City of Crown Point, Indiana - Building Department

City of Crown Point, Indiana

city

103 E. Clark St., Crown Point, IN 46307

Required

Required

WHERE AND HOW. The Building Department is at 103 E. Clark St., Crown Point, on (219) 662-3239, and questions during an application go to [email protected]. Licensing is a separate counter: the Clerk-Treasurer's Office at 101 N. East St., (219) 662-3235, [email protected]. The City states the division of labour on its own page: "Licensing is handled by the Clerk-Treasurer's Office. Permitting is handled by the Building Department." Both run through one online account system - "AN ACCOUNT MUST BE CREATED AND WILL BE UTILIZED FOR ALL PROFESSIONAL LICENSING (NOW) ALONG WITH BUILDING/PERMITTING AND BUSINESS LICENSING (BEGINNING JANUARY 2024) GOING FORWARD." THE ORDER OF OPERATIONS MATTERS AND IT CATCHES OUT-OF-TOWN ROOFERS. The City's Building Department page opens: "Please be advised any individual submitting for a building permit must be an authorized representative of the licensed general contractor for the project. Please note all contractors/subcontractors must be assigned and hold a current City of Crown Point license for you to be able to submit your application. If you do not currently hold a license with the City of Crown Point, please refer to the Clerk-Treasurer link on this page for further instructions before proceeding with your permit application." So the licence comes first, the permit second, and a roofer who turns up with a signed contract and no City licence cannot even file. WHAT THE APPLICATION MAY ASK FOR. The City lists what "may or may not be required" for a building permit submittal: a stamped site plot plan survey, a foundation plan, site-specific building plans, a detailed erosion control plan, notarized affidavits for general, electric, HVAC and plumbing, an energy compliance report, an approved Construction Design Release from the State of Indiana on commercial work, a detailed fixture count, and a complete contractor and subcontractor list. Most of that is aimed at new construction rather than a replacement roof, but the contractor and subcontractor list and the notarized affidavit are worth expecting. Under § 152.53(D) no local permit issues on state-releasable work "until a copy of a release for construction from the State Building Commissioner is received by the Building Administrator" - relevant on commercial buildings, not on a one or two family dwelling reroof. FEES AND TIMING. The residential permit fee is $7 per $1,000 of estimated construction value with a $50 minimum, the value being "as estimated by the Building and Planning Staff". Re-inspections are $25 each and must be paid before a certificate of occupancy. A permit expires two years after issuance and work must stop until a renewal permit is applied for and issued. APPEALS. An order or decision of the Building Commissioner is appealed first to the Board of Works and Public Safety - within ten days, by written petition to the City Clerk-Treasurer, with a hearing within ten days and a decision within five days of it - and then to the State Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission under IC 22-13-2-7 and IC 4-21.5-3-7. A contractor licensing decision goes first to the Board of Public Works and Safety and then to the Lake County Circuit Court. ONE PROVISION THAT ONLY BITES ON BIG JOBS: § 152.53(F) attaches a set of mandatory labour-compliance conditions - debarment history, worker classification, payroll records on five days' notice, workers compensation - to permits for commercial buildings estimated at $250,000 or more and to residential buildings of five or more units. A single-family reroof is below it; a large apartment reroof may not be, and non-compliance there is a stop-work order on the whole project.

STATE-SET, AND CROWN POINT'S OWN ORDINANCE SAYS SO IN TERMS. City Code § 152.52 adopts the state building rules by reference: "The following rules, regulations, and codes, and any rules or regulations promulgated thereunder, are hereby adopted by reference as the rules and regulations governing the construction and alteration of buildings and structures in the city and shall include later amendments to these articles as the same are published in the Indiana Register or the Indiana Administrative Code, with effective dates as fixed therein". Its list runs "Article 13 - Building Codes", "Article 14 - Indiana Residential Code", and Articles 16 through 25 for plumbing, electric, mechanical, energy, pools, fire and fuel gas. A house re-roof falls under Article 14. THAT IS A FLOATING ADOPTION, NOT A FROZEN ONE, on two independent grounds: the ordinance says "shall include later amendments" on its own face, and IC 22-13-2-3(b) provides that a reference to the rules "by citation to the Indiana Administrative Code (IAC), shall be construed to include all amendments as of the date that the reference is written and any later amendments to that provision, unless accompanied by a reference to a specific edition or supplement to the Indiana Administrative Code." Crown Point names no edition, so it tracks the current rule. WHAT ARTICLE 14 IS TODAY. The rule in force is 675 IAC 14-4.4, whose opening section provides that "That certain document being titled the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017, published by the International Code Council ... is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set out in this rule save and except those revisions made in this rule", and that "This rule shall be known as the 2020 Indiana Residential Code." It was filed November 26, 2019 and formally readopted November 18, 2025, and it is the newest rule in its article - there is no 675 IAC 14-4.5. The City could not be on a different residential code in any event: IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that "A city, town, or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules", and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. City Code § 152.51 works within that ceiling, adding that "Any variances from adopted building rules are subject to approval under IC 22-13-2-7(b)" and that a variance granted by the Building Commissioner "is not effective until after final approval by the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission." WHAT INDIANA DOES CHANGE IN THE ROOFING CHAPTER, read section by section rather than assumed: 675 IAC 14-4.4 makes exactly four amendments to the model code's roofing chapter. Section 84 deletes the text of the last sentence of the rooftop photovoltaic panel section without substitution - a whole sentence, not a word. Sections 85 and 86 delete the word "approved" from the asphalt shingle attachment section and from the flashing section. Section 87 deletes the word "printed" from the other-flashing section. Indiana makes no amendment at all to the model reroofing and roof-recover section. VOCABULARY WARNING: "Class 2 construction" in Indiana, which appears on the State Building Commissioner's own roofing guidance, is Indiana's STRUCTURE class for one and two family dwellings. It is not a fire class and not an impact class of roof covering.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED AND UNCONDITIONAL ON A SHINGLE ROOF. Crown Point cannot vary it - IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that "A city, town, or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules" - and the City's own Code contains no roof-covering provision to vary it with. The operative text is published first-hand by the Indiana State Building Commissioner, on Indiana Department of Homeland Security letterhead, in the Ice/Water Shield and Metal Drip Edge guidance of February 25, 2020, which reproduces the adopted Section R905.2.8.5 in full: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. Adjacent segments of drip edge shall be overlapped not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall extend not less than ¼ inch (6.4 mm) below the roof sheathing and extend up back onto the roof deck not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the rood deck at not more than 12 inches (305 mm) o.c. with fasteners as specified in Section R905.2.5 Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge along rake edges." The word "rood" in that passage is a typographical error in the published guidance and is quoted here as printed; it plainly means the roof deck. The Indiana rule amends the flashing section only by deleting the word "approved" and does not touch the drip edge subsection, so this text governs as published. The guidance also closes the loophole a roofer might hope for: "The 2020 Indiana Residential Code is in full force and effect statewide. Regardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary, or whether a local building authority even exists in any particular jurisdiction or location in the state, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs all Class 2 residential construction, and its requirements, by law, must be followed." About drip edge

Required — REQUIRED IN LAKE COUNTY, ALWAYS - THIS IS ONE OF THE TWENTY-SEVEN "YES" COUNTIES. Indiana deletes the model climatic table and substitutes its own: 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 directs "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows", and the substituted table runs one row per county. Row 45 is Lake, and it carries "Yes" in the column headed "Ice Shield Underlayment Required". Twenty-seven of Indiana's ninety-two counties carry "Yes" there and they are the northern tier; the other sixty-five carry "No". The rest of the Lake County row is the northern Indiana set - wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category A, ground snow 30 psf, foundation depth 36 inches, winter design temperature 1 degree F, weathering Severe, air freezing index 2000, mean annual temperature 49.0 degrees F. Neighbouring Porter and LaPorte read "Yes" as well, so the whole lakeshore corridor is consistent. WHY THE DISTINCTION MATTERS ON A QUOTE: the State Building Commissioner explains that in a "No" county the barrier is required only where the shingle manufacturer's written installation instructions call for it, while in a "Yes" county it is required by the table itself - "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1)), and specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it". Crown Point is in an always-required county, so it goes on every asphalt shingle re-roof regardless of what the shingle wrapper says. WHAT THE BARRIER HAS TO BE, from the version of the section actually in force, published first-hand by the Indiana State Building Commissioner on Indiana Department of Homeland Security letterhead in the Ice/Water Shield and Metal Drip Edge guidance of February 25, 2020: "In areas where there has been a history of ice forming along the eaves causing a backup of water as designated in Table R301.2(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. 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 (914 mm) measured along the roof slope from the eave edge of the building." The section carries one exception: "Detached accessory structures not containing conditioned floor area." So a detached unheated garage in Crown Point is outside it, and a heated one is not. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NO MID-ROOF OR ROOF-STAGE INSPECTION IS PRESCRIBED, AND THE CITY'S INSPECTION SCHEDULE IS ENUMERATED IN THE ORDINANCE RATHER THAN LEFT TO PRACTICE. City Code § 152.55(B)(1) reads "There shall not be less than fourteen inspections required for every building permit, except as noted, made in the following order", and then lists all fourteen: footing pre-pour, footing, pre-pour foundation, foundation, rough framing, underground plumbing and/or electrical, rough plumbing, rough electrical, rough HVAC-Mechanical, gas line (HVAC), insulation before drywall, electrical service, final HVAC-Mechanical, and final occupancy covering building, plumbing and electrical. That list was read in full and no roofing, roof-deck, in-progress roof or mid-roof inspection appears anywhere in it. The only additional inspection the section adds is a fire one, and it is expressly not for houses: "All building projects including fireplaces, other than one or two family construction, shall have a rough and final fire inspection conducted by the City Fire Inspector or Fire Chief." TWO THINGS THAT STILL PUT AN INSPECTOR ON THE JOB. First, the schedule is a floor rather than a ceiling and the Commissioner sets the timing: § 152.55(D) provides that "The Building Commissioner shall in all cases designate the stage of construction when each required inspection must be requested by the permit holder", and § 152.55(E) that after a permit issues the Commissioner "shall make, or shall cause to be made, such inspections of the work being done under the permit as are necessary to insure full compliance with the provisions of this subchapter and the terms of the permit." So confirm the inspection points for your particular permit when it is issued rather than assuming a re-roof is inspected only at the end. Second, a re-inspection is $25 each and no certificate of occupancy issues until every inspection and re-inspection fee has been paid.

Not required — NO IMPACT-RESISTANCE REQUIREMENT APPLIES IN CROWN POINT, AND THIS ANSWER RESTS ON BOTH INSTRUMENTS BEING READ RATHER THAN ON A FAILED SEARCH. The City's Code of Ordinances was read for this point: it contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact requirement for a roof covering anywhere, and its Building Code subchapter adopts the state rules and then regulates only permits, fees, inspections and enforcement. The state rule carries none either. 675 IAC 14-4.4 makes four amendments touching the model code's roofing chapter and not one concerns impact: it deletes the text of the last sentence of Section R902.4 on rooftop-mounted photovoltaic panel systems, deletes the words "approved" from Section R905.2.6 on asphalt shingle attachment, deletes the word "approved" from Section R905.2.8 on flashing, and deletes the word "printed" from Section R905.2.8.4 on other flashing. Nor could Crown Point add one: IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that "A city, town, or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules", and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. An impact rating on a roof covering is the same subject matter as the state roofing chapter and would be a more stringent requirement, so a local mandate could not stand. THREE THINGS IN CROWN POINT THAT LOOK LIKE AN IMPACT RULE AND ARE NOT. "Class 2 construction", which appears on the Indiana State Building Commissioner's own roofing guidance, is Indiana's STRUCTURE class for one and two family dwellings and says nothing about a roof covering. The two occurrences of "Class IV" in the City Code are both about cable television channels, in the cable communications franchise chapter. And the City's commercial design standards call for "architectural grade fiberglass shingles, cementitious shingles" among acceptable roof materials on freestanding restaurants, offices and retail buildings - an appearance standard for commercial architecture, not a residential impact rating, and not a code requirement about hail. An insurer's premium discount for an impact-rated shingle is a private contract term and is not a code requirement anywhere in Indiana.

NO THRESHOLD OF ANY KIND IS PUBLISHED - THE PERMIT REQUIREMENT REACHES REPAIR AS SUCH. City Code § 152.53(A) is one sentence and it has no dollar figure, no square-footage figure and no exemption list: "A permit shall be obtained before the commencement of construction, alterations, demolition, or repair of any building, structure, or improvement, including decks, patios and balconies 12 inches or higher from lot grade." The only work the section singles out is a fireplace or a wood or coal burning stove, and it singles that out to make the permit unconditional there too: "Regardless of cost a permit shall be required for the construction of a fireplace or a wood or coal burning stove." So a tear-off and replacement needs a permit, and so does a repair. WHAT THE PERMIT COSTS. § 152.55(A)(1) sets the residential rate: "The permit fee for all additions, remodeling, alterations, and accessory structures shall be equal to $7 per $1,000 of estimated construction value per permit, as estimated by the Building and Planning Staff, with a minimum fee of no less than $50 per permit." Note who estimates the value - the fee is computed on the Building and Planning Staff's estimate, not automatically on the contract price. A $14,000 roof is therefore about $98. Re-inspections are $25 each under § 152.55(C) and (D), and no certificate of occupancy issues until every inspection and re-inspection fee is paid. A permit expires two years after issuance under § 152.55(F), and renewal is "10% of the original cost plus costs for required inspections and re-inspections to finalize any given project at $25 per each inspection." WHO MAY APPLY. The City states on its own Building Department page that "any individual submitting for a building permit must be an authorized representative of the licensed general contractor for the project" and that "all contractors/subcontractors must be assigned and hold a current City of Crown Point license for you to be able to submit your application", so the licence has to be in hand before the permit application, not before the first inspection. THE ONE PLACE RE-ROOFING IS EXEMPTED, AND IT IS NOT A BUILDING-PERMIT EXEMPTION. Both the flood damage prevention chapter and the stormwater management chapter define development to exclude maintenance: "DEVELOPMENT does not include activities such as the maintenance of existing buildings and facilities such as painting, re-roofing, resurfacing roads, or gardening, plowing and similar agricultural practices that do not involve filling, grading, excavation, or the construction of permanent buildings." That means a re-roof in the floodplain does not trigger a floodplain development permit. It says nothing about § 152.53, and the building permit is still required.

115 mph. Indiana replaces the model IRC Table R301.2(1) with its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, which opens "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows". Row 45 is Lake County and it gives 115 in the column headed "Wind Speed (MPH)". Every one of the ninety-two county rows carries the same figure, so 115 mph is the one genuinely statewide Indiana roofing number, and a roofer moving between counties does not have to re-check it. The same Lake County row gives seismic design category A, ground snow 30 psf, a 36 inch foundation depth, a winter design temperature of 1 degree F, Severe weathering, an air freezing index of 2000 and a mean annual temperature of 49.0 degrees F. Crown Point cannot raise or lower any of it by ordinance, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance more stringent or more detailed than the state rules, and the City's own Code of Ordinances states no wind figure of its own. EXPOSURE CATEGORY IS STILL A SITE DECISION, NOT A CITY NUMBER. Indiana amends the exposure-category section itself, at 675 IAC 14-4.4-4, to deal with part-built subdivisions: for a site where multiple detached one and two family dwellings, townhouses or other structures are to be constructed as part of a subdivision or master-planned community, or are otherwise designated as a developed area by the authority having jurisdiction, the exposure category for an individual structure is based on the site conditions that will exist once all adjacent structures on the site have been built, provided their construction in that section is expected to begin within two years. So on a new subdivision at the edge of town the exposure category is assessed against the finished neighbourhood rather than the open ground you are standing on today. Settle the category for the particular site rather than assuming one.

NO LOCAL LAYER RULE EXISTS IN CROWN POINT, AND NONE COULD. The City's own Code of Ordinances was read for this point. Chapter 152 sets out the building regulations and its Building Code subchapter, §§ 152.50 through 152.62, adopts the state rules by reference and then deals only with administration - the permit, the application, the Commissioner's review, inspections and fees, standards of workmanship, stop orders, certificates of occupancy, violations, appeals and conflict of interest. It contains no roof-covering provision at all, and no provision anywhere in the Code addresses layers of roofing, recovering an existing roof, or tearing one off. Nor could the City write one: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance "that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules", and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives the state rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. THE ANSWER THEREFORE COMES FROM THE STATE RULE, WHICH DOES NOT AMEND IT. Indiana's residential rule, 675 IAC 14-4.4, runs to 245 numbered sections. Its only amendments touching the model roofing chapter are a deletion of the last sentence of the rooftop photovoltaic section and deletions of the words "approved" and "printed" from the asphalt shingle attachment and flashing sections. It makes no amendment whatever to the model code's reroofing and roof-recover section, which does not appear anywhere in the Indiana rule. So the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof applies here exactly as the International Code Council published it, unchanged by either Crown Point or Indiana. A roofer planning a recover rather than a tear-off should establish the existing layer count and settle it against that code with the Building Department before quoting, because the permit and the inspections run through the City either way.

7.00% statewide, with no county or city add-on in Crown Point or Lake County. Indiana levies a single state sales tax rate. The Department of Revenue's own page listing what Indiana does tax at county level - innkeeper's tax, food and beverage tax and local income tax - closes with the sentence "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%." The county-level tax Lake County levies is an income tax, not a sales tax, so there is no local percentage to add to a materials invoice. WHO PAYS IT DEPENDS ON THE SHAPE OF THE CONTRACT, NOT ON THE ROOF. Indiana Department of Revenue Sales Tax Information Bulletin #60 (March 2024) names roofing in its own definition of a contractor - "Examples of contractors include, but are not limited to, persons engaged in building, concrete work, carpentry, plumbing, heating and cooling, electrical work, roofing, plastering, tile work, road construction, landscaping, installing underground sprinkler or drainage systems, and making other improvements or repairs to real property" - and then splits on contract form. A "Time and Material Contract" is one "in which the cost of construction material and the cost of labor or other charges are stated separately"; a contractor working under one "is a retail merchant that is selling the construction material that it incorporates into real property, and must be registered with the department and collect sales tax on the material portion of their contracts", and may buy the material exempt for resale. A contractor working under any other form, such as a lump sum, is not a retail merchant: they "must pay sales or use tax on their construction material" and "do not collect sales tax from their customers". On labour the bulletin adds that "Installation charges separately stated on an invoice are not included in gross retail income." The bulletin is Department guidance and says of itself that information bulletins are not binding on the department or the taxpayer, so settle your own contract form with an accountant. ONE THING PECULIAR TO THIS CORNER OF THE STATE: Crown Point is a short drive from the Illinois line, and a crew buying materials in Illinois is buying under a different state's sales tax rules, with their own local add-ons, not Indiana's. Keep the two states' invoices apart.