Greencastle Building Division

City of Greencastle, Indiana

city

1 N. Locust Street, Greencastle, IN 46135

Required

Not required

STATE-SET: THE 2020 INDIANA RESIDENTIAL CODE, AND GREENCASTLE TAKES IT BY A FLOATING CLAUSE OF ITS OWN. City Code section 7-18, Adoption of Rules by Reference (Ord. No. 1997-3, section 845-25, 3-11-1997), incorporates the 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" and provides that they "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". Item 3 of that list is "Article 14 - One and Two Family Dwelling Code". Article 14 today is 675 IAC 14-4.4, whose opening section incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code, first printing August 2017, "by reference as if fully set out in this rule save and except those revisions made in this rule", and provides: "This rule shall be known as the 2020 Indiana Residential Code." It was filed November 26, 2019 and readopted November 18, 2025, and the state has adopted no later residential rule. So the City names no edition of its own and does not need to. A DISCLOSURE A ROOFER WILL RUN INTO AT THE COUNTER. The City's own building permit packet includes an undated sheet headed "Current Code Sets in Use", introduced as "a list of the current codes sets adopted by the State of Indiana and in use by the City of Greencastle". It names the 2012 International Building, Fire and Mechanical Codes, the 2006 International Plumbing Code, the 2012 International Fuel Gas Code, the 2008 National Electrical Code and, for houses, the "2003 International Residential Code (5th printing, part of the Indiana Residential Code)", the "2005 Indiana Residential Code Combo" and the "2005 Indiana Amendments to the 2003 IRC". Those are three state rules ago. The sheet is a departmental handout describing what it believes the STATE has adopted, not a local adoption, and section 7-18's floating clause does not depend on it. This record publishes the current state answer and discloses the sheet so that nobody is surprised to be handed it; it does not decide what the Building Commissioner will say about a plan drawn to one edition or the other. Ask before drawing. TWO INDIANA STATUTES FRAME ANY LOCAL TEXT. IC 22-13-2-3(b) makes a local citation to the Indiana Administrative Code move forward with the rule unless it names a specific edition or supplement, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides: "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." Section 7-16 of the City's own chapter points the same way, making any variance from the adopted Building Rules "subject to approval under Indiana Code, section 22-13-2-7(b)".

Required — REQUIRED BY THE STATE CODE, WHICH APPLIES WITH OR WITHOUT A PERMIT. The Indiana State Building Commissioner's memo on ice and water shield and drip edge reproduces Section R905.2.8.5 of the 2020 Indiana Residential Code as adopted, and it opens: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs." The memo sets out the provision in full, including its overlap, its extension below the sheathing and its fastener spacing; read those there rather than from this summary. 675 IAC 14-4.4 amends Section R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" and does not touch R905.2.8.5. Greencastle's own Chapter 7 was read in full and "drip" occurs zero times in it, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city from an ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules. The memo is explicit that the requirement does not turn on local enforcement: "Regardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary, or whether a local building authority even exists in any particular jurisdiction or location in the state, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs all Class 2 residential construction". About drip edge

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE STATE TABLE FOR PUTNAM COUNTY, BUT READ THE MANUFACTURER'S INSTRUCTIONS. The Putnam County row of Table R301.2(1) in the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, as substituted by 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, reads ice shield underlayment required No. That row was read from the rendered table rather than from extracted text, because the table's termite column drops out of extraction and the columns shift when it does. WHAT THAT No MEANS, IN THE STATE'S OWN WORDS. The State Building Commissioner's memo explains that Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1 require roofing to be installed to the manufacturer's installation instructions, so there are counties where the barrier is always required and "specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it". Putnam County is in the second group. If the shingle manufacturer's instructions for the assembly being installed call for an ice and water membrane, the code requires it on that job. Greencastle's Chapter 7 says nothing either way: "ice barrier", "ice and water" and "ice shield" each occur zero times in it. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NO ROOFING STAGE, AND THE CITY'S OWN TWO APPENDICES SAY SO FROM OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. City Code section 7-38 sets out Appendix B, Residential Building Inspections (Ord. No. 1997-3, Appendix B, 3-11-1997), and it names six: footing pre-pour; pre-backfill; rough-in, "to be performed before insulation and drywall are installed", covering framing, plumbing, HVAC and electrical wiring; final inspection, which "must be performed prior to move in"; basement slab pre-pour; and temporary electric. There is no dry-in, no underlayment and no mid-roof hold point anywhere in it. From the other side, Appendix A to section 7-22 gives the Roof permit category Required Inspections 1 - a single inspection, which on a re-roof is the final one. So a roofer should not build a Greencastle schedule around an inspector attending before the covering goes on. If the deck should be seen, arrange it with the Building Commissioner on 765-653-8522 rather than expecting a published stage.

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE STATE CODE AND NOT BY THE CITY. 675 IAC 14-4.4 imposes no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 requirement anywhere, and its four amendments to the model roof assemblies chapter are the word-level deletions described in this record's layer field, none of them concerning impact resistance. Greencastle's own Chapter 7 was read in full, both published parts, and "UL 2218", "Class 4", "Class IV" and "hail" each return zero occurrences; so does Chapter 4, Fees, Licenses, Permits and Franchises. IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city from an ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules, and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over a local ordinance on the same subject. An insurer's discount for an impact-rated shingle is a private contract term, not a code requirement, and the "Class 2" in Indiana's roofing guidance is a structure class rather than an impact class of covering.

FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, SET IN THE ENACTED CODE, AND A ROOF HAS ITS OWN PERMIT CATEGORY. City Code section 7-20, Permit Required - Fees (Ord. No. 1997-3, section 845-35A, 3-11-1997), reads: "A permit shall be obtained before beginning construction, alteration, repair or maintenance of any building or structure in the City of Greencastle, for which the total value of work is in excess of five hundred dollars ($500.00), using forms furnished by the City." The codifier's own footnote records that the City directed the figure be raised from $250.00 to $500.00 during the 1997 codification. Section 7-17 puts the chapter's reach over "the construction, alteration, repair, use, occupancy, and addition to all buildings and structures". A re-roof on a house passes $500 in materials alone, so in practice the threshold is met on any job a roofing contractor would quote. AND THE CODE DOES NOT LEAVE ROOFING TO INFERENCE. Section 7-22 sets the fee schedule and provides that "Permits required by Section 7-20 shall be issued upon prior payment of inspection fees according to the following schedule". Its Appendix A carries a row reading Roof, Required Inspections 1, Single Inspection Fee $30.00, Permit Fee $30.00. A dedicated permit category with its own fee and its own inspection count is the strongest form of evidence this question has. THE EXEMPTION THAT IS NOT AN EXEMPTION FROM THIS PERMIT. The City's Zoning Ordinance section 12.6 lists re-roofing among improvements for which "No ILP shall be required" - item 3, "cosmetic (non-structural) changes to any structure including the replacement of windows in existing openings, re-roofing, the installation of siding material, and repainting". An ILP is an Improvement Location Permit, a zoning permit issued by the City Planner, and the same exemption clause says in terms that an exempt improvement "shall comply with any applicable requirements of this Ordinance, the Subdivision Control Ordinance, and any other applicable adopted standards of the City of Greencastle". So the zoning permit is waived for a re-roof and the building permit under section 7-20 is not. Read the heading before the item. ONE MORE THING THAT LOOKS LIKE A NEGATIVE AND IS NOT. The Building Inspector's web page carries "a list of work/items requiring a permit" - new construction, addition or renovations, electrical, plumbing, demolition, accessory structures, porch, carport, deck and swimming pool - and does not name roofing. That is an enumeration on an undated page, and it cannot subtract a category the City's own council enacted into its fee schedule. Ask the Building Commissioner on 765-653-8522 which form to use rather than reading the omission as a waiver.

THE FIGURES ARE THE STATE'S COUNTY-INDEXED TABLE, NOT A CITY ENACTMENT. Table R301.2(1) of the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, as substituted by 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, gives the Putnam County row as wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category B, ground snow load 20 psf, frost depth 30 inches, winter design temperature 2 degrees Fahrenheit, decay slight to moderate, termite moderate to heavy, weathering severe, ice shield underlayment required No, air freezing index 1500 or less, and mean annual temperature 52.6 degrees. Those values were read from the rendered table: the termite column drops out of text extraction, and when it does every column to its right reads one place out. TWO POINTS BEFORE REUSING A DETAIL FROM ELSEWHERE IN INDIANA. Putnam's seismic category is B where many Indiana counties print A, and its frost depth is 30 inches where the northern counties print 36. Wind exposure category is still a site-by-site decision under Section R301.2.1.4. IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars the City from varying any of these figures by ordinance, and Greencastle's Chapter 7 states no wind or snow figure of its own.

TWO LAYERS, ON THE STATE RULE, AND GREENCASTLE'S OWN BUILDING CHAPTER WAS READ END TO END AND ADDS NOTHING. City Code Chapter 7, Building and Construction Regulations, is published by the City itself as two PDFs covering sections 7-1 through 7-99, together about 148,000 characters, and both were read and counted. Across them "shingle" occurs zero times, "layer" once and that once is a land-fill compaction rule, and R908, R905, "overlay" and "tear-off" are each zero. The five word-anchored occurrences of "roof" are a fee-schedule row, a definition of "structure", and the flood-plain article's definition of "development", which excludes "maintenance of existing buildings and facilities such as painting, re-roofing". The chapter states no roof-covering rule of its own. WHERE ITS TECHNICAL CONTENT COMES FROM, AND IT IS FLOATING. Section 7-18, Adoption of Rules by Reference (Ord. No. 1997-3, section 845-25, 3-11-1997), incorporates the 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" and provides that they "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". Its item 3 is "Article 14 - One and Two Family Dwelling Code". A dated adoption would have frozen the City at the edition it named in 1997; this one expressly does the opposite and carries Greencastle to whatever Article 14 holds today. THE STATE RULE ADDS NO LAYER CAP EITHER. Article 14 today is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. Its amendments to the model roof assemblies chapter are four word-level edits - the last sentence of Section R902.4 on rooftop photovoltaic panel systems deleted, the word "approved" deleted from Sections R905.2.6 and R905.2.8, and the word "printed" deleted from Section R905.2.8.4 - and it makes no amendment to the reroofing section. SO THE BASE RULE APPLIES AS PUBLISHED. Read at 2018 International Residential Code Section R908.3.1.1, Roof recover not allowed: 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. IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city from an ordinance "that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules", so the City could not have set a different number. Count what is already on the roof before quoting a recover, and expect the City's single roof inspection to be the occasion on which somebody else counts it.

NO CITY RULE, AND THE STATE MAKES ONE CHANGE TO ROOF SHEATHING, A PAPERWORK ONE. Indiana's residential rule is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, incorporating the 2018 International Residential Code. It makes exactly one amendment to the model code's roof sheathing provisions, at 675 IAC 14-4.4-82, headed "Section R803.2.1; identification and grade", which reads in full: "Delete the words 'or certificate of inspection issued by an approved agency' from the text of SECTION R803.2.1 without substitution." So a sheathing panel is identified on a Greencastle job by its grade mark, and the model code's alternative route of a certificate of inspection issued by an approved agency is gone. Everything else in SECTION R803 - span tables, panel thickness, fastening and sheathing gaps - applies as the 2018 International Residential Code publishes it. THE LOCAL NEGATIVE IS COUNTED, NOT ASSUMED. City Code Chapter 7 was read in full, both published parts, and "sheath" and "roof deck" each return zero occurrences across it; so does Chapter 4, Fees, Licenses, Permits and Franchises. IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city from adding a more stringent or detailed rule in any event. ONE PRACTICAL POINT. The City's Appendix A gives a Roof permit a single required inspection, and its Appendix B list of residential building inspections has no roof or deck stage at all, so nobody from the City is scheduled to look at the deck once the old covering is off. If rotten sheathing turns up at tear-off, telephone the Building Commissioner on 765-653-8522 before covering it rather than after.

7% in Greencastle. The Indiana Department of Revenue's sales tax page states that a business selling goods or tangible personal property must "register to collect a seven percent sales tax", and it names no county or city sales tax on top of that rate, so a Putnam County address and a Greencastle address carry the same figure.