Boone County Building Department

Boone County, Kentucky

county

2950 Washington Street, 3rd Floor, Burlington, KY 41005

Required

2015 International Residential Code, as amended by the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code (Third Edition, August 2024), the mandatory statewide residential code for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses under 815 KAR 7:125 section 2(1). The code's own R101.3 states that "local governments shall not adopt or enforce any other building code for detached single family dwellings, two-family dwellings and townhouses," and R102.2 bars a local ordinance from establishing "any additional or contradictory building construction standard" than this code -- so no Boone County or city-specific technical amendment exists to look for. (The Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction's own download page mislabels this document "2018 Kentucky Residential Code, 3rd Edition"; the base edition it amends is the 2015 IRC, per 815 KAR 7:125 section 2(1) and the code's own preface.) Chapter 9 of the state amendment packet was read in full and its only content is R905.2.8.5 Drip edge; it amends nothing on layer count, ice barriers, or impact resistance, and IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in its table of contents at all. KRS 198B.010(4) excludes a qualifying farm dwelling or farm building outside a municipality's boundary from the code's definition of "building" entirely. Enforcement is a separate, local question: KRS 198B.060(1) makes permits, inspections and certificates of occupancy not mandatory for a single-family dwelling unless the local government passes an ordinance requiring them, and the state is barred from filling that gap (KRS 198B.060(4)(b)).

Required — Required, under Kentucky's own enacted amendment at KRC R905.2.8.5, which also states a state-specific alternate-methods allowance: "Alternate methods to the standard metal drip edge may include site formed coil stock that creates a drip line as intended by the code. Wood, composite, and manufactured trim installed on the fascia shall create a drip line to prevent water from running back under the shingles, which will meet the requirements of the drip edge." This is Kentucky's own enacted text, not a base-IRC pointer, and applies identically in every Boone County jurisdiction under R101.3's bar on local variation. About drip edge

Not required — No mid-roof or roof-covering inspection stage was found. Kentucky's own amended R109 Inspections section names no roof-covering inspection stage. Boone County's own published list of residential inspection types -- covering additions, decks, engineered metal awnings, finished basements, garages, HVAC, in-ground pools, porch roofs and covered porches, pole barns, residential demolition, retaining walls, rooftop solar panels, sheds, and new single- family dwelling construction (footer, foundation or slab, vapor barrier and insulation, interior frame and fire block, apron/sidewalk, and final) -- likewise names no separate roof-covering inspection stage. "Porch Roof and Covered Porch Post Holes" is a porch- construction inspection, not a roof-covering inspection.

Not required

No dollar-value exemption for roof repair was found in Boone County's own instruments. Its Building Permit Exemptions page -- read in full as the county's own stated complete list of "common projects that do not need a permit in Boone County" -- names agricultural shade cloth structures, certain window awnings, fences under 7 feet, cosmetic finishing work, small movable furniture and partitions, oil derricks, small prefabricated above-ground pools, retaining walls under 4 feet, certain sidewalks and driveways, small detached structures under 200 square feet, playground equipment, temporary event structures, water tanks, and qualifying farm structures; roofing is not among them. The county's own residential fee schedule prices repair work generically rather than by dollar threshold: an "Alteration and Repair Fee" of $20 per square foot with a $50 minimum, and a separate "Minor Repairs" line at the same $50 minimum based on $20 per square foot. Working without a required permit doubles the fee, per Boone County Ordinance 930.9. Separately, at the state level, KRS 198B.010(21) classes "roofing" by name as a "nonstructural" example of "ordinary repair," and KRS 198B.010(11) excludes ordinary repair from the statutory definition of "construction," to which the state's own permit trigger (KRS 198B.060(8)) attaches -- while the Kentucky Residential Code's own permit-exempt list at R105.2 (nine building items: small sheds, fences, retaining walls, water tanks, sidewalks and driveways, finish work, playground equipment, window awnings, and small decks) does not name roofing either. This record states both the state and the county's own local facts without deciding how they interact.

From Kentucky's own replacement Table R301.2(1), Design Snow, Climatic and Geometric Design Criteria for Kentucky Counties (815 KAR 7:125): basic ultimate wind speed V_ult 115 mph for all Kentucky counties, with topographic effects to be investigated (footnote d notes a separate conversion to nominal design wind speeds, V_asd, at section 301.2.1.3 -- the ultimate figure should not be applied directly to a method expecting the nominal one). Boone County sits in the table's higher ground-snow-load group at 20 psf, rather than the 15 psf that applies to most Kentucky counties. Weathering is SEVERE and termite hazard is MODERATE TO HEAVY for all Kentucky counties under the same table; seismic design category follows Table R301.2.2.1.

Kentucky's own 2018 Kentucky Residential Code amendment packet was read in full and its only Chapter 9 content is R905.2.8.5 Drip edge; "R908" occurs zero times in the document, and IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in its table of contents. Neither the state instrument nor any Boone County ordinance amends the base code's reroofing section, and R101.3 bars any Kentucky local government from enacting a different one. The base 2015 IRC's own reroofing section, R908.3.1.1 Roof recover not allowed, bars a recover where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering," among other conditions -- so one existing layer of covering may be recovered and a second existing layer forces tear-off, on the base code's own terms.

Not amended anywhere in Kentucky. The state's 2018 Kentucky Residential Code amendment packet was read in full and IRC Chapter 8 (Roof-Ceiling Construction) does not appear in its table of contents, which runs Chapters 1 through 7, then 9, 11, 13 and up -- Chapter 8 is skipped entirely, and neither "R802" nor "R803" occurs anywhere in the document. KRC R101.3 and R102.2 bar a Boone County ordinance from adding a different roof-sheathing standard. The base 2015 IRC's Chapter 8 roof-sheathing provisions apply unmodified.

6.00%, statewide, with no local sales tax anywhere in Kentucky -- the Kentucky Department of Revenue states outright that "there are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky." Kentucky treats the roofing contractor as the consumer of materials, not the homeowner as the buyer of a finished good: 103 KAR 26:070 section 2(1) makes sales to contractors of "building materials, fixtures, and supplies" incorporated into real estate "by the process of erecting, remodeling, replacing, or repairing" subject to sales or use tax at the time of sale to the contractor, and that regulation's own trade and material enumerations name Roofing directly (item 8 of the covered trades, item (k) of the materials list). A Kentucky roofing contractor is not required to hold a retail sales tax permit and may not execute a resale certificate on materials bought for a job. Repair and replacement are taxed identically here; Kentucky has no capital- improvement distinction for construction materials.