Louisville Metro Office of Construction Review

Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, Kentucky

city

444 S. 5th St. Ste 100, Louisville, KY

Not required

Required

Some small home-rule cities inside Jefferson County retain limited permitting of their own: Louisville Metro's own building-permit page distinguishes cities "that do not have expanded jurisdiction for construction," which issue only sign permits locally with the Office of Construction Review coordinating reviews and no separate Metro approval required, from cities that, by implication, do hold broader jurisdiction. Which, if any, small Jefferson County cities hold that broader authority over roofing or building permits was not established this session; a contractor working in one of Jefferson County's smaller incorporated cities should confirm with that city before assuming Louisville Metro's Office of Construction Review is the permitting authority. Permits and licence applications are filed through Louisville Metro's own Accela-based Business Portal.

Louisville Metro Ordinance section 150.001 adopts the Kentucky Building Code and Kentucky Residential Code in full as the official construction and permitting standards for the Metro area, per the Metro Government's own Office of Construction Review, quoted: "Louisville Metro Ordinance section 150.001 adopts the Kentucky Building Code and Kentucky Residential Code in full, making them the official standards for all construction and permitting within the Metro area." Kentucky's own regulation, 815 KAR 7:125 section 2(1), names the base edition as the 2015 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, with the Kentucky amendments in the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition (August 2024), superseding any conflicting IRC provision; KRC R101.3 and R102.2 bar Louisville Metro, like every Kentucky local government, from adopting or enforcing any other residential building code for detached single-family dwellings, two-family dwellings and townhouses. KRS 198B.010(4) excludes a farm dwelling from the covered "building" definition where it sits outside a municipality's boundary and is not used for retail, ten-or-more-worker, or timber-storage purposes; this record does not independently confirm that carve-out against any unincorporated pocket of Jefferson County. Some small home-rule cities inside Louisville Metro retain limited permitting of their own: Louisville Metro's own building-permit page states that cities "that do not have expanded jurisdiction for construction" issue only sign permits locally, with the Office of Construction Review coordinating reviews and no separate Metro approval needed; which, if any, small Jefferson County cities hold broader "expanded jurisdiction" over building or roofing permits was not established this session.

Required — Kentucky's residential code amends IRC Chapter 9 in exactly one place, R905.2.8.5 Drip edge, requiring a drip edge at eaves and gables of shingle roofs, mechanically fastened at a maximum of 12 inches on center, with underlayment installed over the drip edge at eaves and under it at gables. The same statewide amendment adds an alternate-methods allowance, quoted: "Alternate methods to the standard metal drip edge may include site formed coil stock that creates a drip line as intended by the code. Wood, composite, and manufactured trim installed on the fascia shall create a drip line to prevent water from running back under the shingles, which will meet the requirements of the drip edge." This provision is statewide; Louisville Metro may not adopt a different one (KRC R102.2). About drip edge

Not required — Louisville Metro's own reroofing guidance states that ordinary reroofing "does not require a building permit, which means there are no inspections by the building department for these types of projects." Kentucky's own inspection rule, KRC R109, names no roof-covering inspection stage among its amended subsections. Whether the Office of Construction Review schedules a dedicated mid-roof (dry-in or nailing) inspection, separate from its general building inspections, for the structural roof work that does require a permit was not established this session.

Not required — Kentucky's residential and building codes contain no impact-resistance requirement: counted searches of the full 2018 Kentucky Residential Code (187,543 characters) and the 2018 Kentucky Building Code (478,874 characters) return zero occurrences of "UL 2218," "Class 4," "Class IV," "impact" or "hail." Because KRC R102.2 bars a Kentucky local government from adding any "additional or contradictory building construction standard" to the state's residential code, that negative reaches Louisville Metro directly rather than leaving a local question open.

Louisville Metro's own reroofing guidance states, quoted: "In general, reroofing does not require a building permit, which means there are no inspections by the building department for these types of projects. However, if any structural parts of the roof, like the roof deck or rafters, are being replaced, then a building permit is required." The same guidance adds that bringing an older roof up to current code standards does not itself trigger a permit: "You only need to replace materials if they're damaged, and in that case, a permit is required," and a permit is not required solely to correct roof slope or add emergency overflow drainage where the existing roof already performs adequately. The trigger in Louisville Metro is structural component replacement (deck or rafters), not a dollar value or a percentage of roof area.

Kentucky's residential code replaces the model climatic table with its own statewide table, Table R301.2(1), Design Snow, Climatic and Geometric Design Criteria for Kentucky Counties. Wind design, quoted: "Basic ultimate wind speed, V ult shall be 115 mph (51.4 m/s) for all Kentucky counties. Topographic effects shall be investigated," with a footnote directing conversion to nominal design wind speed, V asd, under Section 301.2.1.3 for methods that use a nominal rather than an ultimate figure. Ground snow load is the one county-specific column in the table: Jefferson County is not among the counties Kentucky lists at the higher 20 psf figure (Boone, Boyd, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Floyd, Gallatin, Grant, Greenup, Henry, Kenton, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Martin, Mason and Trimble Counties), so Jefferson County's ground snow load is the table's default 15 psf. Weathering is "SEVERE for all Kentucky counties" and termite protection is "MODERATE TO HEAVY for all Kentucky counties." This table is statewide; Louisville Metro may not substitute a different one (KRC R102.2).

Kentucky's residential code amends nothing in IRC Chapter 9's reroofing section: "R908" returns zero occurrences across the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code's 187,543 characters, and Chapter 9 of that amendment packet contains only one operative section, R905.2.8.5 Drip edge. The base 2015 International Residential Code's own reroofing section, R908.3.1.1, bars a new roof covering application "where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." Louisville Metro's own reroofing guidance corroborates the same two-layer practice in its own words: "If you're doing a full roof replacement, you must remove all the old roofing layers down to the roof deck," and a full tear-off is required if the roof already has two or more layers of roofing materials. No classification is set on this record; the project's judgment queue has not yet ruled on whether a statewide bar on local building codes satisfies the reading requirement classification otherwise presupposes.

Kentucky's residential code amendments touch nothing in IRC Chapter 8, Roof-Ceiling Construction: the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code's own table of contents runs Chapters 1 through 7, then jumps to Chapter 9, omitting Chapter 8 entirely, and "R802" and "R803" each return zero occurrences across its 187,543 characters. So the base International Residential Code's roof sheathing provisions apply in Kentucky unmodified; the one "Chapter 8" occurrence in the amendment packet is a cross-reference to "815 KAR Chapter 8" (HVAC contractor licensing), not IRC Chapter 8. No Louisville Metro-specific amendment to roof sheathing was found this session.

Kentucky imposes a single statewide sales and use tax of 6.00% (KRS 139.200(1)) with no local sales tax anywhere in the state; Kentucky's Department of Revenue states plainly, "There are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky." A roofing contractor is the consumer of the materials it buys, not a retailer of the finished job: 103 KAR 26:070 section 2(1) makes "all sales to contractors, subcontractors, builders, or owners of building materials, fixtures, and supplies which are to be incorporated or fabricated into any structure or improvement to real estate by the process of erecting, remodeling, replacing, or repairing the structure or improvement" taxable "at the time of sale to the contractor." Roofing is named twice in that regulation's own enumerations, as trade item 8 and material item (k). Repair and replacement are taxed identically; Kentucky has no capital-improvement distinction. Louisville Metro adds nothing to this rate.