Franklin County, Ohio - Building Department

Franklin County, Ohio -- unincorporated areas of the county plus the ten contract townships that route zoning compliance through the county (Brown, Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Mifflin, Norwich, Pleasant, Sharon and Truro townships). This does not include Columbus or the county's other incorporated cities and villages, which run their own separate residential permitting (see the Columbus, OH record for that city).

county

142 S. Front St, Columbus, OH 43215

Required

Required

Franklin County's Building Department is at 142 S. Front St, Columbus, OH 43215 (614-525-3166, [email protected]). Two related processes both reach a residential re-roof in the county's own materials: (1) a "Certificate of Zoning Compliance" (administered by the Planning side, 614-525-3904/[email protected], $75 for residential per the fee schedule), whose Residential Construction application checklist names "Roofing, siding and/or window replacement" as a covered project type, submitted online at the county's SmartGov portal or delivered to 150 South Front Street, FSL Suite 10, Columbus, OH 43215-7104; and (2) a Building Permit fee line item, "Roof Replacement," priced at a flat $50 with no plan review required. The fee schedule separately prices a general Building Permit at $120 base (first 1,000 sq ft) plus $10 per each additional 100 sq ft, plus a 1% State Building Permit Surcharge (noted as excluded from the schedule's listed regular fees). Penalty fees: "Occupancy without permit" $500; "Work without permit" $150 base plus 3x the fee; "Work without registration" $150 per day; "Re-inspection" $75.

SET BY STATE RULE, with a confirmed Franklin County administrative layer. Ohio regulates one-, two- and three-family dwelling construction statewide through the Residential Code of Ohio (RCO), adopted by the Ohio Board of Building Standards under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3781 and codified at Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 4101:8. The roof-assembly rule (OAC 4101:8-9-01) and the climatic/geographic design-criteria rule (OAC 4101:8-3-01) were both read in full this session from the state's own codes.ohio.gov copies; both carry an effective date of July 1, 2019. Ohio Rev. Code 3781.01(B), also read this session, lets a local governing authority add non-conflicting local building regulations. Franklin County administers its own residential permitting -- for unincorporated county territory plus the ten named contract townships -- through its own Building Department (142 S. Front St, Columbus) rather than through any city, using its own fee schedule and application forms (see roofing_permit_required, roof_layer_limit, contractor_registration_required). No Franklin-County-specific technical building-code chapter (a county-level analogue to a city's codified Building Code) was located this session beyond the RCO floor and the county's own administrative fee/registration provisions, so whether the county adds any technical roofing-specific provisions beyond what its own permit forms already establish has not been fully determined in this record.

Not required — SET BY STATE RULE, confirmed this session from the state's own copy. The entire text of RCO Section 905.2.8.5 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019) is: "905.2.8.5 Drip edge. Refer to Sections 903.1 and 905.1." Section 903.1 (General) requires only that roof coverings be secured "in accordance with the provisions of this chapter" and the manufacturer's instructions, and Section 905.1 (Roof covering application) is a general wind-load provision -- neither imposes a numbered drip-edge mandate. No Franklin-County-specific drip-edge provision was found in the county's own permit materials read this session. About drip edge

Required — SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Table 301.2(1) (OAC 4101:8-3-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, pre-fills "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" as "Yes" for the entire state, with footnote (h) reciting that "all jurisdictions in Ohio have a history of local damage from the effects of ice damming." RCO Section 905.1.2 requires the ice barrier to extend from the lowest roof edge to a point not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line (36 inches on slopes at or above 8:12), consisting of not fewer than two layers of cemented underlayment or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet. No Franklin-County-specific roofing-permit form addressing ice barrier was found this session (unlike Parma's own form, which separately confirms the same requirement). About ice & water barrier

Not required — Not established as a sourced affirmative. Franklin County's own Fee Schedule, read in full, names only a generic "Re-inspection $75" fee that applies across all permit categories, and a separate "Plan re-review (changes) $50" line; neither the fee schedule nor the county's own generic building-permit application names a discrete mid-roof, dry-in, or roof-covering inspection stage for a residential re-roof. Recorded as a sourced negative -- required: false -- rather than asserting an inspection-stage list that was not found in the documents opened this session.

Not required — Sourced negative. I read OAC 4101:8-9-01 (RCO Chapter 9, roof assemblies, 30 pages) and OAC 4101:8-3-01 (RCO Chapter 3, climatic and geographic design criteria, including Table 301.2(1) and its footnotes) in full this session and searched both for "UL 2218" and "Class 4"; neither string appears in either instrument. Section 902's Class A/B/C roof classifications are the ASTM E108/UL 790 fire-rating scheme, not an impact-resistance requirement, and no county-specific impact-resistant-shingle provision was found in Franklin County's own permit materials read this session.

COUNTY-SPECIFIC: no minor-repair or minimum-valuation exemption was identified. Franklin County's own Fee Schedule (Economic Development & Planning Department) prices "Roof Replacement" as a flat $50 fee under Building Permit Fees, with a footnote confirming no plan review is required for it -- but the $50 fee still applies regardless of job size, and no dollar-valuation or minor-repair carve-out was found anywhere in the fee schedule or either permit application. The same fee schedule separately prices a residential Certificate of Zoning Compliance (which also lists roofing replacement as a covered project type) at $75.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Table 301.2(1) ("Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria"), OAC 4101:8-3-01 effective 7/1/2019, read in full this session from the state's own copy, pre-fills a Wind Design Speed of 115 mph (ultimate design wind speed) for the entire state -- printed directly in the table rather than left blank for local fill-in -- along with Weathering "severe" and Termite "Moderate to heavy." Wind exposure category is determined site-specifically per Section 301.2.1.4, not by state or county rule. Ground snow load is the one geographically-varying cell in the table and is NOT pre-filled statewide: footnote (o) directs, verbatim, "The jurisdiction shall fill in this section of the table using the Ground Snow Loads in Figure 301.2(6)." No Franklin-County-specific reading of that figure was obtained from a county primary source this session, so no ground snow load figure is stated here.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 908.3.1.1 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, states that "A roof recover shall not be permitted where ... the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering" -- operationalizing a two-layer cap statewide, applicable in Franklin County's covered territory. Roof replacement (908.3) instead requires removal of existing layers down to the deck. No Franklin-County-specific layer-count provision was found in the county's own generic building-permit application or fee schedule.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.2.1 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, states verbatim: "Asphalt shingles shall be fastened to solidly sheathed decks." No Franklin-County-specific deck-sheathing provision was found in the county's own building-permit or zoning-compliance materials read this session.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.2.5 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, requires fasteners for asphalt shingles to be galvanized steel, stainless steel, aluminum, or copper roofing nails, minimum 12-gage shank with a minimum 3/8-inch-diameter head, complying with ASTM F1667, of a length to penetrate not less than 3/4 inch into the roof sheathing (through the sheathing where it is thinner than 3/4 inch). Section 905.2.6 requires not less than four fasteners per strip shingle or two fasteners per individual shingle, per the manufacturer's approved installation instructions. No Franklin-County-specific fastening provision was found in the county's own permit materials read this session. About roofing nails

Franklin County's combined state-and-local sales and use tax rate is 8.00%, per the Ohio Department of Taxation's Sales and Use Tax Rate Map (reflecting rates in effect as of October 2025), read in full this session: a 5.75% state rate (per the map's own note 3, "The current state rate is 5.75%") plus a 1.25% Franklin County permissive rate plus a 1.00% transit permissive rate, printed in the map's own county table as "Franklin 1.25% 1.00% 8.00%." The map's narrative separately states, verbatim, "The highest tax rate of 8.0 percent is found in Cuyahoga and Franklin Counties" -- the highest combined rate of any Ohio county.