City of Champaign Building Safety Division

City of Champaign, Illinois

city

102 North Neil St., Champaign, IL 61820

Required

Required

PORTAL. The City moved to an online permit application portal on January 1, 2025; permits are applied for and tracked there rather than over the counter. REVIEW. One- and two-family permits are reviewed simultaneously by three City departments, with an estimated five business days from receipt of a complete application. FEES. New one-family construction is $345 under 2,500 gross square feet or $435 at or above it; two-family is $375 or $470; an "Addition/Alteration," the category a reroof falls into, is $6 per $1,000 of construction cost, with a stated $45 minimum permit fee. INSPECTIONS. The portal is used to view and request required inspections, with the City asking "a minimum of twenty-four (24) hours' notice." Where the existing roof already carries three or more layers of any covering, a registered design professional's evaluation must be submitted and approved before installation starts (Sec. R908.2.1), unless the sheathing and framing are being replaced in their entirety on each slope being reroofed.

THE 2021 INTERNATIONAL CODES, WITH A LOCAL AMENDMENT PACKAGE READ IN FULL. Municipal Code Sec. 9-157(a), adopted by C.B. No. 2024-002 (Jan. 9, 2024), adopts by reference the 2021 International Building Code, 2021 International Existing Building Code, 2021 International Residential Code, 2021 International Mechanical Code, 2021 International Fuel Gas Code, 2021 International Fire Code, 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, the 2020 National Electrical Code (NFPA 70), the Illinois Plumbing Code, the Illinois Energy Conservation Code and the Illinois Accessibility Code, effective for permits submitted on or after February 1, 2024. Sec. 9-157(c) states the local amendments are filed "in the City Clerk's Office," but the City also publishes the same amendment package itself, captioned "2021 INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE - CITY OF CHAMPAIGN ADDITIONS, DELETIONS AND AMENDMENTS" (97 pages), and it was read chapter by chapter for this record. Illinois itself supplies no statewide residential building code reaching an existing house (Capital Development Board FAQ: "The State has not adopted a building code for repairs to existing single family residences."); Champaign's own adoption and amendment ordinance is the entire basis for every code-content field below.

Required — Required by the base 2021 IRC, unamended locally. The City's own amendment package touches Chapter 9 in only two places, R903.4.1 (drainage) and a new R908.2.1 (an evaluation trigger for legacy three-plus-layer roofs); Section R905, which carries the base drip-edge requirement, is not amended, added to or deleted. The base 2021 IRC provision therefore applies unmodified. About drip edge

Required — The City's own amendment package replaces Table R301.2 (Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria) wholesale to fill in Champaign's local values, and the filled row lists "ICE BARRIER UNDERLAYMENT REQUIRED" as YES. The table's own footnote h explains what that means: "In accordance with Sections R905.1.2, R905.4.3.1, R905.5.3.1, R905.6.3.1, R905.7.3.1 and R905.8.3.1, where there has been a history of local damage from the effects of ice damming, the jurisdiction shall fill in this part of the table with 'YES.'" Champaign has made that finding for the whole city. About ice & water barrier

Not required — Neither the State nor the City imposes an impact-resistance (hail/Class 4/UL 2218) roof covering requirement. Illinois statute and administrative rule read for the state lever contain zero occurrences of UL 2218, Class IV or hail. The City's own 97-page IRC amendment package, read in full, likewise contains no occurrence of any of those terms or of "impact-resistant"; its only Chapter 9 amendments are a drainage-provision replacement and an added evaluation trigger for legacy over-layered roofs, neither of which touches covering material class.

A NARROW MINOR-REPAIR CARVE-OUT; RECOVERING OR REPLACING THE ROOF NEEDS A PERMIT. The City's own amendments to the 2021 IRC replace Section R105.2 "Work exempt from permit" and add, as item 15, "Roof repair at a maximum of 4 square feet (0.4 m2) per affected area." The amendment package's own commentary explains the line: "a building permit is not required for minor roof repair (minor repair work such as replacing a missing shingle or patching a small area of roof membrane). Minor roof repair is distinguished from roof recovering and roof replacement." The same package adds a definition of "ROOF REPAIR" to Section R202: "Reconstruction or renewal of any part of an existing roof for the purposes of its maintenance. ... Roof repair shall consist of the replacement of damaged or missing shingles, adding a patch to an existing roof covering, or applying a roof coating to extend the life of the existing roof covering." Anything past that 4-square-foot line, including an ordinary recover or tear-off replacement, is not exempt. The City's One and Two Family Permit Information page prices an "Addition/Alteration" (the category a reroof falls into, not being new construction) at "$6 per $1,000 of construction costs," with a stated minimum permit fee of $45.

THE CITY'S OWN FILLED-IN TABLE, NOT A BORROWED STATE FIGURE. The City's amendment package replaces Table R301.2 (Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria) with Champaign-specific values: basic wind speed 107 mph (wind exposure category to be determined on a site-specific basis under Section R301.2.1.4), topographic wind speed-up effects "NO," no special wind region, no windborne debris zone, Seismic Design Category B, ground snow load 20 psf, weathering "SEVERE," frost line depth 32 inches, and termite hazard "moderate to heavy." The City's amendments also replace Section R802.11 (Roof tie uplift resistance) to require a continuous load path from rafter or truss ties to the foundation on every roof assembly, with a table-based or prescriptive exception only where the basic wind speed does not exceed 115 mph, exposure is B, roof pitch is 5:12 or greater, and roof span is 32 feet or less.

THE BASE 2021 IRC BAR, UNTOUCHED, PLUS ONE LOCAL ADDITION FOR LEGACY OVER-LAYERED ROOFS. The City's own amendment package amends nothing in the base rule at 2021 IRC R908.3.1.1, which bars a roof recover, among other conditions, "Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." The City's package touches only two places in Chapter 9: it replaces R903.4.1 (a drainage/scupper provision, unrelated to layer counts) and it ADDS a new Section R908.2.1, "Evaluation": "Where the existing roof has three or more applications of any type of roof covering, the building official shall require the roof assembly and supporting construction to be investigated and evaluated by a registered design professional," submitted and approved before installation starts, with an exception where the roof sheathing and framing are replaced in their entirety on each slope being reroofed. That provision reaches only a legacy roof that already carries three or more layers (which R908.3.1.1 would otherwise have already stopped at two); it does not raise or lower the two-layer bar itself.

THE BASE 2021 IRC CHAPTER 8 PROVISIONS, UNAMENDED. The City's own amendment package touches Chapter 8 (Roof-Ceiling Construction) in exactly one place, Section R802.11 Roof tie uplift resistance, which does not address sheathing. Roof sheathing, Section R803, is not amended, added to or deleted anywhere in the package. The base 2021 International Residential Code's Section R803 therefore governs roof sheathing in Champaign unmodified; this record does not restate its content, since nobody on this record read the base ICC text itself.

ILLINOIS TAXES THE ROOFER'S MATERIALS, NOT THE JOB, AND THE RATE THAT APPLIES IS THE ONE AT THE SUPPLIER'S OR THE CONTRACTOR'S PLACE OF BUSINESS, NOT THE CHAMPAIGN JOB ADDRESS. Under 86 Ill. Adm. Code 130.1940(c), a construction contractor "does not incur Retailers' Occupation Tax liability as to receipts from labor ... and tangible personal property ... incorporated into a structure," and instead "incurs Use Tax on the cost price of the tangible personal property that is incorporated into real estate" -- with "roofing materials" named among the examples at 130.1940(c)(1). Section 130.1940(a)(3) defines "Construct" to include "repair," so a patch, a recover and a full tear-off are taxed identically; there is no separate repair-versus-replacement rate. The statewide floor is 6.25% (86 Ill. Adm. Code 130.101(c)(1)). This record does not publish a single combined Champaign percentage, because the applicable combined rate depends on the supplier's or the contractor's own business address, which can lie inside or outside Champaign's home-rule boundary; check the specific address against the Illinois Department of Revenue's own MyTax Illinois Tax Rate Finder before pricing a job.