Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Bloomington, MN?

Roofing questions — Bloomington, MN

Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Bloomington, MN?

Required. Bloomington's Building and Inspections FAQ states, verbatim: "Whenever you are replacing more than one square (100 square foot area) of roofing, a residential roofing/siding permit is required." This implies replacing one square (100 sq ft) or less does not trigger the permit requirement, though the FAQ does not use the word "exempt" explicitly -- the threshold is stated as the trigger condition for requiring a permit.

Is ice & water shield required in Bloomington, MN?

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET -- applies identically in Bloomington as everywhere else in Minnesota. Minnesota Rules part 1309.0301, subpart 2 amends IRC Table R301.2(1) ("Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria") to pre-fill "ICE BARRIER UNDERLAYMENT REQUIRED[h] ... Yes" for the entire state. Corroborated by a Minnesota DLI consumer guidance sheet ("Asphalt Shingle Roofing and the 2020 Minnesota Residential Code," Construction Codes and Licensing Division): "Ice barrier protection at eaves is required in Minnesota," extending "from the eave's edge to a point at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line of the building." Bloomington has no authority to opt out of this (Minn. Stat. § 326B.121, subd. 2(c)). Garages: Bloomington's own FAQ adds a garage-specific answer: "Is an ice barrier required for roofing or reroofing a garage? An ice barrier is required for all attached garages and for all detached heated garages" -- implying detached unheated garages are exempt. Because ice-barrier applicability is state-governed code content that cities cannot vary, confirm the treatment of a detached unheated garage with the Building and Inspections Division before bidding it either way..

Is drip edge required?

Not required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Minnesota Rules part 1309.0905, subpart 2 deletes base IRC Section R905.2.8.5 (the drip-edge section) "in its entirety." A Minnesota DLI consumer guidance sheet states plainly, under a "Drip edge" heading: "Drip edge is not required unless specifically required by the manufacturer's installation instructions." This is a Minnesota state agency (DLI) publication, not a Bloomington-specific interpretation, and Bloomington has no authority to require drip edge beyond this state baseline (Minn. Stat. § 326B.121, subd. 2(c)). The PDF is hosted on the City of Plymouth's website as a resident resource, but it is a state DLI-authored, DLI-branded document rather than Plymouth-specific guidance. Confirmed at the city level: Bloomington's own FAQ, in its "Roofing and reroofing" section, asks and answers "Do I need a drip edge on my roof?" with: "It is recommended, but not required by the MN State Residential Code" -- Bloomington's own building department attributes the non-requirement explicitly to state code..

Is a mid-roof inspection required?

Not required — Bloomington's Building and Inspections FAQ page (read in full) and its two roofing handouts -- the Reroofing Information Sheet (rev. 06/23) and the Asphalt Roofing Shingles Information Sheet (rev. 04/15) -- contain no mid-roof inspection requirement. The FAQ's "Roofing and reroofing" section, read in full, covers the permit trigger, sheathing condition, layer limit, wind rating, venting, and drip edge, with no question about a required inspection at any stage of a reroof. This is a direct structural contrast within the same FAQ page: the adjacent "Siding and house wrap" section explicitly requires a house wrap inspection "prior to installing the new siding," and a separate stucco/stone question lists "Lath, house wrap, and final inspections" -- showing the city does publish mid-project inspection stages where they exist, but publishes none for roofing. The city's general Construction Guidelines Information Sheet, also read in full, lists a new-construction inspection sequence -- footing, foundation, framing, insulation, and final -- with no reroofing-specific stage and no deck, sheathing, or dry-in inspection named anywhere. The Permit Information and Fees page and the Code Information and Handouts page, both read in full, list a Residential Roofing permit fee and the full handout catalog but no roofing-specific inspection checklist comparable to the Electrical Inspection Checklist the city publishes for that trade. No published Bloomington instrument names a sheathing, deck, dry-in, or in-progress inspection stage for a residential reroof; only a permit-triggering condition and an implied final inspection (common to all building permits) are documented..

Do roofing contractors need a license or registration in Bloomington, MN?

Required. Minnesota has a statewide mandatory Residential Roofer (RR) license, per Minn. Stat. § 326B.805, subd. 1: "A person who meets the definition of a residential roofer as defined in section 326B.802, subdivision 14, must be licensed by the commissioner as a residential roofer, residential building contractor, or residential remodeler," enforced statewide (subd. 3) with a $15,000 gross-annual-receipts exemption threshold (subd. 6(5)) that still requires an affirmative Certificate of Exemption from the state, not an automatic pass. Roofing is explicitly excluded from the general single-special-skill exemption that applies to other trades (subd. 6(8)). This is administered by MN DLI, not the City of Bloomington. At the city layer there is no additional roofing license: Bloomington's own "Contractor licensing and testing" page states the city's local licensing/testing regime is scoped to mechanical trades only: "The Building and Inspection Division licenses mechanical trade contractors annually and conducts quarterly trade testing," and lists the covered trades as Gas Installer Class A, HVAC, Hot Water/Steam, Oil Burner, and Refrigeration -- roofing is not among them. Bloomington's FAQ page separately confirms: "most residential building contractors, re-modelers, roofers and manufactured home installers obtain state licenses" (through MN DLI), while only "mechanical, HVAC, and gas-related work in Bloomington must obtain a contractor license through the Building and Inspections division." Bloomington therefore imposes NO additional city-level roofing contractor license on top of the state RR license..

What building code does Bloomington, MN use?

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Bloomington has no authority to adopt a different building code from the Minnesota State Building Code: Minn. Stat. § 326B.121, subd. 1(a)-(b) makes the State Building Code "the standard that applies statewide" and states it "supersedes the building code of any municipality," and subd. 2(c) bars a municipality from requiring "building code provisions regulating components or systems of any structure that are different from any provision of the State Building Code" by ordinance. The residential chapter is Minnesota Rules, Chapter 1309 ("Minnesota Residential Code"), which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) by reference "except as qualified by the applicable provisions in Minnesota Rules, chapter 1300, and as amended in this chapter" (Minn. R. 1309.0010, subpart 1), effective as the "2020 Minnesota Residential Code" published 2020-03-31. Bloomington, as a metro-area municipality that adopted the State Building Code before 2008, is required under Minn. Stat. § 326B.121, subd. 2(a) to continue administering and enforcing this same statewide code -- it has no local variance authority over code content.