Frost Line Depth in Hawaii

The number comes from the building department for the town, city or county where the work is, and that is who a contractor calls before pouring a footing. State Building Code Council, Hawaii Department of Accounting and General Services adopts the code that hands the figure over; the sentence is quoted below.

It is a count of how much cold a winter delivered: degree days accumulated below 32 degrees over one freezing season. It is the climate quantity the frost provisions of the model building codes are written on, which is why it is the one worth knowing. It measures the winter, not the ground: the depth for a footing comes from the code.

No station in Hawaii accumulates a freezing season in the daily record behind these pages, and the state's own codes do not use the word frost anywhere. State Building Code Council, Hawaii Department of Accounting and General Services hands the question to the counties, and a county that has written a figure is the one to ask.

The model residential code most states adopt leaves the frost line depth blank on purpose and marks it as a local determination, because frost depth turns on soil and drainage as much as on air temperature and both change over a few miles. 11 states fill the cell in anyway. The rest name the official who does, which is what the record below carries for Hawaii.

Hawaii State Residential Code. It is based on the 2018 International Residential Code. The current edition took effect November 17, 2020. Read on September 22, 2026 and linked below.