City of Alpharetta, Georgia - Community Development Department, Building Division

City of Alpharetta, Georgia

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STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Georgia's residential construction standard is the Georgia State Minimum Standard One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code: the 2024 International Residential Code (IRC) with Georgia Amendments, adopted by the Board of Community Affairs and effective January 1, 2026. O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) provides that on and after July 1, 2004 the codes enumerated in O.C.G.A. 8-2-20(9)(A)(i)(I)-(VIII) and (9)(B)(i)(I)-(VIII) -- which include the residential one- and two-family dwelling code -- "shall have state-wide application and shall not require adoption by a municipality or county." The Georgia Department of Community Affairs states the same effect for the mandatory code set: "any structure built in Georgia must comply with these codes, whether or not the local government chooses to locally enforce these codes." A municipality or county may adopt a local amendment only where it is MORE stringent than the state minimum and is justified by local climatic, geologic, topographic or public safety factors, and only after submitting the proposed amendment to DCA and filing the adopted amendment with the department. Alpharetta therefore builds to the 2024 IRC with Georgia Amendments; the city sets permit administration, fees and inspections rather than roofing code content.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET -- applies in Alpharetta as everywhere else in Georgia. The Georgia State Amendments packet to the 2024 IRC contains no amendment to IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies) at all, so the base, unamended IRC drip-edge provision at Section R905.2.8.5 governs asphalt-shingle roofs in Georgia as adopted. Georgia has not deleted or relaxed that provision the way some states have. The literal installation-extent text of R905.2.8.5 is behind the ICC paywall and is not restated here. The absence of any Georgia amendment to IRC Chapter 9 was established by reading the DCA amendment packet page-by-page and cross-checking Chapter 9 against the UpCodes Georgia 2024 IRC viewer.

Not required — The Georgia State Amendments to the 2024 IRC (a full section-by-section amendment list) contains no entry touching IRC Chapter 9, and Alpharetta's own adopted-code record shows no known local roofing amendment either - the city's role is permit administration, fees and inspections rather than code content. No impact-resistant, Class 4, or UL 2218 roof-covering requirement appears in the state amendment instrument, so none applies in Alpharetta beyond whatever the unamended base 2024 IRC itself requires.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET -- applies in Alpharetta as everywhere else in Georgia. IRC Section R908 (Reroofing), which carries the roof-recover restrictions, is not amended by the Georgia State Amendments packet to the 2024 IRC, so the base IRC reroofing limits apply as adopted: a roof recover (overlay) is barred where the existing roof already has two or more applications of any type of roof covering, where the existing roof covering is water-soaked or has deteriorated to the point that it is not an adequate base, and over existing wood shake, slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile -- in which cases the existing covering must be removed down to the deck. The net effect is a two-layer ceiling, with one overlay permitted over one sound existing layer. The section body itself is behind the ICC paywall and is not restated verbatim here; the sourced finding is the absence of any Georgia amendment to Chapter 9 / R908, established by reading the DCA amendment packet page-by-page and cross-checking the UpCodes Georgia 2024 IRC viewer.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET -- applies in Alpharetta as everywhere else in Georgia. IRC Section R905.2.1 (Sheathing requirements) is not amended by the Georgia State Amendments packet, which contains no Chapter 9 amendments; the UpCodes rendering of the Georgia 2024 IRC gives the operative sentence as "Asphalt shingles shall be fastened to wood structural panels or solid lumber sheathing." Fastener provisions at R905.2.5 are likewise unamended base IRC text.

7.75% combined in Alpharetta. Georgia's Department of Revenue Sales and Use Tax Rate Chart lists jurisdiction code 060, "Fulton*" (Fulton County outside the City of Atlanta, Hapeville, College Park and East Point), at 7.75%, which includes the 4% Georgia state rate plus Fulton County, MARTA, and other local components. This rate applies uniformly across Fulton County including Alpharetta, and is lower than the 8.9% rate that applies inside the City of Atlanta. This is the rate a roofing contractor pays on materials purchased in Alpharetta.