The Roofing Book

Permitting Authorities / City of Knoxville Plans Review and Inspections

City of Knoxville Plans Review and Inspections

Adopted code

The permitting authority for the City of Knoxville, Tennessee (Knox County). Knoxville administers its own permitting and code enforcement, separate from Knox County Codes Administration & Enforcement, which covers unincorporated Knox County and maintains its own, separately adopted code amendments. Knoxville is a locally-enforcing jurisdiction under Tennessee's State Residential Building Code Enforcement Program: T.C.A. § 68-120-101 directs the State Fire Marshal's Office to promulgate statewide construction safety standards, but the SFMO program "applies to one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses in areas of the state that have not: 1) received an exemption from the State Fire Marshal's Office by having local building codes enforced by the local government, or 2) opted out of state residential building codes." Knoxville falls in category 1 -- it adopts and enforces its own building codes by city ordinance. Consequently Tennessee's statewide residential code edition (2018 IRC, Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. ch. 0780-02-23) does NOT govern construction inside the Knoxville city limits; the city's own adopted edition does. Contractor licensing, by contrast, IS statewide and does reach Knoxville -- see contractor_registration_required and registration_details.

Jurisdiction
City of Knoxville, Tennessee
Jurisdiction type
city
Address
Knoxville, TN
Contact
  • url: https://permits.knoxvilletn.gov/Plans-Review-Permits
Roofing permit required
Required
Contractor registration required
Required
Registration details
  • license: TWO STATE LICENCE TIERS PLUS A CITY PERMIT-PULLER REGISTRATION. Roofing in Knoxville is licensed by the State of Tennessee, not by the city, and Knox County is one of the nine counties where the second, lower state tier bites. (1) STATE, upper tier -- full Contractor's Licence from the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors (T.C.A. tit. 62, ch. 6) is required for any project whose total cost, materials and labour included, is $25,000 or more, anywhere in Tennessee. There is no freestanding statewide "roofing licence"; roofing at this tier is licensed as a specialty under the Building classification. (2) STATE, lower tier -- a separate Home Improvement Licence (T.C.A. § 62-6-501 et seq.) is required for residential work from $3,000 up to but not including $25,000 in nine named counties: "Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford, and Shelby." KNOX COUNTY, WHICH CONTAINS KNOXVILLE, IS ON THAT LIST, and the Board's own description of covered home-improvement work names roofing expressly, alongside "driveways, swimming pools, porches, garages, landscaping, fences, roofing, painting, and other improvements." So a Knoxville roofing job of $3,000 or more triggers a real, separate state licence even when it is far below the $25,000 general-contractor threshold. Below $3,000 neither state licence tier is triggered by the Board's regime. (3) CITY -- Knoxville does not issue its own roofing-contractor licence, but it does gate permit access: the city requires anyone applying for a permit to hold a city registration matched to their qualifications, and its Register To Pull A Permit guidance states that different types of work require particular registration types, in some cases in conjunction with a state licence. The city registration is an administrative permit-access credential layered on top of the state licence, not a substitute for it.
Permit process note
Knoxville building permits are administered through the One-Stop Permit Shop at the City-County Building and through the city's online permit portal at permits.knoxvilletn.gov. Permit applicants must first hold a City of Knoxville permit-puller registration appropriate to the type of work; see registration_details. Jurisdiction check before applying: work inside the Knoxville city limits is permitted by City of Knoxville Plans Review and Inspections under the city's 2024 I-Codes, while work in unincorporated Knox County is permitted by Knox County Codes Administration & Enforcement under the county's separately adopted amendments to the 2018 IRC. The two are different authorities applying different code editions.
Adopted code
CITY-SET, NOT STATE-GOVERNED. The City of Knoxville adopts its own construction codes by ordinance under its local-enforcement exemption from the state residential program. Knoxville's currently adopted residential code is the 2024 International Residential Code, adopted as part of the city's 2024 I-Code update package by Ordinance O-125-2024 (adopted 2024-10-29, effective 2025-01-01), which covers Knoxville Code of Ordinances ch. 6, art. II (Building Code), art. IIA (Residential Building Code) and art. IIC (Existing Building Code), together with the companion ordinances O-126-2024 (2023 National Electrical Code) and O-145-2024 (fire prevention codes), both also effective 2025-01-01. The prior adoption, which the Municode-hosted Code of Ordinances text still reflects, was the 2018 IRC with Appendices E, F, H, K, Q, R and S, adopted by Ordinance O-182-2018 effective 2018-11-20; Municode's codified text lags the 2024 ordinance. NOTE THE STATE/CITY DIVERGENCE: Tennessee's statewide residential standard is the 2018 IRC (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. ch. 0780-02-23), one full cycle behind Knoxville. Because Knoxville is locally exempt from the state program, the 2024 IRC -- not the state's 2018 IRC -- is the operative edition inside the city limits, and Knox County's separately adopted amendments to the 2018 IRC apply only outside them.
Ice & water shield
Not required — Table R301.2(1) of the City of Knoxville's Residential Building Code amendments (Code of Ordinances Sec. 6-42, current through Ordinance No. O-125-2024, the same ordinance that adopted the 2024 IRC) lists "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" as "No" for the city. No separate ice-barrier provision appears elsewhere in the city's local amendments. About ice & water barrier
Impact-resistant roofing
Not required — The City of Knoxville's codified local amendments to the 2024 IRC (Code of Ordinances Sec. 6-42, current through Ordinance No. O-125-2024) amend only Chapter 1 (Scope and Administration), Chapter 3 (Building Planning, including Table R301.2(1)), and the energy efficiency chapter; no provision in Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies, is touched. No UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-rating requirement appears among the city's local amendments.
Repair permit threshold
CITY-SPECIFIC. The City of Knoxville's "Building Permits -- What is a Building Permit?" fast-facts guide treats roofing as permit-exempt in one narrow case only: roofing where the first layer of shingles is kept intact and a second layer of shingles is added -- i.e. a single shingle-over installed on top of an intact existing first layer needs no permit. Any roofing work outside that single case, including a tear-off and replacement (the ordinary re-roof), requires a City of Knoxville building permit.
Wind design criteria
Per Table R301.2(1), Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria, as codified in the City of Knoxville Code of Ordinances Sec. 6-42 (Article IIA, Residential Building Code, Amendments), last amended by Ordinance No. O-125-2024 (the same ordinance that adopted the 2024 IRC): the wind design speed is 90 mph, with topographic effects, special wind region, and windborne debris zone all marked "No." The same table shows a 10 psf ground snow load, Seismic Design Category C, severe weathering, a 12-inch frost line depth, moderate-to-heavy termite risk, a 19 degrees F winter design temperature, and confirms no ice barrier underlayment is required (consistent with the ice-and-water-shield finding elsewhere in this record). The table does not assign a single jurisdiction-wide exposure category.
Sales & use tax
Knoxville's combined general sales and use tax rate is 9.25%: the Tennessee state rate of 7.00% plus the Knox County local option rate of 2.25%. The City of Knoxville levies no separate municipal sales tax and there is no special-district add-on, so the rate a roofing contractor pays on materials purchased in Knoxville is the same 9.25% that applies throughout Knox County. Knox County carries no local-option surcharge on top of its base 2.25% rate, unlike Davidson County (Nashville), which added a 0.5% transit-improvement surcharge in 2025. Tennessee's authoritative published source for the local component is the Department of Revenue's Local Sales Tax Rates Map, which gives each county's local rate with effective dates, FIPS and situs codes; the 2.25% Knox County figure and the 9.25% combined figure above are as reported for 2026.

Local roofing hub

Roofing in Knoxville, TennesseeCity hub

Related guides

Denver-Metro Roofing Permits Filing a Hail Insurance Claim Colorado Hail Season Prep Hiring a Contractor

Working an insurance claim in City of Knoxville Plans Review and Inspections? Everything on this page — drip edge, ice & water shield, inspections, Class 4 rules — formatted as a claim-ready evidence pack: verbatim ordinance quotes, code section cites, verification dates, and official source links, ready to attach to a supplement. See a real sample pack (PDF) — one page, free.

Buy this jurisdiction's pack — $12 Delivered by email within minutes.

Questions about the City of Knoxville Plans Review and Inspections pack?

Not ready to buy, or need a different jurisdiction? Tell us and we’ll reply directly.

By submitting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Sources