City of Lorain, Ohio - Building, Housing and Planning Department

City of Lorain, Ohio

city

200 West Erie Avenue, 5th Floor, Lorain, OH 44052

Required

Required

SET BY STATE RULE, with a Lorain-specific administrative layer confirmed and a Lorain-specific technical-code layer that could not be opened this session. Ohio regulates one-, two- and three-family dwelling construction statewide through the Residential Code of Ohio (RCO), adopted by the Ohio Board of Building Standards under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3781 and codified at Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 4101:8. The roof-assembly rule (OAC 4101:8-9-01) and the climatic/geographic design-criteria rule (OAC 4101:8-3-01) were both read in full this session from the state's own codes.ohio.gov copies; both carry an effective date of July 1, 2019. Ohio Rev. Code 3781.01(B), also read this session, lets a local governing authority adopt additional residential regulations that do not conflict with the state residential building code. Lorain administers its own residential permitting through its own Building, Housing and Planning Department (200 West Erie Avenue, 5th Floor) rather than through Lorain County, and its own Residential Building Plan Review and Permit Application and Permit Fee Schedule (Ordinance 169-20) were read directly this session (see roofing_permit_required, repair_permit_threshold, contractor_registration_required). Lorain's full codified ordinances are hosted at codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/lorain; that library returned a Cloudflare interstitial ("Just a moment...") to every method attempted this session (WebFetch and direct curl with a browser user agent), so whether Lorain's codified Building Code chapter adds roofing-specific technical provisions (e.g., drip edge, impact resistance) beyond what the city's own permit forms already establish has not been determined in this record. A Conway Greene-hosted copy of Lorain's ordinances, noted as an unconfirmed possibility in the Phase 0 screen, was checked this session and does not exist: conwaygreene.com/Lorain.htm redirects to the Conway Greene homepage rather than to any Lorain-specific content, so amlegal.com is confirmed as the current codification host.

Not required — SET BY STATE RULE, and a genuine deviation from most other IRC-based states -- confirmed this session from the state's own copy. The entire text of RCO Section 905.2.8.5 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019) is: "905.2.8.5 Drip edge. Refer to Sections 903.1 and 905.1." Section 903.1 (General) requires only that roof decks be covered with approved roof coverings secured in accordance with the chapter's provisions and the manufacturer's approved installation instructions, and Section 905.1 (Roof covering application) is a general wind-load-resistance provision -- neither imposes a numbered drip-edge mandate. Lorain's own permit application does not separately address drip edge, and Lorain's full codified ordinances -- which could add a local drip-edge requirement under ORC 3781.01(B) -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code), so this record states only the confirmed state floor, not necessarily the complete picture for Lorain. About drip edge

Required — SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.1.2 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, requires an ice barrier for asphalt shingles (among other roof coverings) "in areas where there has been a history of ice forming along the eaves causing a backup of water as designated in Table 301.2(1)," consisting of not fewer than two layers of cemented underlayment or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet, extending from the lowest roof edge to a point not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line (36 inches on slopes at or above 8:12). RCO Table 301.2(1) (OAC 4101:8-3-01, effective 7/1/2019), also read in full this session, pre-fills "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" as "Yes" statewide, with footnote (h) reciting that, per Sections 905.1.2, 905.4.3.1, 905.5.3.1, 905.6.3.1, 905.7.3.1 and 905.8.3.1, "all jurisdictions in Ohio have a history of local damage from the effects of ice damming." Lorain's own permit materials do not separately restate this requirement, but it applies to Lorain as the statewide floor. About ice & water barrier

Not required — Not established as a sourced affirmative. Lorain's own Residential Construction Submittal for Plan Review and Building Permit application (read in full) lists its complete inspection checklist: Footer (Post-Hole), Pre-pour - Wall, Foundation, Downspout - Drain tile, Underground Plumbing, Underground Electrical, Framing, HVAC - Rough, Plumbing - Rough, Electrical - Rough, Insulation, Drywall, HVAC/Electrical/Plumbing - Final, and Building - Final, plus a generic "other" special-inspection option. No roof-specific, dry-in, or mid-roof inspection stage is named on this list. Recorded as a sourced negative -- required: false -- rather than asserting an inspection stage not found in the document opened this session.

Not required — Sourced negative at the state level; local layer BLOCKED. RCO Chapter 9 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019, read in full this session -- 30 pages) contains no occurrence of "UL 2218" or "Class 4" anywhere in its text; the only shingle "classification" scheme it contains is Table 905.2.4.1, which classifies asphalt shingles under ASTM D7158 (classes D, G or H) or ASTM D3161 (classes A, D or F) for WIND resistance, not impact. Neither Lorain's own Residential Construction Submittal for Plan Review and Building Permit application nor its Permit Fee Schedule mentions impact resistance, UL 2218, or Class 4. Lorain's full codified ordinances -- which could add a local impact-resistance requirement under ORC 3781.01(B) -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code), so this record states only the confirmed state floor, not necessarily the complete picture for Lorain.

CITY-SPECIFIC: no minimum-valuation or minor-repair exemption was identified. Lorain's own Permit Fee Schedule (adopted by Ordinance 169-20, effective January 21, 2021, read in full -- 268 pages of valuation brackets), the instrument the city's own Permits page cites for building, electrical, HVAC and plumbing permit fees, prices every residential permit on a sliding valuation scale beginning at the very first bracket, $1 to $500 (a $29.00 permit fee, plus a 1% state fee, plus a $7.00 technology fee), with no carve-out anywhere in the schedule for minor repairs or for work below a minimum dollar threshold.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Table 301.2(1) ("Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria"), OAC 4101:8-3-01 effective 7/1/2019, read in full this session from the state's own copy, pre-fills a Wind Design Speed of 115 mph (ultimate design wind speed) for the entire state -- printed directly in the table rather than left blank for local fill-in -- along with Weathering "severe," Termite "Moderate to heavy," and Ice Barrier Underlayment Required "Yes." Wind exposure category is determined site-specifically per Section 301.2.1.4, not by state or city rule. Ground snow load is the one geographically-varying cell in the table and is NOT pre-filled statewide: footnote (o) directs, verbatim, "The jurisdiction shall fill in this section of the table using the Ground Snow Loads in Figure 301.2(6)." No Lorain- or Lorain-County-specific reading of that figure was obtained from a Lorain primary source this session, so no ground snow load figure is stated here.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 908.3.1.1 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session, lists conditions where "a roof recover shall not be permitted," including, verbatim: "Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." Read together with Section 908.3 ("Roof replacement shall include the removal of existing layers of roof coverings down to the roof deck"), the statewide effect is that a new roof covering may be installed over at most one existing layer (a "recover"); once two or more layers already exist, only a full tear-off replacement down to the deck is permitted -- an effective two-layer statewide ceiling. No Lorain-specific roof-layer provision was found: Lorain's own Residential Construction Submittal for Plan Review and Building Permit application does not ask about existing or resulting layer count, and Lorain's full codified ordinances -- which could add a local layer limit under ORC 3781.01(B) -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code).

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.2.1 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own PDF, states verbatim: "Asphalt shingles shall be fastened to solidly sheathed decks." No Lorain-specific deck-sheathing provision was found: Lorain's own Residential Building Plan Review and Permit Application and its Permit Fee Schedule do not address deck sheathing, and Lorain's full codified ordinances -- which could add a local sheathing requirement under ORC 3781.01(B) -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code).

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.2.5 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session, requires fasteners for asphalt shingles to be galvanized steel, stainless steel, aluminum, or copper roofing nails, minimum 12-gage shank with a minimum 3/8-inch-diameter head, complying with ASTM F1667, of a length to penetrate through the roofing material and not less than 3/4 inch into the roof sheathing (through the sheathing where it is thinner than 3/4 inch). Section 905.2.6 requires not less than four fasteners per strip shingle or two fasteners per individual shingle, per the manufacturer's approved installation instructions. Lorain's own permit materials do not separately restate a fastener specification. About roofing nails

Lorain County's combined state-and-local sales and use tax rate is 6.50%, per the Ohio Department of Taxation's Sales and Use Tax Rate Map (dated March 31, 2026, reflecting rates in effect as of October 2025): a 5.75% state rate (per the map's own note 3, "The current state rate is 5.75%") plus a 0.75% Lorain County permissive rate, printed in the map's own county table as "Lorain 0.75% N/A 6.50%." The map's narrative separately states, verbatim, "The lowest rate of 6.50 percent is found in Butler, Lorain, Stark, and Wayne Counties" -- tied for the lowest combined rate of any Ohio county.