City of Frankfort Planning & Community Development

City of Frankfort, Kentucky

city

315 West Second Street, Frankfort, KY 40601

Required

The 2015 International Residential Code as amended by the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition (August 2024), the mandatory statewide residential code under 815 KAR 7:125 section 2(1), effective 12-3-2024. Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar the City of Frankfort from adopting or enforcing any other building code, or any additional or contradictory building-construction standard, for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses; only the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction may amend the code, and its amendments are effective statewide (KRS 198B.080(2)). Frankfort's own codified ordinance, Chapter 150.01 of the Frankfort Code of Ordinances (originally Ord. 27-66, passed 1966; last amended Ord. 4-88, 1988), independently confirms the same floating adoption in the City's own words: "The provisions of the Uniform State Building Code then in effect shall govern all construction, alteration or remodeling of buildings or dwellings in the City of Frankfort, as set forth in KRS 198B.110." Because the ordinance points to the Uniform State Building Code "then in effect" rather than naming a fixed edition, Frankfort's code content tracks the state's current edition automatically, with no lagging-codification question of the kind that arises in states where a city names a specific edition. One statewide carve-out applies here as everywhere in Kentucky: KRS 198B.010(4) excludes from "building" a farm dwelling or farm structure "located outside the boundary of a municipality" that is not retail, not a workplace for ten or more, and not timber storage -- this record does not decide whether any particular Frankfort-area farm structure qualifies.

Required — Kentucky's own enacted amendment, KRC R905.2.8.5, read in full: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and gables of shingle roofs. Adjacent pieces of drip edge shall be overlapped a minimum of 2 inches ... Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the roof deck at a maximum of 12 inches on center ... Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge on gables." Kentucky adds an alternate-methods allowance in the same section: "Alternate methods to the standard metal drip edge may include site formed coil stock that creates a drip line as intended by the code. Wood, composite, and manufactured trim installed on the fascia shall create a drip line to prevent water from running back under the shingles, which will meet the requirements of the drip edge." KRC R101.3/R102.2 bar the City of Frankfort from varying this requirement. About drip edge

Not required — Frankfort's own codified ordinance, Chapter 150.01(B)(8), names the City's required building-inspection sequence: "Building inspections (footer, foundation, framing, final) shall have a fee of $35 for the first reinspection and $50 for each additional reinspection." Read in full, that sequence names no roof-covering or mid-roof stage. The state instrument agrees: Kentucky's amendments to Kentucky Residential Code R109 Inspections name no roof-covering stage either. This describes the inspection stages that exist for a permitted building project in Frankfort; it does not resolve whether a reroof itself requires a permit at all (see repair_permit_threshold).

Not required — A counted negative across both Kentucky state code packets: "UL 2218," "Class 4," "Class IV," "impact," and "hail" each occur zero times across the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code (187,543 characters) and the 2018 Kentucky Building Code (478,874 characters). Kentucky Residential Code R102.2 -- "a local ordinance shall not establish any additional or contradictory building construction standard than those adopted in this code" -- closes the question at the local level too, so the City of Frankfort cannot add an impact-resistance mandate of its own.

NO ROOFING-SPECIFIC PERMIT FEE, CATEGORY, OR DOLLAR THRESHOLD APPEARS IN FRANKFORT'S CURRENT FEE SCHEDULE. The City's 2026 Planning & Community Development Building/Zoning Permit Fee Schedule prices a "Residential Building Permit (Single & Duplex)" at "$.15 psf/ minimum $125," with no separate roofing, repair, or renovation line and no minimum-valuation exemption tier. Frankfort's own codified ordinance, Chapter 150.01, ties the permit requirement to "the Uniform State Building Code then in effect" and states that "[n]o permit, as required by the Uniform State Building Code, as adopted, shall be issued until the fee prescribed by this section has been paid" -- so the fee schedule reaches whatever the state code reaches, without narrowing it on its own terms. The City's own building permit application form (a standard plan-examination form the department has adopted, hosted on the City's own site) lists "3. Alteration" and "4. Repair, replacement" as separate checkable types of improvement in its own Part II, and separately lists "ROOFING" as its own line under "Additional Permits Required or Other Jurisdiction Approvals" in Part VI -- both administered as routine permit-application categories, with no dollar or square-footage floor stated for either. Kentucky's own statutes pull in two directions on where a reroof falls: KRS 198B.010(21) classes "roofing" by name as part of an "ordinary repair," defined as nonstructural work that "does not alter the structural integrity" of a building, and KRS 198B.010(11) excludes "ordinary repair" from the definition of "construction," the term the permit requirement in KRS 198B.060(8) attaches to; set against that, the Kentucky Residential Code's own scope at R101.2 reaches "alteration ... replacement, repair." This record states both readings rather than adjudicating them. Call Planning & Community Development at 502-352-2094 to confirm treatment of a specific reroof.

Basic ultimate wind speed V_ult 115 mph for all Kentucky counties, including Franklin County, per Kentucky's own replacement Table R301.2(1) (rendered from the state's published 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition). Ground snow load is the one per-county figure in that table: Franklin County is not among the counties the table lists at 20 psf (Boone, Boyd, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Floyd, Gallatin, Grant, Greenup, Henry, Kenton, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Martin, Mason, Trimble), so the table's default 15 psf applies. Weathering is SEVERE and termite protection MODERATE TO HEAVY for all Kentucky counties per the same table. Footnote d warns that Section 301.2.1.3 converts the ultimate figure to a nominal design wind speed, V_asd, for methods that expect the nominal basis -- this record states the ultimate 115 mph figure as Kentucky's table gives it and does not convert it.

Kentucky's 2018 Kentucky Residential Code amendment packet, read in full and counted (187,543 characters), amends nothing in the reroofing section: "R908" occurs zero times, and Chapter 9 of the packet contains only one operative provision, R905.2.8.5 Drip edge. IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in the packet's table of contents at all. Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar the City of Frankfort from adopting or enforcing any different or additional standard on this point. This record points to the base 2015 IRC's reroofing section as the provision that applies, without quoting or classifying its operative content, which has not been separately re-opened for this record.

No state amendment reaches roof sheathing. Kentucky's residential code amendment packet, read in full, contains zero occurrences of "R802" or "R803," and IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in the packet's table of contents at all (the packet's own table of contents runs Chapters 1-7, 9, 11, 13-20, 24-44). Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar the City of Frankfort from adopting a different local requirement. The base 2015 IRC Chapter 8 roof-sheathing provisions apply unmodified.

6.00%, statewide, with no local component anywhere in Kentucky -- Kentucky's Department of Revenue states plainly, "There are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky." KRS 139.200 imposes "a tax ... upon all retailers at the rate of six percent (6%) of the gross receipts." The roofing contractor, not the homeowner, is the taxed party at the point of purchase: 103 KAR 26:070 section 2(1) makes "all sales to contractors, subcontractors, builders, or owners of building materials, fixtures, and supplies which are to be incorporated ... into any structure or improvement to real estate by the process of erecting, remodeling, replacing, or repairing the structure" taxable "at the time of sale to the contractor," and that regulation's own trade and materials lists name "Roofing" specifically (Section 1(2)(a) item 8; Section 1(6)(k)). A Frankfort roofing contractor does not hold a resale permit and does not charge sales tax on the finished job; the finished construction is real property, not a retail sale.