Floyd County Department of Building and Development Services

Floyd County, Indiana

county

2524 Corydon Pike, Suite 203, New Albany, IN 47150

WHERE. The Department of Building and Development Services is at the Pine View Government Center, 2524 Corydon Pike, Suite 203, New Albany, IN 47150, on (812) 981-7611, fax (812) 948-4744, email [email protected], open Monday to Friday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, with Kelley Lang as Building Commissioner. Appointments are highly recommended. Check the address first: a job inside the City of New Albany goes to the City's own Building Department, not here. WHETHER A REROOF REQUIRES A COUNTY PERMIT IS NOT SETTLED BY ANYTHING THE COUNTY PUBLISHES. Its FAQ answers "What requires a building permit?" with "Any structure 120 square feet in area or more such as storage sheds, garages, pool houses, pools, etc.", which is about new structures, not repairs. Its residential application covers a new single family dwelling, an addition, a renovation or rehab to an existing dwelling, and an accessory structure, and names no roofing job. Its fee schedule, effective August 1, 2024 under FCO 2024-16, has no roofing line. The zoning ordinance mentions re-roofing only inside its definition of development, as maintenance that is not development; that definition serves the ordinance's own land use and flood provisions and is not a building permit exemption. Ask the Department before the tear-off. WHAT A PERMIT COSTS WHEN ONE IS NEEDED. An interior remodel is a $40 base fee plus $.15 per square foot of floor area, an inspection $50, a residential re-inspection $75, and starting construction before the permit issues draws an Early Bird Fine of twice the amount of the permit. Applications are PDF forms emailed to [email protected] or delivered in person; the checklist asks applicants to "allow 5-7 business days for review of your permit application." A property on a septic system needs the Floyd County Health Department's site approval first, on (812) 948-4726.

THE STATE RESIDENTIAL CODE APPLIES BY LAW, AND THE COUNTY HAS NO ADOPTING CHAPTER OF ITS OWN TO READ. The Floyd County Code of Ordinances, current through Ord. 2021-32, passed 12-21-2021, carries a Chapter 151 headed Building Regulations, but its only sections are 151.01, Unsafe Building Law, and 151.99, Penalty; the other chapters of its land usage title are general provisions and stormwater. So there is no County instrument naming an edition. What applies is the state rule, and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security says so in terms: "The 2020 Indiana Residential Code is in full force and effect statewide. Regardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary, or whether a local building authority even exists in any particular jurisdiction or location in the state, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs all Class 2 residential construction, and its requirements, by law, must be followed." The same memo states that "As of December 26, 2019, residential construction in the state of Indiana is regulated by the 2020 Indiana Residential Code (675 IAC 14-4.4)" and that it "adopts, and amends, the first printing of the 2018 International Residential Code." The rule appears in the 2026 edition of the Indiana Administrative Code, readopted by the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission in November 2025. The County's own residential permit application offers the 2020 Indiana Residential Code by name as one of the two electrical provisions an applicant may build to, which matches. Under IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) the state rules take precedence over any ordinance of a political subdivision "that covers the same subject matter as the commission's fire safety rules or building rules", and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a county from an ordinance "that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules".

Required — REQUIRED, BY THE STATE RATHER THAN BY THE COUNTY. The Indiana State Building Commissioner's memo on ice and water shield and drip edge reproduces the provision as it applies under the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, and it opens: "R905.2.8.5 Drip edge. A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs." The memo goes on to set the overlap, the extension below the sheathing and onto the deck, the fastening interval, and the order of underlayment at eaves and rakes; read it before the job rather than relying on a summary. 675 IAC 14-4.4 amends the flashing section above it only by deleting the word "approved" and makes no amendment to R905.2.8.5. Floyd County has no drip edge provision of its own, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a county from an ordinance more stringent or detailed than the commission's rules. The same memo is explicit that the code binds whether or not anyone inspects the work. About drip edge

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE STATE TABLE FOR FLOYD COUNTY, AND THAT IS NOT THE END OF THE QUESTION. The Indiana Residential Code's Table R301.2(1) is amended by 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 to run county by county, and the Floyd County row, read from the rendered table in the State Building Commissioner's memo, prints No in the ice shield underlayment column. WHAT THE No MEANS. The memo explains that the table lists the counties where the barrier is always required, while R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1 "further require that all roofing materials be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions". So in a No county such as Floyd the membrane is required wherever the shingle manufacturer's written installation instructions call for it on the assembly being installed. Floyd County has no ice barrier or underlayment provision of its own. Read the 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 Department's Building Inspection Criteria page lists the inspections required as a temporary pole done in conjunction with footer, wall or plumbing ground rough, footers and walls when forms are set and before concrete is poured, plumbing ground rough-in, "Framing/All rough-ins", the electric service, and a final when all work is complete including outside grading. No roof, deck, dry-in or underlayment stage is among them. So there is no mid-roof hold point to schedule around; if the deck should be seen before it is covered, arrange it with the Department on 812-981-7611 or at [email protected].

Not required — NOT REQUIRED. The roof assemblies chapter of the 2018 International Residential Code, read for this record, carries no UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-rating requirement and no hail provision, and the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, adds none: its only roofing amendments are the four word and sentence deletions set out in this record's layer field. Floyd County has no roofing provision of its own, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a county from an ordinance "that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules", which a local impact mandate would be. Impact-resistant shingles are an insurance and warranty decision in Floyd County, not a code requirement.

THE FIGURES ARE THE STATE'S COUNTY-INDEXED TABLE, NOT A COUNTY ENACTMENT. Table R301.2(1) of the Indiana Residential Code, as amended by 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 and reproduced in the State Building Commissioner's memo, gives the Floyd County row as: wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category B, ground snow load 20 psf, frost line depth 24 inches, winter design temperature 9 degrees Fahrenheit, decay slight to moderate, termite moderate to heavy, weathering severe, ice shield underlayment required No, air freezing index 1500 or less, and mean annual temperature 54.7 degrees. Those values were read from the rendered table, not from extracted text. FIGURES THAT DO NOT TRAVEL. Elkhart County, on the same page of the table, prints seismic category A, ground snow load 30, frost depth 36 and ice shield Yes, so a detail carried south from a northern Indiana job will be wrong here. The County publishes no design criteria of its own and could not vary these under IC 22-13-2-3(c).

ONE EXISTING LAYER MAY BE RECOVERED; A SECOND FORCES A FULL TEAR-OFF. The rule is the base 2018 International Residential Code's, unchanged by Indiana and unchanged by Floyd County. Section R908.3.1.1, headed Roof recover not allowed, reads: "A roof recover shall not be permitted where any of the following conditions occur", and its third condition is "Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." The same section also bars a recover over a roof that is water soaked or deteriorated, and over slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile. INDIANA DID NOT TOUCH IT. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, was read for this record: it contains no amendment to Section R908, and its only amendments anywhere in the roof assemblies chapter delete the last sentence of R902.4 on rooftop photovoltaic systems, the word "approved" from R905.2.6 and from R905.2.8, and the word "printed" from R905.2.8.4. NOR DID THE COUNTY. Its codified building chapter holds only the unsafe building law and a penalty section, and its zoning ordinance, read for this record, contains no provision on roof covering layers, recovering or tear-off. It could not add one either: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a county from an ordinance "that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules". Establish the existing layer count on the first visit, before a recover is quoted.

NO LOCAL SHEATHING RULE, SO THE STATE CODE'S SHEATHING PROVISIONS APPLY AS INDIANA ADOPTED THEM. Floyd County writes no roof sheathing or decking provision: its codified building chapter holds only the unsafe building law, and its zoning ordinance deals with land use, development standards and permits rather than construction detail. The state rule, 675 IAC 14-4.4, touches roof sheathing in one place only, and not in substance: Sec. 82 reads "Delete the words "or certificate of inspection issued by an approved agency" from the text of SECTION R803.2.1", the provision on identification and grade. Everything else in the base 2018 International Residential Code on roof sheathing stands unmodified. Because the County's published inspection list has no roofing stage, agree with the Department on 812-981-7611 whether it wants to see the deck if a tear-off will expose rotten boards.

7.00% in Floyd County, the Indiana state sales tax rate. The Indiana Department of Revenue's sales tax page tells a business selling tangible personal property that it will "need to register to collect a seven percent sales tax", and names no county or municipal rate to add to it.