Glynn County, Georgia - Building Permitting and Inspections Department

Glynn County, Georgia

county

Brunswick, GA

Required

Permits in unincorporated Glynn County are applied for online through the County's OpenGov portal, reached from the County's own Building Permitting and Inspections pages; the portal's Building Inspection Department category carries the application types, among them Residential Building Permit, Residential Accessory Building, Demolition and the separate electrical, plumbing, mechanical and gas permits. The Department is at 1725 Reynolds Street in Brunswick and inspections are booked on 912-554-7456 with the permit number to hand. Fees come from the schedule at section 2-5-24 of the County Code, which the Department also republishes. There is no roofing line on it; residential work is priced on heated, enclosed and covered square footage, and the schedule closes with a catch-all, "Any other Occupancy Type and Work Type", at declared value multiplied by 0.004. Re-inspection fees are $20.00 each, and a variance or appeal application under the International Codes is $75.00. Starting work first is expensive: where work requiring a permit "is commenced prior to obtaining required permit, the fee specified shall be doubled, but the payment of such double fee shall not relieve any person from fully complying with the requirements of this Code". The County's building jurisdiction stops at the city line. Section 2-5-20 confines the adopted code to "the area of Glynn County, Georgia, lying outside the corporate limits of the City of Brunswick", so a job inside Brunswick is the City's to permit.

STATE-SET FOR HOUSES; THE COUNTY'S OWN ADOPTION IS OF THE COMMERCIAL CODE ONLY. Georgia has no local residential code adoption to look up. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs adopts the state minimum standard codes, and its Mandatory and Permissive State Codes page states that the mandatory codes - which include the International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings - are such "that under Georgia law, any structure built in Georgia must comply with these codes, whether or not the local government chooses to locally enforce these codes" (O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a)). The Department's current list gives the residential code as the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia Amendments 2026. Compliance is statewide and automatic; enforcement is local, and Glynn County enforces. WHAT GLYNN COUNTY ITSELF ADOPTED. Chapter 2-5 of the Code of Glynn County, Buildings and Construction, was opened in full for this record - all ten articles, from article I through article X - and its article II adopts only the commercial code: section 2-5-20 adopts "the International Building Code, being particularly the 2006 edition of the International Building Code with Georgia Amendments", in force "within the area of Glynn County, Georgia, lying outside the corporate limits of the City of Brunswick". There is no residential-code article in the chapter, and the words Residential Code do not occur in it. Section 2-5-20 keeps the commercial adoption current by its own terms: "When the International Building Code is amended and such amendment is adopted by the State of Georgia, that amendment shall be automatically adopted by Glynn County excepting only those portions specifically deleted, modified or amended by the Glynn County Board of Commissioners." WHAT THE DEPARTMENT SAYS IT ENFORCES. The Building Permitting and Inspections Department publishes its own list of current construction codes, headed "International Building Codes are enforced as prescribed by the International Code Council, mandated and amended by the State of Georgia", and that list gives the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition alongside the 2024 building, fire, plumbing, mechanical and fuel gas codes, the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code, the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa code and the 2023 National Electrical Code. Those editions match the Department of Community Affairs list exactly. So a house in unincorporated Glynn County is built to the 2024 International Residential Code with the Georgia Amendments 2026, and the County's own 2006 commercial adoption does not reach it. THE ONE COUNTY AMENDMENT, AND THE APPENDICES. Section 2-5-22 is the only amendment the chapter makes to the code it adopts, and it is administrative: it shortens the notice-of-appeal period in section 105.2.1 from 90 days to 30 days. Section 2-5-26, "Other Amendments to the Building Code", reads "Reserved." The chapter references no appendix of any code and contains no appendices clause. The Disaster Resilient Construction appendix - Appendix U to the residential code, which the Department of Community Affairs lists among the permissive rather than the mandatory codes - is therefore not adopted in Glynn County; its own section AU101.3.1 provides that "The provisions of this appendix are not mandatory unless specifically referenced in an adopting ordinance", and no Glynn County ordinance references it.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT COUNTY-SET, AND IN FORCE IN GLYNN COUNTY UNAMENDED. The International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings is one of the codes Georgia designates as a mandatory state minimum standard, so under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) it binds construction in Glynn County whether or not the County elects to enforce it locally; the Department of Community Affairs states this on its own Mandatory and Permissive State Codes page, and its current list gives the residential code as the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia Amendments 2026. Glynn County's own Building Permitting and Inspections Department publishes the same edition on its list of the codes it enforces. THE STATE AMENDMENTS DO NOT TOUCH THE ROOFING CHAPTER. The Department of Community Affairs amendment packet for the 2024 residential code was opened in full for this record and searched: it contains no amendment to chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, and no amendment to any section in the R900 series. The chapter 9 drip-edge provision at section R905.2.8.5 therefore stands as written, neither deleted nor rewritten for Georgia. THE COUNTY HAS AMENDED NOTHING IN IT EITHER, AND THAT WAS READ RATHER THAN ASSUMED. Chapter 2-5 of the Code of Glynn County, Buildings and Construction, was opened in full for this record - all ten articles, article I through article X, and every section within them - and searched for drip, for R905, for R908, for Chapter 9 and for shingle. None of those terms occurs anywhere in the chapter. The chapter adopts only the commercial building code, at section 2-5-20, and makes exactly one amendment to it, at section 2-5-22, which shortens the notice-of-appeal period from 90 days to 30 days; section 2-5-26, "Other Amendments to the Building Code", reads "Reserved." The chapter references no appendix of any code, so the Disaster Resilient Construction appendix - which by its own section AU101.3.1 is "not mandatory unless specifically referenced in an adopting ordinance" - is not adopted here; that appendix adds fastening and deck-sealing rules for new development and substantial improvements and could not have removed the drip-edge requirement in any event. WHAT IS AND IS NOT RECORDED HERE. The operative ICC text of R905.2.8.5 sits behind the ICC paywall; this record does not restate it and does not rely on any third-party republication of it. What is recorded is the sourced fact that the requirement is in force here unamended. The section number is a pointer, not a summary: for the metal type, the extent onto the deck and the fastening, read the adopted code itself. And where a piece of roof work turns out not to need a permit in Glynn County, what the exemption removes is the inspection, not the requirement - Georgia's mandatory codes apply whether or not the local government enforces them. About drip edge

Not required — No mid-roof, dry-in or roof-nailing inspection is on the list of inspection stages Glynn County publishes. The Building Permitting and Inspections Department's "Scheduling an Inspection" page gives the stages in full: footing inspection "before pouring any concrete"; slab inspection, with "plumbing and/or electrical under the slab inspected before pouring"; rough-in inspection, described as "framing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and gas systems before drywall installation (includes fireplaces)"; a permanent power inspection taken between the rough-in and the final; and final inspection, at which "building, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, driveway and culvert pipe, house number, landscaping, and soil erosion measures must be complete". A certificate of occupancy issues once all inspections are complete. Nothing in that sequence looks at a roof covering, or at underlayment before the covering goes on. TWO CAVEATS THAT ARE PART OF THE ANSWER. The County frames these as "common inspection stages" rather than as a closed schedule, and warns on the same page to "schedule inspections well in advance" because "some construction projects may require multiple inspections" and to "Always call before covering anything up." So an inspector may ask to see something this list does not schedule. Inspections are booked on 912-554-7456 with the permit number to hand.

Not required — No impact-resistant or hail-rated roof covering is required in Glynn County. Neither the Georgia State Amendments packet to the 2024 International Residential Code nor chapter 2-5 of the Code of Glynn County contains any UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact requirement; both were opened in full for this record and searched for each of those terms, and none occurs in either. The Georgia packet does not amend the code's roofing chapter at all, and the County's chapter adopts only the commercial building code and amends one administrative section of it. The Disaster Resilient Construction appendix is not adopted here, and its roofing content is about fastening and secondary water barriers for new development and substantial improvements rather than about impact in any case. An insurer may still offer a premium credit on the Georgia coast for an impact-rated shingle, but that is an insurance matter and not a code requirement.

GLYNN COUNTY PUBLISHES WHAT NEEDS A PERMIT, AND ROOFING IS NOT ON THE LIST - BUT THE LIST DOES NOT SAY IT IS COMPLETE. The Building Permitting and Inspections Department's page "When Are Building Permits Required?" opens: "Many types of construction require permits before work can begin, like building an addition, installing a pool, or altering structural beams. Before deciding to build, read more about the types of work that require permits below". It then gives seven headed groups of work requiring a permit. New Construction & Additions covers new main buildings, garages and carports; attached porches, sun decks, room additions and extensions or enlargements of existing rooms; accessory buildings, storage buildings and tool sheds; and "Renovations, door and window replacements". Structural Changes covers installation, removal or cutting of any structural beam; joist replacement or bearing support work; foundation and footing repair or replacement; and underpinning or shoring of structures. Change in Building Use covers work changing the class of construction or occupancy classification, conversion of non-habitable space into living quarters, and partitioning of existing habitable space. Outdoor Structures & Site Work covers in-ground pools and spas, fences, canopies and awnings, retaining walls over 18 inches, and excavations and earth fill site work. Demolition & Removal covers "Removal or demolition of any building or structure". Specialized Installations covers antennas "(freestanding, attached, or rooftop)", exterior stairs, steps or commercial access ramps, all signage, and "Solar panels, communication towers, and generators". Trade Work covers "All electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work (unless waived by the Building Official or designated authority)". WHAT THAT DOES AND DOES NOT SETTLE. Re-roofing and roof-covering replacement are named nowhere in the seven groups. But the page introduces itself with "Many types of construction require permits", not with a closed list, and it is not an exemption schedule - so its silence is not a published exemption for a re-roof, and this record does not read it as one. Structural roof work is plainly caught by Structural Changes, which reaches "Installation, removal, or cutting of any structural beam" and "Joist replacement or bearing support work", so a job that opens up rafters or trusses needs a permit whatever the covering work would have needed on its own. Before tearing off in unincorporated Glynn County, put the specific job to the Building Permitting and Inspections Department on 912-554-7456. AND A GEORGIA POINT WORTH KNOWING WHATEVER THE ANSWER IS. Georgia's mandatory codes, the residential code among them, apply to any structure built in the state whether or not the local government enforces them. So where a jurisdiction does not require a permit for a given piece of work, what has been removed is the inspection, not the requirement - the work still has to meet the code.

Set by the state code, not by Glynn County. The residential code in force is the 2024 International Residential Code with the Georgia Amendments 2026, and the Georgia amendment packet for that edition makes no change to the code's roofing chapter, so the base code's reroofing and roof-recover provisions apply as published and Georgia adds no layer cap of its own. On the local side, chapter 2-5 of the Code of Glynn County - Buildings and Construction, all ten articles - was opened in full for this record. It contains no provision on roof coverings, no limit on the number of covering layers that may remain in place, and no layer condition attached to any permit, exemption or fee; the word shingle does not occur in it, and its only occurrences of the word roof are in the definitions of "Addition" and "Structure" in the flood damage prevention article, which speak of a "walled and roofed" building. No Glynn County ordinance limits the number of roof-covering layers. The operative text of the base code's re-cover provisions sits behind the ICC paywall; this record does not restate it and does not rely on any third-party republication of it. A roofer planning to go over an existing roof in unincorporated Glynn County should read the adopted code itself or put the job to the Building Permitting and Inspections Department on 912-554-7456.

NOT SET BY THE COUNTY. The Georgia Amendments packet to the 2024 International Residential Code makes no change to the code's roofing chapter, so the base code's provisions on the deck beneath a roof covering apply as published. Glynn County writes no roof-deck or sheathing specification of its own: chapter 2-5 of its Code was opened in full for this record and the word sheathing does not occur anywhere in it. That base-code text is behind the ICC paywall and this record deliberately does not reproduce it from any third-party republication. The Disaster Resilient Construction appendix to the residential code, which carries the enhanced roof-deck sealing provisions, is not adopted in Glynn County - the appendix applies only where an adopting ordinance specifically references it, and no Glynn County ordinance does - and in any event that appendix applies by its own terms to new development and to substantial improvements, not to an ordinary re-roof.

7% in Glynn County. The Georgia Department of Revenue's general rate chart in force from July 1 through September 30, 2026 lists jurisdiction code 063 "Glynn" at 7%, made up of the 4% state rate and the local components the chart marks L, E and S - a local option tax, an educational tax and a special purpose local option tax. The Department has already published the chart taking effect on October 1, 2026 and the Glynn row is unchanged at 7% in it, so the figure holds through that reissue; both charts were read from the Department's own PDFs and the Glynn row confirmed on a rendered image of each page rather than by text extraction. Glynn is not one of the Georgia counties the chart splits by city, so the same rate applies in Brunswick, on St. Simons Island and in the unincorporated county alike. FOR THE ROOFER, THE TAX FALLS ON YOU AT THE SUPPLIER. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 560-12-2-.26(1) makes anyone who "contracts to furnish tangible personal property and perform services thereunder in constructing, altering, repairing or improving real property in this State" the "consumer of all tangible personal property used or consumed in performing such contract", who "shall pay the tax thereon at the time of purchase, use, storage or consumption in this State, whichever occurs first". So the tax on the shingles is the contractor's, paid when the materials are bought, and not a line the homeowner is charged as a resale item. The same rule requires every contractor and subcontractor improving real property in Georgia to file for a Certificate of Registration on Form CRF-002 before its first construction activity in the state.