Allen County Building Department (building-permit and contractor-licensing authority for the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana)

City of Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana

city

200 East Berry Street, Suite 180, Fort Wayne, IN 46802

Not required

Required

The permitting authority for the City of Fort Wayne is the ALLEN COUNTY Building Department, not a City of Fort Wayne department -- ACBD administers building permits and contractor licensing for the city and for unincorporated Allen County alike, from 200 East Berry Street, Suite 180, Fort Wayne, IN 46802, (260) 449-7131, with online applications through the Accela citizen-access portal at https://aca-prod.accela.com/ACFW. For a residential re-roof the process is unusually short: no ACBD building permit is required for roofing and siding, so there is no application, no plan review, no inspection sequence and no final sign-off from ACBD. What DOES remain mandatory is the contractor side -- the roofer must hold an Allen County contractor licence in a classification that permits roofing work (see registration_details) -- plus Fort Wayne Historic Preservation approval for properties in a historic district, and any approval the Department of Planning Services requires. See repair_permit_threshold for the exemption text and its limits.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Fort Wayne and Allen County both enforce the statewide 2020 Indiana Residential Code, promulgated as 675 IAC 14-4.4 by the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission. The rule adopts the 2018 IRC by reference: "That certain document being titled the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017, published by the International Code Council ... is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set out in this rule save and except those revisions made in this rule. (b) This rule shall be known as the 2020 Indiana Residential Code." (675 IAC 14-4.4-1). Filed with the Publisher 2019-11-26, effective 30 days after filing = 2019-12-26; it repealed the prior 675 IAC 14-4.3. Still the edition in force as of 2026-07-25: the commission's September 2025 filing on 675 IAC 14-4.4 (LSA Document #24-566, Indiana Register 20250903-IR-675240566RAA) is a five-year readoption review reaffirming the existing rule, not a new-edition rule superseding it. Indiana localities have no independent code-adoption power: 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," and the only amendment route (IC 22-13-2-5.6, effective 2024-01-01) is an annual petition to the commission that, if carried by a two-thirds vote, changes the STATEWIDE code rather than creating a local variant.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, unconditional, and applies in Fort Wayne exactly as everywhere else in Indiana -- unlike the ice barrier, drip edge does not depend on the county row of Table R301.2(1). IRC Section R905.2.8.5 governs: "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. Drip edges shall extend not less than 1/4 inch below the roof sheathing and extend up back onto the roof deck not less than 2 inches. Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the roof deck at not more than 12 inches o.c. ... Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge along rake edges." Indiana's 675 IAC 14-4.4 does not amend R905.2.8.5; its only edits in that neighbourhood are cosmetic (675 IAC 14-4.4-85 deletes the word "approved" from R905.2.6 Attachment, 675 IAC 14-4.4-86 deletes "approved" from R905.2.8 Flashing, 675 IAC 14-4.4-87 deletes "printed" from R905.2.8.4 Other flashing), so the base mandate stands unaltered statewide. That Indiana treats this as an operative, actively enforced requirement rather than dormant boilerplate is confirmed by the State Building Commissioner devoting a dedicated 2020 guidance memo to metal drip edge alongside ice/water shield. Allen County cannot waive it (IC 22-13-2-3(c)), and the ACBD re-roof permit exemption is an exemption from a permit, not from the code. About drip edge

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, and categorically YES for Fort Wayne -- this is one of the places where Allen County's answer differs from central Indiana's. Indiana's replacement TABLE R301.2(1) at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 pre-fills the "ICE SHIELD UNDERLAYMENT REQUIRED" column as YES for Allen County, which makes the ice barrier a flat requirement for asphalt-shingle re-roofs in Fort Wayne rather than a manufacturer-instruction-dependent one. The Indiana State Building Commissioner's guidance memo "Ice/Water Shield & Metal Drip Edge in Class 2 Construction with Asphalt Shingles" (Craig E. Burgess, AIA NCARB CPE CBI LEED AP, dated 2020-02-25) sets out the two-layer structure explicitly: "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1)), and specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it (per Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1)." Allen County is in the first group. The governing installation-extent provision is IRC Section R905.1.2, adopted by Indiana without substantive amendment, which requires the ice barrier to consist of not fewer than two layers of underlayment cemented together or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet, extending from the lowest edges of all roof surfaces to a point not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line of the building, with an exception for detached accessory structures not containing conditioned floor area. Note that the ACBD re-roof permit exemption does not switch this off -- Indiana DHS states that the 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs all Class 2 residential construction "[r]egardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary." About ice & water barrier

Not required — No mid-roof, deck, or underlayment inspection is performed by the Allen County Building Department on a residential re-roof in Fort Wayne, for the structural reason that ACBD issues no building permit for the work at all: its Residential Permit Guide states that you do not need a permit from the Allen County Building Department for roofing and siding. Inspections in Allen County are attached to issued permits, so an exempt scope of work generates no inspection sequence -- there is no in-progress inspection and no final inspection for a permit-exempt re-roof. This is a genuine and large contrast with the Minnesota cities in this directory, where a permit is always required and the mid-roof question turns on each city's inspection policy. Two carve-outs that do generate outside review: a property in a Fort Wayne historic district requires Fort Wayne Historic Preservation approval, and the Residential Permit Guide notes that additional permits or approval may be required from another agency such as the Department of Planning Services. Work that alters the roof structure rather than re-covering it is outside the exemption and would carry its own permit and inspections.

Not required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Neither 675 IAC 14-4.4 (the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, adopting the 2018 IRC) nor its Indiana amendments impose a UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-resistance requirement on roof coverings, and Allen County's own Residential Permit Guide contains no such requirement either. Allen County has no authority to add one by ordinance (IC 22-13-2-3(c)).

There is no size or cost threshold, because re-roofing is categorically exempt from an Allen County building permit at any scale. The Allen County Building Department's own Residential Permit Guide states that you do not need a permit from the Allen County Building Department for roofing and siding, and adds that additional permits or approval may be required from another agency, such as the Department of Planning Services and Fort Wayne Historic Preservation. Practical reading for a Fort Wayne re-roof: a like-for-like tear-off and re-cover of an existing residential roof needs no ACBD building permit regardless of square footage or job value, but (a) a property inside a Fort Wayne historic district still needs Historic Preservation approval, and (b) the exemption is written for "roofing and siding" as a covering operation -- it is not an exemption from the 2020 Indiana Residential Code itself, whose roofing provisions apply to the work whether or not a permit is issued. Work that goes beyond re-covering and alters the roof STRUCTURE (framing, trusses, roofline, pitch, dormers) is a different scope of work than the "roofing and siding" the guide exempts and is not covered by this exemption; confirm that scope directly with ACBD at (260) 449-7131 before relying on the exemption.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and fixed at the COUNTY row rather than by municipality. 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 deletes and replaces IRC TABLE R301.2(1) (CLIMATIC AND GEOGRAPHIC DESIGN CRITERIA) with an Indiana table enumerated county by county. The Allen County row -- which is the row that governs the entire City of Fort Wayne -- reads: design wind speed 115 MPH; Seismic Design Category A; ground snow load 20 PSF; frost/foundation depth 36 inches; winter design temperature 1 degree F; ice shield underlayment required: YES. The 115 MPH design wind speed and the 20 PSF ground snow load are both uniform across all 92 Indiana counties in this table, so neither figure is Fort Wayne-specific. What DOES differentiate Allen County from, for example, Marion County / Indianapolis and Hamilton County / Carmel is the foundation/frost depth (36 inches in Allen County versus 30 inches in Marion and Hamilton Counties), the Seismic Design Category (A in Allen County versus B in Marion County), and the Ice Shield Underlayment Required column, which the table marks YES for Allen County and NO for Marion and Hamilton Counties (see ice_water_shield_required). Wind exposure category is not a state or local lever -- it is determined site-specifically under IRC Section R301.2.1.4. Allen County has no authority to substitute different design criteria (IC 22-13-2-3(c)).

STATE-GOVERNED, with no Fort Wayne or Allen County layer rule of its own -- and none is legally possible, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance more stringent or more detailed than the commission's rules. The operative provision is the roof replacement / roof recover section of the 2018 IRC as incorporated by 675 IAC 14-4.4. A section-by-section review of the roughly 230 numbered Indiana amendments in the 675 IAC 14-4.4 final rule found no Indiana amendment to the roof recover/replacement sections, so Indiana adopts that base text unaltered; this is an Indiana-wide finding rather than a Fort Wayne one, and no Indiana-specific rule number should be cited for it. The literal text of the base IRC recover/replacement section is behind the ICC paywall, and Allen County publishes no re-roof handout restating it (consistent with its issuing no re-roof permit), so the numeric layer count is not restated here. A roofer needing the exact number of permitted existing layers should read 2018 IRC Section R908 as adopted by 675 IAC 14-4.4, or call ACBD at (260) 449-7131.

STATE-GOVERNED, with no Fort Wayne or Allen County sheathing rule of its own and no local power to create one (IC 22-13-2-3(c)). Asphalt shingle deck requirements in Fort Wayne come from IRC Section R905.2.1 as incorporated by 675 IAC 14-4.4; the same section-by-section review of the roughly 230 numbered Indiana amendments found no Indiana amendment to R905.2.1, so the base 2018 IRC requirement that asphalt shingles be fastened to solidly sheathed decks applies in Fort Wayne unaltered. Indiana's only nearby amendments are cosmetic word deletions in the adjacent attachment and flashing sections (675 IAC 14-4.4-85 through -87). The base section's full literal text is behind the ICC paywall, and Allen County publishes no re-roof handout restating it, so the wording beyond the solidly-sheathed-deck requirement is not restated here. Note that this requirement binds regardless of the ACBD permit exemption: Indiana DHS states that the 2020 Indiana Residential Code "is in full force and effect statewide" and governs all Class 2 residential construction "[r]egardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary, or whether a local building authority even exists," and that "Local units of government are statutorily mandated to require compliance with the code."

7.00%. Indiana levies a single statewide sales and use tax and authorises no county, municipal or transit local-option add-on to it, so the rate a roofing contractor pays on materials purchased in Fort Wayne is the bare state rate -- there is no Allen County increment and no City of Fort Wayne increment, and the Fort Wayne combined rate is therefore identical to the rate anywhere else in Indiana. This makes Indiana structurally simpler than Minnesota, where state, metro-area, county and city components stack. (Indiana does impose separate narrow excise taxes, e.g. county innkeeper's and food-and-beverage taxes, but these apply to lodging and prepared food, not to general retail purchases of roofing materials, and are not part of the 7.00% a roofer pays at a supply house.)