Kentucky Ground Snow Load: What the Adopted Code Carries

Kentucky adopts the national building code without a ground snow load amendment of its own, so the governing figure for a given address is the one the code's own table carries, and the body that applies it is Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, Division of Building Code Enforcement, or a local jurisdiction certified to enforce the code. 17 states are in the same position, which makes it the second commonest arrangement in the country. Kentucky publishes ground snow loads through Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, Division of Building Code Enforcement, or a local jurisdiction certified to enforce the code, and the jurisdictions reached for this had put none into a public document at the time they were read.

Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, Division of Building Code Enforcement, or a local jurisdiction certified to enforce the code: the department writes one mandatory code for the whole state. In its own words: “KRS 198B.040(7) and 198B.050 require the department to promulgate a mandatory uniform state building code that establishes standards for the construction of all buildings in the state.”

Kentucky carries one figure across the state, which is the rarest arrangement in the country.

Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction adopts Kentucky Residential Code, 815 KAR 7:125 (2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition, August 2024, based on the 2015 International Residential Code; effective 12-3-2024). Kentucky adopted it as written. The adopting rule reads: “Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, the 2015 International Residential Code for One (1) and Two (2) Family Dwellings (IRC) shall be the mandatory state residential building code for all single-family dwellings, two (2) family dwellings, and townhouses constructed in Kentucky, except that the Kentucky amendments in the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code shall supersede any conflicting provision in the 2015 IRC.”

A ground snow load is a weight per unit area and not a depth, and the two are joined only by the density of the snow on the day, which is why the published documents give the load and leave the depth out. Wet spring snow and dry January snow of the same depth are different weights on the same roof. Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, Division of Building Code Enforcement, or a local jurisdiction certified to enforce the code works in loads for that reason, and so does every figure set out below.

The code's figure is applied to a given address by Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, Division of Building Code Enforcement, or a local jurisdiction certified to enforce the code. The document behind it is Codes Currently Adopted by Kentucky, published by Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, read on September 23, 2026. It establishes the point this way: “2018 Kentucky Residential Code (Based on the 2015 International Residential Code)”

14 of 50: Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin. The other 36 split into 17 that adopt the national code without a snow amendment and 19 that leave every figure to a county or city building department. That is the single most useful fact about this subject and no one state's own website carries it.