1606A Dead Loads — 2025 California Building Code

1606 A .1 General. Buildings, structures, and parts thereof shall be designed to resist the effects of dead loads.

16A-10 2025 CALIFORNIA BUILDING CODE

STRUCTURAL DESIGN

1606 A .2 Weights of materials of construction. For purposes of design, the actual weights of materials of construction shall be used. In the absence of definite information, values used shall be subject to the approval of the building official.

1606 A .3 Weight of fixed service equipment. In determining dead loads for purposes of design, the weight of fixed service equipment, including the maximum weight of the contents of fixed service equipment, shall be included. The components of fixed service equipment that are variable, such as liquid contents and movable trays, shall not be used to counteract forces causing overturning, sliding, and uplift conditions in accordance with Section 1.3.6 of ASCE 7.

Exceptions:

1. Where force effects are the result of the presence of the variable components, the components are permitted to be used to counter those load effects. In such cases, the structure shall be designed for force effects with the variable components present and with them absent.
2. For the calculation of seismic force effects, the components of fixed service equipment that are variable, such as liquid contents and movable trays, need not exceed those expected during normal operation.

1606 A .4 Photovoltaic panel systems. The weight of photovoltaic panel systems, their support system, and ballast shall be considered as dead load.

1606 A .5 Vegetative and landscaped roofs. The weight of all landscaping and hardscaping materials for vegetative and landscaped roofs shall be considered as dead load. The weight shall be computed considering both fully saturated soil and drainage layer materials and fully dry soil and drainage layer materials to determine the most severe load effects on the structure.

The design dead load shall provide for the weight of at least one additional roof covering in addition to other applicable loadings if the new roof covering is permitted to be applied over the original roofing without its removal, in accordance with Section 1512.