The Roofing Book

Permitting Authorities / City of Jerome - Building Safety Department

City of Jerome - Building Safety Department

Adopted code

The building permitting authority for the City of Jerome, Idaho, seat of Jerome County in the Magic Valley. This is a separate body from the Jerome County Building Safety Department, which permits unincorporated county land outside city limits; the City's own Building Safety Department page states in its own words that it "provide[s] plan review, permit issuance, and inspections for residential, commercial, and industrial projects," so a roofer working inside the Jerome city limits deals with this office, not the County. The City adopts the residential code by a floating reference to whatever the State of Idaho and the Idaho Building Code Board currently have in force, rather than freezing a fixed edition in its own ordinance text. Its own codified chapter is almost entirely administrative -- adoption, permit fees, permit and application requirements, and a rule tying permit issuance to a presented contractor's registration number -- and touches no roofing-specific provision anywhere in it, so the roofing answers here rest on the base International Residential Code as the State of Idaho has amended it. The City also publishes its own climatic and geographic design criteria table directly, which is used here in place of inferring those figures from the base code.

Jurisdiction
City of Jerome, Idaho
Jurisdiction type
city
Address
152 East Avenue A, Jerome, ID 83338
Contact
  • url: https://www.ci.jerome.id.us/153/Building-Safety-Department
  • phone: 208-324-8189
Permit portal
Permit portal
Roofing permit required
Required
Contractor registration required
Required
Registration details
  • state_level: STATEWIDE, INDEPENDENT OF WHAT THE CITY REQUIRES AT ITS OWN PERMIT COUNTER. Idaho Code 54-5204(1), in the Idaho Contractor Registration Act (Title 54, Chapter 52): "On and after January 1, 2006, it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in the business of, or hold himself out as, a contractor within this state without being registered as required in this chapter." A roofer falls squarely inside the definitions rather than at their edge: Idaho Code 54-5203(2) defines "construction" to mean "the performance of building, altering, repairing, adding to, subtracting from, improving, reconstructing, moving, excavating, wrecking or demolishing any building ... or other structure, project, development or improvement to real property, or to do any part thereof," and 54-5203(3) defines "contractor" as anyone who undertakes, offers to undertake, or performs that construction. It is a REGISTRATION administered by the Idaho Contractors Board within the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, not a competency licence with an exam. Idaho Code 54-5205(2)(f) exempts work on "one (1) undertaking or project considered casual, minor, or inconsequential ... the aggregate contract price of which, for labor and materials and all other items, is less than two thousand dollars ($2,000)," so long as it is not part of a larger project and not done to evade the Act.
  • city_level: THE CITY ENFORCES THE STATE REGISTRATION AT ITS OWN PERMIT COUNTER, RATHER THAN LICENSING A ROOFER ITSELF. Jerome City Code 15.04.036, "Permit; contractor's registration number," reads in its entirety: "No building permit will be issued without the contractor's registration number being presented by the contractor, except when the permit applicant provides evidence to the satisfaction of the building official that the applicant is exempt from the registration requirements pursuant to title 54, chapter 52 of the Idaho Code." So the City does not add a separate local roofing licence; it makes presenting the State's own registration number a condition of getting a City building permit at all, and points to the same statutory exemptions read above rather than writing its own.
Adopted code
THE CITY'S OWN ORDINANCE ADOPTS A FLOATING REFERENCE TO WHATEVER THE STATE OF IDAHO CURRENTLY HAS IN FORCE. Jerome City Code 15.04.010(B), "Codes adopted," reads: "The approved editions of the following nationally recognized codes, as adopted by the state of Idaho, or the Idaho building code board, are adopted as the official building codes of the city of Jerome: 1. International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC) Parts I, II, III, IV and IX; International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), International Existing Building Code (IEBC), International Fire Code (IFC); 2. Idaho State Plumbing Code (ISPC); National Electrical Code (NEC), International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Mechanical Code (IMC)." (Ord. 1250 Section 1, passed 2-3-2026, is the most recent amendment in the section's own history note.) A footnote to that section adds: "Agricultural buildings are exempt from the building codes adopted herein but shall remain subject to placement requirements established by zoning regulations." The City's own Building Codes & Design Criteria webpage separately states the same adoption in its current form: "2018 International Residential Code (parts I, II, III and IX), with Idaho amendments collectively named the Idaho Residential Code (2020 Edition)." WHAT THE STATE CURRENTLY HAS IN FORCE, READ DIRECTLY. The Idaho Building Code Board's own rule, IDAPA 24.39.30, adopts the International Residential Code, 2018 Edition, "Parts I, II, III, and IX of the 2018 Edition for one (1)- and two (2)-family dwellings," effective July 1, 2024, together with a state amendment list. Idaho Code 39-4116(2) requires a local government that issues its own building permits to adopt that residential code by ordinance, and 39-4116(2) and 39-4116(4)(b) bar a local jurisdiction from being ahead of the Board's own adopted edition. Roofing sits inside Part III. A local jurisdiction may amend Part III outside Section R301 only on a recorded good-cause finding, by ordinance, after a public hearing noticed with at least 30 days' written notice to the local chapters of named industry bodies (Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(d)); no such ordinance appears anywhere in Jerome's own Chapter 15.04.
Drip edge
Required About drip edge
Ice & water shield
Not required About ice & water barrier
Impact-resistant roofing
Not required
Repair permit threshold
NO DOLLAR FIGURE OR SQUARE-FOOTAGE THRESHOLD IS PUBLISHED ANYWHERE IN THE CITY'S OWN ORDINANCE. Jerome City Code Chapter 15.04, "Building Codes," was read in full -- its complete section index runs 15.04.010 through 15.04.050 (eight sections) -- and no section anywhere in it is an exemption or minor-work threshold list; unlike some Idaho cities, Jerome's chapter never had and has not repealed a local permit-exemption section. Section 15.04.030(A) requires a permit for "any work in connection with the repair, alteration or improvement of a building" without stating any minimum value, square footage, or scope carve-out. This record does not supply a threshold the City has not published; confirm with the Building Safety Department (208-324-8189) before assuming any small repair needs no permit.
Wind design criteria
115 MPH (3-SECOND GUST), PUBLISHED DIRECTLY BY THE CITY. The City of Jerome's own "2018 Residential Design Criteria" table states, under Wind Design: Speed 115 MPH; Topographic Effects: No; Special Wind Region: No; Wind-Borne Debris Zone: No. The same table gives a ground snow load of 10 psf (at the 3,800-foot elevation the table is keyed to) and a Seismic Design Category of B. The City reads this table's figures directly at the point of permit application rather than leaving an applicant to derive them from the base code.
Roof layer limit / recover
NEITHER THE STATE OF IDAHO NOR THE CITY OF JEROME MODIFIES THE MODEL RULE ON RECOVERING A ROOF. IDAPA 24.39.30, the Idaho Building Code Board's own amendment list to the 2018 International Residential Code, contains no amendment to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies (measured: zero occurrences of a Chapter-9 section number, "Chapter 9," "ice," or "shingle" across the rule's text). Jerome City Code Chapter 15.04, read in full -- all eight of its sections -- adds no amendment of its own and touches no roof-covering technical provision anywhere; it is purely administrative. The base 2018 International Residential Code rule on roof recover versus replacement therefore applies unmodified. Base-code rule, Section R908.3.1.1, Roof recover not allowed: "A roof recover shall not be permitted where any of the following conditions occur: 1. Where the existing roof or roof covering is water soaked or has deteriorated to the point that the existing roof or roof covering is not adequate as a base for additional roofing. 2. Where the existing roof covering is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile. 3. 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 forces a full tear-off. A local Idaho amendment to this rule would be unusually visible: Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(d) allows a city to amend this part of the residential code only by ordinance, on a recorded finding of good cause for building or life safety, after a public hearing noticed with at least thirty days' written notice to the local chapters of the industry bodies named in Idaho Code 39-4109(5). Jerome has taken no such step.
Deck & sheathing requirements
IDAPA 24.39.30, the State of Idaho's complete amendment list to the 2018 International Residential Code, contains no amendment to Chapter 8, Roof-Ceiling Construction, which carries the code's roof sheathing provisions, nor to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. Jerome City Code Chapter 15.04, read in full, adds no amendment of its own and touches no roofing or roof-covering technical requirement anywhere in it. The base 2018 IRC roof sheathing and decking requirements therefore apply unmodified in Jerome, along with the shingle manufacturer's printed installation instructions, which the code makes binding. Neither the State nor the City has published its own sheathing-thickness or fastening table for Jerome.
Sales & use tax
6.0% -- THE IDAHO STATE RATE, WITH NO LOCAL ADD-ON IN JEROME. Idaho Code 63-3619 imposes the state sales tax "at the rate of six percent (6%)." Idaho has two kinds of local sales tax and neither reaches Jerome. The first is the resort-city local-option tax: the Idaho State Tax Commission's own current "City Sales Taxes" page names every city that levies one -- Bellevue, Bonners Ferry, Cascade, Crouch, Donnelly, Driggs, Hailey, Harrison, Irwin, Kellogg, Ketchum, Lava Hot Springs, Mackay, McCall, Ponderay, Riggins, Salmon, Sandpoint, Stanley, Sun Valley, Swan Valley, Tetonia and Victor -- and Jerome is not among them. The second is an auditorium-district tax; the Tax Commission's own Auditorium District Taxes page states such a district "can charge a local sales tax only for short-term lodging (30 days or less)," which never reaches a roofing job in any event, and Jerome does not appear on that page either. Idaho counties levy no general sales tax of their own, so being the seat of Jerome County adds nothing further.

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