City of Grand Forks, North Dakota - Department of Building Safety

City of Grand Forks, North Dakota

city

Grand Forks, ND

Required

Permits are administered by the Grand Forks Department of Building Safety, which the City created by amending the model code: City Code Section 19-0101, amendment (3), changes "CODE COMPLIANCE AGENCY" in the code's title to "DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING SAFETY," and the adopted codes are filed in that department's office. Four things about the process are set in the code itself rather than in a fee schedule. First, building permit fees are set by City Council resolution, under an amendment adding to Section R108.2 that "The City Council shall establish by resolution fees for building permits." Second, starting work without a permit costs double where the project is valued at $2,000 or more or where a formal complaint has reached Municipal Court - the penalty fee equals the permit fee and both must be paid before work restarts. Third, plan submittal requirements are what the building official asks for: an amendment to Section R106.1 adds that they "shall include information as per plan review form or such reasonable requirements as determined by the building official." Fourth, a demolition permit carries a $1,000 cash deposit, held against site restoration and damage to public property, with an exception at the building official's discretion for minor demolition work. Separately, a contractor licensed by both the city and the state and carrying a $5,000 performance bond is a precondition of the work, and the bond stays partly in place for a year after the certificate of occupancy. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical work is licensed and inspected under separate articles of the same chapter, each with its own city board.

Grand Forks adopts the 2021 International Residential Code and the 2021 International Building Code by named edition, with its own amendments, and NOT by a floating reference to the state code - which matters because North Dakota moved to the 2024 suite on 1 January 2026. What the City Code says. Grand Forks City Code Section 19-0121 reads: "The International Residential Code, 2021 edition, Chapters 1 through 11 and 44 promulgated, approved and published by the International Code Council shall be and the same is hereby adopted, as hereinafter amended, and incorporated herein by reference." Section 19-0101 does the same for the commercial track: "The International Building Code, 2021 edition, Chapters 1 through 26 and 29 through 35, promulgated, approved and published by the International Code Council shall be and the same is hereby adopted, as hereinafter amended." Each adoption is followed by a long, numbered list of City amendments, and a printed copy of each code is filed in the office of the Department of Building Safety. The chapter also carries a separate electrical code, plumbing code, mechanical and fuel gas code, floodproofing code and dangerous buildings article. The codified text used here is current through Ordinance No. 4934, adopted 15 December 2025. THE STATE POSITION, FOR CONTEXT. Under NDCC 54-21.3-03(6) a city that elects to administer and enforce a building code "shall adopt and enforce the state building code," but "the state building code may be amended by cities, townships, and counties to conform to local needs," and Grand Forks is listed as a code enforcing city by the North Dakota Department of Commerce. The 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book states that "Effective January 1, 2026, the North Dakota State Building Code consists of the 2024 International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), International Mechanical Code (IMC), International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Energy Conservation Code, and the International Existing Building Code as published by the International Code Council (ICC)," and adds that "NO APPENDICES ARE ADOPTED." So the City's codified edition and the state's current edition are not the same, and the City's own code is what its permits are written to unless the Department of Building Safety says otherwise. FOR ROOF WORK THE GAP IS NARROWER THAN IT LOOKS: the City's amendment list to the residential code does not touch the roof-assemblies chapter at all, and neither do the North Dakota amendments to the 2024 residential code, so the base residential code roofing provisions govern under either edition.

Required — Grand Forks adopts the International Residential Code, and the two instruments that could change its roofing chapter were both read in full and neither does. The City's own amendment list to the 2021 International Residential Code, at City Code Section 19-0121, runs to more than seventy numbered items and contains no amendment to any section in the residential code's R900 series - the roof-assemblies chapter is untouched. The North Dakota amendment set for the 2024 International Residential Code amends thirty sections, none of them in that chapter either. The base residential code drip-edge requirement for asphalt-shingle roofs, at Section R905.2.8.5, therefore applies in Grand Forks unmodified, with no local softening and no local addition. That section carries the requirement in the 2021 edition the City has codified and in the 2024 edition the state code now runs on, so the difference between those editions does not change the answer here. Take the installation extent and the fastener spacing from the edition the Department of Building Safety confirms is in force for your permit. About drip edge

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in Grand Forks, at either level of government. City level: Grand Forks City Code Chapter XIX, Article 1 (Building and Residential Code) is the instrument that adopts and amends the building and residential codes here, and it was read in full - Sections 19-0101 through 19-0122, including the complete numbered amendment lists to the 2021 International Building Code and the 2021 International Residential Code, current through Ordinance No. 4934 adopted 15 December 2025. It contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 provision. It also contains no amendment to any section of the residential code's roof-assemblies chapter: measured across the whole article, no section number in the R900 series appears at all. State level: the North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code, published in the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book, were also read in full - thirty numbered section amendments - and none addresses roofing or impact rating. An impact-rated shingle may still be worth buying in a hail-prone market, and an insurer may discount for one, but nothing in Grand Forks or North Dakota law requires it.

WHAT THE CITY AMENDS ABOUT PERMIT EXEMPTIONS, AND WHAT IT DOES NOT. Grand Forks adopts the International Residential Code's permit and exemption machinery and then edits it item by item, so a roofer here should read the City's edits rather than a generic code list. City Code Section 19-0121, amendment (5), amends Section R105.2 as follows, quoted as the City prints it: "(A) In Item #1 change 200 to '120.' (B) In Item #2 change 7' to 6'. (C) Item #5 add the work 'private' at the beginning. (D) In Item #6 delete the words 'cabinets, counter tops and similar finish work.' (E) Delete Item #10. (F) Delete from 'Electrical: Repairs and maintenance:' to the end of the section." Amendments (6) and (7) delete Sections R105.2.2 and R105.2.3 entirely. NONE OF THOSE EDITS CONCERNS ROOFING, in either direction - the City neither adds a roofing exemption nor removes one, and roofing is named nowhere in the chapter. THE PENALTY FOR STARTING WITHOUT A PERMIT IS STATED AND IT DOUBLES THE COST. Amendment (13) adds to Section R108.6: "A penalty fee shall be paid if work commences without first obtaining a permit and the following apply: a) the project is valued at $2,000 or more, or b) any project in which a formal complaint has been made to Municipal Court. This penalty fee shall be equal to the fee of the building permit. Both the penalty and regular permit fee must be paid before work is restarted." Read that as a $2,000 trigger for the doubled fee, not as a $2,000 permit threshold. WHO MAY DO THE WORK. Section 19-0103 makes the licence and bond a precondition of permitted work: "No person, firm, or corporation shall erect, construct, enlarge, alter, demolish, repair, improve or convert any building or structure for which a building permit is required until such person, firm, or corporation ... shall have obtained a contractor's license from the city and the state and shall have furnished and filed a performance bond in the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00)." Its subsection (2) exempts governmental entities and "any individual working on said individual's own residence." Building permit fees are set by City Council resolution rather than in the code.

Grand Forks writes its own design figures into the adopted code rather than leaving the code's blanks to the state, and the residential and commercial amendments state the same wind speed with DIFFERENT precision about its basis. Residential track, City Code Section 19-0121, amendment (23) to Section R301.2.1: "Wind speed used by the jurisdiction shall be 115 mph and exposure shall be C." Amendment (24) to Section R301.2.2.1: "The seismic design category used by this jurisdiction shall be a category A." Amendment (25) to Section R301.2.3: "This jurisdiction shall use minimum 35 lbs. per square foot for a design roof snow load. Note: This minimum is for sloped roofs and further reductions cannot be made on it. Flat roofs shall use a minimum of 42 lbs./sq. ft for a design roof snow load. This design roof snow load is only a minimum and additional loads must be calculated in the overall design." Commercial track, City Code Section 19-0101, amendment (84) to Section 1609.1: "Ultimate Design Wind speed used by the jurisdiction shall be at least 115 mph and exposure shall be C." Amendment (83) to Section 1608.2 replaces the ground snow load section with a minimum design ground snow load of 60 lbs. per square foot, a minimum sloped-roof snow load of 35 lbs. per square foot on a 4/12 or steeper pitch and 42 lbs. per square foot on flat roofs. TWO POINTS FOR A FASTENING SCHEDULE. The commercial amendment labels its 115 mph an ULTIMATE design wind speed; the residential amendment states the same number without naming a basis. An ultimate speed and a nominal or fastest-mile speed are not interchangeable, so do not convert between them - confirm the basis with the Department of Building Safety before designing a residential fastening schedule to it. And note that the residential and commercial amendments give the roof snow load the same way (35 psf sloped, 42 psf flat) while only the commercial one states a ground snow load, so a residential truss or rafter calculation should be checked against the 60 psf figure with the department rather than assumed away.

Grand Forks imposes no layer rule of its own, so the rule is whatever the adopted code says. Grand Forks City Code Chapter XIX, Article 1 was read in full - Sections 19-0101 through 19-0122, including the complete numbered amendment lists to the 2021 International Building Code and the 2021 International Residential Code, current through Ordinance No. 4934 adopted 15 December 2025 - and it contains no roof-covering, shingle, recover or re-roofing provision and no amendment to any section in the residential code's R900 series. The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code were read in full, thirty numbered section amendments, and none reaches the roof-assemblies chapter either. So the base International Residential Code provisions on installing a new roof covering over an existing one apply in Grand Forks unmodified, with no local cap added and none removed. That base text was not opened for this record, and the City has codified the 2021 edition while the state code now runs on the 2024 edition, so no layer count is stated here and none should be inferred: confirm the permitted number of layers, and which edition your permit is written to, with the Department of Building Safety before bidding an overlay.

No Grand Forks roof-sheathing rule exists, and that is established by reading the City's own amendment lists rather than by failing to find one. Grand Forks City Code Chapter XIX, Article 1 was read in full - Sections 19-0101 through 19-0122, including the complete numbered amendment lists to both the 2021 International Building Code and the 2021 International Residential Code - and it contains no amendment to the residential code's roof and ceiling construction chapter and no roof sheathing or decking provision. The City's structural amendments are elsewhere: it fixes the wind speed, exposure category, seismic design category and roof snow loads, sets a minimum foundation depth of five feet below finished grade, and adds a garage-slab method to the commercial code's foundation section. The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code were also read in full, thirty numbered section amendments, and none reaches the roof and ceiling construction chapter. So the base residential code roof sheathing and decking provisions apply in Grand Forks unmodified, and there is no local span table, thickness minimum or fastener schedule to reconcile them against. What a roofer should carry instead is the snow loading the City does impose, since it drives what the deck and the framing beneath it have to hold: a minimum 35 lbs. per square foot design roof snow load on a sloped roof, which the City states may not be reduced further, and 42 lbs. per square foot on a flat roof.

7.25% on materials in Grand Forks - North Dakota state sales and use tax of 5%, plus the City of Grand Forks' 2.25% local sales, use and gross receipts tax. There is NO county component: Grand Forks County does not appear in the county table of the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner's Local Taxes by Location Guideline, which lists only eight North Dakota counties as imposing a local tax, and the Grand Forks city row carries no county marker. The guideline, rates effective 1 July 2026, shows the City's rate history as 1% from 1 January 1985, 0.75% from 1 January 1996 and 0.5% from 1 April 2018, giving the current 2.25%, with a maximum tax (refund cap) of $56.25 per sale from 1 April 2018. Grand Forks also lists a separate use tax line at 1.75% from 1 July 2000 and permit holder compensation of 5%, capped at $166.67 a month or $500.00 a quarter. WHO PAYS IT ON A ROOF. North Dakota treats a roofing contractor as the final consumer of the materials installed into real property: "A contractor or subcontractor entering into any contract, except for a labor only contract, is regarded as the final user or consumer of all tangible personal property installed into real property." So the contractor pays the tax on its material purchases and does not charge the homeowner sales tax on an install-plus-materials re-roof; selling materials without installing them is a taxable retail sale instead. TWO GRAND FORKS SPECIFICS. The City is NOT among the sixty jurisdictions whose ordinances carry the limited exemption for materials bought inside the jurisdiction but installed outside it, so where a contractor uses a certificate of exemption the guideline's default applies: "use tax is due to the local jurisdiction where the materials were purchased regardless of where the materials were installed." That matters on the Grand Forks to East Grand Forks run across the river. And do not read the $56.25 maximum tax as a cap on a roof: the Tax Commissioner states that "the maximum tax (refund cap) is calculated on each material purchase a contractor makes to fulfill a construction contract, not on purchase orders or the entire construction contract itself," and that "most construction activity which is subject to local sales or use tax will include more than the specified maximum tax in total local tax costs."