Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Franklin, IN?

Roofing questions: Franklin, IN

Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Franklin, IN?

Yes, a permit is required to replace a roof in Franklin, IN. NO THRESHOLD AND NO EXEMPTION LIST - THE FRANKLIN RULE IS ONE SENTENCE WIDE. City Code 15.04.050(A), headed "Permit Required", provides: "A permit required by this chapter shall be obtained before beginning construction, alteration or repair of an building or structure, using forms furnished by the building inspector, and all fees required by this chapter shall be paid to the building inspector." The words "an building" appear in the codified text as published. The chapter's scope provision, 15.04.020(B), covers "the construction, alteration, repair, use, occupancy and addition to all buildings and structures", excepting only industrialized building systems and mobile structures certified under IC 22-15-4. Title 15 of the City Code was read in full - all four chapters, the Building Code, Minimum Housing Standards, Dangerous Buildings and House Numbers - and there is no list of work exempt from permit anywhere in it, and no square-footage, dollar-value or layer threshold of any kind. A re-roof is a repair or alteration of a building, so it is inside the rule, and the practical question is not whether a permit is needed but which application to file. WHAT THE APPLICATION MUST CARRY: 15.04.050(B) provides that no building permit shall issue "unless the application for a permit is accompanied by a plat or sketch of the proposed location showing lot boundaries, and by plans and specifications showing the work to be done", and requires a state design release issued under IC 22-15-3-1 to be lodged before a permit issues for construction covered by one - which is a commercial matter rather than a house re-roof. Franklin does not publish a roofing fee figure, so settle the fee with the department before quoting; note that the City charges "$4.00 PLUS 2%" on card payments. THERE IS AN EXPEDITED ROUTE if timing matters: 15.04.060 authorises the board of public works and safety to allow expedited review, at the applicant's cost, with a minimum expedited review fee of one hundred dollars on top of the normal permit fee. STARTING WITHOUT ONE: under 15.04.080 the building inspector may order work stopped by written notice served on anyone doing or causing the work, and the work must stop "until authorized by the building inspector to proceed with the work."

Is ice & water shield required in Franklin, IN?

No. NOT REQUIRED BY THE TABLE IN JOHNSON COUNTY - BUT READ THE SECOND HALF OF THIS BEFORE LEAVING IT OFF. This is a county-by-county answer in Indiana. The state deletes the model climatic table and substitutes its own: 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 directs "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows", and the substituted table runs one row per county. Row 41 is Johnson, and it carries "No" in the column headed "Ice Shield Underlayment Required". Twenty-seven of Indiana's ninety-two counties carry "Yes" there and they are the northern tier; Johnson County, immediately south of Marion County and Indianapolis, is not one of them, and neither is Marion. The rest of the Johnson County row is wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category B, ground snow 20 psf, foundation depth 30 inches, winter design temperature 2 degrees F and weathering Severe. THE MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUCTIONS CAN STILL REQUIRE ONE, AND THE STATE SAYS SO IN TERMS. The Indiana State Building Commissioner's Ice/Water Shield and Metal Drip Edge guidance of February 25, 2020 explains that Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1 require roofing materials to be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions, and concludes that "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)." Johnson County is in the second group. So the correct answer on a Franklin job is to read the shingle manufacturer's published instructions for that product: if they call for an ice barrier, the code requires you to follow them, and a warranty may depend on it as well. Franklin has added nothing of its own - Title 15 of the City Code was read in full and contains no ice barrier or underlayment provision - and it could not: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules.

Is drip edge required in Franklin, IN?

Yes. STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and unconditional on a shingle roof. Franklin cannot vary it: 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." The operative text is published first-hand by the Indiana State Building Commissioner, on Indiana Department of Homeland Security letterhead, in the Ice/Water Shield and Metal Drip Edge guidance of February 25, 2020, which reproduces the adopted Section 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." The word "rood" in that passage is a typographical error in the published guidance, quoted here as printed; it plainly means the roof deck. The Indiana rule amends Section R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" and does not touch R905.2.8.5, so this text governs as published.

Can you roof over an existing roof in Franklin, IN?

NO LOCAL LAYER RULE, AND NO INDIANA CITY MAY WRITE ONE. Franklin's residential code is the state's: City Code 15.04.040 incorporates Article 14 of Title 675 of the Indiana Administrative Code together with later amendments, and the rule now in force in that article is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. That rule runs to 245 numbered sections and its only amendments touching the model roofing chapter are word and sentence deletions in the rooftop photovoltaic section and in the asphalt shingle attachment and flashing sections. It makes no amendment at all to the model code's reroofing and roof recover section, which does not appear anywhere in the Indiana rule. Title 15 of the Franklin City Code was read in full across all four chapters and contains no roof-covering provision of any kind; its single roofing reference is the housing-standards requirement that "Every foundation, floor, wall, ceiling and roof shall be reasonably weathertight". So the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof applies here exactly as published, and neither the state nor the City has changed it. Base-code rule, read at 2018 International Residential Code Section R908.3.1.1, Roof recover not allowed, and quoted here rather than left behind the ICC paywall: a roof recover "shall not be permitted" where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." One existing layer may be recovered; a second existing layer means a tear-off to the deck. Franklin could not change it: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state rules. The number of layers a particular roof may carry therefore comes out of the adopted International Residential Code itself, and a roofer planning a recover rather than a tear-off should settle the existing layer count with the building inspector against that code before quoting. Either way the job needs a Franklin permit.

Do roofing contractors need a license or registration in Franklin, IN?

No. NO ROOFING OR GENERAL-CONTRACTOR CREDENTIAL AT EITHER LEVEL. Indiana issues no state roofing, general-contractor or home-improvement credential: the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency's published list of regulated professions includes plumbing but carries no general-contractor, roofing, building or home improvement credential, so in Indiana the question is always local. Franklin's municipal code was screened chapter by chapter across all thirteen of its titles, and the only licensing chapter in it is Chapter 5.04, "Business Licenses Generally". That chapter creates no trade credential of its own; it is an administrative framework that bites only where some other provision requires a licence, in its own words at 5.04.010: "No person shall engage in any trade, profession, business or privilege in the city for which a license or permit is required by any provision of this code without obtaining a license or permit from the city in the manner provided in this chapter, unless otherwise specifically provided." Title 15, Buildings and Construction, was then read in full - the Building Code, Minimum Housing Standards, Dangerous Buildings and House Numbers chapters - and it requires no contractor licence, registration or bond. The other twelve titles cover general provisions, administration and personnel, revenue and finance, business licences, animals, health and safety, public peace and welfare, vehicles and traffic, streets and sidewalks, public services, subdivisions and zoning, and none of their chapters concerns contractor licensing; the trades Franklin's code names are pool halls, cable television, dance halls, itinerant merchants, massage establishments, pawnbrokers, secondhand dealers, taxicabs and door-to-door vendors. So a roofing contractor needs no Franklin licence and no bond. WHAT IS STILL REQUIRED is the permit itself, before work begins, and the fees fixed under the Building Code chapter. If a firm needs a general business registration to trade in the city, that is not a roofing credential and does not change this answer. And if a job takes in plumbing work, note that plumbing IS licensed at state level in Indiana even though contracting generally is not.

What building code does Franklin, IN use?

STATE-SET, AND FRANKLIN'S OWN LIST IS DECADES OUT OF DATE WHILE ITS OWN FLOATING CLAUSE FIXES THAT. The operative rule is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, whose opening section provides that "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", and that "This rule shall be known as the 2020 Indiana Residential Code." It was filed November 26, 2019 and formally readopted November 18, 2025, and it is the newest rule in its article. WHAT FRANKLIN'S CODE SAYS. City Code 15.04.040(A) provides that "Building rules of the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission as set out in the following Articles of Title 675 of the Indiana Administrative Code are 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 then lists Articles 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. READ THE ARTICLE 14 SUB-LIST WITH CARE RATHER THAN ACTING ON IT: it names the "Council of American Building Officials One and Two Family Dwelling Code", the "CABO One and Two Family Dwelling Code; Amendments" and the "Standard for Permanent Installation of Manufactured Homes". Those are the CABO-era rules; two of the three are repealed, and none of them is the residential code now in force. What controls is that the adoption is of the ARTICLE and expressly carries later amendments, so it reaches 675 IAC 14-4.4 as the current rule in Article 14. Indiana law reaches the same result independently: IC 22-13-2-3(b) provides that a local reference 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 to the Indiana Administrative Code." And no Indiana city could be on a different residential code in any event, because 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", with IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) giving those rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. So a roofer working in Franklin is on the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, whatever the sub-list says. SCOPE OF THE LOCAL CHAPTER, in its own words at 15.04.020(B): "The provisions of this chapter apply to the construction, alteration, repair, use, occupancy and addition to all buildings and structures, other than industrialized building systems or mobile structures certified under IC 22-15-4, in the city." VARIANCES are not a local matter: 15.04.030 closes "Any variance from adopted building rules are subject to approval under IC 22-13-2-7(b)." The code text used here is the Municipal Code as codified through Ordinance No. 2024-09, passed November 4, 2024. One vocabulary warning: "Class 2" in Indiana is a STRUCTURE class, broadly one and two family dwellings, and has nothing to do with a fire class or an impact class of roof covering.