City of Lafayette Office of the City Engineer

City of Lafayette, Indiana

city

20 North 6th Street, Lafayette, IN 47901

Required

Required

Permits are issued by the Office of the City Engineer at 20 North 6th Street, Lafayette, on (765) 807-1050 or [email protected], and the office states plainly that it "issues all building permits for construction in the city limits of Lafayette". Check the boundary before applying: the city's own permitting pages warn that "we only issue permits for properties in city limits with few exceptions", and point applicants at its GIS and zoning maps to settle it. Applications are filed online through the city's Applications and Forms page, or as fillable PDFs emailed to [email protected]. A residential submittal needs the Residential Building Permit Application, a List of Contractors, Form 393, owner authorisation from the deeded owner, and a set of plans - which for a project with no new footprint may be a set that "Includes side view drawing (bottom of footer to top of roof) and/or a scope of work including materials list" rather than engineered drawings; a site plan is required only for new structures and additions. The city runs a published clock. An applicant is told within three business days whether the submittal is complete, must acknowledge that notice electronically within three business days, and once the application is complete the city has seven business days to finish residential reviews and ten for commercial. Land use comes first: the residential checklist states that all properties must have variance, rezoning or other land use approval before any permits are issued, and the city's own building ordinance sends change-of-use applicants to "Unified Zoning Ordinance Section 6-2-3(b)", the Tippecanoe County instrument, for their certificate of compliance. The permit card must be posted in a conspicuous place on the premises at all times during the work, under Municipal Code 13.01.060(J). The City Engineer may stop work in writing at any time under 13.01.100, and 13.01.120 requires that all work be "performed in a good and workmanlike manner according to accepted standards and practices in the trade". Appeals go first to the Board of Public Works and Safety and then to the state Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission.

The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates by reference "the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017" published by the International Code Council, "save and except those revisions made in this rule". It was filed November 26, 2019 and formally readopted November 18, 2025. Lafayette has its own adopting ordinance and it is written to float rather than freeze: Municipal Code 13.01.050(A) provides that 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 are incorporated by reference in this chapter and 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", and its list includes Article 14, the One and Two Family Dwelling Codes, which is where the residential code sits. Two points follow that a roofer should understand. First, the same result holds by statute even where a local ordinance is silent: IC 22-13-2-3(b) provides that a reference to the commission's rules by citation to the Indiana Administrative Code "shall be construed to include all amendments as of the date that the reference is written and any later amendments to that provision, unless accompanied by a reference to a specific edition or supplement to the Indiana Administrative Code". In Indiana a local code citation carries forward automatically, which is the opposite of the usual rule elsewhere. Second, the edition is not a local choice at all: IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives the state rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that "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." One caution about the city's own published lists. Its Regulations and Codes page correctly names the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, but the printable handout "Code Books Used by the City of Lafayette", linked from the Construction Guidelines and Standards page beside it, still lists the "2003 International Residential Code with 2005 Indiana Amendments", which is not the edition in force. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs. Separately, Lafayette adopts the International Property Maintenance Code of 2024 with modifications, at Municipal Code 13.03.010, and its Section 304.7 sets a standing duty on existing roofs: "The roof and flashing shall be sound, tight and not have defects that admit rain. Roof drainage shall be adequate to prevent dampness or deterioration in the walls or interior portion of the structure. Roof drains, gutters and downspouts shall be maintained in good repair and free from obstructions."

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

Not required — Not required by the climatic table in Tippecanoe County. Indiana replaces the model Table R301.2(1) with its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, and the Tippecanoe County row carries "No" in the column headed "Ice Shield Underlayment Required". Twenty-seven of Indiana's ninety-two counties carry "Yes" there, and they are the northern tier. Tippecanoe County sits right on that line, which is the thing to watch on a job just outside the city: of the seven counties bordering it, Benton to the northwest, White to the north and Carroll to the northeast are all "Yes", while Warren, Fountain, Montgomery and Clinton are "No" like Tippecanoe itself. A roofer crossing the county line north of Lafayette can be on a different answer for the same detail. This is a state answer that Lafayette has no power to change, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a local ordinance more stringent or more detailed than the state building rules. The table is not the only route to an ice barrier on a particular job, though: roof coverings must still go on to the manufacturer's instructions, and where those call for one on a given assembly, that governs the installation. About ice & water barrier

Not required — The City publishes its complete list of required inspections, and no roofing inspection of any kind appears on it. The stages it names are Footings, Electric Temporary Pole, Foundation Walls, Interior Plumbing, Floor Slab, Electrical Slab, Framing, Electrical Temporary Main, Electrical Rough-in, Fire Department Rough-in, Above Drop Ceiling, Sidewalk Curb and Drives, Building Final, Electrical Final and the fire and health department finals, with extra items for commercial buildings. There is no in-progress deck, underlayment, flashing or nail-pattern stage, so on an ordinary reroof nothing has to be left open for an inspector part-way through the job. The only stage that touches a roof is the Framing inspection, and it comes after the roof is on rather than during the covering: "When completely framed, permanent roof is on, wiring, plumbing and HVAC is roughed in and nail plates are in place. And before insulation and drywall or wall covering is installed." That matters where a tear-off turns into structural work. Inspections are booked on (765) 807-1050 with a minimum forty-eight hours' notice, and may be called in between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. The first inspection and the first re-inspection are free; a third trip after one failed inspection is $100.00, every subsequent inspection is $200.00, failing to call for a required inspection is $150.00, and cancelling a scheduled inspection with less than twenty-four hours' notice is $100.00. Under the city's residential checklist an applicant may also elect a private provider rather than city staff for plan review and inspections, on filing a certificate of insurance showing $1,000,000 per claim and $2,000,000 aggregate professional liability on a claims-made basis with prior acts coverage.

Not required — No impact-rated roof covering is required in Lafayette, and the city has no power to require one. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact-resistance requirement anywhere in its two hundred and forty-five sections, and the same is true across the whole of Article 14 of Title 675. The rule does amend the roof-assemblies chapter, but only by deleting words: it deletes the last sentence of the rooftop photovoltaic section, the word "approved" from the asphalt-shingle attachment and flashing sections, and the word "printed" from the other-flashing section. None of those touches impact rating. On the local side, Title 13 of the Lafayette Municipal Code - Buildings and Construction, all six chapters, read in full - contains no impact, hail or impact-rating provision at all. IC 22-13-2-3(c) independently bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance more stringent or more detailed than the state building rules, so a local impact mandate could not be enacted here in any event. An insurance discount for an impact-rated shingle is a matter between the homeowner and their carrier, and is not a code requirement.

There is no dollar figure and no square-footage floor. The City Engineer's Office states the rule in its own words on its Building Permits page: "A building permit is required for: (1) all new construction of primary and accessory buildings; and (2) any alterations, repairs, or changes to existing buildings." Nothing on that page exempts small work, and Chapter 13.01 of the Municipal Code, the Building Code chapter, contains no small-work, dollar-value or square-footage exemption anywhere in its nineteen sections. The ordinance behind the requirement is Municipal Code 13.01.060(A)(1), and it is worth reading in full because it points at state law rather than setting its own trigger: "It is unlawful for any person to erect, repair, change, alter or remove any building, billboard, sign or other structure within the city without first obtaining an improvement location permit if such improvement location permit is required under the building rules of the Indiana Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission." The scope section, 13.01.040, reaches "the construction, alteration, repair, use, occupancy and addition to all buildings and structures". What that costs is set by area rather than by trade, which surprises roofers used to a flat reroof fee. Under 13.01.060(F) and the published Permit Fee Schedule, a single-family or duplex residential permit, whether new or an improvement, is fifteen cents per square foot or a $200.00 minimum, whichever is greater; an accessory structure is $100.00 and a demolition $50.00 per structure. Multifamily, commercial and industrial work is twenty-five cents per square foot or a $250.00 minimum, capped at $10,000.00. Starting first is expensive. Under 13.01.140 a special investigation is made before a permit may be issued for work already commenced, and the investigation fee is charged whether or not a permit ever issues - equal to the permit fee for a first offence, and the permit fee plus $1,000.00 for a second or later offence within five years. A permit becomes void if the work is not started within one hundred twenty days or is abandoned for one hundred twenty days, and no permit may run more than twelve months in construction time without an extension from the City Engineer's Office.

115 mph. Indiana deletes the model International Residential Code Table R301.2(1) outright and substitutes its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, and the Tippecanoe County row reads: wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category A, ground snow load 20 psf, foundation depth 30 inches, winter design temperature 2 degrees F, decay slight to moderate, termite moderate to heavy, weathering severe, air freezing index 2000, mean annual temperature 50.9 degrees F. All ninety-two Indiana counties carry the same 115 mph figure, so this is the one genuinely statewide roofing number in Indiana. Lafayette cannot raise or lower it, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or is more stringent or more detailed than the state building rules.

No local layer cap, and Lafayette has no power to write one. The residential code in force is the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. That rule contains no amendment to the International Residential Code's reroofing and roof-recover section - the section is not referenced anywhere in Article 14 of Title 675 - so the base International Residential Code provisions on recovering an existing roof apply as published. The only amendments Indiana makes anywhere in the roof-assemblies chapter are word deletions in the rooftop photovoltaic, asphalt-shingle attachment and flashing sections, none of which is about layers or tear-off. On the local side, Title 13 of the Lafayette Municipal Code was read in full and contains no layer limit, no tear-off requirement and no overlay rule; and under IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) and (c) no Indiana city, town or county may adopt an ordinance covering the same subject matter as the state building rules or one more stringent or more detailed than they are. So the number of permitted layers on a Lafayette roof is whatever the base International Residential Code says it is, and it is the same in every Indiana jurisdiction.

7% statewide. Indiana levies a single state sales tax rate with no county or municipal add-on, so there is no Lafayette or Tippecanoe County component to add to a materials invoice. The Department of Revenue says so on the very page that exists to list Indiana's county-level taxes: "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%." The county taxes Indiana does levy are a local income tax, a county innkeeper's tax and a food-and-beverage tax, none of which reaches roofing materials, and a roofer who sees Indiana's county tax rate tables and adds a percentage to a quote has added a tax that does not exist. How the tax falls depends on the shape of the contract rather than on the trade, and the Department of Revenue names roofing directly among its examples of a contractor. Under a lump-sum contract the roofer is not a retail merchant: they pay the 7% on their materials as the consumer and charge the homeowner no sales tax at all. Under a time-and-material contract - which the Department defines as "a contract in which the cost of construction material and the cost of labor or other charges are stated separately" - the roofer is a retail merchant, buys the materials exempt under the sale-for-resale exemption, and collects the 7% from the homeowner on the material portion. Separately stated installation charges are not part of the taxable amount either way.