City of Billings Building Division

City of Billings, Montana

city

316 N 26th St, 5th Floor, Billings, MT 59101

Required

2021 IRC as amended by the state's Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM 24.301.154), reached in Billings through an express, floating local extension. City Code Sec. 6-201 (Ord. 02-5186, adopted 2002-03-25) reads: "The current editions of the following listed model technical building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical codes ... adopted by the Building Codes Division Bureau, Montana Department of Commerce ... are shall be adopted by reference ... as authorized by Section 50-60-301(1)(b), MCA ... These codes are applicable to all buildings within the building code enforcement area of the City of Billings, Montana, including but not limited to, residential buildings containing less than five dwelling units or their attached-to structures, any farm or ranch building, and any private garage or private storage structure used only for the owner's own use as provided by Section 50-6-102(1)(a), MCA." That is the Havre/Belgrade shape: an EXPRESS extension of the code to under-five-unit dwellings, quoted from the enacted ordinance, not inferred from the IRC's own scope clause. (The ordinance cites "Section 50-6-102(1)(a)"; the correct statute is MCA 50-60-102(1)(a) -- Title 50 chapter 6 is emergency medical services. Quoted as the City enacted it; the apparent scrivener's error is not silently corrected, and Havre's own extension ordinance carries the identical error.) Sec. 6-201(c) then makes the adoption FLOAT with the state: "Any codes or amendments adopted by the Building Codes Division Bureau which apply to local government jurisdictions ... shall become effective in the city upon order of the City Administrator within ninety (90) days after the date that the division Bureau notifies the city." The City's own current Adopted Codes and Design Criteria pages both confirm the code the floating clause currently carries: "International Residential Code, 2021 Edition" and, for one- and two-family dwellings, "Design per IRC 2021." Ord. 02-5186's companion amendments (Sec. 6-301) rewrite several 2002-era Uniform Building Code sections (moved/temporary buildings, a farm-accessory permit exemption, fence height, plan-review requirements, footing depth, and the Model Energy Code's design-temperature table); none touches Chapter 9 roof assemblies or Chapter 8 roof sheathing. A second 2008 ordinance sometimes cited alongside 02-5186 (Ord. 08-5482) amends only the City's zoning code (condominium and multi-unit site-plan review, City Code ch. 27) and has no bearing on the building code adoption.

Required — Billings has extended the state-amended 2021 IRC to one- and two-family dwellings (see adopted_code), and neither the state amendment instrument (ARM 24.301.154) nor the City's own adopting ordinance (Ord. 02-5186, read in full) amends or deletes 2021 IRC Section R905.2.8.5, Drip edge. This record points to that section rather than repeating its operative text, which has not been separately re-opened for this record. About drip edge

Required — REQUIRED STATEWIDE, INCLUDING IN BILLINGS, BY A STATE AMENDMENT THAT NEVER USES THE WORDS "ICE BARRIER." ARM 24.301.154(23) reads in full: "Subsection R 905.1.2 is amended by deletion of the language 'areas where there has been a history of ice forming along the eaves causing a backup of water as designated in Table R301.2' and insert 'the State of Montana.'" The base 2021 IRC's ice-barrier trigger is a local finding of history of ice damming; Montana's amendment replaces that trigger with the whole state, so the ice-barrier membrane required by R905.1.2 applies everywhere the state-amended code reaches a dwelling, Billings included, with no local ice-damming finding needed. Billings' own ordinance does not touch R905.1.2. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE STATE CODE OR BY THE CITY. ARM 24.301.154, read in full (10,864 characters), contains zero occurrences of "UL 2218," "Class 4," "Class IV," "impact," or "hail," and the same holds across Montana's other IRC/IBC-adjacent rules (ARM 24.301.142, .146, .161, .181). Billings' own adopting ordinance, Ord. 02-5186, read in full, imposes no impact-resistance requirement either. MCA 50-60-301(2)(a) bars the City from adopting a more-stringent local code in any event, so a local impact mandate could not exist here even if a City page suggested otherwise. An insurer's premium discount for an impact-rated shingle is a private policy term, not a code requirement.

NO VALUATION FLOOR STATED FOR ROOFING; THE FEE SCHEDULE STARTS AT ONE DOLLAR. The City's own FAQ states plainly, "A building permit is required for almost any type of construction on private property including: Roofing." The same FAQ's list of work that does NOT require a permit -- detached sheds under 200 square feet, painting and wallpapering, and sidewalks or driveways that will not support a structure -- does not include any roofing item or dollar threshold. The Residential and Commercial Building Permit Fee schedule the Building Division publishes has no minimum-job exemption: its lowest valuation tier is "$1 - $1000," fee $30.00, and fees are "charged on the higher of total bid price values or based on the most recent valuation table established in the Building Safety Journal." Ord. 02-5186's local amendments to the (then-Uniform) building code add a farm/ranch accessory-structure exemption and a fence exemption; neither reaches roof covering. This record does not find, and does not assume, a minor-repair or small-job carve-out for a residential reroof in Billings; call the Building Division at 406-657-8270 to confirm treatment of a specific small job.

THE CITY'S OWN PUBLISHED DESIGN-CRITERIA TABLE, NOT A STATE FIGURE. Montana's state rule sets no statewide wind speed and no ground-snow table; ARM 24.301.154(5) instead provides that "snow loads shall be determined by the building official," with a state-supplied ASCE 7-22 method and a 30 psf design-roof-snow-load floor applying only OUTSIDE certified jurisdictions. Billings, a certified jurisdiction, publishes its own figures on its Design Criteria page: for "One and Two Family Dwellings," "Design per IRC 2021"; Wind Load, Exposure "C," 3-second gust, "Residential: 110 MPH" (the page's risk-category table separately lists 100/110/115/120 MPH for Risk Categories I-IV, with the 110 MPH residential figure matching Risk Category II); Seismic Zone, "Residential: 'A'"; Foundation Depth, "42 in. frost depth"; and Roof Snow Load, "Minimum design roof snow load after allowed reductions shall be 30 psf (i.e. Pf = 30 psf)" with, "For drift / unbalanced loading: Pg = 33" (psf ground snow load). The 30 psf minimum matches the state's own floor value; Billings has adopted it as its actual design figure rather than merely defaulting to it.

TWO LAYERS MAXIMUM, ON THE BASE 2021 IRC, WITH NEITHER THE STATE NOR THE CITY AMENDING THE REROOFING SECTION. The state amendment instrument, ARM 24.301.154 (10,864 characters), was read in full and counted: "R908," "Chapter 9," and "shingle" each occur zero times; its only Chapter 9 reference is a single amendment to R905.1.2 (the ice-barrier trigger, unrelated to layer count). The City's own adopting and amending ordinance, Ord. 02-5186 (Sec. 6-201 and Sec. 6-301, read in full, 6 pages), likewise touches nothing in the reroofing provisions: its local amendments rewrite moved/temporary-building rules, a farm-accessory permit exemption, fence height, plan-review sign-off, footing depth, and an energy-code design-temperature table. With the edition fixed at 2021 IRC by both the City's Adopted Codes page and its Design Criteria page ("Design per IRC 2021" for one- and two-family dwellings), the base rule applies as published: 2021 IRC Section R908.3.1.1, Roof recover not allowed, bars a re-cover where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." One existing layer may be recovered; a second existing layer requires tear-off to the deck. MCA 50-60-301(2)(a) and ARM 24.301.202(1) bar Billings from adopting a more-stringent local variant in any event, so this figure cannot differ locally.

NO STATE OR CITY AMENDMENT; BASE 2021 IRC CHAPTER 8 APPLIES UNMODIFIED. ARM 24.301.154, read in full, contains zero occurrences of "sheathing" and zero occurrences of "Chapter 8" or any R8xx section number. Billings' own adopting ordinance, Ord. 02-5186, read in full, likewise makes no amendment reaching roof sheathing; its local amendments are the six 2002-era items described in this record's layer-limit field, none of them Chapter 8 material. So a Billings roofer follows Chapter 8 of the 2021 IRC (panel identification, span ratings, fastening and sheathing gaps) exactly as ICC publishes it, with no local addition or paperwork substitution of the kind some other states impose.

NONE. Montana has no general sales or use tax; the state Department of Revenue states outright that "Montana does not have a general-use sales tax" and "Montana does not have a sales tax exemption certificate." A residential reroof in Billings carries no state or local sales tax on labor or materials. Two narrow taxes exist and neither reaches an ordinary reroof: a local resort tax (MCA 7-6-1503, capped at 3%, statutorily extendable to 4%) applies only in ten named resort communities and only to lodging, restaurant, bar, and destination-recreation establishments and to "luxuries," a term MCA 7-6-1501(3) expressly excludes "hardware supplies and tools" and "necessities of life" from -- Billings is not a resort community and is not on the Department of Revenue's resort-area list in any event; and a 1% Contractor's Gross Receipts license fee (MCA 15-50-205, threshold raised to contracts over $80,000 by Ch. 751, L. 2023) applies only to PUBLIC construction contracts, not a private residential job.