Chatham County, Georgia - Department of Building Safety & Regulatory Services

Chatham County, Georgia

county

Savannah, GA

Required

Required

Chatham County permits the unincorporated area and any municipality that has agreed to be regulated by its Chapter 20, under section 20-105 - so establish which government you are in before applying; Savannah, for one, runs its own Development Services department. Roofing applications are made on the County's own Roofing Permit Application form and delivered to 1117 Eisenhower Drive, Savannah, GA 31406; the Department states that applications are accepted Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. only and that they cannot be accepted by fax or email. The form asks for the parcel identification number, which comes from the Tax Assessor's Office. Permit records and applications can be tracked through the County's eServices self-service portal. Fees are set by the County Revenue ordinance rather than by Chapter 20 itself; a non-refundable plan review fee is payable when plans are submitted under section 20-304, and section 20-303 doubles the fee, or charges $250, whichever is greater, where work starts before the permit is obtained. Separate permits are required for separate buildings. Section 20-213 requires health department and county engineer approval before a building permit issues where the site uses a septic tank or a well. An appeal from the Director of Building Safety goes to the nine-member Board of Adjustments and Appeals, must be in writing within five days of the decision and must be accompanied by a $100 fee; the Board must decide within thirty days or the Director's action stands. The Department also publishes a Post Storm Permit Issuance Procedure, which is worth reading before a hurricane season on this coast.

STATE-SET, LOCALLY ENFORCED. Georgia has no local code adoption to look up. The International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia Amendments 2026 is a mandatory state minimum standard code adopted by the Department of Community Affairs and effective January 1, 2026, and under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) it binds any structure built in Georgia whether or not the local government chooses to enforce it locally. Compliance is therefore statewide and automatic; what is local is enforcement. Chatham County does enforce it. Section 20-201 of the County Code adopts the standard codes published by the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association "as the regulations governing the construction of buildings and other structures in the County", and lists ten, taking the International Residential Code as "current edition as amended". That is a floating adoption, so the County moved to the 2024 editions on January 1, 2026 without passing an ordinance of its own. Section 20-211 then disposes of local residential amendments in a single line: "Residential Code Amendments as adopted by the State." APPENDIX U HAS NOT BEEN SHOWN TO BE ADOPTED, and the way the adopting section is written is the reason. Section 20-201 takes the International Building Code "including Appendices and current edition as amended" but attaches no appendices clause to any other code in the list, the Residential Code included. Nothing in Chapter 20, read in full, adopts an appendix to the Residential Code, so the optional Appendix U "Disaster Resilient Construction" has not been shown to apply here. Two local pointers a roofer should carry: Section 20-201 directs the reader to the Chatham County Flood Ordinance for building code requirements in flood hazard areas, which is a live question on this coast, and Section 20-105 limits the chapter to "the unincorporated areas of the County and those municipalities which make an agreement with the County governing authority to be regulated by the terms of this Ordinance". The adopting sections were last amended February 26, 2016.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT COUNTY-SET, and Chatham County disposes of the question in a single line of its own Code. The International Residential Code is one of the codes Georgia designates as a mandatory state minimum standard, so under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) it binds construction in Chatham County whether or not the County elects to enforce it locally. Section 20-201 of the County Code adopts the standard codes published by the International Code Council and the National Fire Protection Association "as the regulations governing the construction of buildings and other structures in the County", taking the "International Residential Code (IRC), current edition as amended" sixth of ten, and section 20-211 then reads in its entirety: "Residential Code Amendments as adopted by the State." So the County makes no residential amendments of its own; it takes Georgia's. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs amendment packet for the 2024 IRC carries no amendment to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies: the packet's full text is archived in this project and was measured rather than skimmed, at zero occurrences of any R9-hundred section number and zero of the phrase "Chapter 9". So the Chapter 9 drip-edge provision at Section R905.2.8.5 stands as written for Georgia. Chatham County's own building instrument was re-opened in full for this entry, not taken from an earlier report: Chapter 20, Building (Construction) Regulations, of the Chatham County Code Book, all sixteen pages and 27,798 characters of it, Articles I through IV and sections 20-101 through 20-402, searched on anchored terms with zero hits for "drip", zero for "R905", zero for "Chapter 9", zero for "shingle" and zero for "roof". Its technical-amendment sections are administrative rather than prescriptive: section 20-203 amends the Building Code only as to permit valuations and the composition of the Board of Adjustments and Appeals, and sections 20-204 through 20-212 take the plumbing, gas, mechanical, fire, electrical, residential and housing amendments as adopted by the State. APPENDIX U HAS NOT BEEN SHOWN TO BE ADOPTED, and the drafting of the adopting section is the reason. Section 20-201 takes "International Building Code (IBC), including Appendices and current edition as amended" but attaches no appendices clause to any of the other nine codes, the Residential Code included, and the single occurrence of the word appendices anywhere in Chapter 20 is that Building Code clause. So the optional Disaster Resilient Building Code IRC Appendix has not been shown to apply here, and its enhanced deck sealing and shingle fastening are not established for this county. The operative ICC text of R905.2.8.5, which sets the extent, lap and fastening specifics, sits behind the ICC paywall; this record does not restate it and does not rely on any third-party republication of it. What is recorded is the sourced fact that the requirement is in force in Chatham County unamended. A roofing permit is required here, so the requirement and the inspection travel together. About drip edge

Not required — No mid-roof or dry-in inspection of the roof covering is called for. Chatham County publishes its inspection sequence as a numbered list of nineteen items - zoning setbacks, under-slab rough-in, footing and foundation and slab work, subfloor, sewer, electrical rough-in, plumbing top-out, gas and HVAC rough-ins, prefab fireplace rough, framing, nail pattern, insulation, 30-day temporary power, HVAC final, gas final, electrical final, plumbing final, building final and certificate of occupancy - and none of them is a roofing stage. The nearest thing to one is item 11, the NAIL PATTERN inspection of sheathing "prior to covering", which is a deck inspection rather than a roof-covering inspection; if a reroof replaces decking, ask the Department whether that stage is called on the permit. The County states that these are "the minimum inspections mandated by Code; other inspections may be necessary", that stamped and approved Chatham County drawings must be on the job site when the inspector asks for them, and, in terms, that "It is your responsibility to see that all inspections are made." A re-inspection fee is provided for by Code section 20-306.

Not required — No impact-resistant or hail-rated roof covering is required in Chatham County. Neither the Georgia State Amendments packet to the 2024 International Residential Code nor Chapter 20 of the Chatham County Code contains any UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact requirement; the Georgia packet does not amend the Code's roofing chapter at all, and the County's building chapter, read in full, carries no roofing provision of any kind and states that its residential amendments are those adopted by the State. Chatham County has not been shown to have adopted the optional Appendix U Disaster Resilient Construction, whose roofing content is about fastening and water barriers rather than impact in any event. Note that what this coast designs against is wind rather than hail: the County's own inspection sheet calls for hurricane and wind-load resistance connections, and says nothing about impact rating.

THERE IS NO THRESHOLD IN CHATHAM COUNTY - RE-ROOFING IS NAMED AS PERMIT WORK OUTRIGHT. The County's published list of "When are Building Permits Required" opens "The following types of work shall require permits" and includes, as its own item, "Re-roofing". No dollar figure, no square-foot allowance and no like-for-like exception is attached to it, and the list separately requires a permit for "Work which involves the installation, removal or cutting of any structural beam, joists replacement, or bearing support" - so structural work is caught twice over. The County backs this with a dedicated form, the Roofing Permit Application, which asks for the parcel identification number, the project address, whether the work is residential or commercial, a "Description of shingles/metal roof", the contractor's details, a local licence number and issuing jurisdiction, and the total cost. Applications are accepted in person Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. only, and the County states that applications cannot be accepted by fax or email. PRACTICAL EFFECT: price the permit into every Chatham County reroof, including a small one. Starting first is expensive - Code section 20-303 provides that where work requiring a permit is started before the permit is obtained "the fees herein specified shall be doubled or $250.00, whichever is greater", and that paying the double fee does not relieve anyone from complying with the code or from the other penalties. The application form also records that permit approval "does not constitute a privilege to violate the building codes, zoning ordinance, or other ordinances of Chatham County" and that the owner is responsible for ensuring all permits are obtained and all required inspections made.

Chatham County publishes a wind figure of its own, and it is a range rather than a single number. Its Inspection Requirements sheet states, under the framing inspection at item 10, that "Hurricane/wind load resistance connections shall be installed for minimum of 90-120 mph (depending on location) wind speeds". The sheet does not say which averaging basis those speeds are stated in - fastest mile, three-second gust or ultimate design wind speed - and it does not publish the map or the boundaries that decide where in the county each end of the range applies, so treat it as the County telling you the order of magnitude and telling you to ask, not as a design value you can drop into a calculation. Chapter 20 of the Chatham County Code was read in full and states no design wind speed, no exposure category and no wind-borne debris region, and the County publishes no filled-in copy of the Residential Code's climatic and geographic criteria table. The Georgia State Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code carry only one wind figure in the mandatory chapters and it is not a design value: an exception to the foundation-anchorage section that applies where the basic wind speed does not exceed 115 miles per hour and the seismic design category is A or B. Appendix U Disaster Resilient Construction, whose Chapter AU4 offers an adopting jurisdiction a choice of minimum wind speeds, has not been shown to be adopted here. This is a hurricane-exposed coastal county; confirm the design wind speed, the exposure category and any wind-borne debris requirement with the Department of Building Safety on 912-201-4300 for the specific address before designing fastening or uplift.

Set by the state code, not by Chatham County. The residential code in force is the 2024 International Residential Code with the Georgia Amendments 2026, and the Georgia amendment packet makes no change to the Code's roofing chapter, so the base International Residential Code reroofing and roof-recover provisions apply as published and Georgia adds no layer cap of its own. On the local side, Chapter 20 of the Chatham County Code, Building (Construction) Regulations, was read in full - all four of its articles and every section from 20-101 to 20-401 - and it contains no roofing provision at all. Its treatment of residential amendments is a single line, section 20-211: "Residential Code Amendments as adopted by the State." So no Chatham County ordinance limits how many layers of roof covering may remain, and a roofer working here answers the layer question out of the base Code. Appendix U Disaster Resilient Construction has not been shown to be adopted in Chatham County, so nothing in that appendix bears on the question either.

CHATHAM COUNTY PUBLISHES A SHEATHING NAIL PATTERN AND INSPECTS IT, WHICH MOST GEORGIA JURISDICTIONS DO NOT. Its Inspection Requirements sheet, which it introduces as "the minimum inspections mandated by Code", carries a numbered inspection of its own at item 11, headed NAIL PATTERN, whose text is - with the document's typographic inch marks rendered as plain ones - "15/32" sheathing fastened with #8 ring shank nails 3" OC at corners and edges and 12" OC in field prior to covering." That is a stage the inspector looks at before anything goes over the sheathing. The sheet also states, at the framing inspection, that "Hurricane/wind load resistance connections shall be installed for minimum of 90-120 mph (depending on location) wind speeds". Neither statement is confined by its own words to walls, and neither is limited on its face to new construction, so a Chatham County job that opens up or replaces roof decking should confirm with the Department on 912-201-4300 whether the nail-pattern inspection is called on that permit. On the technical side, the Georgia amendment packet to the 2024 International Residential Code makes no change to the Code's roofing chapter, so the base International Residential Code provisions on the deck beneath a roof covering apply as published, and Chapter 20 of the Chatham County Code, read in full, writes no further roof-deck specification. Appendix U Disaster Resilient Construction, which carries the enhanced deck-sealing and shingle-fastening provisions, has not been shown to be adopted here.

7% in Chatham County. The Georgia Department of Revenue's rate chart in force for July 1 through September 30, 2026 lists jurisdiction code 025 "Chatham" at 7%, combining the 4% Georgia state rate with the local components the chart marks LOST, Educational and SPLOST. The Department of Revenue has already published the chart taking effect on October 1, 2026 and the Chatham row is unchanged at 7% in it, so the figure holds through that reissue. Chatham is not one of the Georgia counties that splits by city, so the same 7% applies in Savannah, on Tybee Island and in the unincorporated county. For the roofer, Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 560-12-2-.26(1) makes anyone who contracts to furnish materials and perform services improving real property "the consumer of all tangible personal property used or consumed in performing such contract" and who "shall pay the tax thereon at the time of purchase, use, storage or consumption in this State, whichever occurs first" - so the tax on the shingles is the contractor's, paid at the supplier, and not a line the homeowner is charged as a resale item. The same rule requires every contractor improving real property in Georgia to file for a Certificate of Registration on Form CRF-002 before its first construction activity in the state, which is a tax registration and not a contractor credential.