Evansville-Vanderburgh County Building Commission

City of Evansville / Vanderburgh County, Indiana

city

1 NW Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Civic Center Complex, Room 310, Evansville, IN 47708

Required

Required

Permits are issued by the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Building Commission, Civic Center Complex Room 310, 1 NW Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Evansville, for both the City and the County - there is no separate county building department to deal with. There are four ways to file: online through the Commission's permitting portal, by email to [email protected], by phone on (812) 436-7879 or (812) 435-5788, or in person at the office. An email request must give the address of the work, a written detailed scope, the estimated cost, the first and last name of the license holder with a contact phone number, and any applicable plans; the Commission then emails a payment link, and "No inspections can be scheduled until payment is received and permit is issued." The permit card must be displayed conspicuously on the building or premises until the work is completed, and failure to obtain and display it is itself a violation. Two Evansville-specific points that catch roofers out. The Commission tells applicants that "All projects should begin by contacting the Area Plan Commission to check for requirements they may need prior to you requesting your Building Permit," and Municipal Code 15.05.420(A) confirms that no building permit issues until approvals have been obtained from the Area Plan Commission and the Water and Sewer Utility Department. And a Floodplain Development Permit is a separate requirement in areas of special flood hazard - but re-roofing is expressly outside its definition of development, which excludes "the maintenance of existing structures and facilities such as painting, re-roofing." Under 5.70.120 the permit is taken out by the licence holder or in the name of the registered firm, not by a journeyman employee. Separately, the Property Maintenance Code at Municipal Code 15.15.120(G) sets a standing duty on existing buildings - "The roof and flashing shall be sound, tight and not have defects that admit rain. Roofing shall be installed as designed by its manufacturer. Roof drainage shall be adequate to prevent dampness or deterioration in the walls or interior."

The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates by reference 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. Evansville has a local adopting ordinance, and it is unusually clean about floating rather than freezing. Evansville Municipal Code 15.10.010(A) provides that the building rules of the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission set out in the listed articles of 675 IAC "are hereby incorporated by reference in this chapter and shall include later amendments to those articles as the same are published in the Indiana Register or the Indiana Administrative Code with effective dates as fixed therein," and its list includes Article 14, the One- and Two-Family Dwelling Codes. Two points a roofer should understand about that. First, the ordinance names no edition, so it carries whatever Article 14 currently holds; the sub-items under it still recite the older Council of American Building Officials one- and two-family codes that Article 14 contained when the ordinance was last amended in 1998, but the adoption is written to the article, not to those documents. Second, the same result follows from state law independently: IC 22-13-2-3(b) provides that a reference to the commission's rules by citation to the Indiana Administrative Code "shall be construed to include all amendments as of the date that the reference is written and any later amendments to that provision, unless accompanied by a reference to a specific edition or supplement." In Indiana a local code citation floats forward by statute, which is the opposite of the frozen default in most states. The edition is in any event not a local choice: IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives the state rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter, and (c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or more detailed requirements than those rules. The Building Commission says the same thing in its own words on its Building Code Information page - "Building codes in Indiana are adopted at a state level and are the same across the state. As a general rule, local forms of government in Indiana cannot adopt codes that are more restrictive than the state codes."

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and unconditional. Indiana localities cannot vary this: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance that conflicts with or is more stringent or more detailed than the commission's rules. The operative text is published first-hand by the Indiana State Building Commissioner, on Indiana Department of Homeland Security letterhead, in the Ice and Water Shield Update memo of 2020-02-25 (revised), which reproduces 2018 IRC R905.2.8.5 in full: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs. Adjacent segments of drip edge shall be overlapped not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall extend not less than ¼ inch (6.4 mm) below the roof sheathing and extend up back onto the roof deck not less than 2 inches (51 mm). Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the rood deck at not more than 12 inches (305 mm) o.c. with fasteners as specified in Section R905.2.5 Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge along rake edges." Note the memo reproduces a typo in the enacted text it quotes ("rood deck" for "roof deck"); the reading is not in doubt. 675 IAC 14-4.4 amends R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" (14-4.4-86) and does not touch R905.2.8.5, so the model text governs as written. About drip edge

Not required — Not required by the climatic table in Vanderburgh County. 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 Vanderburgh County row states "No" in the column headed "Ice Shield Underlayment Required". Twenty-seven of Indiana's 92 counties, all in the northern tier, are marked "Yes"; Vanderburgh, in the far southwest of the state, is not one of them. This is a state answer that Evansville and Vanderburgh County have no power to change, since IC 22-13-2-3 bars a local ordinance more stringent or more detailed than the state building rules. Note that the table is not the only route to an ice barrier on a particular job - roof coverings must still be installed to the manufacturer's instructions, and where those instructions call for one it governs that installation. About ice & water barrier

Not required — The Building Commission publishes its complete list of inspection types, and no roofing inspection of any kind appears on it. The twelve types it names are Pier and Pylon, Post Hole Footing, Concrete Footing, Concrete Foundation, Masonry Foundation, Retaining Wall, Concrete Slab, Frame, Fire/Smoke-Resistant Penetration, Ceiling Grid, Building Envelope and Building Final. There is no in-progress deck, underlayment, flashing or nail-pattern inspection, so on an ordinary re-roof nothing has to be left open for an inspector mid-job. The only stage that touches a roof is the Frame Inspection, and it is scheduled after the roof is decked rather than during the covering: "Framing inspections are made after the roof deck or sheathing, all framing, flashing, fire-blocking, and bracing are in place and pipes, chimneys and vents to be concealed are complete and the rough electrical, plumbing, heating wires, pipes and ducts are approved." That matters where a tear-off turns into structural work. Inspections are scheduled by calling the Building Commission on (812) 436-7867, and under Evansville Municipal Code 15.05.430(A) no inspection is scheduled until the permit fee is paid and the permit issued.

Not required — No impact-rated roof covering is required in Evansville or Vanderburgh County, and no local authority exists to require one. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact-resistance requirement anywhere in its 245 sections, and its only amendments to the roof-assemblies chapter are word deletions in the photovoltaic, asphalt-shingle attachment and flashing sections. On the local side, Title 15 of the Evansville Municipal Code - Buildings and Construction, all six chapters - and Chapter 5.70, Contractors, were read in full and contain no impact, hail or impact-rating provision at all. IC 22-13-2-3(c) independently bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that includes more stringent or more detailed requirements than the state building rules, so a local impact mandate could not be enacted here. Note that an insurance discount for an impact-rated shingle is a matter between the homeowner and the carrier and is not a code requirement.

There is no threshold. Evansville and Vanderburgh County require a permit for roofing work of any size and any value, and the Building Commission names re-roofing on its own list of work that needs one: "A building permit is required for any work to new buildings, additions, alterations, structural and nonstructural, interior or exterior to any structure or its parts; including but not limited to: electrical, plumbing, HVAC, accessory buildings, swimming pools, windows, doors, siding, tile, drywall, re-roofing, foundation repairs, water proofing... and must be obtained prior to starting work." The ordinance behind it is Evansville Municipal Code 15.05.420(A), which provides that "No building or any part thereof... shall be installed, constructed, repaired, or altered except in conformity with this chapter, nor before a permit has been issued for the work," and makes the owner or lessee jointly and severally responsible with the person doing the work for obtaining it. The whole of Chapter 15.05, all fifty-two sections across Articles I through VIII, contains no small-work, dollar-value or square-footage exemption from that requirement, and its one section headed as an exemption - 15.05.480, "Exemption from building and construction fee schedule" - waives fees for certain non-profit low-income housing while stating in its own text that "All other provisions of this chapter shall apply including, but not limited to, obtaining all necessary permits and construction standards." The dollar figure that does appear in the chapter is a plan-submittal trigger rather than a permit trigger: under 15.05.410, applications for building, altering or repairing a structure "costing $1,000 or more" must arrive with a complete plan including elevations, details and specifications. On price, the codified fee schedule at 15.05.470(A)(4) covers "Roofing, including new, replacement and repair" and sets a flat $30.00 per building for residential work, with commercial roofing at $125.00 for under 100 squares and $125.00 plus $0.30 per square above that. Start the work first and 15.05.430(B) triples the fee, and paying the triple fee does not excuse the underlying violation. Permits expire one year from issuance.

115 mph. Indiana replaces the model IRC Table R301.2(1) with its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, and the row for Vanderburgh County reads: wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category C, ground snow load 20 psf, frost line depth 24 inches, winter design temperature 9 degrees F. All 92 Indiana counties carry the same 115 mph figure, and neither Evansville nor Vanderburgh County can raise or lower it by ordinance, because IC 22-13-2-3 bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or is more stringent or more detailed than the state building rules.

No local layer cap, and Evansville has no power to write one. The residential code in force is the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. That rule contains no amendment to the International Residential Code's reroofing and roof-recover section - the section is not referenced anywhere in the rule - so the base International Residential Code provisions on recovering an existing roof apply as published. On the local side, Title 15 of the Evansville Municipal Code and Chapter 5.70 were read in full and contain no layer limit, no tear-off requirement and no overlay rule; and under IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) and (c) no Indiana city, town or county may adopt an ordinance covering the same subject matter as the state building rules or one more stringent or more detailed than they are. What Evansville does add is a disposal duty a roofer should plan for rather than a limit on layers. Municipal Code 15.25.010(B)(3) requires that "Landfill receipts for wrecking operations, roofing tear-offs, etc., by the permit applicant shall be maintained for a period of one calendar year and will be made available upon request by the Building Commissioner for each project for which a permit is required," and 15.05.420(A) provides that anyone "found to be engaged in disposal of construction/demolition debris (including roofing) outside of State-licensed landfills shall have their license status reviewed by the appropriate trade license board."

7% statewide. Indiana levies a single state sales tax rate with no county or municipal add-on, so there is no Evansville or Vanderburgh County component to add to a materials invoice; the Department of Revenue's own page on county-level taxes states that "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%", and the county taxes Indiana does levy are an income tax, an innkeeper's tax and a food-and-beverage tax, none of which reaches roofing materials. How the tax falls depends on the shape of the contract rather than on the trade. Under a lump-sum contract the roofer pays the 7% on materials as the consumer and charges the homeowner no sales tax. Under a time-and-material contract - one stating the cost of materials and the cost of labor separately - the roofer buys the materials for resale and collects the 7% from the homeowner on the material portion, with separately stated installation labor not included in the taxable amount. Indiana's Department of Revenue names roofing directly in its definition of a contractor for this purpose.