City of Devils Lake, North Dakota - Building Department

City of Devils Lake, North Dakota

city

Devils Lake, ND

Required

Permits are pulled from the Building Department at 423 6th Street NE, PO Box 1048, Devils Lake, ND 58301, on 701-662-7600; the department's page gives extension 2 and the permit application form gives extension 3, so try both. Dustin Willey is the Code Administrator and Helen Carlson the building administrator. The City describes the department's job as issuing "building permits and conducting inspections throughout the construction process," and its jurisdiction as the city limits plus a two-mile extraterritorial area, so a job just outside the city can still be a City permit. THE FORM. The Application for Plan Examination and Building Permit is a four-page form; the applicant completes sections I, II, III, IV and VIII, which cover the location and owner, the type and cost of the improvement, the building's characteristics, the identification of owner, architect or engineer and contractor, and a site or plot plan. The type-of-improvement list includes "3. Repair, Replacement." Costs are itemised into building materials, general labour, electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning and other, with a total cost of improvement, and the form states that "Permit fees for new construction will be based on construction costs as determined by Building Valuation Data Tables." A Licensed Contractors block asks for the general, plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning contractors. The form also carries a notice that federal law may require the work to conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines, citing NDCC Section 54-21.3-04.2. TIMING. Under Municipal Code Section 15.08.230 a City building permit "is valid for a period of twelve (12) months for the renovation or repair of a structure and eighteen (18) months for new construction," renewable for a further like term, with the renewal costing "double the fee charged for the preceding term unless waived by the city commission" - so an abandoned re-roof permit is expensive to revive. RELATED HANDOUTS. The Building Department publishes construction handouts on accessory dwelling units, basement construction, demolition, fences, finding your property lines, post frame guidelines, residential handrails and guardrails, residential stairs, siding replacement and wood basement construction. There is no roofing handout. The siding handout also notes that from 1 January 2017 the City landfill no longer accepts asbestos products, which matters when an old roof or wall assembly comes off.

DEVILS LAKE ADOPTS THE STATE CODE BY NAME AND NOT BY EDITION, which is the single most useful thing to know before working to a code table here. Devils Lake Municipal Code Section 15.04.010, enacted by Ordinance No. 981 of 18 July 2022, opens: "The North Dakota State Building Code (NDSBC) is adopted as the building code of the city. The NDSBC consists of the International Residential Code (IRC), the International Building Code (IBC), the International Mechanical Code (IMC), and the International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) and includes a list of state approved amendments." No edition year appears anywhere in the section. Ordinance No. 981 repealed the former Chapter 15.04, which had run on the Uniform Building Code since 2003. WHAT THE STATE BUILDING CODE CURRENTLY IS. The 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book states that "Effective January 1, 2026, the North Dakota State Building Code consists of the 2024 International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), International Mechanical Code (IMC), International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Energy Conservation Code, and the International Existing Building Code as published by the International Code Council (ICC)," and adds "NO APPENDICES ARE ADOPTED." Under NDCC 54-21.3-03(6) a city that elects to administer and enforce a building code "shall adopt and enforce the state building code," but the state code "may be amended by cities, townships, and counties to conform to local needs." Devils Lake is listed as a code enforcing city by the North Dakota Department of Commerce. WHAT DEVILS LAKE HAS AMENDED. Section 15.04.010 carries its own amendment list, read in full: IBC Section 3303 gains subsections 3303.8, 3303.9 and 3303.10 on demolition debris; IRC Section R105.2, work exempt from permit, is rewritten; IRC Section R305 is amended on grade floor openings; IRC Section 403 tables are deleted and replaced; IRC Section R404.2 on wood foundation walls is rewritten; a new subsection 801.2.1 is added setting a snow load; and replacement Tables 1805.5(1) to 1805.5(3) and 404.1(1) to 404.1(3) are printed at the end of the chapter. NONE OF IT REACHES THE ROOF COVERING CHAPTER. TWO OTHER CODES THE CITY ADOPTS SEPARATELY. Section 15.08.010 adopts "The 2021 International Fire Code, along with its appendix chapters ... except that chapter 11, Section 903.2.8.1 Group R-3, and Appendices J, L, and M are deleted therefrom," and Section 15.08.030 makes that chapter amend automatically to follow the North Dakota State Fire Code. Section 15.16.020 still adopts the 1976 edition of the Uniform Housing Code. Confirm the edition your permit is written to with the Building Department before ordering material to a code table.

Required — Devils Lake adopts the North Dakota State Building Code, whose residential half is the International Residential Code with North Dakota amendments, and both instruments that could change the roofing chapter were read in full. Title 15 of the Devils Lake Municipal Code, all eight chapters, contains no roof-covering provision at all - Section 15.04.010 adopts the codes and then amends the demolition, permit-exemption, grade-opening, foundation and snow-load provisions, none of which is in the roof-assemblies chapter. The North Dakota amendment set for the 2024 International Residential Code amends thirty sections, none of them in that chapter either. The base residential code drip-edge requirement for asphalt-shingle roofs, at Section R905.2.8.5, therefore applies in Devils Lake unmodified, with no local softening and no local addition. Take the installation extent, the overlap and the fastener spacing from the edition in force for your permit, which the Building Department can confirm - the City's ordinance adopts the State Building Code without naming an edition. One related flashing rule the City does write itself, in its Siding Replacement handout: "Kick out flashing is required at all roof/wall intersections," which is worth knowing when a re-roof and a siding job meet. About drip edge

Not required — No mid-roof, roof-deck or roof-covering inspection stage exists in Devils Lake on the City's own published stage list. The City's Application for Plan Examination and Building Permit carries an INSPECTIONS REQUIRED block, read in full, listing: FOOTING, FOUNDATION, PRE-BACK FILL INSPECTION, BACKFILL, INTERMEDIATE, FRAMING, FINAL, SUB FLOOR PLUMBING, ABOVE GROUND PLUMBING and OTHER. There is no roofing, underlayment or ice-barrier hold point among them. Two qualifications a roofer should hold in mind. The block is a checklist the Building Department completes for each job rather than a fixed schedule, and it carries an OTHER line, so an inspector may call a stage that is not pre-printed. And Title 15 of the Municipal Code, read in full, sets no inspection stages of its own, so the stages come from the adopted code and from the department. Book inspections through the Building Department on 701-662-7600.

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in Devils Lake, at either level of government. City level: Title 15 of the Devils Lake Municipal Code, Buildings and Construction, is the instrument that adopts the building code and creates the permit requirement, and it was read in full - all eight chapters, 15.04 through 15.34, codified through Ordinance No. 1036 passed 2 March 2026. It contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 provision and no roof-covering provision of any kind; its only references to a roof are a foundation rule and the floodplain chapter's definition of a structure. State level: the North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code, published in the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book, were also read in full - thirty numbered section amendments - and none addresses roofing or impact rating. Devils Lake sits in a part of North Dakota that takes summer hail, and an impact-rated shingle may well be worth buying, with an insurer discount sometimes available for one - but nothing in Devils Lake or North Dakota law requires it, and no quote should present it as a code requirement.

THERE IS NO DOLLAR OR SQUARE-FOOTAGE THRESHOLD IN DEVILS LAKE, AND ROOFING IS NAMED NOWHERE - in either direction. What the City has done instead is rewrite the code's exempt-work list. Devils Lake Municipal Code Section 15.04.010 amends the residential code as follows: "R105.2 Work exempt from permit. Permits shall not be required for the following. Exemption from the permit requirements of this code shall not be deemed to grant authorization for any work to be done in any manner in violation of the provisions of this code or any other laws or ordinances of this jurisdiction. Building: 1. One-story detached accessory structures, provided the floor area does not exceed 120 square feet." It then directs: "Delete item 2 and renumber remaining items accordingly." So the City has tightened the base code's first exemption from the model figure to 120 square feet and removed its second item outright; the remaining items of the base residential code list stay in force and were not opened for this record. WHAT THE CITY PUBLISHES AS NEEDING A PERMIT. The Building Department's Permits page states that "Within the Devils Lake City limits and its two-mile jurisdiction, building permits are required for the following projects," and lists: Bedroom Windows, Decks, Demolition, Egress Windows, Fences, Garages, Lawn Sheds (over 120 sq ft), New Homes/Additions, Remodeling, Siding Replacement. Re-roofing is not on that list and neither is roof repair, while siding replacement is - and the City publishes a dedicated Siding Replacement handout that answers "Q: Do I need a permit to replace siding? A: Yes." with no roofing equivalent. TREAT THE LIST AS INCOMPLETE RATHER THAN AS AN EXEMPTION. Two City instruments show the permit system reaching repair work generally: Section 15.08.230 provides that "A building permit issued by the City of Devils Lake is valid for a period of twelve (12) months for the renovation or repair of a structure and eighteen (18) months for new construction," and the City's Application for Plan Examination and Building Permit offers "3. Repair, Replacement" as a type of improvement. Ask the Building Department whether your re-roof needs a permit before you start; do not read the absence of roofing from a published project list as permission to skip one. ONE PERMIT RULE THAT DOES BITE ON LARGER JOBS: under Section 15.08.240 new construction of ten thousand square feet or more, and any change to a Group A, E, I or H occupancy classification, must have plans reviewed by both the Fire Department and the Building Department before the work starts.

Devils Lake imposes no layer rule of its own, so the rule is whatever the adopted code says. Title 15 of the Devils Lake Municipal Code, Buildings and Construction, was read in full - all eight chapters, 15.04 through 15.34, codified through Ordinance No. 1036 passed 2 March 2026 - and it contains no roof-covering, shingle, recover or re-roofing provision of any kind. The City's own amendment list in Section 15.04.010 amends the demolition, permit-exemption, grade-opening, foundation and snow-load provisions and nothing else. The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code, published in the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book, were also read in full - thirty numbered section amendments - and none reaches the roof-assemblies chapter either. So the base International Residential Code provisions on installing a new roof covering over an existing one apply in Devils Lake unmodified, with no local cap added and none removed. That base text was not opened for this record, so no layer count is stated here and none should be inferred. Confirm the permitted number of layers, and the edition your permit is written to, with the Building Department on 701-662-7600 before bidding an overlay - and note that Devils Lake's ordinance adopts the State Building Code without naming an edition, so the edition can move underneath a job.

No Devils Lake roof-sheathing rule exists, and that is established by reading rather than assumed - but the City does write one roof structural number of its own, and it is the number to design to. WHAT THE CITY ADDED. Section 15.04.010 provides that "Subsection 801.2.1 shall be added to section 801.2" of the residential code, reading: "801.2.1 Snow Load. All buildings governed by the IRC shall be designed with a minimum live load of 30 psf." That is a roof-ceiling design load written by the City itself, so it applies to any structural work a re-roof uncovers or triggers. Note it is expressed as a minimum live load, not as a ground snow load, and the two are different quantities - do not convert between them. For post-frame buildings the City's own Post Frame Construction Guidelines handout states separately that "All roof trusses shall be engineered for ground snow load of 50 lbs and drawings shall be supplied from the truss manufacturer"; that handout is dated 2/28/06, so confirm it is current before relying on it. WHAT THE CITY DID NOT WRITE. Title 15 of the Devils Lake Municipal Code was read in full, all eight chapters, and contains no sheathing or decking provision - no thickness minimum, no span table and no fastener schedule. Its construction standards are confined to foundations and grade openings. The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code were read in full, thirty numbered section amendments, and none reaches the roof and ceiling construction chapter either. So the base residential code roof sheathing and decking provisions apply unmodified. ONE SEQUENCING POINT. The inspection card on the City's building permit application lists a FRAMING inspection among the stages, so structural repair found under a stripped roof will normally need to be looked at before it is covered.

7.50% on materials in Devils Lake - North Dakota state sales and use tax of 5%, plus the City of Devils Lake's 2.5% local sales, use and gross receipts tax. There is NO county component: Ramsey County does not appear in the county table of the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner's Local Taxes by Location Guideline, which lists only eight North Dakota counties as imposing a local tax, and Devils Lake carries no county marker in the guideline's city table. The city rate is the sum of five separate increases - 1% from 1 July 1988, 0.5% from 1 January 1997, 0.5% from 1 April 2007, 0.25% from 1 October 2018 and 0.25% from 1 January 2023 - and the guideline, rates effective 1 July 2026, states the current rate as 2.5%. WHO PAYS IT ON A ROOF. North Dakota treats a roofing contractor as the final consumer of the materials installed into real property: "A contractor or subcontractor entering any contract, except for a labor only contract, is regarded as the final user or consumer of all tangible personal property installed into real property." So the contractor pays the tax on its material purchases and does not charge the homeowner sales tax on an install-plus-materials re-roof; selling materials without installing them is a taxable retail sale instead. TWO DEVILS LAKE SPECIFICS. Devils Lake is one of the sixty jurisdictions whose ordinance carries the limited exemption for "materials that are purchased within the jurisdiction, but later installed outside of the jurisdiction where the sale took place," so a contractor who gives the supplier a certificate of exemption at the time of purchase owes local use tax where the goods are installed rather than where they were bought - which matters here because Devils Lake is the supply centre for a wide rural trade area with no local tax of its own. And do not read the $35.00 maximum tax as a cap on a roof: the Tax Commissioner states that "the maximum tax (refund cap) is calculated on each material purchase a contractor makes to fulfill a construction contract, not on purchase orders or the entire construction contract itself," and that "most construction activity which is subject to local sales or use tax will include more than the specified maximum tax in total local tax costs."