The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials of Ontario, Calif., and the International Code Council of Falls Church, Va., Oct. 3 inked a “Memorandum of Understanding,” the purpose of which is to describe the organizations’ intentions regarding a joint venture relating to the development of future plumbing and mechanical codes.

As reported last month, IAPMO and ICC executives have been in informal discussions since March exploring ways in which IAPMO’s Uniform Plumbing Code and Uniform Mechanical Code and ICC’s International Plumbing Code and International Mechanical Code could be boiled down into a single, consolidated set of regulations for plumbing contractors across the country.

The MOU brings a bit more formality to the discussions in that it says the two parties, “intend to explore a joint venture that would allow them to work cooperatively to develop successor codes to the Uniform and International Plumbing and Mechanical Codes.”

“That was signed at our conference in Detroit last week,” said ICC spokesman Steve Daggers. “Basically it means that the door’s open for IAPMO and ICC to look at developing a joint plumbing and a joint mechanical code.”

Daggers said the MOU means that the boards of both organizations have agreed that exploring the possibility of bringing together the two codes is a direction they want to go.

“When does tech staff start sitting down with each other? When do they decide what to call the code and what does and doesn’t go in it? They’re nowhere near that level yet,” Daggers said. “We’re just starting down that road. This just puts it down on paper that both sides agree there’s an opportunity to pursue one joint code. Now the work is going to have to begin.”