City of De Pere, Wisconsin - Building Inspection Division

City of De Pere, Wisconsin

city

335 S Broadway Street, De Pere, WI 54115

Required

Permits are taken out at the Building Inspection Division, 335 S Broadway Street, on 920-339-4053 or [email protected]. Office hours are Monday to Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., with the counter staffed 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. and inspections run between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. A reroof that needs a permit is filed on the Alteration Permit application, which is the same form used for window replacement and siding; it asks for the general contractor's Dwelling Contractor Credential and Dwelling Contractor Qualifier Credential numbers, the square footage and the cost of construction, and it carries the cautionary statement to owners that Wis. Stat. 101.65(1r) requires. Ordinance section 54-3(f)(6) puts the inspection timing in writing: the applicant notifies the inspector when work is ready, work may not proceed until the required inspection is done, "except that construction may proceed if an inspection has not been performed within two business days after proper notification has been given." The applicant must call for the final not more than 30 days after completion, the City performs it within five business days of notification, and any noted violations must be corrected within 30 days or a stop work order may issue. The permit placard must be posted in a front window or door visible from the road for the whole job. A building permit for a one- or two-family dwelling runs two years from issuance; other permits run one year, and a lapsed permit costs 75 dollars to renew. Note also that De Pere issues separate electrical, HVAC, plumbing and sewer permits rather than folding them into the building permit, so a job that crosses trades needs more than one.

STATE CODE, ADOPTED BY THE CITY AND EXTENDED TO EXISTING HOUSES. One- and two-family dwellings in De Pere are built to the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code, the chapters of the Wisconsin Administrative Code numbered in the SPS 320s. That code is Wisconsin's own text rather than an adoption of the International Residential Code, which is why its roofing rules read differently from the IRC and why no IRC edition year applies to a house here. Municipal Code section 54-3(a)(1) adopts by reference, as the state uniform dwelling code, Wis. Admin. Code chs. SPS 321 Construction standards, SPS 322 Energy conservation, SPS 323 Heating, ventilating and air conditioning, SPS 324 Electrical standards, SPS 325 Plumbing, SPS 326 Manufactured home communities, SPS 327 Camping units and SPS 328 Smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. Note for anyone comparing this with other Wisconsin cities: ch. SPS 320, the chapter that carries the state code's own scope, exemptions and definitions, is NOT in that list, and De Pere writes its own scope instead at section 54-3(c) and 54-3(f). The City does cite SPS 320.05(3) by number, in section 54-3(f)(3), for the meaning of a minor repair. The adoption floats rather than freezing an edition - section 54-3(b) provides that "Future amendments, revisions, or modifications of the Wisconsin Administrative Code provisions incorporated in this chapter are intended to be made a part of this chapter to secure uniform state regulation of one-family and two-family dwellings in this city." Commercial work runs on a different code set: section 54-4(a)(1) adopts chs. SPS 316, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366 and 382, the state commercial building code, and that track is not the subject of the residential fields recorded here. Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code was read in full, all fifteen sections, and it adds no roof-assembly requirement of its own. The codification is current through Ordinance No. 26-11, enacted April 8, 2026, Supplement No. 9.

Not required — No drip edge is required by code on a De Pere roof, at either level of government. The statewide Wisconsin uniform dwelling code, unlike the International Residential Code, carries no drip edge requirement: SPS 321.28, "Weather protection for roofs," was read in full - general drainage and fasteners, underlayment for shingles, asphalt shingles, ice dam protection, other roof coverings, reroofing, and every flashing paragraph - and no provision requires a drip edge at an eave or a rake. The only drip edge language anywhere in the Wisconsin dwelling chapter is a masonry chimney cap rule, which is not a roof edge requirement. On the City side, Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code was read in full and the words drip edge do not appear in it, and neither does any other roof-edge or roof-flashing requirement. Practical point for a bid: drip edge may still be required as a matter of the shingle manufacturer installation instructions, which SPS 321.28(3)(a) makes binding for asphalt shingles, so read the wrapper before leaving it off. About drip edge

Required — STATE-SET AND SLOPE-CONDITIONED - read the trigger carefully, because it is narrower than the International Residential Code rule used in most other states. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 321.28(4)(a) requires that "Shingled or shake roofs that extend over a heated area of a dwelling or attached garage and that have a slope of 4:12 or less shall be provided with ice dam protection in the form of sheet metal or a product labeled as meeting the requirements of ASTM D 1970." SPS 321.28(4)(b) sets the extent: the protection "shall extend at least 30 inches up the roof slope from the roof edge and at least 12 inches up the roof slope beyond the inner face of the exterior wall." The trigger is the roof slope, not the climate zone, so a steeper roof is not covered by the requirement at all - although the shingle manufacturer instructions may still call for it, and SPS 321.28(3)(a) makes those instructions binding for asphalt shingles. De Pere adds nothing to this: Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code was read in full and contains no ice barrier or ice dam provision. The Wisconsin uniform dwelling code sets these roofing rules statewide, but does not reach every house. It does not apply to a one- or two-family dwelling whose construction began before June 1, 1980, or to additions or alterations to one, unless the municipality has adopted chs. SPS 320 to 325 for that purpose - ask the building inspector before assuming it governs an older home. The code also states that it does not apply to repairs or maintenance, and it defines a repair to include replacing existing equipment with the equivalent, while a separate section regulates reroofing by name. Wisconsin has not resolved which of those two provisions governs a like-for-like tear-off, so confirm with the authority issuing the permit. De Pere has closed the older-house branch of that scope question, and it is one of very few Wisconsin municipalities that also spells out what an older house is excused from. Municipal Code section 54-3(c), headed Applicability, provides that "The Wisconsin Administrative Codes, as adopted in this chapter, are intended to apply to additions and alterations to one-family and two-family dwellings, including existing one-family and two-family dwellings, which were built prior to June 1, 1980 (effective adoption date of the uniform dwelling code), detached garages, accessory buildings, as well as new construction." Section 54-3(f)(3) then lists the conditions that are "exempt from compliance with the uniform dwelling code" in a pre-June-1-1980 house, and the four it names are stairways rebuilt in the same stairwell, ceiling heights of not less than six feet ten inches, habitable areas above the second floor served by a single exit, and unaltered windows below the egress size. NONE of the four is a roof provision, so the roofing standards reach an older De Pere house the same way they reach a new one. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No mid-roof or roof-covering inspection stage is published. Municipal Code section 54-3(f)(7) lists the inspections that "shall be completed for all projects whenever applicable," in full: erosion control; building sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water service; footing, drain tile and foundation; underground building drains and drain tile; rough; insulation; and final. None of those is a tear-off, roof-deck or roof-covering stage, and on a permitted reroof the final is the operative one. Two things still call for a phone call rather than an assumption. The rough stage covers "General building construction, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical installations ... after all work is complete, but before any of the installations are covered or concealed," so where a tear-off turns into deck or framing replacement that stage applies. And the final must be called for within 30 days of completion. Building Inspection is on 920-339-4053.

Not required — No impact-resistance or hail-rating mandate applies in De Pere. The statewide Wisconsin uniform dwelling code contains no UL 2218 requirement, no Class 4 or Class IV impact rating and no FM 4473 reference anywhere in the chapters that govern one- and two-family dwellings, including the roof coverings section; its catch-all for coverings not otherwise addressed sends the installer to the manufacturer instructions or a national standard recognised by the department, which sets no impact class. Impact-resistant shingles are an insurer-driven upgrade in this market, not a code obligation. One caution for reading paperwork on a Wisconsin job: a Class A, B or C designation, or a reference to ASTM E108 or UL 790, is a FIRE rating and says nothing about hail, and ASTM D3161 or D7158 is a WIND rating. Only UL 2218 or FM 4473 answers impact. On the City side, Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code was read in full and contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 requirement, and the City's published permit guidance and fee schedule set no shingle rating.

DE PERE NAMES ROOFING NOWHERE, SO READ THE GENERAL RULE AND ITS ONE EXCEPTION. The general rule is broad and it is in the ordinance rather than on a web page. Municipal Code section 54-3(e) provides that "No one-family or two-family dwelling shall be built, enlarged, altered or repaired unless a building permit for that work shall first be obtained by the owner or his or her agent from the building inspector," and section 54-3(f)(1) repeats it for existing houses: "No addition, alteration or repair to an existing one-family or two-family dwelling shall be undertaken unless a building permit for this work is first obtained by the owner or his or her agent from the building inspector." The City's own guidance says the same thing in plainer words: "A permit is required prior to beginning any new construction, repairs, additions, alterations, and demolitions, including the installation of new boilers, furnaces, electrical wiring, plumbing fixtures, garages, porches, fences, decks, swimming pools, and sheds." The exception, and the reason a reroof is not a settled question in De Pere, is the second sentence of section 54-3(f)(1): "The inspector may not require a permit for minor repairs (i.e., repairs or alterations not affecting occupancy, area, structural integrity, fire protection, exits, lighting or ventilation)." Section 54-3(f)(3) carries the same sentence for houses built before June 1, 1980, there defining minor repairs as "repairs as defined in Wis. Admin. Code SPS 320.05(3) of the uniform dwelling code, alterations not affecting occupancy, area, structural integrity, fire protection, exits, lighting or ventilation." Neither the ordinance nor any City page places roof covering replacement on either side of that line. What the City does publish points one way in practice: its permit application list and its building permit fee schedule both carry a Residing/soffits permit at 75 dollars and a Window Replacement permit at 75 dollars, and neither carries a roofing entry, and the City's monthly building reports break permits out by type - Siding, Window/Door Replacement, Deck, Fence, Pool, Shed, Sign - with no roofing category among them. So ASK BEFORE YOU TEAR OFF. A reroof that touches the deck, the framing or the fire separation is not a minor repair on the ordinance's own words, and where a permit is issued the residential alteration fee applies: the fee schedule charges "any residential alteration, repair, or remodeling ... at the rate of $10.00 per each $1,000 of the cost of the work to be done, with a minimum fee of $75.00 and a maximum fee of $10,000.00." Working without a required permit is expensive: the fee schedule doubles the permit fee, and the City states that "When unpermitted work is discovered, a Stop Work Order will be issued and a permit that accurately describes the work must be obtained before any work may resume." Building Inspection is on 920-339-4053.

STATE-SET, AND EXPRESSED AS A PRESSURE RATHER THAN A DESIGN WIND SPEED IN MILES PER HOUR. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 321.02(1)(c) provides that dwellings "shall be designed and constructed to withstand either a horizontal and uplift pressure of 20 pounds per square foot acting over the surface area or the wind loads determined in accordance with ASCE 7-05, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures," with a published note that ASCE 7-05 allows for substantial reduction from 20 psf as applied to the surface area. Snow is the one input that varies geographically: SPS 321.02(1)(b)2. provides that roofs "shall be designed and constructed to support the minimum snow loads listed on the zone map," a statewide zone map, so a local ground snow figure is read off that map rather than stated as a single statewide number. IMPORTANT for anyone used to International Residential Code jurisdictions: because Wisconsin works in pounds per square foot and a zone map, there is no ultimate design wind speed in miles per hour here, and the 20 pounds per square foot figure must not be converted into one. De Pere adds nothing of its own for dwellings - Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code was read in full and contains no wind design provision for a house. One figure in that chapter must not be borrowed: section 54-12 requires that tents and temporary structures "be designed and constructed to resist any lateral and uplift forces of a design wind load of 90 miles per hour." That is a tent rule and it is the only wind speed printed in the chapter; it says nothing about how a roof on a house is designed.

STATE-SET. De Pere writes no reroofing layer rule of its own - Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code, all fifteen sections, was read in full and contains no layer limit, no recover rule and no roof-covering provision of any kind - so the statewide rule governs unmodified. The statewide Wisconsin uniform dwelling code bars installing a new roof covering over the existing covering in three situations: where the existing roof or covering is water-soaked or has deteriorated so that it is inadequate as a base for additional roofing; where the existing roof is wood shake, slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile; or where the existing roof already has two or more applications of any type of permanent roof covering. So at most two total layers, and fewer than that where the deck is wet or deteriorated or the existing roof is one of the listed materials. A complete tear-off to the deck is not restricted by that rule at any layer count. There is no local route past two layers here of the kind some other Wisconsin municipalities publish on calculations submitted to the inspector, so a roof already carrying two applications is a tear-off in De Pere. The Wisconsin uniform dwelling code sets these roofing rules statewide, but does not reach every house. It does not apply to a one- or two-family dwelling whose construction began before June 1, 1980, or to additions or alterations to one, unless the municipality has adopted chs. SPS 320 to 325 for that purpose - ask the building inspector before assuming it governs an older home. The code also states that it does not apply to repairs or maintenance, and it defines a repair to include replacing existing equipment with the equivalent, while a separate section regulates reroofing by name. Wisconsin has not resolved which of those two provisions governs a like-for-like tear-off, so confirm with the authority issuing the permit. De Pere has closed the older-house branch of that scope question, and it is one of very few Wisconsin municipalities that also spells out what an older house is excused from. Municipal Code section 54-3(c), headed Applicability, provides that "The Wisconsin Administrative Codes, as adopted in this chapter, are intended to apply to additions and alterations to one-family and two-family dwellings, including existing one-family and two-family dwellings, which were built prior to June 1, 1980 (effective adoption date of the uniform dwelling code), detached garages, accessory buildings, as well as new construction." Section 54-3(f)(3) then lists the conditions that are "exempt from compliance with the uniform dwelling code" in a pre-June-1-1980 house, and the four it names are stairways rebuilt in the same stairwell, ceiling heights of not less than six feet ten inches, habitable areas above the second floor served by a single exit, and unaltered windows below the egress size. NONE of the four is a roof provision, so the roofing standards reach an older De Pere house the same way they reach a new one.

STATE-SET. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 321.27(9) sets the deck standard for one- and two-family dwellings in three parts. For structural sheathing, "The allowable loads and spans for structural sheathing shall be in accordance with the grade stamp on the panel." For roof boards, where the rafter spacing is 24 inches on center or less, "roof boards may be used that have a minimum thickness of 5/8-inch for solid sheathing and 3/4-inch for spaced sheathing," and where the rafter spacing is greater than 24 inches on center, "roof boards shall be tongue and groove, at least 1.5 inches thick." For roof planks, they "shall be tongue and groove or splined and at least 2 inches, nominal, in thickness," shall "terminate over beams unless the joints are end matched," and shall be "laid so that no continuous line of joints will occur except at points of support." Wisconsin expresses this as a panel grade-stamp and board-thickness rule keyed to rafter spacing rather than the International Residential Code formulation used in IRC states, so do not carry an IRC sheathing specification onto a Wisconsin job. De Pere adds nothing of its own: Chapter 54 of the Municipal Code was read in full and contains no roof sheathing, decking or roof-nailing provision. Note that the City requires a rough inspection of general building construction "after all work is complete, but before any of the installations are covered or concealed," so replacing deck on a permitted job is work the City expects to see before it is covered.

5.5% on materials - the Wisconsin state sales and use tax of 5% plus Brown County's 0.5% county sales and use tax, which the Department of Revenue rate chart lists for county code 5 with an effective date of 1/18. De Pere lies wholly within Brown County, so there is no county straddle to price around. The Department of Revenue sales tax rate chart, Guidance Document Number 100047 dated January 16, 2026, is the authority for those components. No municipal sales tax applies: the city of Milwaukee is the only municipality in Wisconsin that imposes one, and no premier resort area tax applies - the Department of Revenue list of the ten municipalities that impose it does not include De Pere. How the tax falls on a roofing job matters more than the rate. Wisconsin treats a roof as real property - the Department of Revenue contractor guidance answers it by name, listing roofs as real property for residential installation, residential repair, commercial installation and commercial repair alike - so the roofing contractor is the consumer of what it installs. The contractor pays sales or use tax when buying shingles, underlayment and other materials, and "is not permitted to collect sales tax from its customers on its sales price from sales of real property construction activities," meaning neither labour nor materials are taxed on the reroofing contract. The exception runs the other way: selling lumber, roofing materials or other tangible personal property WITHOUT installation is a retail sale and is taxable. So the rate is a cost input on the material purchase rather than a line on the homeowner invoice.