On June 16, the Federal Register published a proposed rule by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to revise the Roof Truss Test Procedures in the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards (MHCSS). Click here to view the proposed rule.

This proposed rule is the outcome of recommendations made by the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) in 2003 and a HUD proposed rule published in the Federal Register on December 1, 2004. After considering comments from the public and the MHCC on its 2004 proposed rule, HUD sent the Truss Test Procedures back to the MHCC for further consideration. The MHCC Truss Test Task Force undertook an extensive reevaluation of its 2003 recommendations and the full MHCC held two teleconferences to review and vote on new truss testing procedures.

This current proposal by HUD includes a majority of what the MHCC recommended, however it does not include the MHCC’s recommendations on uplift testing. The new proposed uplift testing procedure is based on test results from a study of manufactured housing roof truss test procedures conducted by the National Association of Homebuilders Research Center (NAHB-RC) and the procedures used by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) consensus process.

MHI will be submitting comments on the proposed rule which are due on August 16, 2010.

MHI members with questions can contact Lois Starkey at lstarkey@mfghome.org.