City of Hammond, Indiana - Inspections Department, Building Division

City of Hammond, Indiana

city

5925 Calumet Avenue, Room G1, Hammond, IN 46320

Required

Required

Re-roofing is a permit type on Hammond's own building permit application. The City's Building Division "is responsible for issuing building permits and performing inspections for construction and remodeling projects within the city limits," and the Building Permit Application it publishes asks the applicant to check one work type from a list that begins "Roof(Shingles)" and "Roof (Tear Off)" - so both a shingle-over and a full tear-off are permitted work in Hammond, and the form is filed either as a Home Owner or as a Contractor. A contractor filing it must attach a copy of the signed contract. The form states plainly that "THE CONTRACTOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR INSPECTIONS," and it carries separate Building and Zoning approval sign-offs. It does not cover electrical, HVAC or plumbing work, which take their own permits from the same department. Applications are filed in person at the Building Division on the ground level of Hammond City Hall, Room G1, 5925 Calumet Avenue, open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The separate Improvement Location Permit the Zoning Division issues is described by that division as a new-construction step - "All new construction must be approved and issued an Improvement Location Permit by the Zoning Department prior to receiving a Building Permit." Hammond's codified ordinances are published only through a vendor that does not serve them to this directory, so no ordinance section number, fee figure or exemption threshold is restated here; confirm the current fee with the Building Division at (219) 853-6317 before quoting a job.

Not a City choice. Building-code content in Hammond is set by the State of Indiana: the 2020 Indiana Residential Code at 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates by reference the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017. The rule was filed November 26, 2019 and formally readopted November 18, 2025, and it is the newest rule in Article 14 of Title 675. Under IC 22-13-2-3 the state rules take precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter, and a city, town or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or more detailed requirements than those rules, so Hammond cannot be on a different residential code. Hammond's own Inspections Department confirms the same edition from the city side: the residential examination a contractor must pass to hold a Hammond licence is written on "2018 IRC with Indiana Amendments or 2020 Indiana Residential Code."

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and unconditional. Indiana localities cannot vary this: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance that conflicts with or is more stringent or more detailed 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 and Water Shield Update memo of 2020-02-25 (revised), which reproduces 2018 IRC 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." Note the memo reproduces a typo in the enacted text it quotes ("rood deck" for "roof deck"); the reading is not in doubt. 675 IAC 14-4.4 amends R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" (14-4.4-86) and does not touch R905.2.8.5, so the model text governs as written. About drip edge

Required — Hammond is in Lake County, and Lake County is one of the 27 Indiana counties where the ice barrier is required outright. Indiana deletes the model IRC Table R301.2(1) and substitutes its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5; the Lake County row states "Yes" in the column headed "Ice Shield Underlayment Required". This is a per-county answer, not a state one - most Indiana counties, including Marion (Indianapolis) and Hamilton (Carmel), are marked "No" and get an ice barrier only where the shingle manufacturer's written instructions call for one. A roofer working both ends of Indiana should not carry the central-Indiana answer north. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in Hammond. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, was read in full across all 245 of its numbered sections and contains no reference to UL 2218, to Class 4 or Class IV impact ratings, or to FM 4473; its only amendments touching IRC Chapter 9 delete the word "approved" from the asphalt shingle attachment and flashing sections, delete the word "printed" from the other-flashing section, and delete one sentence from the rooftop photovoltaic section. Hammond has no power to add such a requirement by ordinance: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state's own building rules. An insurance discount for impact-rated shingles is not a code requirement.

115 mph. Indiana replaces the model IRC Table R301.2(1) with its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, and the Lake County row - the row that governs Hammond - reads 115 mph design wind speed, Seismic Design Category A, 30 psf ground snow load, 36-inch frost depth and a 1 degree F winter design temperature. All 92 Indiana counties carry the same 115 mph figure, so wind speed is the one genuinely statewide number in the table. Wind exposure category is not set by the state or the city; it is determined site by site.

No Indiana or Hammond rule changes the model answer. Indiana's residential code is the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. Its 245 sections contain no amendment to the reroofing and roof-recover provisions of IRC Section R908 - that section is not referenced anywhere in the rule - and under IC 22-13-2-3 no Indiana city, town or county may impose a conflicting, more stringent or more detailed requirement. So the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof applies in Hammond as published, and there is no separate Hammond layer cap to look up.

7% - the Indiana state rate, with no Lake County or City of Hammond add-on. Indiana levies a single statewide sales tax and authorises no local-option general sales tax; the taxes Indiana does levy at county level are a local income tax, an innkeeper's tax and a food-and-beverage tax, none of which reaches roofing materials. The Department of Revenue states it on the page that enumerates the county-level taxes: "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%." How the 7% falls depends on the shape of the contract rather than on the trade. Under a lump-sum contract the roofer pays the tax on the materials as the consumer and charges the homeowner no sales tax; under a time-and-material contract - one stating the cost of materials and the cost of labor separately - the roofer buys the materials exempt for resale and collects the 7% from the homeowner on the material portion, with separately stated installation labor not included in the taxable amount. Roofing is named by the Department of Revenue as a contractor trade for these purposes.