Welcome to the sixth edition of TDLR On the Level, TDLR’s newsletter for our building trades community.

A new year always brings new challenges and opportunities, and 2022 will be no different: I will be retiring from TDLR as of January 31, 2022. It has been my honor to serve this agency and our licensees for nearly 22 years, first as a deputy executive director and these past five years as your executive director.

Thank you for the feedback and insight you have provided to me over the years. Your perspective on how TDLR can best serve our licensees has helped me do my job, and made us a better agency. I sincerely hope you will continue reaching out to my successor, Mike Arismendez, who's presently our Deputy Executive Director. I know that he will bring great energy and focus to this position. You will be in good hands.

I wish each of you a safe and happy holiday season, and a successful new year in 2022.

Yours in Service,

Brian E. Francis, Executive Director

We've made some changes to our program web pages that you may have noticed: all TDLR program statutes and rules now link to their official sources instead of being published directly on the TDLR website. (If your program hasn't made the transition yet, that should happen soon.) 

Statutes will link to the Texas Legislature online website, while rules will link to the Texas Administrative Code. This means that links to the laws and rules from the program web pages will update in real time.

In the past, at the end of each legislative session or rule adoption, TDLR staff would perform the time-consuming ritual of updating the rule and statute library, and then publishing the updates to the program web pages. Linking to the official sites instead of replicating them on the TDLR website will allow staff to devote limited resources to other projects.  

During two Texas disaster declarations (for Hurricane Harvey and the 2021 winter storm), TDLR allowed companies and individuals to perform mold remediation without a TDLR-issued license. 

Both disaster declarations were discontinued as of July 12, 2021, and now any company or individual performing mold remediation in Texas is required to have a TDLR-issued mold assessor or mold remediator license for all mold projects unless an exemption is met.

Please visit the Mold Program webpage for more information.

1. Is a Code Enforcement Officer who supervises Code Enforcement Officers in Training required to inform TDLR if they terminate their position as a Code Enforcement Officer Supervisor?

2. Is a licensed Mold Remediation Contractor (MRC) exempt from all the mold rules if they're hired for a project where the mold contamination affects a total surface area of less than 25 contiguous square feet of visible mold?

3. What is now required in the 2020 NEC in 230.85 as of November 1, 2020?

4. What are the three main types of disability that TAS accommodates?

5. Texas Boiler Rule 65.206 (a) (1) requires the carbon monoxide detector and boiler(s) shall be interlocked to disable the burners. What methods of interlock are allowed to meet this requirement?

6. When are Carbon Monoxide Alarms (CO) required in new dwelling units?

7. Do elevators only run “up & down”?

8. When checking a refrigerant charge by the Subcooling method, Subcooling is equal to _________ temperature minus liquid line temperature.

a. suction line

b. compressor

c. condenser saturation

d. evaporator saturation

Did you know that the Texas Accessibility Standards (TAS) are intended to protect people with many types of disabilities, not just people who are mobility-impaired? Many types of disabilities including cognitive, hearing, vision, and self-care can make independent living difficult. 

TAS has jurisdiction over the built environment and deals primarily with ambulatory, visual, and hearing accommodations.

Visual and hearing accommodations in TAS include audible and visual signals, assistive listening systems, detectable warnings, and protruding objects. While there are many types of symbols denoting accessibility and disability awareness, the International Symbol of Accessibility is most commonly and universally known. Because of this, only a few of the standard symbols are acceptable within TAS. 

On Sept. 1, 2020, TDLR began enforcing Rule 65.206, which requires that a carbon monoxide detector be installed in all boiler rooms equipped with (new installation) equipment that can produce carbon monoxide (CO). 

During the past year, TDLR has approved some requests for variances in situations where boiler shutdown can result in a substantial financial loss to stakeholders. However, companies requesting a variance must take additional measures to ensure that protection from boiler emissions is maintained in boiler rooms before TDLR will approve a variance.

Conditions for granting a variance include:

• A 24-hour monitoring system installed in conjunction with the CO detector. The monitoring system shall alert owner/operator(s) of presence of Carbon Monoxide, allowing corrective action to avoid boiler shutdown.
• With the remote monitoring system installed, the CO detector may send an alarm to the owner/operator at 50 ppm and shall disable the boiler burners at 200 ppm.

To request a variance, complete TDLR form 010BLR and email it to boilers@tdlr.texas.gov. You can also make the request via the TDLR online permit portal.

Rob Troutt, the Texas Chief Boiler Inspector, was elected Chair of the Board of Trustees for the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors (NBBI) in May 2021. NBBI is a nonprofit organization whose members are the jurisdictional chief inspectors in the United States and Canada who regulate boilers and pressure vessels.

Certified IHB manufacturers can now place secure online orders for most decals and insignias using credit cards and eCheck (ACH). Online transactions are assessed a processing fee of $2.00 per order for electronic checks or 2.25 percent of the total order for credit card transactions.

Your order will be processed as soon as possible after we receive it. 

• If you order 10 labels or less, we will send your order via U.S. Postal Service regular mail unless you email a pre-paid shipping label to IHBTech@tdlr.texas.gov.
• If you order 11 or more labels, you must email a prepaid shipping label from a delivery service such as USPS, FedEx or UPS to IHBTech@tdlr.texas.gov.

Be sure to include the Manufacturer Name, IHM Certification Number, and the Trace Number from your receipt with the shipping label.

Manufacturers can still place orders via mail with a check or money order.

Questions about the online payment process can also be sent to IHBTech@tdlr.texas.gov.

A new state law that went into effect on Sept. 1, 2021, explicitly prohibits municipalities from charging heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R) contractors a registration fee. H.B. 871 also explicitly states that municipalities are not prohibited from charging fees for building permits.

Before the statewide HVAC/R contractors license, each municipality issued its own license. After the statewide license went into effect, municipalities began charging contractors a registration fee to do business within the city limits, which replaced the cities’ revenue from the former license fee. In metropolitan areas, HVAC/R contractors report paying multiple municipal registration fees which can total thousands of dollars.

Here's the text of the new rule:

Sec. 1302.304.  MUNICIPAL FEES.  (a)  A municipality may not charge a registration fee to a person who holds a license issued under Subchapter F for:

(1)  work performed in the municipality; or

(2)  notice provided under Section 1302.262.

(b)  This section does not prohibit a municipality from charging a building permit fee.

Do you need a verification of your license? You can do that online! Find the link on the right-hand side of your profession's program webpage.

Reminder: You can renew online using a credit card instead of mailing in a paper form and a check whenever possible, as online renewals are automated and processed within a week of receipt.

Applicants for new licenses should check the TDLR website to see whether their license type allows for original applications to be submitted online. If so, they should apply online and submit documents electronically to help speed up the licensing process.

Please file a complaint with TDLR alleging unlicensed practice if you have evidence that a person or business with a revoked license is continuing to advertise or perform services that require a license in Texas.

HOW TO FILE A COMPLAINT- You can file a complaint online for most TDLR programs. You will be asked to choose whether you are filing a complaint against a licensed or an unlicensed person or business. If you are unsure about whether the person or business holds a TDLR license, use the unlicensed link.

Although TDLR accepts anonymous complaints, you must provide your name and contact information when you submit the complaint if you want to receive information about the status or progress of your complaint.

Please note that if your complaint does not allege a violation of the law or rules or does not include enough information for TDLR to investigate the allegations, TDLR will not open a complaint.

Read more about TDLR's complaint investigation and resolution process.