Delaware County Building Commissioner's Office

Delaware County, Indiana

county

100 W Main St, Room 206, Muncie, IN 47305

WHERE, AND WHICH OFFICE. The Building Commissioner's Office is at 100 W. Main Street, Room 206, Muncie, IN 47305, on (765) 747-7799, open Monday to Friday 8:30am to 4pm, with Tom Fouch as Building Commissioner and Zoning Administrator. It permits only unincorporated Delaware County. The City of Muncie's Building Commissioner's Office at 300 N. High Street, on 765-747-4862, handles jobs inside the city, and the County's own jurisdiction page and code-enforcement page route callers between the offices by address. HOW TO APPLY. The County publishes a fillable residential building and zoning permit application; it can be brought to the office, emailed with the site and building plans to the permit clerk at [email protected], or uploaded through the County's online submission form with a site plan and building plans. The County's page states: "It takes 3-5 business days to review the permit" and "Do not start work until the permits are approved". Every contractor on the application needs a registration number on file before a permit issues. A homeowner doing the work signs a county release form, and failing to tell the office that a contractor was later hired can bring a $700 fine. INSPECTIONS AND PENALTIES. Inspections are called in by phone at least 24 to 48 hours ahead, never by email and never same-day. Work begun without a required permit draws a stop work order and a fine starting at $700, and all required permits must still be obtained.

THE COUNTY'S ADOPTION IS EXPRESSLY FLOATING. Ordinance 2020-007, adopted July 6, 2020, deleted the list of dated editions that section 4-1-4 of the Delaware County Code used to carry and replaced it with: "The most current versions of the following rules, regulations and codes, as set forth in the Indiana Administrative Code (IAC), are hereby adopted by reference as the rules and regulations governing the construction and alteration of buildings and structures in the unincorporated territory of Delaware County, Indiana". The Indiana Residential Code is on the list, and the section adds: "Any updates or amendments to the codes listed herein that are adopted by the State of Indiana, as set forth in the Indiana Administrative Code, shall be considered in effect for unincorporated Delaware County, Indiana upon notification of adoption to the Delaware County Building Commissioner." WHAT THAT REACHES. The Indiana residential rule is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017, "save and except those revisions made in this rule". It was filed November 26, 2019 and readopted November 18, 2025. The County writes no technical amendment of its own: Title 4, Chapter 1 contains adoption, permit, inspection, enforcement and penalty provisions and no construction rule. ONE THING TO BE READY FOR AT THE COUNTER. The County's Required Inspections page still says its inspections follow the "2006 International Building Code" together with the residential, fire, electrical, plumbing and mechanical codes "as adopted by the State of Indiana"; the 2006 date is a leftover of the dated list that Ordinance 2020-007 removed.

Required — REQUIRED BY THE STATE, NOT BY THE COUNTY. The Indiana State Building Commissioner's Ice and Water Shield Update memo of February 25, 2020 (revised) reproduces Section R905.2.8.5 of the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, which requires a drip edge at the eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs, with its overlap, extension and fastening rules and the order of underlayment over the drip edge at eaves and under it at rakes. 675 IAC 14-4.4-86 amends Section R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved", and no Indiana amendment touches R905.2.8.5. Delaware County has no drip-edge provision of its own: Title 4, Chapters 1 to 3 and their amendments were read in full and the word drip does not occur in them. Under IC 22-13-2-3(c) the County could not add or subtract one. About drip edge

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE TABLE IN DELAWARE COUNTY, AND THAT IS NOT THE END OF THE QUESTION. Indiana deletes the model Table R301.2(1) and substitutes its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, and the Delaware County row prints No in the ice shield underlayment column. The State Building Commissioner's memo that reproduces the table makes the point that the table is not the only route to the membrane: R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1 still require roofing to be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions, so where those instructions call for an ice-and-water membrane on the assembly being installed, that requirement applies to the job regardless of the table. Delaware County has no ordinance on the point; Title 4 contains no occurrence of ice, snow or wind. Read the shingle manufacturer's instructions before treating the membrane as optional here. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NO ROOFING STAGE APPEARS IN THE COUNTY'S PUBLISHED INSPECTION LIST, WHICH IS ITEMISED RATHER THAN SILENT. The Required Inspections for Permits page names its inspection types: site, post structures, footing, foundation or basement, under slab, framing, temporary electric service, rough-in, and final. No roof, dry-in or underlayment stage is among them, and the fee schedule prices Remodeling / Alterations at two inspections without naming them. So there is no published mid-roof hold point to schedule around. If the job is permitted, inspections have to be called in by phone on 765-747-7799 or 765-747-7740 at least 24 to 48 hours ahead with the permit number, as the page states that "We cannot take inspection requests through email."

Not required — NOT REQUIRED, AND THE NEGATIVE COMES FROM READING BOTH LAYERS. Title 4 of the Delaware County Code, Chapters 1 to 3 as enacted and every amending ordinance to them on the County's own ordinance server, was read in full and contains no roof-covering standard at all; the terms UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV, impact and hail do not occur in it. The state rule the County adopts, 675 IAC 14-4.4, contains no UL 2218, Class 4 or FM 4473 impact requirement, and its only roof-covering amendments are the word deletions described in this record's layer field. Impact-resistant shingles are an insurance and warranty decision in unincorporated Delaware County, not a code requirement.

THE COUNTY'S PERMIT TRIGGER IS A COST TEST ON AN ALTERATION, AND THE ORDINANCE DOES NOT SAY WHETHER A REROOF IS ONE. Section 4-1-6 of the Delaware County Code, as re-enacted by Ordinance 2013-027 on December 2, 2013, reads: "A building permit shall be obtained from the building commissioner prior to the commencement of any construction, alteration or structural alteration of any building or structure". Its first item attaches that duty to "a new building, addition to an existing building, alteration or structural alteration if the total cost of all labor and material thereof exceeds fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500.00)", and its second lowers the figure to five hundred dollars where the work "includes any heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical or plumbing work thereon". Chapter 1 was read in full, all twenty sections from 4-1-1 to 4-1-20, and it defines neither alteration nor roofing and names no roof work anywhere. WHAT THE COUNTY PUBLISHES DOES NOT SETTLE IT EITHER. Its Building Commissioner page lists new construction, additions, remodels, demolition, trade work, pools, signs, solar and "Other construction", with the footnote "Call the office to see if your project requires a permit"; its Apply for a Permit page names no roofing or re-roofing project; and its residential application carries no roof entry. The County's own contractor ordinance treats roofing as one of the "component subcontracts" done under a builder's permit on new structures. So on a reroof costing more than fifteen hundred dollars, and on any job that brings in an electrician or HVAC work at five hundred, settle with the office on (765) 747-7799 before tearing off. IF IT IS PERMITTED AS AN ALTERATION, the current fee schedule prices Remodeling / Alterations at $7.50 per 100 square feet with a $75.00 minimum and two inspections, and additional inspections at $50.00. Starting work that needed a permit without one draws a stop work order and, on the County's own page, a fine starting at $700.

115 mph, from the state's county-indexed table rather than from any County enactment. Indiana deletes the model Table R301.2(1) and substitutes its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, and the Delaware County row reads: wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category A, ground snow load 20 psf, frost line depth 30 inches, winter design temperature 2 degrees F, decay slight to moderate, termite moderate to heavy, weathering severe, ice shield underlayment required No, air freezing index 1500 or less, mean annual temperature 50.8 degrees F. The County publishes no design criteria of its own, and cannot vary these by ordinance: 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".

TWO LAYERS MAXIMUM, SET BY THE STATE CODE; THE COUNTY WRITES NO LAYER RULE OF ITS OWN. Title 4 of the Delaware County Code was read in full across every chapter a roofer touches: Chapter 1, the building code ordinance, Chapter 2, the permit fees, and Chapter 3, contractor registration, together with the amending Ordinances 2020-007, 2021-001, 2022-007 and 2022-027. None of them contains a layer limit, a tear-off requirement or an overlay rule of any kind; the words layer and shingle do not occur in any of them. On the state side, 675 IAC 14-4.4 makes no amendment to the reroofing section of the 2018 International Residential Code; its only edits in the roof assemblies chapter delete one sentence from the rooftop photovoltaic section and delete single words from two asphalt-shingle attachment and flashing sections and a third flashing section. Nor could the County write its own: 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". Base-code rule, read at 2018 International Residential Code 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." One existing layer may be recovered; a second existing layer means a tear-off to the deck. Establish the existing layer count on the first visit, and settle anything unusual with the Building Commissioner on (765) 747-7799 before quoting a recover.

NO COUNTY SHEATHING RULE, AND ONE STATE EDIT THAT IS ABOUT GRADE MARKS, NOT NAILING. Title 4, Chapters 1 to 3 and their amendments were read in full and contain no sheathing or decking provision; the word sheathing and the word deck do not occur in them. The sheathing that applies is therefore that of 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code incorporating the 2018 International Residential Code. Indiana's single amendment in the roof sheathing section, at 675 IAC 14-4.4-82, deletes the words "or certificate of inspection issued by an approved agency" from Section R803.2.1, headed identification and grade, so panels have to carry their grade mark rather than rely on a separate certificate. Its roof-covering amendments do not reach the sheathing provisions. The County publishes no roofing inspection stage, so agree with the office on (765) 747-7799 if the deck is to be seen before it is covered.

7.00% in Delaware County, the Indiana state sales and use tax rate, with no county or municipal add-on. The Department of Revenue's page on county-level taxes states that "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%", so there is no Delaware County component to add to a materials invoice.