City of Chattanooga Land Development Office

City of Chattanooga, Tennessee

city

Chattanooga, TN

Required

Required

Residential building work in Chattanooga is applied for through the city's Open Gov Portal. New construction, ADUs, or work altering a structure's existing footprint uses the Residential Building Permit application; re-roofing, along with other modifications that do not alter the footprint (deck replacement, porch repair, window/door replacement, siding replacement), uses the separate Residential Modification Permit (titled "Residential Repair Replace/Alteration Permit" on the application itself). Permit applicants must hold a State of Tennessee Contractors License to pull a permit, and the city offers a "Registered License Contractor" application (no fee) so a contractor's license information auto-populates on future permit applications. Building Plans Review can be reached at (423) 643-5894.

The City of Chattanooga has adopted the International Building Code, 2018 Edition, and the International Residential Code, 2018 Edition, as its official Building Codes, per City Code of Ordinances Sec. 10-1 (Building Code adopted), current through Ordinance No. 13921 (enacted December 6, 2022). Sec. 10-1's amendment history also lists Ordinance No. 12600 (enacted May 29, 2012) among a long chain of prior amendments dating to 1989. Appendices adopted alongside the 2018 IRC are limited to Appendix A (gas piping sizing), Appendix B (venting systems), and Appendix C (mechanical draft exit terminals), per Sec. 10-2. Sec. 10-3 (Amendments to Code adopted), read in full (33,000+ characters), lists ten lettered amendments (a. through j.) to the 2018 IRC -- touching Sections R105.2, R105.5, R108.2, R112, R311.2, R313, R322, R403.1.1, Chapter 44 reference standards, and deleting IRC Chapter 11 (Energy Efficiency) -- and none of the ten touches Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies) or Table R301.2.

Required — The City of Chattanooga adopts the 2018 International Residential Code (Code of Ordinances Sec. 10-1). Its local amendment ordinance (Sec. 10-3, read in full, ten lettered items a. through j.) does not touch Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, so the base 2018 IRC drip edge provisions apply unmodified. About drip edge

Not required — The City of Chattanooga adopts the 2018 International Residential Code (Code of Ordinances Sec. 10-1). Its local amendment ordinance (Sec. 10-3, read in full, ten lettered items a. through j.) does not touch Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies; no UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-resistance requirement appears anywhere in the city's adopted code or its local amendments.

NO EXEMPTION STATED. The city's own Residential Modification Permit page (titled "Residential Repair Replace/Alteration Permit") names re-roofing directly among the work that requires this permit: "This applies to single-family units, both attached and detached, where there is a total remodel of the interior, or portions of the interior, replacing an existing deck, repairing a porch, re-roofing, windows, exterior doors, or siding replacement." No minimum job size, valuation, or square-footage exemption for re-roofing is stated on this page or in the Residential Building Permit fee schedule.

The City of Chattanooga adopts the 2018 International Residential Code (Code of Ordinances Sec. 10-1). Its local amendment ordinance (Sec. 10-3, read in full, ten lettered items a. through j.) does not touch Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, so the base 2018 IRC provisions on roof recover/re-covering and layer limits apply unmodified.

The City of Chattanooga adopts the 2018 International Residential Code (Code of Ordinances Sec. 10-1). Its local amendment ordinance (Sec. 10-3, read in full, ten lettered items a. through j.) does not touch Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, so the base 2018 IRC provisions on roof sheathing apply unmodified.

The combined sales and use tax rate for the City of Chattanooga is 9.25%: the Tennessee state rate of 7.00% plus the Hamilton County local option rate of 2.25%. Chattanooga levies no separate municipal sales tax on top of the county rate. Tennessee's Department of Revenue publishes local rates only through an interactive map tool (Local Sales Tax Rates Map) that did not return readable per-county figures to a direct fetch; the 2.25% Hamilton County local-option figure and the 9.25% combined figure above are as reported by Avalara's tax-rate lookup for Chattanooga, Tennessee, which states the same breakdown (7% state + 2.25% Hamilton County + 0% Chattanooga city) for 2026 and cites the Tennessee Department of Revenue as its underlying authority.