City of Davenport, Iowa - Building and Land Development (Building Division)

City of Davenport, Iowa

city

Davenport, IA

Required

Required

Davenport building permits, including roofing permits, are issued through the City's Permits service; the City also operates an online Building Permit Application through its Action Center. The permit counter for owner-pulled permits is reported by the City at the Public Works Center, 1200 E. 46th Street, Davenport, IA, open 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday except holidays. Because Davenport requires its own city contractor licence (see registration_details), a contractor must hold that licence before the City will issue a permit in the contractor's name.

CITY-SET, NOT STATE-GOVERNED. Davenport adopts its construction codes by its own ordinance at Davenport Municipal Code Title 15 (Buildings and Construction). Chapter 15.12 ("International Building Code and International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings") adopts by reference the 2021 edition of the International Residential Code as published by the International Code Council as the residential building code of the City of Davenport, together with the 2021 International Building Code, each with local amendments codified in the 15.12.0xx series (for example § 15.12.052 amends Chapter 3 of the International Residential Code; that section was most recently amended by Ord. No. 2024-465, adopted 11-13-2024, and earlier by Ord. No. 2019-530, adopted 12-4-2019). The City's published Building Codes page lists the balance of the adopted family as the 2021 International Fire Code with local amendments (Ch. 15.32), the 2024 International Mechanical Code with local amendments (Ch. 15.24), and the 2023 National Electrical Code with state and local amendments (Ch. 15.16), and warns that local amendments may apply so Davenport City Code must be consulted alongside the model codes. The operative residential edition for roof-covering work in Davenport is therefore the 2021 IRC as locally amended. Iowa Code § 103A.10(2)(d) leaves this to the city: the State Building Code applies as a default only in cities over fifteen thousand that have NOT adopted a nationally-recognized local code, and Davenport has adopted one.

Required — Davenport adopts the 2021 IRC by reference at Davenport Municipal Code Sec. 15.12.030. Its full amending chapter, Sec. 15.12.040 through Sec. 15.12.054 (read in full), amends only the International Building Code (Secs. 15.12.040-15.12.046) and IRC Chapters 1, 3 and 4 (Secs. 15.12.050-15.12.054, most recently amended by Ordinance No. 2024-465, adopted 11-13-2024). No section of Chapter 15.12 touches IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the base IRC drip-edge provision at IRC Section R905.2.8.5 applies unmodified. About drip edge

Required — CITY-SPECIFIC, sourced from Davenport's own local amendment table, not borrowed from any other jurisdiction. Davenport Municipal Code Sec. 15.12.052.A amends Table R301.2(1) of the adopted International Residential Code with Davenport-specific climatic and geographic design criteria, which include "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" as "YES." See wind_design_criteria for the full table. About ice & water barrier

Not required — Davenport Municipal Code Sec. 15.08.320 (Inspections) enumerates the inspection sequence for permitted work: footing and foundation inspection, concrete slab or under-floor inspection, frame inspection, lath and/or wallboard inspection, and final inspection, plus a discretionary "other inspections" the building official may require. No mid-roof, dry-in, underlayment, or ice-barrier inspection is named for roofing work; an ordinary re-roof is subject only to whatever final inspection the building official requires under the general permit process.

Not required — Neither the Davenport Municipal Code's International Residential Code amendments (Chs. 15.12.050 through 15.12.054, covering IRC Chapters 1, 3 and 4) nor its International Building Code amendments (Chs. 15.12.040 through 15.12.046) nor Subchapter III (Permits and Inspections, Ch. 15.08) imposes a UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-resistance requirement on roof coverings.

CITY-SPECIFIC, and expressed qualitatively rather than numerically - Davenport publishes no square-footage, bundle-count or dollar threshold for roofing. Davenport Municipal Code Title 15, Subchapter III (Permits and Inspections) carries the general permit mandate: no person shall erect, construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, improve, remove, convert or demolish any building, or make any replacement to building service equipment, without first obtaining a separate appropriate permit, and roofing is among the classes of work for which a permit is issued. The same subchapter contains an "Exempted Work" provision under which a permit is not required for the listed classes of work; the exemption relevant to roofing covers minor repairs that replace existing materials in kind with no structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical change. The practical boundary in Davenport is therefore the same one used across Iowa cities: patch-level minor maintenance repair in kind is exempt, while a re-roof (tear-off or recover) of a roof area, and any work reaching the roof sheathing or framing, requires a permit. Contractors should confirm the exempt/non-exempt line with the Building Division before starting, because the boundary is a judgment applied by the building official rather than a published number.

Ground snow load Ps = 30 psf (calculations for additional drift loads use a ground snow load of 25 psf), wind design speed 115 mph, topographic effects yes, special wind region yes, wind-borne debris zone no, seismic design category A, weathering severe, frost line depth 42", termite moderate to heavy, winter design temp -4°F, ice barrier underlayment required yes, flood hazards initial NFIP identification 4-14-1978 / FIRM #170582, updated 4-5-2010, air freezing index 2000, mean annual temperature 50.5°F (Table R301.2(1) as amended by Davenport Municipal Code Sec. 15.12.052.A, most recently amended by Ordinance No. 2024-465, adopted 11-13-2024, and originally by Ordinance No. 2019-530, adopted 12-4-2019). This is Davenport's own locally-amended table, not a neighboring city's figures.

Davenport adopts the 2021 IRC by reference at Davenport Municipal Code Sec. 15.12.030. Its full amending chapter, Sec. 15.12.040 through Sec. 15.12.054 (read in full), amends only the International Building Code (Secs. 15.12.040-15.12.046) and IRC Chapters 1, 3 and 4 (Secs. 15.12.050-15.12.054, most recently amended by Ordinance No. 2024-465, adopted 11-13-2024). No section of Chapter 15.12 touches IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so IRC Section R908.3 applies unmodified. Base-code rule, read at 2021 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.

Davenport adopts the 2021 IRC by reference at Davenport Municipal Code Sec. 15.12.030. Its full amending chapter, Sec. 15.12.040 through Sec. 15.12.054 (read in full), amends only the International Building Code (Secs. 15.12.040-15.12.046) and IRC Chapters 1, 3 and 4 (Secs. 15.12.050-15.12.054, most recently amended by Ordinance No. 2024-465, adopted 11-13-2024). No section of Chapter 15.12 touches IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the base IRC roof deck sheathing provisions (e.g. IRC Section R905.2.1) apply unmodified.

7.000% combined in Davenport, Iowa (Scott County): the 6% Iowa state sales and use tax plus a 1% Scott County local option sales tax (LOST). The Iowa Department of Revenue's own published Local Option Sales Tax jurisdiction table (workbook "Status of All Juris[dictions]," effective July 1, 2026, published/updated by the Department June 18, 2026) shows the Scott County LOST has been in effect since January 1, 1989, with no sunset date recorded. Iowa's local option sales tax is statutorily capped at 1%, so 7.000% is both the Davenport rate and the maximum general sales tax rate achievable anywhere in Iowa, matching the rate confirmed for Des Moines and Cedar Rapids elsewhere in this directory. This rate applies only on the Iowa side of the Quad Cities; it is not the Illinois rate that applies across the Mississippi River in Rock Island or Moline. HOW IOWA TAXES A ROOF IS UNUSUAL, AND IT CUTS BOTH WAYS. Iowa Code section 423.2(6) makes a list of enumerated services taxable at the state rate, and paragraph (l) of that list reads, in its entirety, "Roof, shingle, and glass repair." Against that, section 423.3(37) exempts "the sales price of services on or connected with new construction, reconstruction, alteration, expansion, remodeling." The materials side flips with the labour side. Under section 423.2(1)(b)(1), materials sold to a contractor "for the erection of buildings and other structures or for the reconstruction, alteration, expansion, or remodeling of buildings and other structures are retail sales of tangible personal property," on which the contractor pays the tax as consumer, while materials sold "for use in repairs to or for installation in existing buildings and other structures are purchases for resale." So a job characterised as a repair carries taxable labour and resale-purchased materials, and a job characterised as reconstruction or remodeling carries exempt labour and taxed materials. Which branch a particular tear-off and replacement falls into is a fact-specific question the statute does not answer, and it changes who owes the tax rather than only how much, so settle it with an accountant rather than assume it.