City of Carlsbad, New Mexico - Building Department

City of Carlsbad, New Mexico

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201 S. South Halagueno Street, Carlsbad, NM 88220

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The Building Department is in the Carlsbad Municipal Annex, 201 S. South Halagueno Street, Carlsbad, NM 88220; phone (575) 887-1191, fax (575) 628-8379. Staff named by the City: Nick Sullivan, Deputy Director of Technical Services/Building; Amber Crow, Building Permit Technician (ext. 3223); James Moyers, Building Plans Examiner (ext. 3281); Melita Cortez, Building Inspector (ext. 3280); Mark Woody, Electrical Inspector (ext. 3279). The City states that "A building, mechanical, plumbing and/or electrical permit is required prior to the start of construction or work," and that the department "oversees plan reviews, permits, and safety inspections for commercial and residential projects." Applications go through the City's Online Permitting System, which is used to "Submit permits, request inspections, and renew registrations"; the City also publishes its permit types and permit fees as year-by-year document sets. Building permit fees are set by ordinance at a discount to the adopted fee table: Code of Ordinances Sec. 8-27 amends the adopted building code so that "The building permit fees shall be 50 percent of the listed fee on Table No. 3-A, Building Fee; based on total valuation." Enforcement is by the city building inspector under Sec. 8-28, and a violation of the adopted building code is a misdemeanor punishable under Sec. 1-6 (Sec. 8-29). On the roofing side specifically, the statewide permitting rule that Carlsbad's enforced-codes list points to describes itself at 14.5.2.6 NMAC as setting permitting standards "in New Mexico as the statewide minimum standard," and at 14.5.2.8.E NMAC provides "(1) All new roof installations and re-roofs require building permits and inspections. (2) All applications of roof coating systems require building permits and inspections. (3) Inspections must include, at a minimum, decking inspection upon removal of existing roof and the roof system or application of roof coating systems as a final inspection upon completion of roofing project." That rule's own scope clause at 14.5.2.2 NMAC reads "This rule applies to all work performed in New Mexico that is subject to the jurisdiction of CID for which permits are required," and Carlsbad administers its own permits, so how far the decking-inspection sentence binds a Carlsbad-issued permit is a question for the City's building inspector; Carlsbad publishes no roofing inspection schedule of its own. Contractors must be currently licensed by the Construction Industries Division to be issued a permit at all (14.5.2.8.B NMAC).

Three instruments have to be read together here, and they do not all print the same edition year. STATE LAYER, and the operative one for residential work: the 2021 New Mexico Residential Building Code, 14.7.3 NMAC. 14.7.3.8 provides "This rule adopts by reference the 2021 International Residential Code, as amended by this rule," and 14.7.3.6 states its purpose is "to establish minimum standards for the general construction of residential buildings in New Mexico" - a floor a municipality may add to but not fall below. Under 14.7.3.5 the rule took effect July 14, 2023 and after December 14, 2023 permits may be issued only under it; statutory authority is NMSA 1978 §§ 60-13-9 and 60-13-44. CITY LAYER, as currently published by the department: the Building Department's own page states "The City of Carlsbad currently enforces the following codes:" and lists "City of Carlsbad Zoning Ordinances," "2021 International Residential Code," "2021 International Building Code," "2021 Uniform Plumbing Code," "2021 Uniform Mechanical Code," "2020 National Electrical Code," "2021 International Existing Building Code," "2021 International Energy Conservation Code," "2021 International Fire Code," "New Mexico Administration Codes" and "Comcheck.web," with the "New Mexico Administration Codes" entry linking to the Construction Industries Division's rules-laws-and-building-codes page. Those editions match what 14.7.3 NMAC and its companion state rules currently put in force. CITY LAYER, as codified: Carlsbad's Code of Ordinances Chapter 8 has not been resupplemented to the 2021 editions and still carries older adoptions. Sec. 8-1 (Codes adopted) provides "The city has adopted the following codes as published, adopted, and amended by the State of New Mexico Administrative Code:" and then lists, among others, "(1) New Mexico Commercial Building Code, 2009 Edition" and "(8) New Mexico Residential Building Code, 2009 Edition," followed by a second list adopted "as published, adopted and amended by the State of New Mexico Administrative Code, as it may be amended by the state from time to time" covering the 2014 New Mexico Electrical Code, the 2012 New Mexico Electrical Safety Code, the 2012 Uniform Pool, Spa, Hot Tub Code and the 2012 Uniform Solar Energy Code. Separately, Sec. 8-26 (Adoption) still adopts "the Uniform Building Code, 1991 Edition, published by the International Conference of Building Officials, including Appendix Chapters 11, 12, 32, 35, 49, 53, 55 and 57 … as the building code of the city," amended by Sec. 8-27 only as to fees - "The building permit fees shall be 50 percent of the listed fee on Table No. 3-A, Building Fee; based on total valuation" - and enforced under Sec. 8-28 by "the city building inspector." HOW THEY FIT: what actually governs a Carlsbad residential re-roof is the state rule. Sec. 8-1 adopts the state's codes by reference to the State of New Mexico Administrative Code rather than reprinting text of its own, and 14.7.3.5 independently makes the 2021 rule the only code under which a permit may now be issued anywhere in New Mexico; the department's published enforced-codes list says the same thing. The stale edition years in the codified chapter are a supplement-lag artifact, not a live competing residential code, and they do not lower the state floor. Sec. 8-30 confirms the local chapter is meant to be read cumulatively with the City's other ordinances, in force "to the extent that their provisions require a higher standard of workmanship and safety than the building code, it being the intention of the council that the building code and the foregoing ordinances shall all be read and construed together."

Not required — Checked at both layers a Carlsbad residential re-roof actually runs through, and neither imposes an impact-resistance requirement. CITY LAYER: Carlsbad's Code of Ordinances Chapter 8 (Buildings and Building Regulations), Secs. 8-1 through 8-160 - Article I In General, Article II Building Code, Article III Housing Code, Article IV Moving Buildings and Structures, Article V Flood Damage Prevention, Article VI Mechanical Code and Article VII Plumbing Code, which together are the complete local building-code adoption and administration chapter - was read in full, and no provision anywhere in it addresses impact resistance, UL 2218 or Class 4 roofing; the chapter's substance is code adoption by reference, enforcement by the city building inspector, penalties, building-moving permits and bonds, and floodplain management. The Building Department's own published list of enforced codes likewise names only model codes and the City's zoning ordinances, with no impact-rating overlay. STATE LAYER: the 2021 New Mexico Residential Building Code, 14.7.3 NMAC, contains no impact-resistance requirement - no UL 2218 or Class 4 provision appears anywhere in the rule, and its Chapter 9 amendments at 14.7.3.17 NMAC concern roof replacement and tear-off, flashing and reglets, canales and scuppers, taper board at deck transitions and the exclusion of pumice and granular fill, not impact rating. New Mexico's rule is a floor (14.7.3.6: "minimum standards"), so state silence alone would not settle the question for a city - it is settled here because Carlsbad's own chapter and its own enforced-codes list were read and are silent too.

Two layers maximum, plus four mandatory tear-off triggers - a statewide New Mexico requirement that reaches Carlsbad through the 2021 New Mexico Residential Building Code the City enforces. New Mexico's residential code deletes IRC Section R908.3 (Roof replacement) outright and substitutes its own text. 14.7.3.17 NMAC (Chapter 9 Roof Assemblies), § D, provides verbatim: "New roof coverings shall not be installed without first removing existing roof coverings where any of the following conditions occur: (1) 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. (2) The existing roof covering is wood shake, slate, clay, cement, or asbestos-cement tile. (3) The existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering. (4) Where pumice or other granular fill are present, the material must be removed prior to installing a new roof." Condition (3) is the layer cap: once a roof carries two applications of any covering, the next re-roof must be a full tear-off, so no more than two total layers may ever exist. Conditions (1), (2) and (4) force a tear-off regardless of how many layers are present - notably (4), which is aimed at the pumice and granular fill common on older flat and low-slope roofs in southeastern New Mexico. The same state section bars that material from going back on, adding new Section R904.5: "Pumice and other granular fill type materials are not permitted in roof assemblies." Carlsbad neither raises nor lowers this. The City's Code of Ordinances Chapter 8 (Buildings and Building Regulations), Articles I through VII, was read in full and contains no roof-covering, re-roofing or layer provision of the City's own; New Mexico's rule is a floor (14.7.3.6, "minimum standards"), so the state text stands as the operative limit in Carlsbad.

New Mexico levies no sales tax. What attaches to a roofing job in Carlsbad is the gross receipts tax (GRT), imposed on the seller's receipts rather than on the buyer's purchase - the Taxation and Revenue Department states that "Gross receipts tax (GRT) is imposed on businesses, but it is common for a business to pass the GRT on to the purchaser." The total GRT rate for Carlsbad is 7.3958%, under GRT Location Code 03-106 (Eddy County), in the July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027 edition of the Department's designated location-code and tax-rate publication. Rates are keyed to location codes rather than to city names, and they are reissued semiannually. As the Department puts it, "GRT rate varies throughout the state because the total rate combines the rates imposed by the state, counties, and municipality for each location." For a roofing contractor the governing code is the one covering the job site rather than the office: "businesses will use the location code and tax rate corresponding to the location where their goods or the product of their service are delivered." The Department publishes the current rates as an interactive map - "Identify the appropriate GRT Location Code and tax rate by clicking on the map at the location of interest" - and cautions that users should "Please consult local authorities where appropriate to confirm GRT Location Codes and tax rates."