City of Bowling Green Building Division

City of Bowling Green, Kentucky

city

707 E. Main Avenue, Bowling Green, KY 42101

Not required

Required

The 2015 International Residential Code as amended by the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition (August 2024), the mandatory statewide residential code under 815 KAR 7:125 section 2(1), effective 12-3-2024. Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar the City of Bowling Green from adopting or enforcing any other building code, or any additional or contradictory building-construction standard, for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses; only the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction may amend the code, and its amendments are effective statewide (KRS 198B.080(2)). The City's own Building Division page confirms it reviews plans "for design compliance with the requirements of the Kentucky Building Code" and, on its Information for Builders page, "the Kentucky Division of Building Codes Enforcement." One statewide carve-out applies as everywhere in Kentucky: KRS 198B.010(4) excludes from "building" a farm dwelling or farm structure "located outside the boundary of a municipality" that is not retail, not a workplace for ten or more, and not timber storage -- not relevant inside Bowling Green's own city limits, but relevant to any adjoining unincorporated land a reader might confuse with the City's jurisdiction.

Required — Kentucky's own enacted amendment, KRC R905.2.8.5, read in full: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and gables of shingle roofs. Adjacent pieces of drip edge shall be overlapped a minimum of 2 inches ... Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the roof deck at a maximum of 12 inches on center ... Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge on gables." Kentucky adds an alternate-methods allowance in the same section: "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." KRC R101.3/R102.2 bar the City of Bowling Green from varying this requirement. About drip edge

Not required — The City's own Progress Inspections page lists the full required-inspection sequence for a permitted construction project: "Footing, Excavation, Foundation, Under Floor, Concrete Floors, Framing or Structure, Vent/Duct, Rough-In, Energy, Sprinkler System, Plumbing ... HVAC Inspections ... Lath / Gypsum Wall Board, Penetrations, Right of Way, Sidewalks / Drives, Final." Read in full, that sequence names no roof-covering or mid-roof stage. The state instrument agrees: Kentucky's amendments to IRC R109 Inspections name no roof-covering stage either. This describes the inspection stages that exist for a permitted project in Bowling Green; it does not resolve whether a reroof itself requires a permit at all (see repair_permit_threshold).

Not required — A counted negative across both Kentucky state code packets: "UL 2218," "Class 4," "Class IV," "impact," and "hail" each occur zero times across the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code (187,543 characters) and the 2018 Kentucky Building Code (478,874 characters). Kentucky Residential Code R102.2 -- "a local ordinance shall not establish any additional or contradictory building construction standard than those adopted in this code" -- closes the question at the local level too, so the City of Bowling Green cannot add an impact-resistance mandate of its own.

The City's own Info for Homeowners page, read in full, lists "Replacing shingles" among a set of projects for which "Building Permits may not be required," alongside "Painting or Finishing," "Replacing countertops or cabinets," and "Other minor repairs." The same page draws the opposite line for structural work: "Alterations not changing structural form of a building may not require a permit, but Alterations that change structural form of a building require a Building Permit," and lists as examples of structural alteration "Tearing down walls," "Construction of new wall(s)," and "Covering existing means of egress, doors or entryways." So on the City's own published guidance, an ordinary shingle re-roof sits on the no-permit side of the line, while work replacing roof deck or framing -- a structural component -- would fall on the permit side, though no City page names roof decking or rafters specifically. Separately, the City's general Building Permit definition (Permit Applications page) reads broadly: "A building permit is required by the city to construct, enlarge, alter, repair or demolish a structure or equipment installed in a building or to change the use of a building." That general "repair" language is not qualified on that page to exclude shingle replacement; the homeowner-facing page is the City's more specific statement on the point. This record does not resolve any tension between the two beyond stating both. Kentucky's own statutes cut the same way at the state level: KRS 198B.010(21) defines "ordinary repair" to include, by name, "the replacement ... of nonstructural components of the building such as roofing ... that does not alter the structural integrity," and KRS 198B.010(11) excludes "ordinary repair" from "construction," to which KRS 198B.060(8) attaches the permit requirement. Call the Building Division at 270-393-3615 or 270-393-3676 to confirm treatment of a specific reroof.

Basic ultimate wind speed V_ult 115 mph for all Kentucky counties, including Warren County (where Bowling Green sits), per Kentucky's own replacement Table R301.2(1) (rendered from the state's published 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition). Ground snow load is the one per-county figure in that table: Warren County is not among the counties the table lists at 20 psf (Boone, Boyd, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Floyd, Gallatin, Grant, Greenup, Henry, Kenton, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Martin, Mason, Trimble), so the table's default 15 psf applies. Weathering is SEVERE and termite protection MODERATE TO HEAVY for all Kentucky counties per the same table. Footnote d warns that Section 301.2.1.3 converts the ultimate figure to a nominal design wind speed, V_asd, for methods that expect the nominal basis -- this record states the ultimate 115 mph figure as Kentucky's table gives it and does not convert it.

Kentucky's 2018 Kentucky Residential Code amendment packet, read in full and counted (187,543 characters), amends nothing in the reroofing section: "R908" occurs zero times, and Chapter 9 of the packet contains only one operative provision, R905.2.8.5 Drip edge. IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in the packet's table of contents at all. Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar the City of Bowling Green from adopting or enforcing any different or additional standard on this point. This record points to the base 2015 IRC's reroofing section as the provision that applies, without quoting or classifying its operative content, which has not been separately re-opened for this record.

No state amendment reaches roof sheathing. Kentucky's residential code amendment packet, read in full, contains zero occurrences of "R802" or "R803," and IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in the packet's table of contents at all (the packet's own table of contents runs Chapters 1-7, 9, 11, 13-20, 24-44). Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar the City of Bowling Green from adopting a different local requirement. The base 2015 IRC Chapter 8 roof-sheathing provisions apply unmodified.

6.00%, statewide, with no local component anywhere in Kentucky -- Kentucky's Department of Revenue states plainly, "There are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky." KRS 139.200 imposes "a tax ... upon all retailers at the rate of six percent (6%) of the gross receipts." The roofing contractor, not the homeowner, is the taxed party at the point of purchase: 103 KAR 26:070 section 2(1) makes "all sales to contractors, subcontractors, builders, or owners of building materials, fixtures, and supplies which are to be incorporated ... into any structure or improvement to real estate by the process of erecting, remodeling, replacing, or repairing the structure" taxable "at the time of sale to the contractor," and that regulation's own trade and materials lists name "Roofing" specifically (Section 1(2)(a) item 8; Section 1(6)(k)). A Bowling Green roofing contractor does not hold a resale permit and does not charge sales tax on the finished job; the finished construction is real property, not a retail sale.