City of Coeur d'Alene - Building Services Department

City of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

city

710 E. Mullan Avenue, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814

Required

Required

Coeur d'Alene issues a dedicated Reroof Permit on its own one-page form, headed "CITY OF COEUR D'ALENE Reroof Permit". The form asks for the job address, owner and contractor details, the Idaho contractor registration number and its expiry, the building type, the existing roofing material and the material going on, the approximate roof slope, whether the existing roof will be stripped to sheathing, the number of existing layers of roofing, the number of squares to install and the valuation of labour and materials. WHAT THE CITY REQUIRES OF THE WORK, from the same form: "Manufacturer's installation instructions, and/or IBC/IRC requirements, must be followed"; "Roof ventilation shall comply with current IBC/IRC and/or manufacture requirements"; "Installers must notify the building department of any dry-rot conditions or structural problems"; "Roof decks shall be solidly sheathed"; and "Ice Barrier underlayment shall be installed per IBC/IRC". The City's Building Services FAQ adds a minimum for the covering itself: re-roofing in Coeur d'Alene "requires the replacement of any dry rot or fungus damaged wood and the replacement with new minimum Class A or B, 25 year roofing, flashing and ventilation of enclosed spaces." Class A and Class B are FIRE classifications and say nothing about hail. HOW IT IS FILED: the City says that "On most re-roof, demolition, siding, mechanical and plumbing applications, a permit can be obtained over-the-counter", from the Customer Service Center at Coeur d'Alene City Hall, 710 E. Mullan Avenue, open Monday to Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM with submittals taken 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Re-roof permits can also be applied and paid for through the City's own Building Department portal, which needs an account set up by phone before first use. FEES: the permit fee runs off the declared valuation on the City's building permit fee schedule, starting at $69.25 for a job valued up to $2,000, and "The cost of the permit includes a non-refundable processing fee of $40." Building without the permit is expensive by design: the City states that a Stop Work Order issues immediately, the permit must then be applied for at double the permit fee, and covered work must be uncovered for inspection before the order is released.

STATE-MANDATED EDITION, LOCALLY ENACTED. Coeur d'Alene Building Services publishes its own adopted-code list twice, and the two agree. The department's notice reads "New Code Adoption of the 2018 International Codes, effective January 1, 2021", and lists the International Building Code, International Existing Building Code, International Residential Code, International Energy Conservation Code, International Mechanical Code and International Fuel Gas Code, adding that "Local plumbing codes will remain under the 2017 Idaho State Plumbing code with current City Amendments." The department's "Current Adopted Codes and Design Criteria" handout lists the same 2018 suite plus the 2018 International Fire Code and the 2009 edition of ICC A117.1, Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities. So a house in Coeur d'Alene is built and re-roofed under the 2018 International Residential Code. The City also lists "Code Amendments" among the criteria that govern development here, and publishes those amendments only in its municipal code rather than on either page, so a roofer with an unusual detail should ask Building Services which amendments touch it. Idaho's residential code is set by the Idaho Building Code Board, not by the city: IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03 adopts the "International Residential Code, 2018 Edition ... Parts I, II, III, and IX of the 2018 Edition" for one- and two-family dwellings, effective July 1, 2024, and Idaho Code 39-4116(2) requires a local government that issues building permits and performs code enforcement to adopt the Idaho residential code parts I-III and IX by ordinance. Parts IV through VIII, covering energy, mechanical, fuel gas, plumbing and electrical requirements, are not part of the Idaho residential code under Idaho Code 39-4109(1)(b); roofing sits in Part III and is included. The same subsection of 39-4116 bars a local jurisdiction from adopting provisions of a later IRC edition the Board has not adopted, so a city cannot be ahead of the state. Idaho Code 39-4116(6) settles which edition governs a given job: "Permits shall be governed by the laws in effect at the time the permit application is received."

Required — YES, and it is sourced from Coeur d'Alene's own design criteria rather than inferred from climate. The City's Building Services department publishes its completed Table R301.2(1), Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria, and under the column headed "ICE BARRIER UNDERLAYMENT REQUIRED" it prints "YES". The same table sets ground snow load 60 psf, weathering Severe, frost line depth 24 inches, winter design temperature -1 degrees F, seismic design category C, termite Slight, air freezing index 809 and mean annual temperature 48.3 degrees F, and the department's separate criteria list gives a design roof snow load of 40 pounds per square foot. The City repeats the requirement on the Reroof Permit form itself: "Ice Barrier underlayment shall be installed per IBC/IRC". How far up the slope the barrier must reach is governed by the adopted 2018 International Residential Code, Section R905.1.2; the State of Idaho does not modify it, since IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03 amends nothing in Chapter 9 of that code, and whether Coeur d'Alene has amended it locally is not established here, so confirm the required extent with Building Services before ordering membrane. Table R301.2(1) is the one part of Part III that Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(c) leaves a city or county free to fill in and amend for local conditions, which is why this answer genuinely differs from one Idaho city to the next. Take it for the address, not for the region: a neighbouring Idaho city completing the same table may print a No. About ice & water barrier

Required — YES. The City of Coeur d'Alene Reroof Permit form sets out the inspections in its own words: "NOTE: Inspections shall be conducted for the following", and then lists them: "Installation of new roof sheathing"; "Installation of underlayment after removal of existing roof covering, and prior to installation of new roof"; "Existing roof covering (prior to re-cover over an existing roof)"; and "Final inspection after work is complete." The second of those is a mid-roof inspection in the ordinary sense: on a tear-off the underlayment must be looked at after the old covering comes off and before the new roof goes on, so the job stops at dry-in until the inspector has been. On a recover the third stage does the same work from the other side, with the existing covering inspected before anything is laid over it, and the first stage covers any new sheathing. Book inspections on 208-769-2391 with at least 24 hours' notice; the City states that it does not perform same-day inspections, that a full schedule can push a call two days out, and that inspections run Monday to Friday between 8AM and 3:30PM, with morning slots between 8AM and 11AM and afternoon slots between noon and 3:30PM. The permit, the green inspection card and the approved plan set are the on-site package and must be available to the inspector.

There is no threshold: Coeur d'Alene requires the permit for a roof repair as well as for a replacement, and publishes no size, area or dollar figure below which a roof escapes one. The City's own list of the licences and permits it issues carries a "Re-Roof Permit", "Required when repairing or replacing a building roof", and its residential permit menu describes the Reroof permit as being "For residential roof replacement and repairs". The City also publishes the work-exempt-from-permit list it applies, Section R105.2 of the adopted International Residential Code, and that list was read in full: eleven building items covering small detached accessory structures, fences under six feet, retaining walls under four feet, small water tanks, sidewalks and driveways, finish work such as painting and tiling, shallow prefabricated swimming pools, playground equipment, short window awnings, small low detached decks and flag poles, followed by the electrical, gas and mechanical items and the R105.2.1 emergency-repairs and R105.2.2 ordinary-repairs provisions. No item on it is roofing. DO NOT RELY on the hundred-square-foot roof repair figure that appears in Idaho's state building code rules. It sits inside the definition of "Minor Alteration", which that rule says "is used for the purpose of administering annual permits", a blanket permit the state issues to state agencies for work on buildings they already own or operate. It is not a permit exemption for a homeowner or a roofing contractor anywhere in Idaho, and the State of Idaho adds no roofing item to the exempt-work list either: its only two amendments to that list change a dimension in the swimming pool item and add flag poles.

Coeur d'Alene fills in the adopted residential code's Table R301.2(1), Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria, itself, and publishes it. For a house the figure is a WIND SPEED of 115 mph, and the City prints the basis alongside it rather than leaving it to be guessed: its criteria list reads "Wind speed: 115 mph (IRC ultimate design wind speed)". Use it as an ultimate design wind speed and do not convert it to another basis. The same table prints "NO" under each of "Topographic effects", "Special wind region" and "Windborne Debris zone", and sets ground snow load 60 psf, seismic design category C, weathering Severe, frost line depth 24 inches and winter design temperature -1 degrees F; the City separately gives a design roof snow load of 40 pounds per square foot, which on a North Idaho roof usually matters more than the wind. One caution about the commercial figure: the City publishes an IBC ultimate design wind speed as a range, and its two documents give that range differently, the Building Services design-criteria handout as 100 to 115 mph and the department's own FAQ as 105 to 120 mph. A one- or two-family dwelling is on the IRC, so the 115 mph residential figure is the one to design a house roof to, and the two documents agree on it. One statewide wind rule reaches Coeur d'Alene: the State of Idaho deletes the model code's wind-borne debris opening-protection section, IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03(d) reading "Section R301.2.1.2 Protection of Openings. Delete." That is an opening provision about windows and doors rather than a roofing one, and under Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(b) a local jurisdiction may not re-adopt a provision the Idaho Building Code Board has expressly rejected.

A recover over an existing roof is contemplated in Coeur d'Alene and is inspected before it happens. The City's Reroof Permit form asks "Strip existing roof to sheathing?", with a Yes box and a No box, and "Number of existing layers of roofing?", and its inspection list includes "Existing roof covering (prior to re-cover over an existing roof)" as a stage in its own right, alongside "Installation of new roof sheathing" and "Installation of underlayment after removal of existing roof covering, and prior to installation of new roof". So the City sees the existing build-up before a recover is approved, and the layer count is declared on the application. The numeric rule itself comes from the edition Coeur d'Alene has adopted, the 2018 International Residential Code, whose roof recover provisions are in Section R908.3. The State of Idaho does not touch them: IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03, the Idaho Building Code Board's complete list of state amendments to the 2018 International Residential Code, seventeen items, contains no amendment to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. Whether Coeur d'Alene has amended that chapter locally is not established here, because the City lists "Code Amendments" among its adopted criteria and publishes them only in its municipal code, which is hosted on a third-party code library that could not be read. Ask Building Services before planning a recover. A local Idaho amendment to this rule would in any event be unusually visible: Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(d) allows a city or county to amend this part of the residential code only by ordinance, on a recorded finding that "good cause for building or life safety exists" and that the amendment is "reasonably necessary", after a public hearing noticed in the official newspaper with at least thirty days' written notice to the local chapters of the industry bodies listed in Idaho Code 39-4109(5).

Coeur d'Alene states its decking requirements on the Reroof Permit form itself, so this is the City's own rule rather than a borrowed figure. "Roof decks shall be solidly sheathed", and "Installers must notify the building department of any dry-rot conditions or structural problems". The City's Building Services FAQ states that re-roofing here "requires the replacement of any dry rot or fungus damaged wood". The City backs that with an inspection stage of its own: "Installation of new roof sheathing" is one of the four inspections the form says shall be conducted on a re-roof. Beyond that the deck is governed by the adopted 2018 International Residential Code, whose roof sheathing provisions sit in Chapter 8, Roof-Ceiling Construction, and by the roofing manufacturer's printed installation instructions, which the City makes binding in terms: "Manufacturer's installation instructions, and/or IBC/IRC requirements, must be followed". No thickness, span or fastening figure is published on either City document, so size the deck from the adopted code and the manufacturer's instructions for the covering actually being installed.

6.0%, the Idaho state rate, with no local add-on. Idaho Code 63-3619 imposes the state sales tax "at the rate of six percent (6%)". Idaho has only two kinds of local sales tax and neither applies here. The first is the resort-city local-option tax, which Idaho Code 50-1044 confines to a resort city "with a population not in excess of ten thousand (10,000)"; the Idaho State Tax Commission publishes the list of the cities that actually levy one, and Coeur d'Alene is not on it. Several small North Idaho towns are, including Harrison, Kellogg, Ponderay, Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry, so check the town on the Commission's list rather than assuming from the region. The second is an auditorium-district tax, which the Commission states "can charge a local sales tax only for short-term lodging (30 days or less)" and so never reaches roofing work. Idaho counties levy no sales tax at all, so Kootenai County adds nothing. HOW A ROOF IS TAXED, which matters more than the rate: the Tax Commission's contractor guidance states that "Idaho sales tax law says contractors are the consumers (end users) of all the goods they use. As a result, they must pay sales tax on all purchases", and it names roofers among the contractors it covers. The roofer pays the 6% on materials at the supply house; the homeowner's invoice carries no sales tax line at all, on materials or on labour, because "a contractor doesn't charge sales tax to the customer" and the tax is absorbed into the bid. The Commission adds that "if sales tax is charged on the bill, the customer can refuse to pay it." A customer's own sales-tax exemption does not carry over to the contractor.