Borough of Bloomingdale - Construction Department

Borough of Bloomingdale, Borough of Butler and Borough of Kinnelon, New Jersey

district

182 Union Avenue, Bloomingdale, NJ 07403

Not required

Required

No permit is needed under state law to reroof a detached one- or two-family house; a townhouse, other attached dwelling or any other building needs one from the Bloomingdale Construction Department, 182 Union Avenue, Bloomingdale, phone 973-838-7995, email [email protected], open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm (plumbing subcode hours Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00 am to 3:00 pm). The office serves three boroughs. Bloomingdale's page says "Bloomingdale provides the following services for the Boroughs of Bloomingdale, Butler, Kinnelon: Plan Review, Inspections, & Enforcement of the Uniform Construction Code." Kinnelon's construction page says "Effective October 2008 All Building Inspection Services are provided by the Borough of Bloomingdale through a Shared Service Agreement." Butler's page says "all Building permits will be applied for and issued from Bloomingdale Borough Hall" and "all Zoning Permits will be applied for and issued from Butler Borough Hall," which is at 1 Ace Road, Butler. The Borough's form center links the State's construction permit application forms, including the "UCC-F170-Construction Permit" form. Where a roof permit is required, Section 11-1.2 of the Borough Code (last amended September 17, 2024 by Ord. No. 16-2024) says "The fee for a construction permit shall be the sum of the subcode fees listed in the Fee Schedule hereunder." Its schedule has no roofing line; under "RENOVATIONS, ALTERATIONS, REPAIR AND MINOR WORK FEES" it charges $30 per $1,000 of estimated cost up to $50,000 and $25 per $1,000 of the portion over $50,001, with an $85 minimum fee. Butler and Kinnelon keep construction fee schedules in their own codes (Butler Code section 101-3, Kinnelon Code section 105-3); neither has a roofing line, both charge $30 per $1,000 of estimated cost up to $50,000 and $25 per $1,000 above that for renovations, alterations and repairs, and none of the three Boroughs' pages says which schedule applies to work in Butler or Kinnelon. In a Butler flood hazard area, section 124-5 of the Butler Code says ordinary maintenance and minor work "including non-structural replacement-in-kind of windows, doors, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, decks, walls, partitions, new flooring materials, roofing, etc. shall be evaluated by the Floodplain Administrator through the floodplain development permit." Inspections are booked by phone; the inspection schedule page says "DO NOT CALL TO SCHEDULE UNLESS ALL WORK IS DONE & READY" and "There is NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE for inspections."

The 2024 International Residential Code, New Jersey edition, adopted by the State, with the Rehabilitation Subcode for work on existing buildings. New Jersey has one construction code, the Uniform Construction Code (N.J.A.C. 5:23), which every municipality enforces; municipalities do not adopt building codes of their own (N.J.S.A. 52:27D-123.1 and 52:27D-139). N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21(a)1 adopts the International Code Council's "2024 International Residential Code known as the IRC/2024 as the one- and two-family dwelling subcode in New Jersey subject to the modifications stated at (c) below," and 3.21(b) applies it to "detached one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses not more than three stories above grade plane in height." The section was rewritten by R.2026 d.086, "effective August 17, 2026," in the Department of Community Affairs' print of the rules "adopted and published through the New Jersey Register, Vol. 58 No. 16," and the Department's Current Construction Codes page lists the "International Residential Code/2024, NJ ed" with an adoption date of Aug 17, 2026. Other buildings fall under the building subcode, the International Building Code/2024, NJ edition (N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.14). Roof work on an existing building is held to the Rehabilitation Subcode: "Existing structures, when repaired, renovated, altered or reconstructed, shall conform to the requirements of N.J.A.C. 5:23-6, Rehabilitation Subcode" (N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.4(a)). A six-month grace period follows the adoption. N.J.A.C. 5:23-1.6(a): "For a period of six months following the operative date of a subcode revision, applicants may submit a complete permit application, including all prior approvals, to be reviewed under the code in force immediately preceding the subcode revision." The rule history gives R.2026 d.086 no date other than its effective date, so on that reading the window runs from August 17, 2026 until about February 17, 2027: a complete application filed inside it may be reviewed under either the prior edition or the 2024 edition, at the applicant's choice, and one filed after it closes is reviewed under the 2024 edition. Everything above is New Jersey state law, the same in every municipality. Locally, the Bloomingdale Construction Department page says the department "processes construction permit applications and enforces compliance with all applicable construction code requirements and subcode regulations" and names no code edition; Section 11-1.1 of the Borough Code establishes the "Bloomingdale Building Department" as the Borough's State Uniform Construction Code enforcing agency. The Borough of Butler's Building Department page and the Borough of Kinnelon's Construction Department page, both of which send applicants to the Bloomingdale office, name no code edition either.

Not required — No mid-roof inspection under state law. Reroofing a detached one- or two-family house is ordinary maintenance, and N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c) says "No permit for, inspections of, or notice to the enforcing agency of ordinary maintenance shall be required." Where a reroof does need a permit, N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.18(b)1 says "Inspections of one- and two-family dwellings for which construction must cease until the inspection is made shall be limited to the following": footing trenches, foundations, utility services and a mid-point inspection, whose building item is "All structural framing, connections, wall and roof sheathing, and insulation." The list names no roof-covering or underlayment stage, and the rule does not say whether its sheathing item reaches a permitted reroof that replaces sheathing. Any further inspection a municipality requires "shall be of the type and nature that construction may continue without interruption" (5:23-2.18(b)3). Everything above is New Jersey state law, the same in every municipality. Locally, the Bloomingdale inspection schedule page sets building inspections for "12:00pm - 3:00PM Tuesday & Thursday," says "Please contact 973-838-7995 to schedule an inspection" and "A final inspection is necessary to close out your permit," and names no roof inspection. The Butler Building Department page lists the same office's inspector hours and says "PLEASE DON'T CALL TO SCHEDULE AN INSPECTION UNLESS ALL THE WORK IS DONE"; neither it nor the Kinnelon Construction Department page names a roof inspection.

Not required — No impact-resistant roofing requirement under state law. The New Jersey Uniform Construction Code rules that reach a house reroof (the administrative rules in N.J.A.C. 5:23-1 and 5:23-2, the State's amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code at 5:23-3.21, and the Rehabilitation Subcode at 5:23-6) contain no UL 2218, Class 4 or hail-impact requirement for roof coverings. A municipality cannot add one: N.J.S.A. 52:27D-123.1 says "Any law or regulation to the contrary notwithstanding," the "alteration, renovation, rehabilitation, repair, maintenance, removal, or demolition of all buildings or structures already erected shall be regulated pursuant to the 'State Uniform Construction Code Act,'" and under 52:27D-139 local construction regulations were "deemed repealed and superseded" once the state code was promulgated. An owner may still choose an impact-rated roof covering. Everything above is New Jersey state law, the same in every municipality. The Bloomingdale Construction Department pages and Chapter 11 of the Borough Code state nothing further on roof covering ratings, and neither do the Butler and Kinnelon construction pages or their construction code chapters (Butler Chapter 101, Kinnelon Chapter 105).

No permit and no size limit for reroofing a detached one- or two-family house; a permit for every other building. N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7(c) lists items that "are ordinary maintenance and shall be treated as such by every enforcing agency" and says "No permit for, inspections of, or notice to the enforcing agency of ordinary maintenance shall be required." Item 1.x is "The repair or replacement of existing roof covering on detached one- and two-family dwellings," with no square-footage or percentage cap. N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.14(b)1 carries this into the permit rule: "Ordinary maintenance as defined in N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.7 shall not require a permit or notice to the enforcing agency." Two limits apply. First, the item covers only detached one- and two-family dwellings. Reroofing a townhouse or other attached dwelling, or any other building, falls under the general permit rule, N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.14(a): "It shall be unlawful to construct, enlarge, repair, renovate, alter, reconstruct or demolish a structure ... without first filing an application with the construction official." Some of that work may be "minor work" under N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.17A, which still needs a permit, but "work may proceed, upon notice to the enforcing agency, before the permit is issued" (5:23-2.14(b)2). The fee is municipal: "The municipality, in accordance with this chapter, shall establish by ordinance enforcing agency fees" (N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.25; fee standards at 5:23-4.18). Second, ordinary maintenance does not include "Any work affecting structural or fire safety" (5:23-2.7(b)4), so roof work that reaches rafters, trusses or other structure needs a permit even on a detached house. The rule does not say whether replacing roof sheathing alone is such work. Everything above is New Jersey state law, the same in every municipality. Locally, the Bloomingdale Construction Department page and its inspection schedule page state nothing on which roof work needs a permit. Section 11-1.2 of the Borough Code, the construction fee schedule, has no roofing line and does not say which reroofs need a permit (see the permit process note). The Borough of Butler's page "Building and Zoning Permits, Which Do I Need?" says "Changes in the state Construction Code no longer require building permits for the following:" and lists "Roof repairs or replacement" first; it adds "These requirements are for one and two family residential properties" and "Multi-family and non-residential properties always need a Zoning Permit & Building Permit." Butler's list does not separate detached from attached dwellings. The Kinnelon Construction Department page states nothing on roof work.

Two layers maximum, by state rule. Roof work on an existing building is held to the Rehabilitation Subcode (N.J.A.C. 5:23-2.4(a)), whose repair section, N.J.A.C. 5:23-6.4(e)7, reads: "Existing roof covering shall be removed before installing new roof covering when any of the following conditions occur: i. The existing roof or roof covering is water soaked or has deteriorated to the point that the existing roof or roof covering is not adequate as a base for additional roofing; ii. The existing roof covering is wood shake, slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile; or iii. The existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." So one existing layer of asphalt shingles may be covered once; a roof that already has two layers, a wet or deteriorated roof, or a wood shake, slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile roof must be torn off first. The answer is the same if a reroof is treated as renovation rather than repair: for work other than repair, N.J.A.C. 5:23-6.8(h)7 applies "All of Chapter 9 entitled 'Roof Assemblies', except Section R907" of the 2024 International Residential Code, and its reroofing section, R908.4, Exceptions, bars a recover "Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." New Jersey's Chapter 9 amendments at N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21(c)8 change only R903.4.1 and R905.1.2 and leave R908 as published. Everything above is New Jersey state law, the same in every municipality. The Bloomingdale Construction Department pages and Chapter 11 of the Borough Code (Building and Housing) state nothing further on roof layers, and neither do the Butler and Kinnelon construction pages or their construction code chapters (Butler Chapter 101, Kinnelon Chapter 105).

6.625% New Jersey Sales Tax; whether the roofing bill is taxed depends on the job. The Division of Taxation's guide Contractors and New Jersey Taxes (S&U-3, Rev. 5/25) refers to "New Jersey's 6.625% Sales Tax rate." A new roof is an exempt capital improvement: "New roof" is on the guide's list of "Exempt capital improvements," and "If the work results in an exempt capital improvement to real property, the contractor does not charge Sales Tax on the bill"; the owner gives the contractor a Certificate of Exempt Capital Improvement (Form ST-8). The roofer still pays tax on materials: "The contractor pays the Sales Tax on the cost of materials and supplies at the time of purchase." A repair is taxable. The guide lists "Fixing a leaky roof" among repairs and says "replacing a few loose bath tiles or a portion of a leaky roof is a repair to the existing real property. However, replacing all of the tiles or the entire roof with upgraded or improved materials would be an exempt capital improvement." On a taxable job the only deduction is a separately stated cost of materials, and "If the contractor does not itemize the materials and the labor for a taxable job, the entire receipt is subject to tax." Work for an exempt organization, a government agency or a qualified business in an Urban Enterprise Zone follows separate exemption rules. Everything above is New Jersey state law, the same in every municipality. The Bloomingdale Construction Department pages and the Butler and Kinnelon construction pages state nothing further on sales tax.