Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Littleton, CO?

City of Littleton, Colorado

city

Littleton, CO

Required

Required

Removal or replacement of one square (100 square feet) or less of roof covering within a year is treated as repair; more than one square within a year is treated as a roof replacement requiring a permit.

The City of Littleton has adopted the 2024 International Building Code with local amendments; verify the current adopted editions with the Building and Code Compliance Division.

Required About drip edge

Required — Ice and water barrier underlayment complying with ASTM D1970, extending a minimum of 2 feet inside the exterior wall line, is required at eaves of all conditioned structures. In valleys: closed valleys require ice and water barrier underlayment at least 36 inches wide; open valleys require one 24-inch-wide galvanized metal layer, or two layers of mineral-surfaced rolled roofing (18 in. and 36 in. wide). Double underlayment or ice and water barrier underlayment is also required where asphalt shingles are installed on a 2/12-4/12 pitch roof. About ice & water barrier

Required — Re-deck only: when roof sheathing is overlaid or replaced (spaced/board sheathing with gaps exceeding 1/2 inch), an inspection of the sheathing fastening by Building Division staff is required prior to installation of roof underlayment or coverings. No separate mid-roof inspection category is described for re-covers that do not involve deck work.

Not required — The City of Littleton's building-code adoption ordinance (Ordinance No. 11, Series 2025, effective July 15, 2025, repealing and reenacting Title 4, Chapter 1 of the City Code and adopting the 2024 IRC) was reviewed in full, including its complete IRC roofing amendment list (ice-barrier and roof-recover provisions); it contains no impact-resistance or UL 2218 requirement.

Roof repair (residential or commercial) is defined as removal and/or replacement of one square (100 square feet) or less, aggregate, of existing roof covering; removal/replacement greater than one square (100 sq ft) is deemed a roof replacement for permit purposes.

TABLE R301.2 Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria, as amended (Littleton City Code Title 4, Chapter 1, Sec. 4-1-5, Amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code): "Pg(asd) = 40 psf non-reducible" ground snow load; "Vult = 136 mph" wind design speed; Topographic effects "No"; Special wind region "Yes"; Wind-borne debris zone "No"; Seismic Design Category "B"; Ice Barrier Underlayment Required "Yes."

"R908.4 Roof recover not allowed... A roof recover shall not be permitted where any of the following conditions occur: a. 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. b. Where the existing roof covering is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile. c. Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering d. The roof has one or more existing layers of asphalt shingles." Section R908.4.1 (Roof recovering over wood shingles or shakes) is deleted in its entirety. (Sec. 4-1-5, Amendments to the 2024 IRC.)

Spaced or board sheathing with gaps exceeding 1/2 inch requires an inspection prior to installation of roof underlayment (City of Littleton Building Division Policy 24-001, as quoted on this record's mid-roof inspection field, verified 2026-07-18; the policy PDF itself is bot-blocked, so the quote is reused from the architect-verified capture rather than a fresh read).

Littleton straddles THREE counties and the City publishes the split itself, so there is no single Littleton rate. On its Business and Sales/Use Tax License page the City gives a combined sales/use tax table by county: in the Arapahoe County portion 8.00%, in the Jefferson County portion 8.68%, and in the Douglas County portion 8.75%. The components are identical except for the county line and one district line -- Colorado state 2.90%, RTD 1.00%, Scientific and Cultural Facilities District 0.10% and the City of Littleton 3.75% in all three -- with the county at 0.25% (Arapahoe), 0.50% (Jefferson) or 1.00% (Douglas), plus a 0.43% PIF/LID line in the Jefferson column. The City's own footnotes add three conditions a roofer bidding at the edges should check rather than assume: a small section of Arapahoe known as Littleton Village also carries a 0.75% PIF; the Jefferson 0.43% is the TrailMark Local Improvement District, and south Jefferson County has a 0.5% LID where the 0.43% does not apply; and a small section of the Douglas County portion is not within the RTD district, which would drop the 1.00% RTD line. Littleton is home rule and collects its own tax, so the 3.75% is remitted to the City while the state, RTD, CD and county components are state-collected; that city rate took effect 2022-01-01 after voters approved a 0.75% increase in November 2021. FOR A ROOFING JOB THE OPERATIVE TAX IS USUALLY THE USE TAX, NOT THE SALES TAX PAID AT THE REGISTER. The City's published permit fee schedule, approved by Council 2025-12-21 under Resolution 2025-105, charges on the building permit a USE TAX DEPOSIT of .01969 x total job valuation, which it states as (total job valuation x 52.5%) x 3.75%, plus an Arapahoe County Open Space Tax of .00125 x total valuation, stated as (total job valuation x 50%) x .25%. Note that the materials assumption differs between those two lines: Littleton assumes 52.5% of valuation is materials while the county line assumes 50%, which is an unusual figure worth carrying, since every other city in this corpus that publishes one uses 50%. Note also that the open space line as published is Arapahoe-specific, so a job in the Jefferson or Douglas portion needs its county component confirmed with the Building Permit Center at 303-795-3751.