requirements: Class C; outlying wildland areas require Class A or B (for example, areas adjacent to Chino Hills state park) City: Unincorporated areas Requirements: Class C Sources: Individual cities; county building code enforcement