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 City of Ames Inspections Division states it is implementing the 2024 International Residential Code, 2024 International Building Code, 2024 International Existing Building Code and 2024 International Fire Code, together with the 2024 International Mechanical Code, 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code and 2023 National Electrical Code. Permits applied for before September 1, 2026 may be built under either the prior codes or the 2024 editions; permits filed on or after that date use the 2024 editions. A separate department page listing "current adopted codes" still shows the prior suite in force (2015 International Building Code, 2015 International Residential Code, 2015 International Existing Building Code, 2015 International Fire Code, 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code, 2021 International Mechanical Code, 2012 International Energy Conservation Code, 2020 National Electrical Code). THE CODIFIED ORDINANCE RESOLVES WHICH OF THOSE TWO PAGES GOVERNS TODAY, and it is the prior suite. Ames Municipal Code Sec. 5.100 (TITLE & ADOPTION), read live 2026-08-08 in a code current through April 1, 2026, still 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." So as of this verification date the 2015 suite is the codified law of Ames, the 2024 suite is announced but not yet codified, and September 1, 2026 is the cutover to watch: a roofer working an Ames job today is on the 2015 IRC.

Required — The City of Ames 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.

Per the City of Ames Inspections Division's "Local Design Criteria" table for the 2024 International Residential Code (based on ASCE 7-22): 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. These figures are presented as part of the city's 2024 code-update transition described in the adopted_code field.

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.