This article was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. As lawmakers scramble to turbocharge post-fire recovery efforts in Los Angeles and to tackle a housing shortage ...

For the past 25 years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has helped develop building codes, the construction standards that help houses survive hurricanes, wildfires and earthquakes. Now, ...

Building codes have existed for thousands of years. In the Code of Hammurabi, written between 1755 B.C. and 1750 B.C., item 229 states that “if a builder builds a house for someone and does not ...

Illegal Basement Bedrooms Without Proper Egress The most common code violation inspectors discover during basement inspections involves the creation of illegal bedrooms without proper emergency escape ...