City of Clarksville Building & Codes Department

City of Clarksville, Tennessee

city

One Public Square, Clarksville, TN 37040

Required

Required

Clarksville building permits are administered by the City of Clarksville Building & Codes Department (Construction Division) and applied for through the city's online Self Service Portal. Per the department's Building Permit Requirements memorandum (2026-04-20), applicants must submit, at the time of application: a valid Tennessee State Contractor's License appropriate to the scope of work (for projects at or above the state's $25,000 licensing threshold, T.C.A. Section 62-6-103), current general liability insurance, proof of workers' compensation insurance (or a state exemption certificate), a current stamped property survey for permanent structures, a site plan, and the stated project valuation covering total labor and materials. A homeowner may instead pull a permit for work on their own primary single-family residence, subject to a notarized Homeowner Affidavit, but may not pull plumbing or mechanical/gas permits themselves. Permits are valid provided construction begins within six months of issuance; a permit lapses if the project is abandoned for more than six continuous months. Jurisdiction check before applying: work inside the Clarksville city limits is permitted by the City of Clarksville Building & Codes Department, separate from Montgomery County's permitting authority for unincorporated areas of the county.

The City of Clarksville Building & Codes Department's published FAQ lists required inspections by trade but does not print a roofing-specific inspection line; it states explicitly that the list is for informational use only, does not list every necessary inspection, and that it is the contractor's duty to confirm whether a given inspection is required. For general building work the listed sequence is: footing inspection, foundation inspection, slab inspection, framing inspection, firewall inspection (commercial), and final inspection, each scheduled through the city's Self-Service Portal or by calling Building and Codes at (931) 645-7426. A Certificate of Occupancy is issued once all required inspections are completed and approved.

The City of Clarksville adopts its own residential construction code by ordinance under authority of T.C.A. Section 6-54-501 et seq. The currently codified adoption is the 2018 International Residential Code (for one- and two-family dwellings), including Appendix G only (all other appendices excluded), adopted by reference effective January 1, 2021. This adoption is codified as City of Clarksville Code of Ordinances Title 4 (Building, Utility, and Housing Codes), Chapter 8 (Residential Code), Sec. 4-801 (International Residential Code), and is current through Ordinance No. 64-2025-26, enacted May 7, 2026 -- read in full via the Municode API, productId 10557, job "Supplement 110 Update 2," whose own banner reads "Codified through Ordinance No. 64-2025-26, enacted May 7, 2026." Sec. 4-801's local amendments -- read in full at that codification -- modify only: Section R101.1 (inserts "City of Clarksville"); Section R101.2 (Scope, restated for detached one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses); Section (EB) R102.7 (substitutes the City of Clarksville Property Maintenance Code for the referenced international codes); Section R113.4 (violation-penalty amounts); Table R301.2(1), Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria (see wind_design_criteria); Section R313, Automatic Fire Sprinkler Systems (deleted in its entirety, then Section R313.1's townhouse exception is separately deleted and replaced with a 2-hour fire-resistance-rated common-wall exception with no shared plumbing/mechanical penetrations, and Section R313.2 is deleted and replaced with "This shall not apply to stacked duplexes and the automatic sprinkler requirements set forth in City Code Sec. 7-210" -- a cross-reference to the city's separate Fire Code chapter, which is outside this record's scope); Chapter 11, Energy Conservation (deleted entirely, since energy is separately adopted under Sec. 4-701); Section P2603.5.1, Section 2904 (deleted), Section 2905.4.2, Section 2906.4.1, and Section P3103.1 (plumbing-chapter provisions); and Chapters 34 through 43 (Electrical, deleted entirely, since electrical work is separately regulated). No provision in Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, is amended -- the codified text was searched for "Chapter 9" and every "R9" section number, and the only two hits are the unamended Table R301.2(1) footnote (h) boilerplate reciting the base code's own ice-barrier cross-references (R905.1.2, R905.4.3.1, R905.5.3.1, R905.6.3.1, R905.7.3.1, R905.8.3.1), not a local amendment. The section's prior ordinance history (Ord. No. 46-2005-06; 99-2010-11; 11-2011-12; 13-2013-14; 64-2016-17 Section 16; 40-2020-21 Section 16) reflects earlier code-edition updates now superseded in currency by Ord. No. 64-2025-26. The City's own Current Adopted Codes page independently confirms the 2018 IRC (with Appendix G) as the code presently enforced. Ordinance No. 64-2025-26's fire-sprinkler text is now fully codified into Sec. 4-801 -- it is not, on its own terms, a Chapter 9 roofing amendment.

Required — The City of Clarksville's residential-code amendments (Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-801, current through Ord. No. 40-2020-21, read in full) do not amend Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, of the 2018 IRC, so the base 2018 IRC Section R905.2.8.5 drip-edge provision applies unmodified within the city. About drip edge

Not required — Table R301.2(1), Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria, as replaced by the City of Clarksville's residential-code amendments (Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-801, current through Ord. No. 40-2020-21), lists "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" as "No" for the city. No separate ice-barrier provision appears elsewhere in the city's local amendments. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No mid-roof, dry-in or underlayment inspection appears anywhere in Clarksville's published inspection scheme, but this finding comes with a caveat the city itself supplies and a roofer should not ignore. The City of Clarksville Building & Codes Department's FAQ enumerates required inspections by trade, and the BUILDING sequence is, verbatim: "Footing inspection, Foundation inspection, Slab inspection, Framing inspection, Firewall inspection - (Commercial projects), Final inspection." There is no roofing, dry-in, underlayment or ice-shield stage in that list, and none appears in the separately enumerated plumbing, mechanical/gas, electrical or commercial-only sequences either. So a Clarksville re-roof is inspected at completion rather than in progress. THE CAVEAT, quoted in full because it is what keeps this from being an absolute negative: the same page carries the notice "PLEASE NOTE- THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL USE ONLY. IT DOES NOT LIST EVERY NECESSARY INSPECTION. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE CONTRACTOR TO CONFIRM IF AN INSPECTION IS REQUIRED." Clarksville has therefore declined to make its published list exhaustive, which is a different posture from Duluth's affirmative "an underlayment inspection is not required." This matters more here than in a no-permit jurisdiction, because Clarksville DOES require a permit for roofing work with no small-repair exemption (see roofing_permit_required and repair_permit_threshold), so a permitted re-roof is live work that the department can attach an inspection to. PRACTICAL READING: plan for a final inspection only, and confirm with Building and Codes at (931) 645-7426 before closing up anything you would not want to reopen. Inspections are scheduled through the city's Self-Service Portal or by that number, and a Certificate of Occupancy issues once all required inspections are completed and approved.

Not required — The City of Clarksville's residential-code amendments (Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-801, current through Ord. No. 40-2020-21, read in full) amend Sections R101.1, R101.2, (EB) R102.7, R113.4, Table R301.2(1), R313 (fire sprinklers), Chapter 11 (Energy Conservation), several plumbing-chapter sections, and Chapters 34-43 (Electrical, deleted); no provision in Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, is touched. No UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-rating requirement appears among the city's local amendments or its own current-adopted-codes listing.

The City of Clarksville's Building & Codes FAQ states a permit is required "whenever a person wishes to construct, alter, repair, enlarge, move, renovate, demolish, or permanently place any building, or structure," with no minimum-dollar-value or minimum-area exemption stated for repair work such as roofing. The city's permit-fee schedule (Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-203) likewise sets a minimum $15.00 fee for any renovation valued at $1,000.00 or less, rather than exempting small-value work from the permit requirement entirely.

Per Table R301.2(1), Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria, as replaced by the City of Clarksville's residential-code amendments (Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-801, current through Ord. No. 40-2020-21, the same ordinance that adopted the 2018 IRC): wind design speed 115 mph, with topographic effects, special wind region, and windborne-debris zone all marked "No"; Seismic Design Category C; 10 psf ground snow load; severe weathering; 12-inch frost line depth; moderate-to-heavy termite risk; 14 degrees F winter design temperature; "No" for ice barrier underlayment required (consistent with the ice-and-water-shield finding elsewhere in this record); flood-hazard dates of 6-15-84 and 6-29-01; an air freezing index of 514; and a 59 degree F mean annual temperature. The table does not assign a single jurisdiction-wide wind exposure category.

The City of Clarksville's residential-code amendments (Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-801, current through Ord. No. 40-2020-21, read in full) do not amend Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, of the 2018 IRC. No provision addressing the number of roof-covering layers permitted appears among the city's local amendments, so the base 2018 IRC Chapter 9 provisions on this subject apply unmodified within the city. Base-code rule, read at 2018 IRC Section R908.3.1.1 (Roof recover not allowed) and quoted here rather than left behind the ICC paywall: a roof recover "shall not be permitted" where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering" (nor where the existing covering is water soaked or deteriorated, or is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile). One existing layer may therefore be recovered; a second existing layer forces tear-off to the deck.

The City of Clarksville's residential-code amendments (Code of Ordinances Sec. 4-801, current through Ord. No. 40-2020-21, read in full) do not amend Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, of the 2018 IRC. No provision addressing roof deck sheathing appears among the city's local amendments, so the base 2018 IRC Chapter 9 provisions on this subject apply unmodified within the city.

Clarksville's combined general sales and use tax rate is 9.5%: the Tennessee state rate of 7.0% plus the Montgomery County local option rate of 2.5%. The City of Clarksville levies no separate municipal sales tax add-on. Tennessee's Department of Revenue publishes the authoritative local-rate figures only through an interactive map tool (an embedded Tableau visualization at data.tn.gov, not a downloadable table), so the 2.5% Montgomery County and 9.5% combined figures above are as reported by Avalara's Tennessee tax-rate pages, a tax-compliance vendor, for 2026; Avalara is named here as the aggregator, and the Department of Revenue's Local Sales Tax Rates Map is the authority it mirrors.