City of Carmel, Indiana - Department of Community Services, Building and Code Services (Building Safety Office)

City of Carmel, Indiana

city

One Civic Square, Carmel, IN 46032

Permits in Carmel are issued as Improvement Location Permits (ILPs). The Carmel Building Safety Office processes, reviews and issues all building permits within the city and performs all building inspections, applying the building codes adopted by the State of Indiana; residential applications are filed through the city's online permitting portal. Carmel's guidance places the duty on the property owner to obtain the improvement permits required by the State of Indiana, Hamilton County or the City of Carmel, covering electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, structural and life-safety work. Whether a like-for-like asphalt shingle re-roof with no structural work is itself an ILP-triggering activity in Carmel is a city administrative question, not a state code question -- permit administration is the one area IC 22-13-2-3 does not preempt, and Indiana jurisdictions differ on it (Allen County, for example, exempts re-roofing from its residential permit requirement). Carmel's own published answer was not obtained, so no permit-trigger value is stated here.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Carmel enforces the statewide Indiana Residential Code adopted by the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission at 675 IAC 14-4.4, titled the "2020 Indiana Residential Code," which incorporates by reference "that certain document being titled the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017, published by the International Code Council ... save and except those revisions made in this rule" (675 IAC 14-4.4-1). The rule was filed as Final Rule LSA Document #19-330(F) on 2019-11-26 and took effect 30 days later on 2019-12-26, repealing the prior 675 IAC 14-4.3. It remains the edition in force: the commission's 2025 Readoption Review (LSA Document #24-566, Indiana Register 20250903-IR-675240566RAA) reaffirmed 675 IAC 14-4.4 rather than superseding it, and IC 22-12-2.5-4(a) bars the commission from updating a building code to a new edition earlier than five years after that code's effective date. Carmel's own Building Safety Office states the same thing from the city side: residential projects must be designed and built to the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, comprising the 2018 International Residential Code and the 2020 Indiana Amendments.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and unconditional -- required at both eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs everywhere in Indiana including Carmel. The governing provision is 2018 IRC Section R905.2.8.5: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. Adjacent segments of drip edge shall be overlapped not less than 2 inches. Drip edges shall extend not less than 1/4 inch below the roof sheathing and extend up back onto the roof deck not less than 2 inches. Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the roof deck at not more than 12 inches o.c. ... Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge along rake edges." Indiana adopts this text unamended: R905.2.8.5 does not appear among the numbered amendment sections of 675 IAC 14-4.4, whose only edits in this neighbourhood are cosmetic (675 IAC 14-4.4-85 deletes the word "approved" from R905.2.6 Attachment; 675 IAC 14-4.4-86 deletes "approved" from R905.2.8 Flashing; 675 IAC 14-4.4-87 deletes "printed" from R905.2.8.4 Other flashing). Note the contrast with Minnesota, which deletes R905.2.8.5 outright -- in Indiana the drip-edge mandate is live and does not depend on the shingle manufacturer's instructions. About drip edge

Not required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and county-conditional -- Carmel is in Hamilton County, which the Indiana-amended IRC Table R301.2(1) at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 marks "Ice Shield Underlayment Required: No." An ice barrier is therefore NOT categorically mandated by the table in Carmel, unlike the northern lake-effect counties (for example Allen County / Fort Wayne, marked Yes). It can still be required in Carmel by a second, independent route: the Indiana State Building Commissioner's guidance memo "Ice/Water Shield & Metal Drip Edge in Class 2 Construction with Asphalt Shingles" (Craig E. Burgess, AIA NCARB CPE CBI LEED AP, 2020-02-25) explains that two layers of rule combine -- "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1)), and specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it (per Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1)." Hamilton County falls in the second group, and most major shingle manufacturers' written instructions do call for an ice barrier in central Indiana. Where it is required, 2018 IRC Section R905.1.2 governs its extent: the barrier "shall consist of not fewer than two layers of underlayment cemented together, or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet ... and extend from the lowest edges of all roof surfaces to a point not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line of the building," with an exception for "detached accessory structures not containing conditioned floor area." About ice & water barrier

Not required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Neither 675 IAC 14-4.4 (the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, adopting the 2018 IRC) nor its Indiana amendments impose a UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-resistance requirement on roof coverings, and Carmel's own Codes & Ordinances page, which lists the city's adopted model codes, names no additional impact-resistance requirement. Carmel has no authority to add one by ordinance (IC 22-13-2-3(c)).

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET -- applies identically in Carmel as everywhere else in Hamilton County and, for wind speed, everywhere else in Indiana. 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 deletes IRC TABLE R301.2(1) (CLIMATIC AND GEOGRAPHIC DESIGN CRITERIA) and replaces it with an Indiana table filled in county by county. Design wind speed is 115 MPH in all 92 Indiana counties, with no county deviating, so 115 MPH is the Carmel figure. The Hamilton County row of that table reads: 115 MPH design wind speed; Seismic Design Category A; 20 PSF ground snow load; 30-inch frost/foundation depth; 2 degrees F winter design temperature; Ice Shield Underlayment Required: No. Wind exposure category is not a state or city lever -- it is determined site-specifically under IRC Section R301.2.1.4.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. The governing provision in Carmel is 2018 IRC Section R905.2.1 (Sheathing requirements for asphalt shingles), which requires asphalt shingles to be fastened to solidly sheathed decks. Indiana adopts it unamended: a search of the full numbered amendment list in the 675 IAC 14-4.4 Final Rule found no Indiana amendment to R905.2.1, so the base 2018 IRC text controls and Carmel has no authority to add to it (IC 22-13-2-3). Because Indiana does not restate this section in its own rule and the ICC text is behind the ICC paywall, the requirement is given here by section and substance rather than as an extended verbatim quotation.

7.00% in Carmel -- the Indiana state sales and use tax rate, with no county or municipal add-on. Indiana authorises no local-option general sales tax, so neither Hamilton County nor the City of Carmel levies anything on top of the state rate, and 7.00% is the full rate a roofing contractor pays on materials purchased in Carmel.