City of Ames, Iowa - Inspections Division

City of Ames, Iowa

city

515 Clark Ave., Ames, IA 50010

Not required

Required

The Inspections Division accepts and processes building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permit applications through its online CSS/EnerGov self-service portal. The office can also be reached at [email protected] or (515) 239-5153, Monday-Friday 7:30 AM-4:30 PM.

THE CODIFIED LAW OF AMES IS THE 2015 SUITE, AND ONE DAY BEFORE ITS OWN ANNOUNCED CUTOVER THE CITY STILL CALLS THE 2024 EDITIONS PROPOSED. Ames Municipal Code Sec. 5.100 (TITLE & ADOPTION) adopts at subsection (4) the "International Building Code (IBC) 2015 Edition ... except for the deletion of Chapter 1 Scope and Administration" and at subsection (5) the "International Residential Code for One- and Two family Dwellings (IRC) 2015 Edition ... except for the deletion of Chapter 1 Scope and Administration; Part VII - Plumbing; Part VIII - Electrical; and with the addition of Appendix J - Existing Buildings," alongside the 2015 IEBC (subsection 8), 2015 IFC (9), 2020 NEC (10), 2021 IMC (11) and 2021 UPC (12). The Division II amendment sections recite the same editions by name: Sec. 5.200 amends "the provisions of the 2015 International Building Code" and Sec. 5.201 "the provisions of the 2015 International Residential Code." That text was read live on 2026-08-08 in a codification current through April 1, 2026, and the codification currency was re-checked on 2026-08-31 and still reads "Current through April 1, 2026." WHAT CHANGED SINCE THE LAST VERIFICATION IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT AN ANNOUNCED CUTOVER DATE SUGGESTS. This record previously reported that the Inspections Division "states it is implementing" the 2024 editions and that September 1, 2026 was the date from which permits would be filed under them. Read again on 2026-08-31, the day before that date, the Division's own page says "The Inspection Division is currently working through the code update process" and "The codes being proposed include" the 2024 International Building, Residential, Existing Building and Fire Codes, the 2023 National Electrical Code, and the 2024 International Mechanical Code and Uniform Plumbing Code. The same block describes a 5% permit fee increase as proposed, which is consistent with a package that has not yet been through council. The City's separate "Building Codes" page, which lists the city's "Current Codes," still shows only the 2015 suite and does not mention the 2024 editions anywhere. SO THE SEPTEMBER 1 DATE IS NOT ESTABLISHED AS A CHANGE OF LAW. What the City publishes is a transition term for a package not shown to be enacted: "Permits applied for prior to September 1st may be built under existing code standards or the 2024 standards." Two things follow for a roofer. First, a permit filed in Ames on or after September 1, 2026 is NOT automatically under the 2024 editions; that would take an adopting ordinance, and none is published on either department page or present in the codification. Second, an applicant may already elect the 2024 standards under the transition term, so a job in progress may lawfully be running on either suite and the 2015 suite is the default rather than the only option. WHAT WAS NOT ESTABLISHED: whether the City Council has since passed an adopting ordinance that the department pages have not caught up with. The agenda for the most recent posted meeting, the special meeting of August 28, 2026, carries no building code item, and the Granicus meeting archive is script-rendered and could not be searched for earlier ones. The City also states that it "is required to adopt the same plumbing, electrical, and mechanical codes as the State of Iowa" and that it "cannot be less restrictive than the State," so those three may move on a different schedule from the building and residential codes. Confirm the operative edition for a specific permit with the Inspections Division at 515-239-5153 or [email protected] before designing to it.

Required — Required under BOTH of the criteria sets Ames currently publishes, so this answer does not turn on the unsettled edition question. The codified set, Ames Municipal Code Sec. 5.201 amending IRC Table R301.2(1), states "Ice Shield Underlayment Required Yes"; the Inspections Division's "Local Design Criteria" table for the 2024 International Residential Code lists "Ice Shield Underlayment required: Yes" for the city. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No mid-roof inspection exists in Ames, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of inspector practice: there is no permit for a re-roof, so there is nothing for an inspection to attach to. Ames Municipal Code Sec. 5.104(16) exempts "Replacement of shingles or other roof covering" from any building permit, and Sec. 5.113(1) (BUILDING INSPECTIONS) opens by limiting inspections to permitted work: "Work for which a permit is required shall be subject to inspection by the Building Official and such construction or work shall remain accessible and exposed for inspection purposes until approved." I additionally read the whole of Sec. 5.113, which enumerates sixteen numbered provisions including the full required-inspection sequence - preliminary, footing and foundation, concrete slab/under-floor/groundwork, lowest floor elevation, framing and rough-in, lath and gypsum board, fire-resistant penetrations, energy efficiency, other, special, and final. NONE is a roofing, dry-in, ice-shield or mid-roof inspection. The single mention of a roof anywhere in the sequence is inside the framing and rough-in inspection at Sec. 5.113(7), which is a new-construction milestone rather than a re-roof stage: those inspections "shall be made after the roof deck, all framing, fireblocking and bracing are in place and all work which is to be concealed is in place." A roofer working a standard Ames re-roof should expect no city inspection of any kind.

Not required — Ames imposes no impact-resistance or hail-rating requirement on roof coverings. I read the city's entire local building-code text on codelibrary.amlegal.com - Ames Municipal Code Chapter 5, Division I (ADOPTION AND ADMINISTRATION, Sec. 5.100 through 5.118, including all fifteen numbered subsections of the Sec. 5.100 adoption provision) and Division II (AMENDMENTS TO ADOPTED CODES). Division II is where any local stiffening of a model-code roofing provision would have to appear, and it contains exactly two building-code sections: Sec. 5.200 (BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES), which amends the adopted IBC through sixteen numbered items, and Sec. 5.201 (ONE- AND TWO-FAMILY DWELLINGS), which amends the adopted IRC through twenty numbered items. I read both lists in full. The IRC amendments reach Table R301.2(1), R302.1, R302.13, R311.3.2, R311.7.8.2, R313.1, R313.2, R314.2.2, R314.6, R315.2.2, R315.5, R326.1, R401.2, R401.4.3, R403.1, R403.1.3.6, R403.1.4.1, R403.1.6 and R404.1.3.2 - climatic criteria, fire separation, sprinklers, smoke and CO alarms, stairs, pool barriers and foundations. The IBC amendments reach fire dampers, sprinkler supervision and alarms, egress, special inspections and foundations. NOT ONE amendment in either list touches IRC Chapter 9 or IBC Chapter 15 (Roof Assemblies): Ames makes no local roof-assembly amendment whatsoever, and no provision anywhere in Chapter 5 mentions impact resistance, a Class 4 impact rating, or UL 2218. DISAMBIGUATION: the only roof-adjacent numbers Ames does set are the Table R301.2(1) and IBC Chapter 16 climatic criteria - 115 mph wind speed, 25 lb ground snow load, Seismic Design Category A, "Ice Shield Underlayment Required Yes" - which are wind, snow and ice-dam provisions governed by entirely different standards, not impact or hail ratings.

NOT A THRESHOLD BUT A CATEGORICAL EXEMPTION - and it is the single most important operational fact about roofing in Ames. Ames Municipal Code Sec. 5.104 (BUILDING PERMITS NOT REQUIRED) lists sixteen classes of work needing no building permit, and I read the list in full. Item (16) is, in its entirety: "Replacement of shingles or other roof covering." A re-roof in Ames therefore requires NO building permit at all, whatever its size or cost - there is no dollar figure, no square-footage figure and no number of squares at which a permit obligation begins, because the obligation never begins for roof-covering replacement. Item (15) exempts "Replacement of siding" on the same footing. Repairs short of full replacement are separately exempt under item (14): "Application or notice to the Building Official is not required for ordinary minor repairs to structures," subject to an express carve-back - ordinary repairs shall NOT include "the cutting away of any wall, partition or portion thereof, the removal or cutting of any structural beam or load-bearing support, or the removal or change of any required means of egress, or rearrangement of parts of a structure affecting the egress requirements," nor any work on standpipes, water supply, sewer, drainage, drain leaders, gas, soil, waste, vent or similar piping, electric wiring, or "mechanical or other work affecting public health or general safety." THE PRACTICAL LINE FOR A ROOFER: stripping and replacing the covering is exempt outright under item (16); a job that crosses into cutting or replacing structural roof members - rafters, trusses, load-bearing supports - leaves the "ordinary minor repairs" safe harbor of item (14) and needs a permit. Exemption from permitting is not exemption from the substantive code: Sec. 5.113(1) ties inspection to permitted work only, but the adopted IRC's roof-assembly requirements still govern the work itself.

AMES PUBLISHES TWO DIFFERENT CRITERIA SETS RIGHT NOW, AND WHICH ONE BINDS DEPENDS ON WHICH CODE EDITION THE PERMIT IS UNDER, so both are given here rather than one being chosen. (1) THE CODIFIED SET, which governs a permit built under the adopted suite and is the default today: Ames Municipal Code Sec. 5.201 amends IRC Table R301.2(1) to wind speed 115 mph, ground snow load 25 lb, Seismic Design Category A, and "Ice Shield Underlayment Required Yes." (2) THE 2024 TRANSITION SET, from the Inspections Division's "Local Design Criteria" table for the 2024 International Residential Code (based on ASCE 7-22). It governs a permit whose applicant elects the 2024 editions under the City's transition term, and it would govern generally if and when the City adopts those editions: ground snow load 32.2 psf; wind speed 110 mph; topographic effects: no; special wind region: no; wind-borne debris zone: no; seismic design category B; weathering: severe; frost line depth 42 inches; termite: moderate to heavy; winter design temperature -5 F; ice shield underlayment required: yes; flood hazards per FEMA maps; air freezing index 1896; mean annual temperature 48.2 F. THE TWO SETS DISAGREE ON THREE OF THE FOUR STRUCTURAL CELLS - 115 against 110 mph wind, 25 against 32.2 psf ground snow, and Seismic Design Category A against B - so designing to the wrong set understates the wind loading or overstates the snow loading. This is a genuine edition change and NOT the nominal-versus-ultimate basis difference that explains similar-looking gaps elsewhere in this reference: both figures are ultimate design wind speeds, and the change comes from ASCE 7-10 giving way to ASCE 7-22. DO NOT READ SET (2) AS AUTOMATICALLY TAKING EFFECT ON SEPTEMBER 1, 2026. As of 2026-08-31 the City describes the 2024 editions as proposed and its "Current Codes" page still lists the 2015 suite; see the adopted_code field, which sets out the transition terms and what could not be established.

7% total in Ames, Story County (6% Iowa state sales tax plus a 1% local option sales tax in effect in Ames since 1987), per the Iowa Department of Revenue's Local Option Sales Tax by City workbook, effective July 1, 2026. HOW IOWA TAXES A ROOF IS UNUSUAL, AND IT CUTS BOTH WAYS. Iowa Code section 423.2(6) makes a list of enumerated services taxable at the state rate, and paragraph (l) of that list reads, in its entirety, "Roof, shingle, and glass repair." Against that, section 423.3(37) exempts "the sales price of services on or connected with new construction, reconstruction, alteration, expansion, remodeling." The materials side flips with the labour side. Under section 423.2(1)(b)(1), materials sold to a contractor "for the erection of buildings and other structures or for the reconstruction, alteration, expansion, or remodeling of buildings and other structures are retail sales of tangible personal property," on which the contractor pays the tax as consumer, while materials sold "for use in repairs to or for installation in existing buildings and other structures are purchases for resale." So a job characterised as a repair carries taxable labour and resale-purchased materials, and a job characterised as reconstruction or remodeling carries exempt labour and taxed materials. Which branch a particular tear-off and replacement falls into is a fact-specific question the statute does not answer, and it changes who owes the tax rather than only how much, so settle it with an accountant rather than assume it.