Bartholomew County, Indiana - Department of Technical Code Enforcement

Bartholomew County, Indiana

county

440 Third St., Room 302, Columbus, IN 47201

Required

Not required

ONE OFFICE FOR THE COUNTY AND FOR COLUMBUS. The Department of Technical Code Enforcement is at 440 Third St., Room 302, Columbus, IN 47201, on (812) 379-1535, with general inquiries to [email protected]. The City of Columbus routes residential building work here rather than permitting it itself, telling applicants on its own development page to begin with this office for a new single-family home, a home addition, a new garage or barn, or interior remodeling, and adding that "Our office provides building permits and inspections." ONE PERMIT, NOT SEVERAL: the department states that it "uses a one-permit system for building, remodeling, additions and accessory structures" covering building and framing, electrical, plumbing and heating and air. A roof on its own has its own permit type, priced at a flat $60.00 minimum. WHAT MAY BE ASKED FOR before a permit issues, in the department's own list: a set of construction plans, a site plan, a Health Department release for septic systems if applicable, a driveway permit from the state or county highway department if applicable, a State Design Release for commercial work, and a Zoning Compliance Certificate from the Planning Department. Most of that is aimed at new construction rather than a re-roof, and the department asks to be contacted for the specific items a given project needs. It also warns that "All sign-off sheets must be submitted prior to being issued a permit." INSPECTIONS. All inspections need 24 hours' advance scheduling and must be booked by telephoning the office by 4:30 the day before; on the day itself a caller between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. is given a time. The published inspection list is numbered, and roofing has its own code: 160 Roof, alongside 170 Siding, 130 Framing Only and 199 Final Building. The department does not publish when in the job that Roof inspection is called, so agree the timing with the inspector rather than assuming it comes at the end. The responsibility for calling them sits with the contractor or the owner acting as contractor, together with "the remittance of all fines and re-inspection fees associated with the project", and "All fines and fees must be paid prior to the next scheduled inspection to be completed." MONEY TO WATCH: the roofing permit fee covers the first inspection only, each additional inspection is another $60.00, and re-inspection fees escalate at $50.00, $100.00 and $200.00.

STATE-SET, AND THE DEPARTMENT PUBLISHES THE CITATION ITSELF. Indiana leaves a county nothing to adopt on the residential side. The department's own Current Codes list gives the residential entry as "2020 Indiana Residential Code: (675 IAC 14-4.4)", "2018 International Residential Code with Indiana Amendments, Effective December 26, 2019". That matches the rule as published: 675 IAC 14-4.4-1 provides that "That certain document being titled the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017, published by the International Code Council ... is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set out in this rule save and except those revisions made in this rule", and that "This rule shall be known as the 2020 Indiana Residential Code." It was filed November 26, 2019 and formally readopted November 18, 2025, and it is the newest rule in the article - there is no later Indiana residential code. LOCALLY there are two building codes administered from this one office, the "Building Code of Bartholomew County, Indiana" and the "Building Code of the City of Columbus, Indiana", but neither can change the residential roofing rules: IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that "A city, town, or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules", and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. Where a local Indiana instrument does cite the Indiana Administrative Code, IC 22-13-2-3(b) makes that citation float: it "shall be construed to include all amendments as of the date that the reference is written and any later amendments to that provision, unless accompanied by a reference to a specific edition or supplement", so a local adoption tracks the current state rule instead of freezing. One vocabulary warning: "Class 2" in Indiana is a STRUCTURE class, broadly one and two family dwellings, and has nothing to do with a fire class or an impact class of roof covering.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT COUNTY-SET, and unconditional on a shingle roof. Neither the County nor the City of Columbus can vary it: IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that "A city, town, or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules." The operative text is published first-hand by the Indiana State Building Commissioner, on Indiana Department of Homeland Security letterhead, in the Ice/Water Shield and Metal Drip Edge guidance of February 25, 2020, which reproduces the adopted Section R905.2.8.5 in full: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. Adjacent segments of drip edge shall be overlapped not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall extend not less than ¼ inch (6.4 mm) below the roof sheathing and extend up back onto the roof deck not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the rood deck at not more than 12 inches (305 mm) o.c. with fasteners as specified in Section R905.2.5 Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge along rake edges." The word "rood" in that passage is a typographical error in the published guidance, quoted here as printed; it plainly means the roof deck. The Indiana rule amends Section R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" and does not touch R905.2.8.5, so this text governs as published. About drip edge

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE TABLE IN BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY - BUT THE MANUFACTURER CAN STILL REQUIRE IT, AND THAT IS THE HALF THAT CATCHES PEOPLE OUT. Indiana deletes the model climatic table and substitutes its own county-by-county table: 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 directs "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows", and the substituted table runs one row per county. Row 3 is Bartholomew, and it carries "No" in the column headed "Ice Shield Underlayment Required". Twenty-seven of Indiana's ninety-two counties carry "Yes" there and they are the northern tier; Bartholomew is not one of them, so an answer carried down from a South Bend, Fort Wayne or Gary job would be wrong here. The rest of the Bartholomew County row reads wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category B, ground snow 20 psf, foundation depth 24 inches, winter design temperature 9 degrees F and weathering Severe. The Indiana State Building Commissioner sets out the qualification in terms: Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1 require roofing materials to be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions, so "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1)), and specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it (per Sections R903 .1, R904.1 and R905 .1)." Bartholomew County is in that second group: the table does not compel an ice barrier, and the shingle manufacturer's printed instructions still can. Neither the County nor the City of Columbus may add a requirement of its own, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a local ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No impact-resistance requirement applies in Bartholomew County or in the City of Columbus. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, makes four amendments touching the model code's roofing chapter and not one of them concerns impact: it deletes the text of the last sentence of Section R902.4 on rooftop-mounted photovoltaic panel systems, deletes the word "approved" from Section R905.2.6 on asphalt shingle attachment, deletes the word "approved" from Section R905.2.8 on flashing, and deletes the word "printed" from Section R905.2.8.4 on other flashing. Nothing in the rule imposes a UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact rating. Neither local government could add one on top: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state rules, and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over any local ordinance on the same subject. Nothing on the department's permit, inspection or fee documents specifies a roof covering at all - the roofing permit is priced by permit type rather than by material. Two things that get mistaken for an impact mandate in Indiana: the phrase "Class 2 construction", which runs through the State Building Commissioner's roofing guidance and is Indiana's STRUCTURE class for one and two family dwellings rather than any rating of the roof covering; and an insurer's premium discount for an impact-rated shingle, which is a private contract term and not a code requirement.

THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS OF JOB COST - ONE OF THE LOWEST PERMIT LINES IN THIS DIRECTORY, AND IT IS A DOLLAR TEST RATHER THAN A SQUARE-FOOTAGE ONE. The department quotes both of the building codes it administers to the same effect: the "Building Code of Bartholomew County, Indiana" and the "Building Code of the City of Columbus, Indiana" both state that "A permit shall be obtained before beginning construction, alteration or repair of any building or structure, the cost of which exceeds Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00), using the forms furnished by the Department of Technical Code Enforcement". Roofing is then named on the department's own list of improvements needing a permit, which runs "New Residential and Commercial Buildings", "Modular Homes and Mobile Homes", "Sheds and Storage Buildings", "Attached or Detached Garages", "Swimming Pools (in ground and above ground)", "Room Additions and Sun Rooms", "Decks, Porches and Carports", "Electrical Service upgrades", "Kitchen and Bath remodels", "Roofing, Siding and Window replacement", "Storage Tanks, Demolition and House Moving" and "Permanent or Temporary Signs". At three hundred dollars, practically any re-roof and most repairs are over the line; a genuinely small patch may not be, and the department asks to be called about the specific project. THE FEE IS FLAT AND SMALL. The county fee ordinance, Ordinance No. 2022-06, amending Ordinance No. 1999-12 and passed on second reading and adopted on August 22, 2022 over the signatures of all three County Commissioners and the Auditor's attestation, sets out Section 150.20 RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURES, whose item (Q) reads "Roof/siding permit. Minimum fee is $60.00." The department's residential fee sheet, effective 10/01/2022, gives the same figure as "Roofing or Siding Only $60.00 First Inspection Only", with "Any additional inspection $60.00 each additional inspection" and a re-inspection fee of "$50.00, $100.00, $200.00 per inspection" for a first, second and third re-visit. So a re-roof in Bartholomew County or in Columbus is a sixty-dollar permit covering one inspection, and every further visit costs the same again. PERMIT LIFE: item (R) of the same ordinance provides for "Permit renewal for one year (original permit good for two years)" at 50% of the original fee, so the roofing permit itself runs two years.

115 mph. Indiana replaces the model IRC Table R301.2(1) with its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, which opens "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows." The Bartholomew County row gives 115 in the column headed "Wind Speed", in miles per hour, and every one of the ninety-two county rows carries the same figure, so 115 mph is the one genuinely statewide Indiana roofing number. The same row gives seismic design category B, ground snow 20 psf, a 24 inch foundation depth, a winter design temperature of 9 degrees F and Severe weathering. Neither the County nor the City of Columbus can raise or lower any of it by ordinance, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules. Wind exposure category is still a site-by-site determination made under the residential code rather than a figure the county or state sets - the table's own footnote a reads "Wind exposure shall be determined on a site-specific basis in accordance with SECTION R301.2.1.4" - and Indiana amends that exposure-category rule at 675 IAC 14-4.4-4 for sites in a subdivision or master-planned community where the adjacent structures are not built yet.

NO LOCAL LAYER RULE, AND NONE IS POSSIBLE IN INDIANA. The residential code here is the state's: the department's own Current Codes list names "2020 Indiana Residential Code: (675 IAC 14-4.4)", which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. That rule runs to 245 numbered sections and its only amendments touching the model roofing chapter are word deletions in the asphalt shingle attachment and flashing sections and in the rooftop photovoltaic section. It makes no amendment at all to the model code's reroofing and roof recover section, which does not appear anywhere in the Indiana rule. Neither the County nor the City of Columbus could add one: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state rules. So the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof applies here exactly as published. The number of layers a particular roof may carry therefore comes out of the adopted International Residential Code itself, and a roofer planning an overlay rather than a tear-off should settle the existing layer count with the Department of Technical Code Enforcement against that code before quoting. Either way the job needs a permit once it costs more than three hundred dollars, and the department's inspection list has a numbered Roof stage it can call.

7.00% statewide, with no county or city add-on in Bartholomew County or Columbus. Indiana levies a single state sales tax rate. The Department of Revenue's own page listing what Indiana does tax at county level - innkeeper's tax, food and beverage tax and local income tax - closes with the sentence "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%." The county-level tax Bartholomew County levies is an income tax, not a sales tax, so there is no local percentage to add to a materials invoice. WHO PAYS IT DEPENDS ON THE SHAPE OF THE CONTRACT, NOT ON THE ROOF. Indiana Department of Revenue Sales Tax Information Bulletin #60 (March 2024) names roofing in its own definition of a contractor and then splits on contract form. A "Time and Material Contract" is one "in which the cost of construction material and the cost of labor or other charges are stated separately"; a contractor working under one "is a retail merchant that is selling the construction material that it incorporates into real property, and must be registered with the department and collect sales tax on the material portion of their contracts", and may buy the material exempt for resale. A contractor working under any other form, such as a lump sum, is not a retail merchant: they "must pay sales or use tax on their construction material" and "do not collect sales tax from their customers." On labour the bulletin adds that "Installation charges separately stated on an invoice are not included in gross retail income." The bulletin is Department guidance and says of itself that information bulletins are not binding on the department or the taxpayer, so a roofer should settle their own contract form with an accountant.