International Residential Code 2018 - Loose Leaf - 3 Ring Binder
This book is offered in a loose leaf format.
You can purchase it new, or professionally Highlighted & Tabbed for your exam.
The scope of the International Building Code® (IBC®) includes all buildings except detached one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses up to three stories.
* Accessory storage spaces of any size are now permitted to be classified as part of the occupancy to which they are accessory.
* New code sections have been introduced addressing medical gas systems and higher education laboratories.
* Use of fire walls to create separate buildings is now limited to only the determination of permissible types of construction based on allowable building area and height.
* Where an elevator hoistway door opens into a fire-resistance-rated corridor, the opening must be protected in a manner to address smoke intrusion into the hoistway.
* The occupant load factor for business uses has been revised to one occupant per 150 square feet.
* Live loads on decks and balconies increase the deck live load to one and one-half times the live load of the area served.
* The minimum lateral load that fire walls are required to resist is five pounds per square foot.
* Wind speed maps updated, including maps for the state of Hawaii. Terminology describing wind speeds has changed again with ultimate design wind speeds now called basic design wind speeds.
* Site soil coefficients now correspond to the newest generation of ground motion attenuation equations (seismic values).
* Five-foot tall wood trusses requiring permanent bracing must have a periodic special inspection to verify that the required bracing has been installed.
* New alternative fastener schedule for construction of mechanically laminated decking is added giving equivalent power-driven fasteners for the 20-penny nail.
* Solid sawn lumber header and girder spans for the exterior bearing walls reduce span lengths to allow #2 Southern Pine design values.
You can purchase it new or professionally Highlighted & Tabbed for your exam.
Why Most Highlighted & Tabbed Books Fall Short?
Many contractor exam prep schools sell highlighted and tabbed books. Only one created the system—and perfected it through real-world use. That system was created by Rob Estell, a licensed contractor, President, and Founder.
Open-book contractor exams don’t test how much you know. They test how quickly you can locate the correct answer inside dense reference manuals. Rob learned this firsthand by taking exams himself and later confirmed it through years of feedback from thousands of exam candidates.
While other schools offer highlighted and tabbed books, most:
- Use minimal or generic highlights
- Rely heavily on the existing Table of Contents and Index
- Miss exam-tested material that isn’t clearly referenced
- Provide tabs that point to broad sections, not precise answers
The result? Students still waste time searching.
Rob decided that “good enough” wasn’t good enough.
Why The Exam Pros ORIGINAL, detailed-driven highlighted and tabbed books? Thousands of contractors have passed their exams using Rob Estell’s highlighted and tabbed books because they solve the real problem:
- Knowing the answer
- But not being able to find it fast enough
Built from Contractor Experience & Student Feedback
Rob Estell’s system is built using:
- His own experience as a licensed contractor
- Personal exam feedback from real testing environments
- Thousands of data points from exam students nationwide
A Proven, Detail-Oriented Navigation System
Each book follows Rob’s proven 3-step method:
- Table of Contents – Identify the general section
- Precision Tabs – Jump directly to the exact topic
- Strategic, Detailed Highlights – Land on the answer instantly
Our highlights are thorough and detail-oriented, guiding your eye exactly where exam answers are located—not just coloring pages for appearance.
- Every highlight is intentional.
- Every tab exists because the book failed to guide the reader quickly enough.
- If a topic cannot be found efficiently through the Table of Contents or Index, it gets a custom tab and targeted highlight.
These books are designed to help you outperform the clock, not just prepare!
