City of Cleveland, Ohio - Department of Building and Housing

City of Cleveland, Ohio

city

601 Lakeside Avenue, Room 510 (Cleveland City Hall), Cleveland, OH 44114

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CITY-SPECIFIC, updated for a live process change. Cleveland's Division of Construction Permitting is based at 601 Lakeside Ave., Room 505, Cleveland, Ohio 44114 (216.664.2910). As of April 13, 2026 the Division stopped accepting paper plans or paper applications: applications now go through the online Permit Portal, with plans and supporting documentation uploaded in the Digital Plan Room; only small plan sets ("fewer than 5 pages, size 10x18" or smaller") can still be scanned and uploaded at kiosks in Room 505. A homeowner's affidavit form is required with each homeowner's permit application, per the Department's own FAQ page, which also links the affidavit form itself. Department general contact numbers published on the city site are 216.664.2884 (Building and Housing) and 216.664.2910 (Construction Permitting and homeowner permit questions). The City also publishes an "Active Contractor Registrations" dataset on its open-data portal -- described there as "All active contractor registrations in Building & Housing's permitting system, Accela" -- which a property owner can use to confirm a roofing contractor's registration is current before signing.

SET BY STATE RULE. Cleveland enforces the Residential Code of Ohio (RCO), codified at Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 4101:8 (rules 4101:8-1 through 4101:8-25, 4101:8-29, 4101:8-34 and 4101:8-44). The current edition is the 2019 Residential Code of Ohio, based on the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC), first printing, Chapters 2-24, 29 and 44. OAC 4101:8-1-01 (Administration and scope) was filed effective July 1, 2019. The Ohio Board of Building Standards has since amended the 2019 RCO twice: rules adopted at the Board's January 26, 2024 meeting took effect March 1, 2024, and a further set published as the "2019 RCO Residential Code of Ohio with April 2024 Amendments" took effect April 15, 2024. Ohio has NOT moved to a newer IRC base edition (e.g. 2021 IRC) -- the 2018-IRC-based 2019 RCO, as amended, remains the operative residential code statewide. ORC 3781.11 requires the board's residential rules to "provide standards and requirements that are uniform throughout the state," which forecloses Cleveland from substituting a different base residential code -- but ORC 3781.01(B) affirmatively lets a local governing authority adopt additional regulations governing residential structures that do not conflict with the state residential building code, via the division (C) notice procedure, and even a conflicting local regulation can be incorporated by the Board if found necessary to protect local health or safety. This record has not established whether Cleveland has adopted any additional roofing-specific regulation under that authority.

Not required — SET BY STATE RULE, and a genuine, non-obvious deviation from most other IRC-based states. Ohio's RCO does NOT carry forward the base 2018 IRC's freestanding prescriptive drip-edge requirement. The entire content of RCO Section 905.2.8.5 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019) is, verbatim: "905.2.8.5 Drip edge. Refer to Sections 903.1 and 905.1." Section 903.1 (General) states only: "Roof decks shall be covered with approved roof coverings secured to the building or structure in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. Roof assemblies shall be designed and installed in accordance with this code and the approved manufacturer's instructions such that the roof assembly shall serve to protect the building or structure." Section 905.1 (Roof covering application) is a general wind-load-resistance provision, not a drip-edge mandate. There is therefore no numbered Ohio provision mandating a drip edge at eaves and rakes with the usual dimensional and fastening specs (0.25 inch below sheathing, 2 inches up the deck, 12 inches on center); drip edge in Ohio is, at the state level, effectively governed by the shingle manufacturer's approved installation instructions via 903.1. Whether Cleveland has exercised its ORC 3781.01(B) authority to add its own local drip-edge requirement has not been established in this record -- Cleveland's own codified building-code chapters were not accessible this session -- so 903.1's manufacturer's-instructions standard is confirmed only as the statewide floor, not necessarily the complete picture for Cleveland. About drip edge

Required — SET BY STATE RULE -- applies identically in Cleveland as everywhere else in Ohio. RCO Table 301.2(1) (OAC 4101:8-3-01, effective 7/1/2019) pre-fills "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" as "Yes" for the whole state, with footnote (h): "In accordance with Sections 905.1.2, 905.4.3.1, 905.5.3.1, 905.6.3.1, 905.7.3.1 and 905.8.3.1, all jurisdictions in Ohio have a history of local damage from the effects of ice damming." Ohio therefore invokes the IRC ice-damming trigger uniformly by rule rather than leaving it to local determination. RCO Section 905.1.2 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019) reads verbatim: "In areas where there has been a history of ice forming along the eaves causing a backup of water as designated in Table 301.2(1), an ice barrier shall be installed for asphalt shingles, metal roof shingles, mineral-surfaced roll roofing, slate and slate-type shingles, wood shingles and wood shakes. The ice barrier shall consist of not fewer than two layers of underlayment cemented together, or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet shall be used in place of normal underlayment and extend from the lowest edges of all roof surfaces to a point not less than 24 inches (610 mm) inside the exterior wall line of the building. The 24 inch measurement shall be along the slope of the roof from the point where the projected outside face of the wall intersects the roof deck. On roofs with slope equal to or greater than eight units vertical in 12 units horizontal (67-percent slope), the ice barrier shall also be applied not less than 36 inches measured along the roof slope from the eave edge of the building." The last two sentences are Ohio-specific additions beyond base 2018 IRC text. Exception, verbatim: "Detached accessory structures and roof assemblies terminating at a vertical wall over unconditioned floor areas." About ice & water barrier

Not required — CITY-SPECIFIC sourced negative. The Division of Construction Permitting's own published inspection procedures list every inspection trigger point in the permitting process. Read in full, it names six: "Prior to placing concrete for foundation footers, concrete slab and garage foundations," "backfilling for waterproofing and drain tile," "covering up or concealing insulation, plumbing, mechanical and electrical work," "covering up rough framing," "Final inspection and Certificate of Occupancy," and "For all exterior demolition activity." No roofing-specific or mid-installation roof inspection appears among them; a reroof in Cleveland is inspected only at final inspection, not at an interim dry-in/sheathing stage.

CITY-SPECIFIC. The Cleveland Department of Building and Housing states that "A residential permit is required to reroof, apply siding, install gutters, doors, and windows, or build decks, porches, and ramps," and that "You do not need a permit to paint and perform minor maintenance or repairs." The Department's published permit-requirements guidance defines the minor / ordinary repair exemption: minor repairs "can include patching walls and leaking roof coverings, pointing masonry, replacement of shingles, siding and floorboards, where the patching, pointing or replacement is of same material and the scope of replacement is limited to 10%" of the element involved. The same guidance excludes from minor repairs "the cutting away of any wall, partition or portion thereof, the removal or cutting of any structural beam or load bearing support, or the removal or change of any required means of egress, or rearrangement of parts of a structure affecting the egress requirements," and likewise excludes work on piping, electrical wiring, or mechanical work "affecting public health or general safety." Practical effect for roofing: a same-material shingle patch confined to about 10 percent of the roof area is treated as a minor repair needing no permit, while any full or partial re-roof beyond that -- and any work reaching the roof framing -- requires a residential building permit.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Table 301.2(1) "Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria" (OAC 4101:8-3-01, effective 7/1/2019) is printed with statewide values already filled in rather than left blank for local completion: Ultimate Design Wind Speed 115 mph; Weathering "severe"; Termite "Moderate to heavy"; Ice Barrier Underlayment Required "Yes". Ground snow load is the one geographically varying input -- the master rule leaves that cell blank, with footnote (o): "The jurisdiction shall fill in this section of the table using the Ground Snow Loads in Figure 301.2(6)." For the Cleveland area, Olmsted Township (Cuyahoga County -- the same county as Cleveland) publishes its reading of the statewide Figure 301.2(6) map as "Ground Snow Load of 20 Pounds per square foot and Wind Design Speed of 115 Miles per hour, Exposure Category B" under the 2019 RCO. Champaign County, in west-central Ohio, independently reports the identical "Ground Snow Load - 20 / Wind Speed - 115 mph / Ice Shield Underlayment Required - Yes" for the same table. Wind exposure category is determined site-specifically per Section 301.2.1.4 and is not a state or city lever. The 20 psf ground snow load is a Cuyahoga-County-area reading of the statewide map published by another Cuyahoga County jurisdiction, not a figure published by the City of Cleveland itself.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 908 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019). Section 908.3 Roof replacement, verbatim: "Roof replacement shall include the removal of existing layers of roof coverings down to the roof deck. Exception: Where the existing roof assembly includes an ice barrier membrane that is adhered to the roof deck, the existing ice barrier membrane shall be permitted to remain in place and be covered with an additional layer of ice barrier membrane in accordance with Section 905." Section 908.3.1 Roof recover permits installing a new roof covering over an existing one where any of four conditions occur, the first being "Where the new roof covering is installed in accordance with the roof covering manufacturer's approved instructions"; the others cover complete and separate systems such as standing-seam metal, metal panel/metal shingle/ concrete and clay tile over existing wood shakes per Section 908.4, and re-coating of existing coated/metal/roll/built-up/modified-bitumen/single-ply/ SPF systems. Section 908.3.1.1 Roof recover not allowed, verbatim: "A roof recover shall not be permitted where any of the following conditions occur: 1. Where the existing roof or roof covering is water soaked or has deteriorated to the point that the existing roof or roof covering is not adequate as a base for additional roofing. 2. Where the existing roof covering is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile. 3. Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." Net effect for the common asphalt-shingle case: one existing layer may be recovered over; once two or more layers already exist, full tear-off to the deck is mandatory -- functionally a one-layer (single recover) limit.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.2.1 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019) reads verbatim: "Asphalt shingles shall be fastened to solidly sheathed decks." Ohio adopted this without amendment from the base 2018 IRC -- unlike some states, Ohio does NOT add an express "or 1-inch nominal wood boards" allowance to the text of 905.2.1. Related, RCO Section 908.3.1.1 forbids a roof recover "where the existing roof or roof covering is water soaked or has deteriorated to the point that the existing roof or roof covering is not adequate as a base for additional roofing," which is the practical deck-condition trigger for tear-off and sheathing replacement.

8.00% combined in Cleveland (Cuyahoga County) -- 5.75% Ohio state sales and use tax plus a 2.25% Cuyahoga County permissive add-on, per the Ohio Department of Taxation's official quarterly county rate table (county code 18, boundary code 1845, rate factor 0.0225), Oct. 1, 2025 - Dec. 31, 2025 edition, the most recent edition published at a live tax.ohio.gov URL as of this verification. Cuyahoga carries no additional regional transit-authority sales tax layer of the kind Ohio's own table shows for Delaware and Fairfield counties (COTA overlays reaching 8.00% and 7.75% respectively) -- Cuyahoga's 8.00% figure is the county's base combined rate, not a transit add-on.