DonTx

As far as I can tell, licensing in Texas hasn't done away with the jackasses with a ladder and a deck of cards. They're a lot of 'em here and from what I understand, Texas has one of the most stringent licensing laws in the States. I do believe licensing is a good thing, but it should be something that you can not obtain by taking a few classes and flopping down a couple hundred dollars. Currently it only requires 188 hours of classroom study to be elgible to take the state test for your Professional Real Estate License. That number goes up to 320 in June. However, as I understand it, hairdressers and bar tenders are required to have a lot more hours to obtain their license here. I'm still taking some of these new "Professional" guys/gals out in the field who have no concept of what an inspection should consist of or how to write a report. It's kinda scary to think of the ones who pass the test and hang a shingle out. Licensing should mean something more than an easily obtained license. Donald

Brian, The ICC will probably be the code of choice for most cities, counties and state unless you live on the left coast. They seem to have allowed the NFPA 5000 to be adopted as their code of choice. Passing the IRC Building Code Test isn't a big deal if you're up on your basic structural systems. I just took the Plumbing and Mechanical yesterday and they were tougher than what I'd imagined.