City of Emmett - Building Department

Emmett, Idaho

city

601 East 3rd Street, Emmett, ID 83617

Required

Required

WHERE A ROOF JOB IS FILED. Emmett's Building Applications page routes roofing work to an online form of its own, the Online Roofing Permit Application, and keeps separate applications for residential building, commercial building, solar energy systems, fences, demolition and signs. Paper applications go to the Building Department at 601 East 3rd Street or by email, and the City states "Check, cash or card (3% processing fee) are accepted forms of payment." Questions go to 208-365-6050 extension 6. WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH. The City publishes a development team contact list: building code and planning and zoning are the same officer, on extension 6; fire code and its inspections are a separate contact; public works and its inspections another. Electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits and inspections are not the City's at all - the City directs those to the State of Idaho Division of Building Safety in Meridian. THE CLOCKS ON A PERMIT, WHICH ARE STRICTER THAN MOST. The Residential Building Permit Application states that the permit "will become null and void if not picked up within 180 days of approval, or if construction is not started within 180 days of issuance, or 180 days following the last inspection date." So an Emmett permit can lapse for inactivity between inspections as well as at the start, which is worth knowing on a job that stops for weather or for insurance. The application also requires two sets of construction drawings, and it notes that "All current City Service Charges must be paid before the City will issue the Certificate of Occupancy" and that digging in the city right-of-way needs a separate right-of-way permit from Public Works. ONE THING THE CITY WILL NOT DO FOR YOU. The application states plainly: "If your property is part of an HOA please follow your HOA's standards. The City of Emmett does NOT enforce or follow HOA rules or requirements." A covering that passes the City's inspection can still breach a covenant, and that is the homeowner's problem rather than the building official's.

EMMETT ADOPTS BY FLOATING REFERENCE TO THE STATE, AND SAYS SO IN ITS OWN CODE. City Code section 8-1-1, "Building code adopted", reads in full: "The latest edition of the International Building, Residential and Energy Codes, as adopted by the State of Idaho, and all subsequent amendments, modifications and future editions thereof adopted by the State of Idaho are hereby adopted as the International Building, Residential and Energy Codes of the city. Following their adoption by the city, three copies of the International Building, Residential and Energy Codes shall be retained by the city, one of which shall be filed in the office of the city clerk." That is Ordinance No. 954, adopted 12-10-2002 and effective 1-1-2003. Because the adoption expressly carries future editions, Emmett is on whatever the State has adopted at the time rather than frozen at 2002. WHICH EDITION THAT IS TODAY, STATED BY THE CITY ITSELF. The Emmett Building Department page publishes a "Design Requirements" block whose first line reads "Building Code: I.R.C. 2018, IECC 2018", and the City's own Residential Building Permit Application repeats it under the heading "DESIGN CRITERIA": "2018 International Residential Code", "2018 International Energy Conservation Code". That matches the State: IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03 adopts the "International Residential Code, 2018 Edition ... Parts I, II, III, and IX of the 2018 Edition for one (1)- and two (2)-family dwellings", with an amendment list, effective July 1, 2024. Roofing sits in Part III and is included. THE LOCAL AMENDMENT POSITION, ESTABLISHED BY READING RATHER THAN BY SEARCHING. Title 8 of the Emmett City Code, "Building Regulations", was read in full for this record - all ten chapters and all of their sections, from 8-1-1 through the Design Manual chapter. Outside the electrical, plumbing and mechanical chapters, which adopt their own codes, the only substantive general building provisions are the fire-zone map at 8-2-1, the developer improvement requirements at 8-2-2 and the contractor registration rule at 8-2-3. Title 8 contains no amendment to the residential code at all, and nothing in it touches Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. STATE FRAMEWORK WORTH KNOWING. Idaho Code 39-4116(2) requires a local government that issues building permits and enforces the code to adopt the Idaho residential code parts I through III and IX by ordinance and bars it from adopting provisions of a later IRC edition the Idaho Building Code Board has not adopted, and 39-4116(6) provides that "Permits shall be governed by the laws in effect at the time the permit application is received."

Required — THE REQUIREMENT REACHES EMMETT UNMODIFIED. City Code section 8-1-1 adopts the International Residential Code as adopted by the State of Idaho, and Title 8 of the City Code, read in full, amends nothing in it - the building chapter is that one adopting section and carries no amendment list. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03, the State of Idaho's own complete list of amendments to the 2018 International Residential Code, does not touch Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. The base 2018 IRC drip edge requirement for asphalt shingle roofs, at Section R905.2.8.5, therefore applies in Emmett unmodified. The operative text of that section sits behind the code publisher's paywall; this record does not restate it and does not rely on any third-party republication of it. What is recorded is the sourced fact that the requirement is in force here and has not been amended away by either the City or the State. Take the flashing detail, the fastener spacing and the required overlap from the code text itself, and confirm them against the shingle manufacturer's printed installation instructions, which the code makes binding. Price the drip edge into the bid rather than treating it as an extra. About drip edge

Not required — NO IMPACT-RESISTANCE MANDATE APPLIES IN EMMETT. Title 8 of the Emmett City Code, "Building Regulations", was read in full - all ten chapters and every section within them. It contains no reference to UL 2218, to a Class 4 or Class IV impact rating, or to FM 4473, and no amendment to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03, the State of Idaho's complete list of amendments to the 2018 International Residential Code, carries no such reference either. Neither the City's nor the State's adopted code requires an impact-resistant roof covering. DO NOT CONFUSE THE THREE CLASSES. A Class A, B or C rating is a FIRE classification tested to ASTM E108 or UL 790, and a Class D, F or H rating is a WIND classification tested to ASTM D3161 or D7158. Only UL 2218 or FM 4473 rates a covering for hail IMPACT, and that is the standard a Class 4 shingle is measured against. An insurance discount for impact-rated shingles, where a carrier offers one, is a matter between the homeowner and the insurer and is not a code requirement in Emmett. ONE LOCAL ROOFING RULE DOES EXIST AND IT IS ABOUT APPEARANCE, NOT PERFORMANCE. City Code section 8-9-3, in the manufactured home chapter, requires that a manufactured home allowed in the R-1 zone by variance "Has roofing materials which are generally acceptable for site built housing. Any roofing material may be used provided it has the appearance of a nonmetallic shingle, shake or tile roof. Roofs shall also have a minimum slope of 25 percent (3:12) or according to uniform building code." That is a look-and-slope standard for manufactured homes and says nothing about hail resistance.

EMMETT PUBLISHES A ROOFING PERMIT APPLICATION BY NAME, WHICH SETTLES THE QUESTION MOST CITIES LEAVE OPEN. The City's Building Applications page lists seven ways in to the counter, and the first of them is an "Online Roofing Permit Application", alongside the Residential Building Permit Application, the Commercial Building Permit Application and separate solar, fence, demolition and sign applications. The roofing application is a web form on the City's own site rather than a printed sheet. A roofer in Emmett therefore does not file a reroof on the general residential application unless the office directs otherwise. THERE IS NO PUBLISHED LOCAL EXEMPTION, AND THE STATE'S EXEMPTION LIST DOES NOT CARVE ONE OUT EITHER. Title 8 of the Emmett City Code, read in full, contains no exempt-work list and no dollar or square-footage threshold of any kind. The exempt-work list that applies here is therefore the residential code's own, as the State of Idaho has amended it, and IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03 amends that list in exactly two places: paragraph (b) amends "Section R105.2 ... Item number 7 under the 'Building' subheading" by replacing "24 inches (610 mm)" with "four (4) feet (1219) mm)", and paragraph (c) adds a new exemption, "11. Flag poles." Neither touches roofing. WHERE THE CITY DOES DRAW A LINE. The Residential Building Permit Application offers "Repair" as a type of construction with an asterisk directing the applicant to describe the work, so repair work is inside the City's permit system rather than outside it. There is no published figure below which a roof repair is exempt in Emmett. If a job is small enough that this seems disproportionate, ring the Building Department on 208-365-6050 extension 6 rather than reading a threshold into the silence.

THE CITY PUBLISHES ITS DESIGN CRITERIA IN TWO PLACES AND THEY AGREE WORD FOR WORD. The Emmett Building Department page carries a "Design Requirements" block reading "Building Code: I.R.C. 2018, IECC 2018", "Seismic Zone: C", "Wind Loading: 115 mph", "Ground Snow Load: 30 lbs/sf.", "Frost Depth: 24 inches" and "Sidewalk & Curb: ECC 9-7-2G & 7-1A". The same block is printed in the top right corner of the City's Residential Building Permit Application under the heading "DESIGN CRITERIA", so these are the numbers an Emmett permit is reviewed against. READ THE WIND FIGURE CAREFULLY. The City prints "Wind Loading: 115 mph" without saying whether that is an ultimate design wind speed or a three-second gust on the older nominal basis. Those are different numbers for the same loading and they are not interchangeable, so settle the basis with the building official before running a calculation rather than assuming one. The City also does not publish an exposure category, which the residential code requires the designer to establish from the site. WHAT THE 30 POUND GROUND SNOW LOAD MEANS ON A ROOF. It is a ground load, not a roof load; the roof snow load is derived from it under the code's own procedure and is not stated by the City. Seismic Zone C and a 24 inch frost depth are foundation and framing figures rather than roof-covering figures, and none of the four numbers changes what covering may be used. A STATE DELETION THAT SITS NEXT TO THIS. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03(d) reads "Section R301.2.1.2 Protection of Openings. Delete." That is a window and door wind-borne debris provision rather than a roofing one, and under Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(b) a local jurisdiction may not re-adopt a provision the Idaho Building Code Board has expressly rejected.

NEITHER EMMETT NOR THE STATE OF IDAHO MODIFIES THE MODEL RULE ON RECOVERING A ROOF. Title 8 of the Emmett City Code, "Building Regulations", was read in full - all ten chapters. Its building chapter is a single section, 8-1-1, which adopts the International Building, Residential and Energy Codes as adopted by the State of Idaho and amends none of them. The remaining chapters cover general building regulations, the electrical, plumbing and mechanical codes, dangerous buildings, signs and awnings, trailers and trailer parks, manufactured homes and the design manual. Title 8 contains no roofing provision of general application, no recover or overlay rule and no layer count. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03, the Idaho Building Code Board's own complete list of amendments to the 2018 International Residential Code, contains no amendment to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, either. SO THE BASE 2018 INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE RULE ON ROOF RECOVER VERSUS REPLACEMENT APPLIES HERE UNMODIFIED. That rule sits in the residential code's reroofing section. Its operative text is behind the code publisher's paywall; this record does not restate it and does not rely on any third-party republication of it. What is recorded is the sourced fact that whatever the model rule says on layers is what governs in Emmett, because nobody local has changed it. Read the limit out of the code text itself, or ask the building official, before bidding a recover over an existing roof. A LOCAL AMENDMENT WOULD BE UNUSUALLY VISIBLE IF ONE EXISTED. Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(d) lets a city amend this part of the residential code only by ordinance, on a recorded finding that good cause for building or life safety exists and that the amendment is reasonably necessary, after a public hearing noticed in the official newspaper with at least thirty days written notice to the local chapters of the industry bodies listed in Idaho Code 39-4109(5). No such Emmett amendment appears in the City's published Code.

NOTHING LOCAL CHANGES THE DECK RULES. Title 8 of the Emmett City Code was read in full and contains no amendment to the residential code's roof-ceiling construction chapter, which carries the roof sheathing provisions, nor to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. Its building chapter is a single adopting section with no amendment list at all. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03, the State of Idaho's own complete list of amendments to the 2018 International Residential Code, contains no amendment to either chapter. The base 2018 IRC roof sheathing and decking requirements therefore apply in Emmett unmodified, along with the shingle manufacturer's printed installation instructions, which the code makes binding and which are sometimes stricter than the code minimum. This record does not restate the code's thickness, span or fastening numbers, which sit behind the code publisher's paywall; take them from the code itself. WHAT THE CITY DOES ASK FOR. The Residential Building Permit Application requires the applicant to certify "I have included two sets of construction drawings with this application", and it collects the overall building height and the square footage of every roofed element separately - first story, second story, basement, garage, carport, addition, patio or porch and accessory structure. The City publishes no separate list of required inspections, so agree with the building official when the deck will be looked at if you expect to find rot under the old covering.

6.0% - the Idaho state rate, with no local add-on in Emmett. Idaho Code 63-3619 imposes the state sales tax "at the rate of six percent (6%)". Idaho has only two kinds of local sales tax and neither reaches roofing work here. The first is the resort-city local-option tax under Idaho Code Title 50, Chapter 10; the Idaho State Tax Commission publishes the list of cities that levy one, and Emmett does not appear on it, nor does any other Gem County city. The second is an auditorium-district tax, which the Tax Commission states can be charged only on short-term lodging of thirty days or less and so never reaches roofing work. Idaho counties levy no sales tax at all, so there is no Gem County add-on either. HOW A ROOF IS TAXED IN IDAHO, WHICH MATTERS MORE THAN THE RATE. The Tax Commission's contractor guidance states that "Idaho sales tax law says contractors are the consumers (end users) of all the goods they use. As a result, they must pay sales tax on all purchases", and it names roofers among the contractors it covers. The roofer pays the 6% on materials at the supply house; the homeowner's invoice carries no sales tax line at all, on materials or on labour, because a contractor does not charge sales tax to the customer. The Commission adds that if sales tax is charged on the bill, the customer can refuse to pay it. A customer's own sales-tax exemption does not carry over to the contractor.