California Building Code Chapter 7A (historical name)

If you are looking for “Chapter 7A vents” in 2026, the live rule is CWUIC, Title 24 Part 7. The California Building Standards Commission deleted Chapter 7A from the California Building Code and relocated the requirements. The 2025 CBC Chapter 7A is a user note pointing at Section 101.4.8. It is not the materials chapter.

This page is the historical name. The official Chapter 7A text linked here is the 2022 CBC chapter (ICC). Do not treat that 2022 book, this alias, and CWUIC as one document.

Why it matters

Embers do not care what the chapter is called. Search engines and old drawings do. Specifiers, listing handbooks, and plan notes still say “7A.” If this site pointed you at CWUIC and called it Chapter 7A, you would cite the wrong book.

The 2 September 2025 OSFM WUI handbook still names Chapter 7A in its general note, and then says the 2025 CWUIC replaces it on 1 January 2026. Read the live code for the lot.

What Chapter 7A was

Through the 2022 Title 24 cycle, California Building Code Chapter 7A, Materials and Construction Methods for Exterior Wildfire Exposure, was the WUI materials chapter in Part 2. The California Residential Code carried a parallel Section R337. SFM test methods 12-7A-1 through 12-7A-4 still live in the California Referenced Standards Code. Those method numbers did not move just because the chapter number did.

The last full Chapter 7A is the 2022 CBC chapter linked as this page’s official source. Use it to understand an older drawing. Use CWUIC Chapter 5 to spec a 2026 job.

The 2025 move

BSC’s 2025 Title 24 summary (Chapter 7A page):

1. CBC Chapter 7A deleted. Requirements relocated to CWUIC, Part 7. A user note points to CBC 101.4.8 for applicability in the WUI or a Fire Hazard Severity Zone.
2. CRC R337 repealed. Replaced with a note directing the user to CWUIC.
3. California Fire Code Chapter 49 deleted. WUI fire-code language moved into CWUIC. CFC 102.13 now points at Part 7.
4. Material rules land in CWUIC Chapter 5. BSC states that all of the regulations from CBC Chapter 7A and CRC R337 were relocated there.

CWUIC is based on the 2024 IWUIC, then amended. That does not make Chapter 7A, CWUIC, and IWUIC the same book.

The paths in 2026

1. California mapped lot, new work. Open CWUIC. Spec Chapter 5. People will still say “7A.” Write CWUIC on the drawing.

2. California listing path. OSFM BML is voluntary for most WUI products. A handbook row is not a 2022 Chapter 7A reprint and not a permit. Search the live GOVmotus index. That URL is a search box, not a permalink.

3. Older permitted work. A 2022–2025 permit may still cite Chapter 7A. That is a dated adopted code. Do not “update” it to CWUIC section numbers on the same sheet without the official.

4. Oregon. R327, where adopted, is the Oregon path. R327 versus CWUIC.

What people mix up

• Citing CWUIC as “Chapter 7A” in 2026. Wrong title, wrong part of Title 24.

• Pointing an official source at CWUIC on a Chapter 7A record, or the reverse, as if they were one book. This page’s official URL is the 2022 Chapter 7A. CWUIC’s official URL is Part 7.

• Using a 2022 Chapter 7A PDF as the 2026 code.

• Treating CRC R337 as still in force.

• Importing “Chapter 7A listed vents only” onto an Oregon R327 job.

• Treating an OSFM listing as Chapter 7A itself. A listing is a model record. The code is the adopted book.

How to check

If the permit is 2026 California WUI work, open CWUIC, not this chapter. If you are reading an older drawing that says 7A, open the 2022 chapter to see what that drawing meant, then ask the building official whether the live book now applies.

If you spec a listed model, match the listing ID on GOVmotus and put it on the drawings. How to read a listing.

Limits

This page does not reprint Chapter 7A. It does not decide which cycle your permit is under. It does not make CWUIC and Chapter 7A interchangeable. FireApproved is not the AHJ.

Related records

Live code: CWUIC. Model book: IWUIC. Listing program: OSFM BML. Crosswalk: R327 versus CWUIC.

Sources

1. 2022 CBC Chapter 7A, Materials and Construction Methods for Exterior Wildfire Exposure (ICC / California; last full Chapter 7A)
2. 2025 Title 24 California Code Changes, Chapters 5, 7, 7A and 8 (California Building Standards Commission; Chapter 7A deleted)
3. 2025 Title 24 California Code Changes (BSC; CRC R337 repealed, CFC Chapter 49 deleted, CWUIC created)
4. 2025 California Wildland-Urban Interface Code (ICC / California; live Part 7)
5. OSFM Building Materials Listing and WUI handbook (CAL FIRE OSFM)
6. 2023 ORSC Section R327 amendment (Oregon Building Codes Division)