His comment may have pointed out electrical outlets - which yes is negligible. But it's not the only thing totally out of control. I'm in CA so my requirements are nuts. My wife and I are building a home ourselves. Ever look into category D (earthquake zone) requirements for footer sizes? Look at the indoor sprinkler requirements? What about when you are on a well? Look at water heater requirements - solar requirements (which are fine for me since not connecting to PG&E anyway) If you ever write your own plans for a house, trust me, there are far more insane things you don't know about that exist that definitely raise the price of the house and certainly the complexity of building one.
I am probably looking at $2000 at least just for Simpson strong tie products.
Half of my family is in fire service and we live in an old city - houses don’t burn down anymore for a variety of reasons and haven’t since the 80s. The response to any critique of building code generally amounts to “better than dying in a fire”- it’s intellectually lazy.
For a remodel project I did a few years ago, easily 30% of the costs were driven by compliance requirements that have no meaningful impact on safety. Ended up spending something like $5k in unnecessary plumbing because per code, I cant be trusted to not scald myself in the bath! New lines required copper and flux, because the city code is driven by the plumbers union, etc.
