Two rule changes landed this month that matter if you are building or wiring a home anywhere in our service area, one already in effect and one still moving through the process. The state adopted a new electrical code that took effect September 1, and the state's environmental agency is closing in on a rewrite of the septic rules, which is what a lot of our county lots run on.
Texas adopted the 2026 electrical code
The Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation voted unanimously on July 28 to adopt the 2026 National Electrical Code as the statewide standard, effective September 1, 2026. Any electrical permit applied for on or after that date has to meet the new code, whether the job is in Houston, unincorporated Harris County, Montgomery County or anywhere else in the state.
The change most homeowners will notice: new one- and two-family homes now need a dedicated 240-volt, 50-amp outlet in the garage or parking area for EV charging, wired in from the start instead of added later as a retrofit. If a shop or a detached garage with a charger is part of the plan, that circuit belongs on the electrical drawings now, not as a change order after drywall.
Texas kept one amendment from the prior code: outlets that power outdoor HVAC equipment at a house are still exempt from the GFCI requirement the base national code calls for. That specific piece did not change here even though the rest of the code did.
TCEQ is rewriting the septic rules next
A lot of our service area, New Caney, Splendora, Huffman, Dayton, Cleveland and the unincorporated stretches of Montgomery and Liberty County, sits outside any MUD or city sewer line, which means septic. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is in the middle of the biggest rewrite of the septic rules, Chapter 285 of the state administrative code, in more than a decade.
The project traces back to House Bill 4087, passed by the legislature in 2023, which directed TCEQ to modernize how septic systems, officially on-site sewage facilities, get permitted. TCEQ held seven stakeholder meetings between December 2023 and March 2024 to work out what should change, and staff carried recommendations to the commissioners at an agenda meeting anticipated for late September 2025. A public comment period, expected to run 60 days, comes next before anything is finalized.
None of that is locked in yet, so we are not going to guess at specifics before TCEQ publishes the actual proposed language. What we can tell you: if you are planning a septic system on a lot in our area over the next year, build some flexibility into the timeline. Rules that are mid-rewrite tend to slow county-level permitting while everyone waits on the final version.
What this means for your build
Neither change should hold up plans to build this fall. The electrical code update is mostly good news if you want EV charging built in from day one instead of retrofitted later. The septic rewrite is not finished, so there is nothing to react to yet beyond knowing it is coming. What the two have in common is timing: a plan or a permit application filed on old assumptions can run into a rule that changed underneath it, and that is exactly the kind of thing we track so you do not have to.
If you are pricing a build with EV charging, a shop or acreage on septic, run the cost estimator for a real range, or send us your lot and your plans and we will tell you which rules actually apply to it.
Sources: Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, rulemaking notice on adoption of the 2026 National Electrical Code, effective 9/1/2026 (tdlr.texas.gov); IEC Fort Worth Chapter, "Texas Adopts the 2026 NEC Effective September 1, 2026" (iecfwtc.org); Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, on-site sewage facility staff-initiated rulemaking project 2024-009-285-CE implementing House Bill 4087 (88th Legislature, 2023), stakeholder meetings 12/7/2023-3/6/2024, staff recommendations to commissioners anticipated 9/25/2025 (tceq.texas.gov).