DeKalb County, Georgia - Department of Planning & Sustainability, Permits, Plan Review & Inspections Division

DeKalb County, Georgia

county

Decatur, GA

Required

Required

FIRST, CONFIRM YOU ARE IN THE COUNTY'S TERRITORY. DeKalb County permits the unincorporated county, and it says so itself. Its Permits, Plan Review & Inspections page opens with a before-you-start banner asking "Is your project inside an incorporated DeKalb City? Your permitting authority may be different." It then states under City Reviews: "If your project is located within the limits of one of DeKalb County's incorporated cities, primary permitting is handled by the city's permitting office, not Dekalb County. If city review requires DeKalb County services, the city will provide a routing sheet." The County does not publish a roster of which cities issue their own building permits, and that gap has not been filled here - what it does publish is a service-area list on its Emergency Management page naming "13 incorporated cities including Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, Lithonia, Pine Lake, Stonecrest, Stone Mountain, Tucker, and sections of Atlanta within DeKalb County," and a SPLOST page describing an intergovernmental agreement with "each of the County's 12 incorporated cities." Those are an emergency-management service area and a tax agreement, NOT statements about who issues building permits, so treat them as a list of places to check rather than as an answer. Confirm the permitting jurisdiction for the specific address with the County before pulling anything. Note also that the County's business occupation tax under Code section 15-26(a) reaches businesses located in the county "exclusive of incorporated municipalities," which is the same unincorporated footprint. HOW THE COUNTY RUNS IT. Applications go through the ePermits portal and plans through ProjectDox; the office is at 178 Sams Street, Decatur, with one-stop hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and a permit information line at 404-371-2155, option 3. Under section 7-30(g) an application is deemed abandoned 180 days after filing unless a permit issues, with up to three written 90-day extensions available. Under section 7-30(i) an issued permit becomes invalid if work has not started or no county inspection has been performed within one year, or if work has been suspended or no inspection performed for 180 days; one written 180-day extension is available. If the contractor changes mid-job the permit must be re-issued on the owner's written notice, and the new contractor pays a $50 re-permit fee and becomes responsible for the whole job. One genuinely useful provision for a roofer working to a schedule: section 7-34(i) lets the permit holder retain a pre-qualified alternate registered professional engineer, at their own expense, to perform a required inspection whenever the County cannot provide the inspection within two business days of a valid written request. FINALLY, THE EXEMPTION REMOVES THE PERMIT, NOT THE CODE. Under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) the Georgia mandatory codes bind any structure built in the state whether or not the local government chooses to enforce them locally. Compliance is statewide and automatic; enforcement is local and selective.

Two layers, and in Georgia the state layer supplies the technical content while the county layer adds to it. STATE: the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia Amendments 2026 is a mandatory state minimum standard code adopted by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, effective January 1, 2026. Under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) the mandatory codes bind any structure built in Georgia whether or not the local government chooses to enforce them locally, so there is no local edition to look up and a county need not adopt the code for it to apply. What a local government chooses is which mandatory codes it will enforce and whether to adopt the permissive codes. COUNTY: DeKalb adopts the state codes by FLOATING reference. Code of DeKalb County section 7-51(a) provides that as future new editions and amendments of the listed codes are adopted by the Board of Community Affairs "they shall become a part of or replacement for the adopted codes, rules and regulations or standards and shall become enforceable as prescribed without separate adoption by the governing authority," and it lists the International Building Code, the International Residential Code and Appendix G, the International Plumbing Code with section 703.6 of Appendix J of the Georgia Amendments, the International Mechanical Code, the International Fuel Gas Code, the National Electrical Code, the International Energy Conservation Code and the International Fire Code. So DeKalb's residential code moves with the state's, and today that is the 2024 IRC with Georgia Amendments 2026. THE TRANSITION IS OVER: the County's own public notice set a grace period under which applications submitted on or before February 28, 2026 could use the 2018 editions and applications submitted on or after March 1, 2026 had to comply with the 2024 codes, with projects already in review or under construction remaining under the edition that applied at the time of their issued permit. Both dates have passed. DEKALB'S OWN AMENDMENTS: section 7-52(b)(1) is the complete residential amendment list and it does three things only - it deletes IRC Chapter 1, it adopts IRC Appendix G, and it fills in the blanks of Table R301.2(1) with the county's design criteria. It makes no change to the Code's roofing chapter. Section 7-52(b)(2) then adds a separate list of local supplemental residential requirements, lettered (A) through (V), and four of those DO reach a roof - see the drip edge, roof layer and deck fields. APPENDIX U, DISASTER RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION: the Department of Community Affairs adopts this appendix to the IRC as optional, and a Georgia local government can only enforce a permissive code by adopting it. Chapter 7 of the Code of DeKalb County was read in full - all five articles and every section - and the only IRC appendix it references anywhere is Appendix G. Section 7-51(c) settles what that means: "The appendices included in any code adopted pursuant to Division 3 of Article II of this chapter are not intended for enforcement unless specifically referenced in this chapter or specifically included in this Code." DeKalb has therefore not adopted Appendix U. Note in any event that AU101.3.1 limits the appendix, where adopted, to new development and to substantial improvements to existing development, a term the appendix does not define - it is not a rule about how an ordinary reroof is installed. One more thing worth knowing: section 7-51(d) provides that where the chapter and a referenced code differ, the chapter governs, so DeKalb's local supplemental requirements sit on top of the state code rather than beside it.

Required — DeKalb requires it in its own words, which is unusual for a Georgia jurisdiction. Code of DeKalb County section 7-52(b)(2) is headed "Local supplemental ordinance requirements to the state adopted International Residential Code," and its subparagraph (L) provides: "Roof framing shall be tied securely to wall framing, using hurricane type connections. All exterior wall sheathing shall be made of seven-sixteenth (7/16) plywood or oriented strand board or other approved materials. Metal or self-sealing flashing shall be installed at least twelve (12) inches on either side of roof valleys. Drip edges shall be installed at all roofing edges." The drip-edge sentence is unconditional and is the County's own requirement, not a restatement of the base Code. Three companion items in the same list matter to the same job: (K) requires that "All roofing shingles shall be installed and maintained during the entire construction per manufacturer's recommendations" and that "Roofing shall be installed and sloped according to the manufacturer specifications using flashing and waterproof caulking to prevent leakage and moisture accumulation"; (Q) requires flashing and caulking "at all exterior surfaces, roofs or appurtenances that are connected to another surface," extending to abutting structures; and (R) requires that "Crickets shall be installed behind all chimneys and shall extend the full width of the chimney chase." How far the list reaches on a reroof: section 7-26 applies Chapter 7 to the alteration, repair and replacement of buildings within the county, and section 7-27(g) requires that additions, alterations or repairs "conform to that required for a new building, structure or system" without forcing the whole existing building up to code, while section 7-27(h) permits ordinary repairs "in the same manner and arrangement as in the existing system." Section 7-51(d) provides that where the chapter and a referenced code differ, the chapter governs. The base 2024 IRC also carries a drip-edge provision in its roofing chapter, which neither the Georgia Amendments nor DeKalb changes; that base text is behind the publisher's paywall and is not restated here. Enactment credit on section 7-52 is Ord. No. 04-09, Pt. I, 8-10-04 and Ord. No. 05-09, Pt. I, 7-26-05, carried in a codification current through Ordinance No. 2025-1606, enacted December 16, 2025. About drip edge

Not required — DeKalb sets no roofing hold point. Code of DeKalb County section 7-34(c) lists the required inspections, and its Building series is complete at five: (A) foundation and slab, (B) damproofing, (C) pre-cladding/frame, (D) frame/insulation, and (E) final. There is no sheathing, dry-in, nailing or mid-roof stage anywhere in it. The roof appears in that section only as a PRECONDITION for other stages - the pre-cladding inspection is "to be made after the roof, wall bracing, windows, doors and moisture barrier are installed and prior to placement of exterior cladding," and the electrical, plumbing and mechanical rough-ins are each to be made after the roof and framing are in place - never as an inspection of the roof itself. The rest of section 7-34 was read in full and adds only a residential floodplain elevation certification, a fire-resistant penetration inspection and a residential fire-resistance-rated construction inspection, none of which is a roofing stage. ONE CAVEAT THAT IS REAL: section 7-34(f) authorises the building official "to make or require other inspections of any construction work to ascertain compliance," so a particular job can still draw an inspection the code does not schedule. Under section 7-34(k) work may not go beyond the point indicated in each successive inspection without approval, and anything covered or concealed before it has been inspected can be ordered uncovered at the permit holder's expense.

Not required — No impact-rated roof covering is required in unincorporated DeKalb County. The Georgia State Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code, which is the whole of Georgia's residential amendment list, makes no change to the Code's roofing chapter and contains no impact-resistance requirement - no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 provision appears in it. DeKalb's own building regulations were then read in full: Chapter 7 of the Code of DeKalb County, all five articles and every section from 7-1 through 7-505, and none of the words UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 occurs anywhere in it. The County's own residential amendments at section 7-52(b)(1) delete IRC Chapter 1, adopt Appendix G and fill in Table R301.2(1); its local supplemental requirements at section 7-52(b)(2) address roofing installation, valley flashing, drip edges and chimney crickets, but say nothing about impact or hail rating. Neither instrument mandates an impact-rated covering. A hail discount an insurer offers for an impact-rated shingle is a contract term between the homeowner and their insurer, not a code requirement.

DeKalb sets a dollar threshold, and it is keyed to ORDINARY REPAIRS rather than to a named list of trades. Code of DeKalb County section 7-30(a) requires a permit "before beginning construction, erection, alteration or repair to a building or structure, mechanical system, gas system, plumbing system, electrical system, and energy conservation system, other than ordinary repairs," and section 7-30(b), headed "Exception to permit required," reads in full: "Ordinary repairs to a single-family residential building or structure for which the wholesale cost does not exceed three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) shall not be required to obtain a permit." READ THE LIMITS. The exception reaches only ORDINARY REPAIRS, and only to a SINGLE-FAMILY residential building or structure - not a duplex, not an apartment building, not a commercial roof. The test is stated as WHOLESALE COST, which is not the same figure as the contract price a homeowner is quoted. And a full tear-off and replacement of a roof covering is not on its face an ordinary repair, so a reroof should be treated as permitted work unless the building official says otherwise on the particular job. Section 7-30(d), "Work exempt from permit," was read in full - all five trade groups, and the Building list running (A) fences through (I) movable cases and partitions - and it contains no roofing item of any kind. Getting it wrong is expensive: under section 7-30(c) anyone commencing work before obtaining the required permit is subject to a penalty of one hundred percent of the usual permit fee in addition to the permit fee itself. The County's published minimum is $245 - a $195 minimum permit fee plus a $50 certificate of occupancy or completion fee - with a $20 technology fee on each trade permit.

DeKalb fills in the blanks of the residential code's own climatic and geographic criteria table itself, and the wind figure comes with a basis a designer must not overlook. Code of DeKalb County section 7-52(b)(1)(C) provides that "Table 301.2(1) in Chapter 3 shall be completed by adding the following information to the blank spaces," and gives: ground snow load 8 pounds per square foot; WIND SPEED (FASTEST MILE) - 90; seismic design category B; weathering moderate; frost line depth 12 inches minimum; termite damage very heavy; decay damage moderate to severe; winter design temperature for heating facilities 22 degrees Fahrenheit; and flood hazard May 7, 2001. READ THE PARENTHESIS. The County states 90 mph on the FASTEST-MILE basis, which is an older measurement convention than the three-second gust used by the wind-speed maps in current editions of the International Residential Code. A fastest-mile figure and a three-second gust figure are not interchangeable and neither is a nominal figure interchangeable with an ultimate design wind speed, so a designer must confirm which basis the method or product approval in front of them expects rather than carrying 90 across. This record reports the County's published figure and its stated basis and does not convert between them. The termite and decay entries are worth carrying too: DeKalb publishes termite damage as VERY HEAVY, which bears on fastener and wood-material choices at eaves and rakes.

DeKalb County sets no local overlay or layer rule of its own, and neither does Georgia. The re-cover and roof-replacement limits that apply in unincorporated DeKalb are the base 2024 International Residential Code provisions as adopted in Georgia. Code of DeKalb County section 7-51(a) adopts the International Residential Code as the Board of Community Affairs adopts and amends it, without separate county adoption; section 7-52(b)(1) is the county's complete residential amendment list and it does three things only - deletes IRC Chapter 1, adopts Appendix G, and fills in Table R301.2(1) - so it leaves the Code's roofing chapter untouched. The Georgia State Amendments packet to the 2024 IRC likewise makes no change to that chapter. Chapter 7 was read in full and contains no provision about overlays, re-covering, or the number of roof coverings that may remain in place. The numeric limit is therefore whatever the base Code text says, and that text is behind the publisher's paywall and is not restated here. What DeKalb DOES add is a set of local supplemental residential requirements at section 7-52(b)(2) that reach the work itself rather than the layer count: shingles installed per the manufacturer's recommendations, roofing sloped to the manufacturer's specifications with flashing and waterproof caulking, metal or self-sealing flashing at least twelve inches either side of every valley, drip edges at all roofing edges, and a cricket behind every chimney the full width of the chimney chase.

State-governed for the deck itself, with a local trap beside it. Roof-deck and roof-sheathing requirements in unincorporated DeKalb are the base 2024 International Residential Code provisions as adopted in Georgia, unmodified at both levels: the Georgia State Amendments packet to the 2024 IRC makes no change to the Code's roofing chapter, and DeKalb's own residential amendment list at Code section 7-52(b)(1) only deletes IRC Chapter 1, adopts Appendix G and fills in Table R301.2(1). The base Code text is behind the publisher's paywall and is not restated here. READ THE LOCAL SHEATHING RULE CAREFULLY, BECAUSE IT IS NOT A ROOF RULE. DeKalb's local supplemental requirement at section 7-52(b)(2)(L) opens with roof framing and then changes subject: "Roof framing shall be tied securely to wall framing, using hurricane type connections. All exterior wall sheathing shall be made of seven-sixteenth (7/16) plywood or oriented strand board or other approved materials." The 7/16 inch specification is an EXTERIOR WALL sheathing requirement, not a roof-deck thickness, and subparagraph (O) is likewise a wall rule - it requires 7/16 inch structural wood sheathing as underlayment on residential exterior walls where vinyl siding is to be installed. Nothing in Chapter 7 sets a roof-deck material or thickness. The hurricane-connection half of (L) IS a roof requirement and is DeKalb's own: roof framing must be tied securely to wall framing using hurricane type connections. Where a reroof goes past the covering and reaches decking or framing, it is plainly not an ordinary repair, so it requires a permit under section 7-30(a) whatever the cost.

8% in DeKalb County outside the city of Atlanta, and 8.9% inside the part of Atlanta that lies in DeKalb. The Georgia Department of Revenue's general rate chart effective July 1, 2026 carries two DeKalb rows: code 044, "Dekalb (Not Atlanta)", at 8%, made up of the 4% state rate plus the local components the chart marks M for MARTA, E for Educational, H for HOST or EHOST and S for SPLOST; and code 044A, "DeKalb (Atlanta)", at 8.9%, made up of the state rate plus MARTA, Educational, HOST or EHOST, Other, local Atlanta MARTA and the Atlanta TSPLOST. The split is by city, not by county, so the address decides which figure applies - this is the same shape as Fulton and Clayton and it catches people who assume one rate per county. Two things this rate is NOT: the separate row at code 043 reading "Decatur" at 9% is DECATUR COUNTY in southwest Georgia, not the city of Decatur that is DeKalb's county seat, and the city of Decatur has no row of its own - it is inside the 8% DeKalb figure. DeKalb does not move at the next quarter change: the Department's chart effective October 1, 2026 carries the identical 8% and 8.9% for codes 044 and 044A. For a roofer the rate matters on the materials rather than the invoice. Under Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 560-12-2-.26(1), any person who "contracts to furnish tangible personal property and perform services thereunder in constructing, altering, repairing or improving real property in this State is deemed to be the consumer of all tangible personal property used or consumed in performing such contract and shall pay the tax thereon at the time of purchase, use, storage or consumption in this State, whichever occurs first." So the tax on the shingles is the contractor's cost rather than a line the homeowner is charged. The same rule adds that "Every contractor or subcontractor improving real property in this State shall file an application for a Certificate of Registration (CRF-002) as a contractor prior to his first construction activity in this State" - a tax registration, not a trade licence. Whether separately stated roofing LABOUR is taxable is not answered by that rule - the word "labor" does not appear in it - and is a question for the roofer's accountant. The chart is reissued quarterly, so check the current one before quoting a rate.