Which endlessly pisses me off. One new construction, ice damming is an issue caused by an incompetently designed, and constructed roof system. Properly done, a structure will never have an ice dam, even if every other house in the 'hood is sporting giant icicles, and the owner has pots and pans all over the inside, catching the drips. The code then requires the unnecessary expense of ice shield to provide a band-aid for those builders that are too stupid to do it right, and the rest of us end up being penalized. I recently skipped it on my own new house, while the roofers howled about all the horrors heading my way. I just laughed and asked if they had a clue as to why ice dams form? Not only did I detail everything properly with regard to insulation and ventilation, I spray foamed hundreds of feet of potential air leaks in the "Lid" or back side of the ceiling sheetrock.
Codes aren't there because of people who do things right. Its to set a minimum baseline so the next person to buy a house doesn't inherit a huge problem or die in a fire because the previous owner knew more than the codes. How much extra $$ is it really to install the ice dam protection? Not a big deal.
In my case, as a small builder, it was a few thousand per year in needless waste, on that non-issue alone. Your though process on this issue is part of the problem. All the "no big deals" add up quickly, and make homes needlessly unaffordable. My market area went from no significant code enforcement, to full IRC requirements, in 2006. At that point, the average new home builder saw a cost increase of $8-10K per unit. Since then the additional changes, and exponentially increasing costs of permits and inspections bumped that up by another $5-6K.
You want to show me how these homes are safer, more durable, or more valuable since all the BS started, and a modest new home costs $15K more to build? Chances are that the average homeowner wouldn't have a clue how to answer that. The real answer is that there are a few, fairly low cost structural, and mechanical changes that add a bit to safety, a few hundred bucks in value at best.
The rest of it is nothing but games. Material manufacturers, trade organizations and bureaucrats piling on the BS. Everybody with skin in the game looks at THEIR product, or idea, as no big deal. The problem is that all this stuff costs money, and it all adds up. A competent inspector can easily tell if a roof system is properly detailed and is unlikely to suffer from ice damming. Spending hundreds of dollars per house to insure that a new house (with a defective roof) won't let water penetrate into the structure is only necessary when the builder and inspector fail to do their jobs. When it comes to WHY these products are mandatory, all you need to do is follow the money trail.
This BTW, is a bit snarky, and misguided statement......
die in a fire because the previous owner knew more than the codes.I have discussed fire investigations with inspectors and firemen on numerous occasions, and have yet to hear a professional ever express such a thought. I go way above and beyond in situations where the codes are requiring a bear minimum level of acceptable performance from structural to mechanical items, but I have no issue with working with a competent inspector who knows that some of it is pure BS and can be overlooked, since it's just another wallet draining fraud. This BTW, extend to the state level in my state, where they, like the majority, no longer just rubber stamp the latest editions of the IRC, but remove the really fraudulent parts, like fire sprinklers in single family homes, and then approve a modified version.
Finally, I have been saying it here for years. This..........
Its to set a minimum baseline so the next person to buy a house doesn't inherit a huge problem is a fantasy that can bite you in the ass. There is no reason to believe that a home build in a strict code enforcement area is going to be free of huge issues. I have seen absolute crap that has been inspected and approved from the day the hole was dug until final inspection.