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Permitting Authorities / Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia - Planning and Development Department

Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia - Planning and Development Department

Adopted code

Augusta-Richmond County is a consolidated city-county government, one government rather than a city inside a separate county, and its Planning and Development Department issues and inspects residential building permits across the consolidated jurisdiction. Re-roofing is named on the Department's own online-permit list. The unusual thing about Augusta is how it classifies a roofer: roofing repair and replacement is SPECIALTY TRADE CONTRACTOR work, licensed locally without a Georgia state contractor licence, but with a hard line at structural work, so a roofer may replace water-damaged plywood decking and may not replace a rafter or truss. Augusta also requires a signed drip-edge acknowledgment memo with the permit application and will fail the roofing inspection without drip edge. The Charter expressly preserves the separate incorporation of the Town of Blythe, so a Blythe address is not automatically Augusta's to permit.

Jurisdiction
Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia
Jurisdiction type
city
Address
Augusta, GA
Contact
  • url: https://www.augustaga.gov/2101/Building-Permits
  • phone: 706-312-5050
Roofing permit required
Required
Contractor registration required
Required
Registration details
  • state_level: STATEWIDE, AND IT TURNS ON WHAT KIND OF CONTRACTOR YOU ARE RATHER THAN ON THE TRADE. Georgia licenses residential and general contractors through the State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors under O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 41, created by House Bill 1003 of 2004 and amended by Senate Bill 115 of 2007. There is no Georgia licence titled roofer: the chapter creates residential-basic, residential-light commercial and general contractor licences and no roofing class, and O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(e) names the Chapter 14 trades it deals with as plumbing, conditioned air contracting, utility contracting, electrical contracting and low-voltage contracting, which does not include roofing. Section 43-41-17(a) provides that from July 1, 2008 "no person, whether an individual or a business organization, shall have the right to engage in the business of residential contracting or general contracting without a current, valid residential contractor license or general contractor license". What pulls a roofing job inside that requirement is a definition rather than a trade: O.C.G.A. 43-41-2(9) makes a person a residential contractor where the work falls into the residential-basic or residential-light commercial category and "the total value of the work or activity or of the compensation to be received by the contractor for such activity or work, whichever is the higher, exceeds $2,500.00". That figure is per job, taken on the higher of work value or compensation; it is not an annual figure, not a materials-only figure, and not specific to roofing. TWO EXCEPTIONS REACH ROOFING AND NEITHER IS A DOLLAR TEST. The first is the specialty-contractor exception at O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(f), which begins "Nothing in this chapter shall preclude a specialty contractor from offering or contracting to perform or undertaking or performing for an owner limited, specialty, or specific trade contractor work". As Chapter 41 was first enacted in 2004 that sentence carried on to confine the exception to work that put no part of the job under anyone but the contractor's own direct employees; Senate Bill 115 struck that limitation out in 2007, so the exception no longer states a supervision test. In its place the same subsection directs that "The board shall by rule or policy by January 1, 2008 identify specialty contractors or other criteria to determine eligibility under the exemption of this subsection." The second is the repair exception at O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(g): "Nothing in this chapter shall preclude a person from offering or contracting to perform or undertaking or performing for an owner repair work, provided that the person performing the repair work discloses to the owner that such person does not hold a license under this chapter and provided, further, that such work does not affect the structural integrity of the real property." The board defined repair at Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 553-8-.01 to mean "fixing, mending, maintenance, replacement or restoring of a part or portions of real property to good condition", on four conditions: written disclosure to the owner that the person is not licensed as a residential or general contractor, no delegation of supervision to anyone but employees, work that does not affect the life safety requirements or structural integrity of the property, and obtaining the permits and inspections the local authority requires. Whether a full tear-off and replacement is repair within that definition is a legal question neither the statute nor the rule answers. WHAT THE BOARD HAS SAID ABOUT ROOFERS, AND WHERE IT STOPS. No rule identifying specialty contractors was ever made: the board's regulations at Department 553 of the Georgia Administrative Code run twelve chapters - organisation, examination exemption, qualifications for licensure in each division, procedural rules, fees, written warranty, definitions, disciplinary action, inactive licence, changes in status, and licence renewal and continuing education - and not one of them names a trade. The statute allowed policy as the alternative to a rule, and on the policy side the board does name roofers. Its own consumer publication for homeowners, headed "TIPS FOR CONSUMERS" and handed out by Cherokee County at its permit counter, says at item 11 that "Certain types of contractor services are considered specialty services and do not require that the person be licensed. These include roofers, painters, brick masons, and more." The Georgia Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division takes the same position on its Consumer Ed site: "Please note that certain specialty occupations such as roofers, painters, drywall contractors, and repair handymen are not required to be licensed by the state." Georgia building departments repeat it - Johns Creek's homeowner and contractor guidance states that under state law a building or trade contractor must have a valid professional licence from the Secretary of State and that "There are exceptions for limited specialty contractors such as pool and retaining wall installers, roofers, etc." DO NOT TREAT THAT AS AN EXEMPTION YOU CAN RELY ON WITHOUT CHECKING YOUR OWN POSITION. The complete specialty list those documents point to cannot be read: the web address the board's own guidance gives for it no longer resolves, and the Secretary of State's site refuses automated requests, so no reachable published document sets out the criteria a roofing business would have to meet. The Tips document carries no date either. Two state publications describing roofing as a specialty service is a good reason to put your own position to the board before you bid; it is not a rule saying you need no licence. THE SANCTION IS WHY THIS IS WORTH SETTLING BEFORE YOU SIGN. Under O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(b) a contract entered into on or after July 1, 2008 for work for which a licence is required, between an owner and a contractor who does not hold one, "shall be unenforceable in law or in equity by the unlicensed contractor", and "no lien or bond claim shall exist in favor of the unlicensed contractor for any labor, services, or materials provided under the contract". AND ONE THING THE STATE DOES TO THE LOCAL LAYER. O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(c) provides that "no municipality or county may require any such person licensed under this chapter to comply with any additional licensing requirements imposed by such municipality or county relative to the performance of construction work subject to the licensing requirements under this chapter", while preserving a local licence, registration or certification requirement already "in effect and operation as of the effective date of this chapter or July 1, 2004, whichever is earlier" - and even then the local requirement may not shut a state-licensed contractor out of the jurisdiction. So where a Georgia city or county credential is pressed against a state-licensed contractor, the date the local scheme was adopted is the test.
  • city_level: Augusta runs a real construction trades scheme of its own, and it is what a roofer meets first. Augusta-Richmond County Code Section 7-1-116 requires every builder and specialty contractor who contracts for the erection, construction or repair of buildings for which a permit is required to obtain an Augusta business tax certificate or present a current Georgia one, to execute and deposit a bond with the Planning and Development Department, to file a certificate of public liability and property damage insurance for not less than $50,000.00 for each person and $100,000.00 for each occurrence, and to file a copy of the Georgia state licence for builders who will be purchasing permits. The bond is $15,000.00 for a Georgia licensed residential contractor and $5,000.00 for a specialty contractor. Section 7-1-117 adds that before being licensed to perform building contracting in Augusta-Richmond County a firm must have a regularly employed person certified by the state board under O.C.G.A. Title 43, and Section 7-1-81(h) provides that no permit may be issued to anyone other than a properly licensed contractor, apart from the homeowner exception. Augusta places roofing repair and replacement in the Specialty Trade Contractor category, whose licence requirements sheet asks for the business tax return with SAVE and E-Verify affidavits, general liability insurance of $50,000.00 and $100,000.00 with Augusta-Richmond County as certificate holder, a $5,000.00 surety bond with Augusta-Richmond County as obligee, and a $4.00 vehicle decal for each vehicle on site, and which draws the line at structural work. A roofer working as a Residential-Basic building contractor instead files a copy of the state RB licence card and posts the $15,000.00 bond. One date is worth knowing: O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(c) bars a municipality or county from imposing additional licensing requirements on a state-licensed contractor, but preserves a local scheme in effect and operation as of July 1, 2004, and the codified history of Section 7-1-116 shows it enacted by Ordinance No. 6704 of June 15, 2004 and amended by Ordinance No. 7327 of February 21, 2012.
Permit process note
Applications go to the Residential Permitting Division at 1803 Marvin Griffin Road and may be filed in person, emailed to [email protected] with the project name or address in the subject line, or filed online through the CityView portal; the Department warns that email sent from a retail print shop account may not reach it. Re-roof, vinyl siding, window and gutter permits are on the short list Augusta takes entirely online, and the Department publishes a training video for that route. A roofing application carries the permit application form plus the Drip Edge Form, and a Homeowner Waiver where the owner is doing the work. The Building Division fee schedule approved January 7, 2025 sets a flat $125.00 permit fee for a residential Roof, General Repair or Foundation permit on a single-family home or duplex, with a $50.00 re-inspection fee and a $75.00 contractor change fee; commercial roofing is priced on construction cost instead, starting at $100.00 for work up to $15,000.00. Two zoning gates can hold a roofing permit and both are handled by a different office: exterior work in the Historic Preservation District needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, and work in a flood zone needs a Flood Permit, each from Zoning on 706-821-1796. A permit becomes invalid if the work is not commenced within six months of issuance, or if it is suspended or abandoned for six months, though the Building Official may grant written extensions of up to ninety days at a time; the Department has stated that permits which expired before January 1, 2026 are no longer eligible for extension because the mandatory state codes changed edition on that date. Inspections are requested at [email protected] or through the Schedule an Inspection link on the Department's page.
Adopted code
Augusta enforces the Georgia mandatory state minimum standard codes on a FLOATING adoption, so there is no local edition to look up. Augusta-Richmond County Code Section 7-1-16 provides that "The latest edition of the Georgia Mandated codes and Georgia Amendments as promulgated by the State of Georgia through the Department of Community Affairs shall be enforced by Augusta Georgia", and lists the International Building Code, International Plumbing Code, International Fuel Gas Code, International Mechanical Code, National Electrical Code, International Energy Conservation Code, International Fire Code and International Residential Code as the Georgia Mandated Codes it enforces. The operative residential standard is therefore the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia Amendments 2026, which the Department of Community Affairs adopted with an effective date of January 1, 2026. Augusta's own Building Permits page carries the notice that "The State of Georgia Department of Community Affairs has adopted the 2024 Edition of ICC codes effective January 1, 2026" and that permits issued before that date are no longer eligible for extension. Under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) the mandatory codes bind any structure built in Georgia whether or not the local government chooses to enforce them locally, so compliance is statewide and automatic while enforcement is the local choice, and Augusta has elected to enforce the whole mandatory list. Section 7-1-16 also names the only Georgia Optional Code Augusta has taken up: the International Property Maintenance Code, 2012 Edition with Georgia amendments. Appendix U "Disaster Resilient Construction", which the Department adopts as optional for the 2024 IRC, is not among the optional codes named there; the codification runs through Ordinance No. 7807, adopted December 7, 2021, which predates the appendix, and whether Augusta has adopted it by a separate instrument since was not established. Georgia's energy code remains off-cycle from the rest at the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code with Georgia supplements, and Augusta's residential permit checklist still calls for a REScheck against the 2015 energy code.
Drip edge
Required — Required, and Augusta enforces it with a signed form at the counter. The Chief Building Official issued a memorandum to Contractors, Developers, and Homeowners under the subject line Roofing - Drip Edge Requirement, dated February 6, 2025 and carrying revision 3 of February 21, 2025, which states that "the 2018 International Residential Code and the 2018 International Building Code require drip edge. The Roofing Inspection will be failed if the roof installation does not include drip edge." The memo reprints the residential provision, which calls for a drip edge at the eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs, adjacent segments overlapped not less than 2 inches, the drip edge extending not less than one-quarter inch below the roof sheathing and not less than 2 inches back up onto the roof deck, mechanically fastened to the deck at not more than 12 inches on centre, with underlayment over the drip edge along eaves and under it along rakes. It then carries a signature block: "PLEASE SIGN, DATE AND RETURN THIS MEMO TO THE PERMIT TECH. IF SUBMITTING ONLINE, PLEASE ATTACH TO THE PERMIT APPLICATION." The Department's residential permit requirements sheet lists the Drip Edge Form among the documents a roofing permit application carries, and the Building Permits page links it beside the online re-roof permit. Note that the memo as published cites the 2018 editions, which were Georgia's mandatory editions when it was written; the mandatory residential edition moved to the 2024 International Residential Code with Georgia Amendments on January 1, 2026. About drip edge
Mid-roof inspection
Not required — No mid-roof or in-progress roofing inspection. Augusta-Richmond County Code Section 7-1-97 sets out the Building Official's required inspections in a table with four stages, being foundation for setback and footing, concrete slab, rough for electrical, framing, mechanical and plumbing, and finals for building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical. There is no roof-deck, underlayment or in-progress roofing stage in it, and Title 7, Chapter 1 was read in full without one appearing anywhere else. The Planning and Development Department's permit requirements sheet for Fascia, Roof, Siding, Soffit and Windows says only that "Once the job is complete, an inspection is required. Call or go online to request." What that single inspection will check by name is drip edge: the Chief Building Official's memorandum states that the roofing inspection is failed if the installation does not include it. Section 7-1-98 still provides that work "shall not be done on any part of a building, structure, electrical, gas, mechanical or plumbing system beyond the point indicated in each successive inspection without first obtaining the written approval of the inspector", so a failed roofing inspection has to be cleared in writing before the job goes further.
Impact-resistant roofing
Not required — No impact-resistance requirement applies in Augusta. Title 7, Chapter 1 of the Augusta-Richmond County Code, The Building Code of Augusta, Georgia, was read in full across all seven articles and contains no roofing amendment and no roof-covering rating provision of any kind. The Georgia State Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code make no change to the roofing chapter of that Code. So no UL 2218, Class 4 or Class IV impact-resistance requirement appears in Augusta's own building chapter, in the state amendment packet, or in the Department's roofing permit requirements sheet and drip-edge memorandum, which are the two roofing-specific instruments Augusta publishes. An insurance premium credit for impact-rated shingles is a matter between the owner and the carrier and is not a code requirement here.
Repair permit threshold
There is no dollar figure and no square-foot figure. Augusta-Richmond County Code Section 7-1-81(a) requires any owner, authorized agent or contractor who desires to "construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish, or change the occupancy of a building or structure" to apply to the Building Official and obtain the permit before starting. The only exceptions the section enumerates, at 7-1-81(b), are for mechanical work, and the subsection says so in terms: portable heating, ventilating and cooling appliances, piping inside heating or cooling equipment, replacement of a part that does not alter its approval or make it unsafe, portable evaporative coolers and small self-contained refrigeration systems. None of them reaches roofing. What Augusta has instead of a threshold is a discretionary permission at 7-1-81(e): "Ordinary minor repairs may be made with the approval of the building official without a permit, provided that such repairs shall not violate any of the provisions of the technical codes." So a small roof repair is permit-free only if the Building Official approves it first; there is no self-assessed exemption a roofer can rely on. A re-roof is on the Department's online-permit list and has its own permit requirements sheet, so treat a replacement as work that always needs a permit. A homeowner working on the home they live in is not exempt either: Section 7-1-9 preserves the right to do the work but adds that the privilege is not "construed as exempting any such property owner from obtaining a permit, paying required fees and requesting inspections", and Section 7-1-119(a) repeats the point for the trades. The permit application form carries a HOMEOWNER (EXCEPTION) box and the Department asks for a Homeowner Waiver with it.
Wind design criteria
Augusta publishes no wind design criteria of its own, and neither does Georgia for one- and two-family dwellings. Title 7, Chapter 1 of the Augusta-Richmond County Code was read in full and states no design wind speed, no exposure category and no wind-borne debris region. The Georgia State Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code touch wind loading in only one mandatory place, a new exception 3 to Section R403.1.6 on foundation anchorage that is conditioned on the basic wind speed from International Residential Code Figure R301.2(4)A not exceeding 115 miles per hour; that is a foundation anchorage trigger and not an adopted design value for Augusta. Every other wind speed in the Georgia packet sits inside Appendix U Disaster Resilient Construction, which the Department of Community Affairs adopts as optional and which applies only where a local government has adopted it by ordinance. So the design wind speed for an Augusta job comes from the base International Residential Code wind speed maps at Figure R301.2(4), read for the site, and no local figure overrides them.
Roof layer limit / recover
Augusta imposes no layer cap of its own. Title 7, Chapter 1 of the Augusta-Richmond County Code is The Building Code of Augusta, Georgia, and its seven articles, covering general provisions, structural standards and requirements, the Planning and Development Department, the Construction Advisory Board, permits and inspections and certificates of occupancy, construction trades regulation, and maintenance, were read in full. Not one of them amends the roofing chapter of the adopted residential code or says anything about overlays, recovering, or how many roof coverings a house may carry. The Georgia State Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code likewise make no change to that chapter. The base International Residential Code provisions on recovering an existing roof, and on when the existing covering has to come off first, therefore apply as published, unmodified by anything Augusta or Georgia has enacted.
Deck & sheathing requirements
Augusta has one local rule about roof decking, and it is a scope-of-work rule rather than a specification. The Planning and Development Department's permit requirements sheet for Fascia, Roof, Siding, Soffit and Windows states that a "Roofer may replace the plywood decking (due to water damage), but cannot replace a rafter or truss", and the Department's licence requirements sheet for Specialty Trade Contractors, which is the category Augusta puts roofing in, states that "No structural work is allowed under any circumstances to include but not limited to tree damage, car damage, water damage, and fire damage. These require a state contractor's license." So a roofer working under an Augusta specialty trade licence may replace damaged sheathing but must hand any rafter or truss work to a state-licensed contractor, and the same sheet warns that anything outside the listed tasks goes to the inspector for approval and needs a state licence. On the technical side Augusta adds nothing: Title 7, Chapter 1 was read in full and contains no roofing amendment, and the Georgia State Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code make no change to the roofing chapter, so the base International Residential Code requirements for the deck an asphalt shingle roof is fastened to apply as published.
Sales & use tax
8.5% in Richmond County, Georgia, which is where Augusta-Richmond County sits, for the period through September 30, 2026, and the rate rises to 9% on October 1, 2026. The 8.5% is the 4% Georgia state rate plus the local components the Department of Revenue's rate chart marks against Richmond as LOST, Educational, SPLOST, Other and TSPLOST 1; the October chart adds a PTRLOST component, which is where the extra half point comes from. Both figures are read off the Department's own general rate charts and Richmond carries no city-level split, so one rate covers the jurisdiction. On who pays it, Ga. Comp. R. and Regs. r. 560-12-2-.26(1) makes any person who contracts to furnish tangible personal property and perform services in constructing, altering, repairing or improving real property "the consumer of all tangible personal property used or consumed in performing such contract", who "shall pay the tax thereon at the time of purchase, use, storage or consumption". So the tax on the shingles is the roofing contractor's to pay when it buys them, rather than a line the homeowner is charged on the material. The same rule separately requires every contractor improving real property in Georgia to file an application for a Certificate of Registration, Form CRF-002, before its first construction activity in the state; that is a tax registration and is not a contractor credential.

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