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Permitting Authorities / Linn County, Iowa - Building Permits & Inspections

Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Linn County, IA?

Adopted code

Linn County, Iowa - Building Permits & Inspections

Yes, a permit is required to replace a roof in Linn County, IA, issued by Linn County, Iowa - Building Permits & Inspections. Linn County's own amendment to IRC/IBC "Work Commencing Before Permit Issuance" (Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-17, item (9)) provides that whenever work requiring a permit has been commenced without first obtaining one, an investigation fee equal to the full permit fee for the entire project is collected in addition to the permit fee itself, whether or not a permit is then or later issued; paying the investigation fee does not exempt the person from complying with the rest of the code or from any other penalty.

Roof code checklist: Linn County, IA

ItemAnswerCode citeSourceVerified
Permit to replace a roofYesapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Repair permit thresholdPublishedR105.2api.municode.com2026-08-08
Layer limit / roof-overPublishedapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Deck & sheathingPublishedapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Drip edgeYesapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Ice & water shieldYesapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Mid-roof inspectionNolinncountyiowa.gov2026-09-01
Impact-resistant (Class 4) roofingNoapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Wind design criteriaPublishedapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Adopted codePublishedapi.municode.com2026-08-08
Contractor license / registrationYes91C.pdf2026-08-08
Sales & use taxPublishedSec. 423.2(6)revenue.iowa.gov2026-08-08

Each row comes from the sourced record on this page; full wording is in the table below. "Not published" means no official source for that item was found when the record was last verified.

Jurisdiction
Linn County, Iowa
Jurisdiction type
county
Address
935 2nd St SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
Contact
  • url: https://www.linncountyiowa.gov/1496/Building-Permits-Inspections
  • phone: 319-892-5130
Permit portal
Permit portal
Roofing permit required
Required
Contractor registration required
Required
Registration details
  • license: STATE LAYER: Iowa Code chapter 91C ("Construction Contractors"), read in full (Sec. 91C.1 through 91C.9), requires a "contractor" - a person who engages in the business of construction as defined for Iowa employment-security-law purposes, which includes roofing work - to register with the director of the Iowa department of inspections, appeals, and licensing before doing business in the state. A person who earns less than $2,000 annually from construction work, or who performs work only on the person's own property, is not a "contractor" under this chapter and is exempt. Registration requires proof of workers' compensation coverage (or an exemption/relief statement), an employer account number or special contractor number from Iowa Workforce Development, and, for out-of-state contractors, a $25,000 surety bond or a Department of Transportation prequalification statement. This is a contractor-specific registration, not a generic business-tax license. COUNTY LAYER: Linn County's own Code of Ordinances Chapter 105 licensing sections (Articles III, IV and V) cover only electrical, mechanical and plumbing trades specifically, each requiring the applicable state trade license; no Linn County-specific roofing or general-building-contractor license (distinct from the statewide Chapter 91C registration) was found in the county's own Chapter 105 or its Contractor Permit Application Instructions.
Permit process note
Linn County's own amendment to IRC/IBC "Work Commencing Before Permit Issuance" (Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-17, item (9)) provides that whenever work requiring a permit has been commenced without first obtaining one, an investigation fee equal to the full permit fee for the entire project is collected in addition to the permit fee itself, whether or not a permit is then or later issued; paying the investigation fee does not exempt the person from complying with the rest of the code or from any other penalty.
Adopted code
Linn County has adopted the 2024 International Building Code (including Appendix C, Group U Agricultural Buildings) and the 2024 International Residential Code (including Appendixes BB Tiny Houses and BE Radon Control Methods) by reference at Linn County Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16, under Ordinance No. 14-12-2025, effective 12-17-2025. Sec. 105-17 lists 26 numbered amendment items to the 2024 IBC/IRC; read in full, none of the 26 items touches IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies).
Drip edge
Required — Linn County adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by reference at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16. Its full amendment section, Sec. 105-17 (26 numbered items, read in full), does not touch IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the base 2024 IRC drip-edge provision applies unmodified. About drip edge
Ice & water shield
Required — Linn County's own Table R301.2(1) insert at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-17, item (11) (applicable to the 2024 IRC as adopted at Sec. 105-16), lists "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required: YES" as a filled-in table cell for the jurisdiction. About ice & water barrier
Mid-roof inspection
Not required — No mid-roof, in-progress, dry-in or underlayment inspection is required for a reroof in unincorporated Linn County, and two County documents settle it, both read in full. (1) The Building Division publishes a dedicated two-page handout, "Asphalt Shingles" (Residential Guidelines, revised 7/17/20), which covers the work in detail -- the 2:12 slope floor and doubled underlayment from 2:12 to 4:12, underlayment standards, ice protection, fasteners, attachment, flashing, roof ventilation and the two-layer reroofing limit -- and it contains ZERO occurrences of the word "inspection" at any stage. A jurisdiction that wanted an inspection partway through a reroof would say so in that document. (2) The inspection schedule that governs a reroof is "Inspections Required -- Remodeling and Other Work" (revised 6/12/25), a reroof being remodeling rather than a new dwelling. It names its stages exhaustively: Electrical Service, Gas Piping Rough-In, Electrical/Mechanical and Plumbing Rough-In, Framing Rough-In, and Final Inspection, and it records that "Footings and Groundwork are typically not part of a remodeling project." Measured across the whole document: thirteen occurrences of "inspect" and ZERO of roof, shingle, sheathing, underlayment, dry-in or ice. There is no roofing stage. ONE QUALIFICATION worth planning around, because it is a real trigger rather than a hypothetical: the Framing Rough-In stage is defined as "All framing complete, after the above rough-ins have been approved, before insulation, gypsum board, or any covering has been installed," so a reroof that replaces roof framing or structural sheathing can pull that inspection in. That is a framing inspection triggered by structural work, not a mid-roof inspection of the roof covering, and an ordinary tear-off and recover does not reach it. The governing rule on the same page is that "Each phase of construction listed below shall comply with Linn County Codes and shall pass inspection before work proceeds," with at least twenty-four hours notice, and it is the permit holder who must call for inspections and provide access.
Impact-resistant roofing
Not required — Linn County adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by reference at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16. Its full amendment section, Sec. 105-17 (26 numbered items, read in full), does not touch IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies); no UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-resistance requirement appears anywhere in the county's adopted code amendments or in its own Table R301.2(1) insert (which fills in wind, snow, seismic and ice-barrier criteria but includes no windborne-debris impact-rating column beyond the standard wind provisions).
Repair permit threshold
Linn County's own amendment to IRC Section R105.2 (Work Exempt from Permit, Building), at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-17, item (3), read in full, replaces only the accessory-structure, retaining-wall and deck exemption items; it adds no dollar-value or square-footage threshold below which a roof repair or re-roof is exempt from a permit. The county's own Building Division Permit Fee Table (linked from its current Building Permits & Inspections page) is a valuation-based schedule with no exempt floor: its lowest valuation bracket is $1-$500, at a $25 fee.
Wind design criteria
Table R301.2(1) (Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria) as filled in by Linn County at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-17, item (11), applicable to the 2024 IRC: Ground snow load 36 psf; ultimate design wind speed 115 mph; topographic effects No; special wind region No; windborne debris zone No; seismic design category A; weathering (subject to damage from) Severe; frost line depth 42 inches; termite damage Moderate to Heavy; winter design temperature -5 F; ice barrier underlayment required Yes; flood hazard NFIP adoption 12/15/1982, FIRM maps 7/20/2021; air freezing index 1784; mean annual temperature 48.9 F. (Ground snow load is separately restated at item (12), which sets IBC 1608.2 ground snow load at 36 psf.)
Roof layer limit / recover
Linn County adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by reference at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16. Its full amendment section, Sec. 105-17 (26 numbered items, read in full), does not touch IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the base 2024 IRC provisions on roof recovering and layer limits apply unmodified. Base-code rule, read at 2024 IRC Section R908.4 (Roof recover), Exceptions and quoted here rather than left behind the ICC paywall: a roof recover "shall not be permitted" where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering" (nor where the existing covering is water soaked or deteriorated, or is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile). One existing layer may therefore be recovered; a second existing layer forces tear-off to the deck.
Deck & sheathing requirements
Linn County adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by reference at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16. Its full amendment section, Sec. 105-17 (26 numbered items, read in full), does not touch IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the base 2024 IRC provisions on roof deck sheathing apply unmodified.
Sales & use tax
The Iowa Department of Revenue's own published Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) workbook, "LOST by County" tab (effective 7/1/2026), lists unincorporated Linn County with Local Option Sales Tax = YES at a 1% jurisdiction rate, for a combined total rate of 7% (the state's 6% sales tax plus the 1% local option). Every incorporated city listed under Linn County in the same workbook (Alburnett, Bertram, Cedar Rapids, Center Point, Central City, Coggon, Ely, Fairfax, Hiawatha, Lisbon, Marion, Mount Vernon, Palo, Prairieburg, Robins, Springville, Walford and Walker) also carries the 1% local option for a combined 7% total, except Martelle, which has no local option tax and remains at a 6% total. (The same workbook separately lists a "Cedar Rapids" row under Johnson County with no local option tax and a 6% total rate; that row reflects a different county's tax jurisdiction sharing the city name and does not apply to Linn County's own Cedar Rapids county seat, listed separately under Linn County at 7%.) HOW IOWA TAXES A ROOF IS UNUSUAL, AND IT CUTS BOTH WAYS. Iowa Code section 423.2(6) makes a list of enumerated services taxable at the state rate, and paragraph (l) of that list reads, in its entirety, "Roof, shingle, and glass repair." Against that, section 423.3(37) exempts "the sales price of services on or connected with new construction, reconstruction, alteration, expansion, remodeling." The materials side flips with the labour side. Under section 423.2(1)(b)(1), materials sold to a contractor "for the erection of buildings and other structures or for the reconstruction, alteration, expansion, or remodeling of buildings and other structures are retail sales of tangible personal property," on which the contractor pays the tax as consumer, while materials sold "for use in repairs to or for installation in existing buildings and other structures are purchases for resale." So a job characterised as a repair carries taxable labour and resale-purchased materials, and a job characterised as reconstruction or remodeling carries exempt labour and taxed materials. Which branch a particular tear-off and replacement falls into is a fact-specific question the statute does not answer, and it changes who owes the tax rather than only how much, so settle it with an accountant rather than assume it.

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The permitting authority for Linn County, Iowa, seated at Cedar Rapids in east-central Iowa. Linn County's Building Permits & Inspections function issues residential Building, Electrical, Mechanical and Plumbing permits for unincorporated Linn County. Under Iowa Code, a county building code does not apply within the incorporated limits of a city except at that city's option, so Cedar Rapids, Marion and Linn County's other incorporated cities each operate their own separate building-permit function; a roofer should confirm which authority covers a given address before applying.

Hail reports near the center of Linn County, IA

Reports, last 24 months
14
Largest, last 24 months
1.75 in Apr 14, 2026
Most recent
Apr 17, 2026 1.00 in
Reports, last 5 years
47
5 most recent reports, last 5 years
DateHail sizeDistance
Apr 17, 20261.00 in6 mi S
Apr 17, 20261.00 in3 mi SW
Apr 17, 20261.00 in5 mi WSW
Apr 17, 20261.00 in4 mi W
Apr 17, 20261.00 in6 mi WNW

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database and daily storm reports (reports since the start of the current year are preliminary), within 10 miles of the center of Linn County, IA. Data through Sep 23, 2026. A report is an observation, not a damage record.

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Sources

Roofing questions: Linn County, IA

Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Linn County, IA?

Yes, a permit is required to replace a roof in Linn County, IA. Linn County's own amendment to IRC Section R105.2 (Work Exempt from Permit, Building), at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-17, item (3), read in full, replaces only the accessory-structure, retaining-wall and deck exemption items; it adds no dollar-value or square-footage threshold below which a roof repair or re-roof is exempt from a permit. The county's own Building Division Permit Fee Table (linked from its current Building Permits & Inspections page) is a valuation-based schedule with no exempt floor: its lowest valuation bracket is $1-$500, at a $25 fee.

Is ice & water shield required in Linn County, IA?

Yes. Linn County's own Table R301.2(1) insert at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-17, item (11) (applicable to the 2024 IRC as adopted at Sec. 105-16), lists "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required: YES" as a filled-in table cell for the jurisdiction.

Is drip edge required in Linn County, IA?

Yes. Linn County adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by reference at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16. Its full amendment section, Sec. 105-17 (26 numbered items, read in full), does not touch IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the base 2024 IRC drip-edge provision applies unmodified.

Can you roof over an existing roof in Linn County, IA?

Linn County adopts the 2024 International Residential Code by reference at Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16. Its full amendment section, Sec. 105-17 (26 numbered items, read in full), does not touch IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), so the base 2024 IRC provisions on roof recovering and layer limits apply unmodified. Base-code rule, read at 2024 IRC Section R908.4 (Roof recover), Exceptions and quoted here rather than left behind the ICC paywall: a roof recover "shall not be permitted" where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering" (nor where the existing covering is water soaked or deteriorated, or is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile). One existing layer may therefore be recovered; a second existing layer forces tear-off to the deck.

Do roofing contractors need a license or registration in Linn County, IA?

Yes. STATE LAYER: Iowa Code chapter 91C ("Construction Contractors"), read in full (Sec. 91C.1 through 91C.9), requires a "contractor" - a person who engages in the business of construction as defined for Iowa employment-security-law purposes, which includes roofing work - to register with the director of the Iowa department of inspections, appeals, and licensing before doing business in the state. A person who earns less than $2,000 annually from construction work, or who performs work only on the person's own property, is not a "contractor" under this chapter and is exempt. Registration requires proof of workers' compensation coverage (or an exemption/relief statement), an employer account number or special contractor number from Iowa Workforce Development, and, for out-of-state contractors, a $25,000 surety bond or a Department of Transportation prequalification statement. This is a contractor-specific registration, not a generic business-tax license. COUNTY LAYER: Linn County's own Code of Ordinances Chapter 105 licensing sections (Articles III, IV and V) cover only electrical, mechanical and plumbing trades specifically, each requiring the applicable state trade license; no Linn County-specific roofing or general-building-contractor license (distinct from the statewide Chapter 91C registration) was found in the county's own Chapter 105 or its Contractor Permit Application Instructions.

What building code does Linn County, IA use?

Linn County has adopted the 2024 International Building Code (including Appendix C, Group U Agricultural Buildings) and the 2024 International Residential Code (including Appendixes BB Tiny Houses and BE Radon Control Methods) by reference at Linn County Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-16, under Ordinance No. 14-12-2025, effective 12-17-2025. Sec. 105-17 lists 26 numbered amendment items to the 2024 IBC/IRC; read in full, none of the 26 items touches IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies).