Town of Merrillville, Indiana - Planning and Building Department

Town of Merrillville, Indiana

city

7820 Broadway, Merrillville, IN 46410

Required

Required

WHERE AND HOW. The Merrillville Planning and Building Department is at Town Hall, 7820 Broadway, Merrillville, on (219) 769-3631. The Town describes it as "responsible for the enforcement of the Town's building codes and zoning ordinances", and the Town Code puts the permit power in the same place: Sec. 6-21(a) requires the permit "using forms furnished by the planning and building director", Sec. 6-18 makes the building director the officer who administers and enforces the building article, and Sec. 6-22 gives the building director the power to make or cause the inspections. WHAT THE APPLICATION ASKS FOR. Sec. 6-21(b) provides that no building permit issues "unless the application for permit is accompanied by a plat or sketch of the proposed location showing lot boundaries, and by plans and specifications showing the work to be done", and the Town's Building Permits page adds that construction drawings must show "footing and foundation plans, dimensions of all floors, cross sections with details of footings, walls, floors and roof". A like-for-like re-roof carries no new footprint, so ask the department what it wants to see for a replacement roof before assembling a full plan set. A STATE DESIGN RELEASE IS A SEPARATE DOCUMENT AND ONLY SOME JOBS NEED IT: Sec. 6-21(b) also requires "a copy of a design release, issued by the state, building commissioner or the proper officer with plan review authority, the state fire marshal, pursuant to IC 22-15-3-1 ... before issuance of a permit for construction covered by such design release." The Indiana design-release scheme is for Class 1 structures, so an ordinary one or two family dwelling re-roof is not in it - but a roof on an apartment building, a church or a commercial property may be. FEES. The residential bracket for a re-roof is the row reading "Additions, Remodeling & repairs over $500", which prices a $45.00 plan review with application fee, a $25.00 building fee per each 100 square feet, a $110.00 minimum building fee and a $45.00 zoning fee. Commercial repairs over $500 are priced separately at a $110.00 plan review with application fee and $11.00 per each $1,000 of cost with a $150.00 minimum, and the Town requires a detailed cost breakdown and approval of the final contract amount for that bracket. Permits are time-limited: the fee schedule is headed "Start permit within six (6) months/complete within two (2) years." RE-INSPECTIONS ARE PRICED TWICE IN THE SAME CODE AND THE TWO FIGURES DISAGREE. Sec. 6-22(b) provides that where a re-inspection is required "a re-inspection fee of one hundred twenty-five dollars ($125.00) will be assessed", while the FINES / PENALTIES block inside the Sec. 6-21(d) fee schedule prices "Re-inspections" at $75.00. Both provisions were amended by the same instrument, Ordinance No. 25-06 of April 8, 2025. Ask the department which figure it charges rather than budgeting the lower one. DEMOLITION AND WASTE. Sec. 6-21(a)(1) requires a solid waste management plan with any business, industrial, demolition or multiple family dwelling permit application, "including reduction, reuse and recycling steps taken to reduce their waste stream", and the Town publishes a Contractors Recycling Plan form for it. A single-family tear-off is not in that list, but the tear-off waste still has to go somewhere - settle the disposal route before the dumpster arrives. A CONDITION THAT BITES ON LARGER JOBS. Sec. 6-21(e) attaches a set of minimum mandatory conditions to any permit for a commercial building estimated to cost not less than $250,000 or a residential building of five or more units. They bind every contractor and subcontractor of any tier, and they include not having been barred or suspended from construction work by any government agency in the past three years, not having been found in violation of worker's compensation, employee-misclassification, payroll-tax, wage-and-hour, prompt-payment or prevailing-wage law in the past three years, maintaining worker's compensation insurance under IC 22-3-5 and filing proof of it with the building director, classifying workers as employees rather than independent contractors, and producing detailed payroll records to the building director within five days of a request. Non-compliance suspends the permit and stops work on the whole project. A roofing subcontractor on a five-unit or larger residential job is inside that regime. OCCUPANCY. Sec. 6-25 provides that no final certificate of occupancy issues without proof of payment of all applicable fire inspection fees, re-inspection fees and registration fees. APPEALS run first through the Town and then to the Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission of Indiana under IC 22-13-2-7 and IC 4-21.5-3-7, per Sec. 6-26.

STATE-SET, AND MERRILLVILLE'S OWN ORDINANCE FLOATS FORWARD WITH IT. The residential rule is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, whose opening section provides that "That certain document being titled the 2018 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, first printing August 2017, published by the International Code Council ... is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set out in this rule save and except those revisions made in this rule", and that "This rule shall be known as the 2020 Indiana Residential Code." It was filed November 26, 2019 and readopted on November 18, 2025 by the Readopted Final Rule at Indiana Register 20251210-IR-675240566RFA, which readopts 675 IAC 14-4.4 effective January 1, 2026. Every one of the rule's 245 sections carries that readoption in its own history line. THE TOWN'S ADOPTION. Merrillville Municipal Code Sec. 6-20(a) provides that "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 hereby incorporated by reference in this Code 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 second item is "Article 14—One-and Two-Family Dwelling Codes". So the Town takes the whole of Article 14 and takes it as amended from time to time. Indiana law says the same thing independently: 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." Nor could the Town set a different code in any event: 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", and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. TWO PUBLISHED LISTS IN MERRILLVILLE NAME OUT-OF-DATE CODES, AND NEITHER CHANGES THE ANSWER. (1) The Town's own Building Permits page publishes a list headed "State of Indiana Building Codes / As adopted by The Town of Merrillville / By Reference" whose residential entry reads "Residential Building Code: Indiana Residential Code 2005 Edition (International Residential Code 2003 Edition) With currents Indiana Amendments". The 2005 Indiana Residential Code is 675 IAC 14-4.3, which has been repealed; the rule in force is 675 IAC 14-4.4. (2) The sub-labels under Sec. 6-20(a)(2) itself still read "Council of American Building Officials One-and Two-Family Dwelling Code", "CABO One-and Two-Family Dwelling Code Amendments" and "Standard for Permanent Installation of Manufactured Homes", which are the titles of 675 IAC 14-2.1, 14-2 and 14-3, two of them repealed - and that subsection was last touched by Ordinance No. 25-06 on April 8, 2025 without the labels being refreshed. Because the operative words adopt the ARTICLE and take later amendments, the current rule governs regardless. Build to the 2020 Indiana Residential Code and expect the counter to work from it: the Indiana State Building Commissioner has stated that "The 2020 Indiana Residential Code is in full force and effect statewide. Regardless of any established local enforcement policies or practices to the contrary, or whether a local building authority even exists in any particular jurisdiction or location in the state, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code governs all Class 2 residential construction, and its requirements, by law, must be followed." ONE VOCABULARY WARNING: "Class 2 structure" in Indiana means a one or two dwelling unit building. It is a STRUCTURE class and has nothing to do with a fire class or an impact class of roof covering. Merrillville's codification is current through Ordinance No. 25-41, December 23, 2025.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT TOWN-SET, and unconditional on a shingle roof. Merrillville cannot vary it: its own Sec. 6-20(a) adopts the state building rules by reference, 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." The operative text is published first-hand by the Indiana State Building Commissioner, on Indiana Department of Homeland Security letterhead, in the Ice/Water Shield and Metal Drip Edge guidance of February 25, 2020, which reproduces the adopted Section 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." The word "rood" in that passage is a typographical error in the published guidance, quoted here as printed; it plainly means the roof deck. The Indiana rule amends Section R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" and does not touch R905.2.8.5, so this text governs as published. About drip edge

Required — REQUIRED IN LAKE COUNTY - IT IS A COUNTY-BY-COUNTY ANSWER IN INDIANA, NOT A STATE ONE. Indiana deletes the model climatic table and substitutes its own: 675 IAC 14-4.4-5 directs "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows", and the substituted table runs one row per county. Row 45 is Lake, and it carries "Yes" 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; the other sixty-five carry "No". The rest of the Lake County row is the northern Indiana set: wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category A, ground snow 30 psf, foundation depth 36 inches, winter design temperature 1 degree, decay Slight to Moderate, termite Moderate to Heavy, weathering Severe, air freezing index 2000 and mean annual temperature 49.0 degrees. Neighbouring Porter and LaPorte Counties read "Yes" as well, so the whole lakeshore corridor is consistent on this point. WHAT THE BARRIER HAS TO BE, from the version of the section actually in force. The Indiana State Building Commissioner publishes the adopted Section R905.1.2 first-hand, on Indiana Department of Homeland Security letterhead, in the Ice/Water Shield and Metal Drip Edge guidance of February 25, 2020: "In areas where there has been a history of ice forming along the eaves causing a backup of water as designated in Table R301.2(1), an ice barrier shall be installed for asphalt shingles, metal roof shingles, mineral-surfaced roll roofing, slate and slate-type shingles, wood shingles and wood shakes. The ice barrier shall consist of not fewer than two layers of underlayment cemented together, or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet shall be used in place of normal underlayment and extend from the lowest edges of all roof surfaces to a point not less than 24 inches (610 mm) inside the exterior wall line of the building. On roofs with slope equal to or greater than eight units vertical in 12 units horizontal ( 67-percent slope), the ice barrier shall also be applied not less than 36 inches (914 mm) measured along the roof slope from the eave edge of the building." The section carries one exception: "Detached accessory structures not containing conditioned floor area." AND THE SAME GUIDANCE MAKES A POINT WORTH CARRYING ACROSS THE COUNTY LINE: "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1)), and specific counties in which it is required only when the roofing manufacturer's written installation instructions require it". Lake County is in the first group, so in Merrillville the barrier is required by the table itself and does not depend on what the shingle manufacturer says - but a crew working a job an hour south is in the second group and has to read the wrapper. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No impact-resistance requirement applies in Merrillville. The 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, makes four amendments touching the model code's roofing chapter and not one of them concerns impact: 675 IAC 14-4.4-84 directs "Delete the text of the last sentence of SECTION R902.4 without substitution", the rooftop-mounted photovoltaic panel section; 675 IAC 14-4.4-85 directs "Delete the words 'approved' from the text of SECTION R905.2.6 without substitution", on asphalt shingle attachment; 675 IAC 14-4.4-86 directs "Delete the word 'approved' from the text of SECTION R905.2.8 without substitution", on flashing; and 675 IAC 14-4.4-87 directs "Delete the word 'printed' from the text of SECTION R905.2.8.4 without substitution", on other flashing. Nothing in the rule imposes a UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact rating. Nor could Merrillville impose one by ordinance: its Sec. 6-20(a) adopts the state building rules by reference rather than writing its own, 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", and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. An impact rating on a roof covering is the same subject matter as the state roofing chapter and would be a more stringent requirement, so a local mandate could not stand. Merrillville's Chapter 6 was read in full - the general provisions article, the building codes article and the contractors article - and it imposes no roof-covering performance requirement of any kind. TWO THINGS THAT GET MISTAKEN FOR AN IMPACT MANDATE IN INDIANA: the phrase "Class 2 structure", which is Indiana's STRUCTURE class for one and two family dwellings rather than any rating of the roof covering; and an insurer's premium discount for an impact-rated shingle, which is a private contract term and not a code requirement.

FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS, AND IT COMES OUT OF THE FEE TABLE BECAUSE THE PERMIT SECTION SENDS YOU THERE. Merrillville Municipal Code Sec. 6-21(a) provides that "A permit shall be obtained before beginning construction, alteration or repair of any building or structure, the cost of which is provided for in subsection (d) of this section, using forms furnished by the planning and building director." Subsection (d) is the fee schedule, so the brackets in that table are what fix the scope of the permit requirement rather than merely pricing it. The residential bracket a re-roof falls into is the row reading "Additions, Remodeling & repairs over $500", which prices a $45.00 plan review with application fee, a $25.00 building fee per each 100 square feet, a $110.00 minimum building fee and a $45.00 zoning fee. A tear-off and replacement on any ordinary house is a repair costing well over five hundred dollars, so it needs a Town permit. THE TOWN'S WEBSITE DOES NOT NAME ROOFING AND THAT IS NOT AN EXEMPTION. The Planning and Building Department's Building Permits page says "Permits must be applied for all new construction and for additions to existing structures. Other projects that require building permits are in-ground and above-ground pools, sheds, fences, detached garages, decks, signs, excavation and fill of land." Re-roofing appears nowhere on that list, and neither does siding, window replacement or any other repair - the list is an illustration of accessory projects, not a statement of the limits of Sec. 6-21. Do not read the omission as permission. Merrillville's published FAQ page is the same shape: it answers questions about sheds, fences, driveways and home occupations and says nothing about roofs. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU SKIP IT. The fee schedule's own FINES / PENALTIES block prices "Non-permitted work" at "3 x Required fees" and a "Stop work orders" at $365.00, and Sec. 6-28 sets the ordinance penalty at not less than $365.00 for a first violation, not less than $730.00 for a second and not less than $1,460.00 for subsequent violations. Sec. 6-24 lets the community development director order work stopped by written notice served on anyone doing it. A SEPARATE FIVE-HUNDRED-DOLLAR FIGURE EXISTS AND IT IS NOT THE SAME ONE. Sec. 6-101, the contractor-licensing definitions section, carves out of that article "Persons performing any of the work described in the above definitions when the total value of labor and material utilized for such work does not exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00)." That is an exemption from the Town CONTRACTOR LICENCE in Article III, not from the building permit in Article II, and the two thresholds happen to sit at the same number. A sub-$500 job is outside both; a $900 repair is inside both.

115 mph. Indiana replaces the model IRC Table R301.2(1) with its own county-by-county table at 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, which opens "Delete TABLE R301.2(1) and the corresponding footnotes and substitute to read as follows". The Lake County row gives 115 in the column headed "Wind Speed" in miles per hour, and every one of the ninety-two county rows carries the same figure, so 115 mph is the one genuinely statewide Indiana roofing number. The same row gives seismic design category A, ground snow 30 psf, a 36 inch foundation depth, a winter design temperature of 1 degree and Severe weathering, with an air freezing index of 2000 and a mean annual temperature of 49.0 degrees. Merrillville cannot raise or lower any of it by ordinance, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules, and the Town's Sec. 6-20(a) adopts the state rules by reference rather than writing its own. EXPOSURE IS NOT SET BY THE TABLE AND MUST BE DETERMINED ON THE JOB: the table's own footnote to the wind column reads "Wind exposure shall be determined on a site-specific basis in accordance with SECTION R301.2.1.4." Indiana has also amended that section itself, at 675 IAC 14-4.4-4, to fix how exposure is judged on a site in a subdivision or master-planned community where neighbouring structures are not built yet. Settle the exposure category for the particular address rather than assuming one - it matters on the open ground and the large commercial frontages around the US 30 corridor.

NO LOCAL LAYER RULE IS POSSIBLE IN MERRILLVILLE. The residential code that applies here is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, which incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. That rule runs to 245 numbered sections and it makes no amendment at all to the model code's reroofing and roof recover section, which does not appear anywhere in it. Its only amendments touching the model roofing chapter are deletions: a sentence struck from the rooftop-mounted photovoltaic panel section, the word "approved" struck from the asphalt shingle attachment section, the word "approved" struck from the flashing section and the word "printed" struck from the other-flashing section. Nothing in the state rule addresses how many layers of covering a roof may carry, so the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof applies here as published. Merrillville could not change it: Merrillville Municipal Code Sec. 6-20(a) adopts the state building rules by reference rather than writing its own, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state rules, while IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives the state rules precedence over any local ordinance covering the same subject matter. The number of layers a particular roof may carry therefore comes out of the adopted International Residential Code itself. A roofer planning a recover rather than a tear-off should settle the existing layer count with the Planning and Building Department against that code before quoting - and either way the job needs a Merrillville permit, because a repair costing more than five hundred dollars is inside Sec. 6-21.

7.00% statewide, with no county or town add-on in Merrillville or Lake County. Indiana levies a single state sales tax rate. The Department of Revenue's own page listing what Indiana does tax at county level - County Innkeeper's Tax, Food and Beverage Tax and Local Income Tax - closes with the sentence "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%." The county-level taxes Lake County levies are of those kinds, not sales taxes, so there is no local percentage to add to a materials invoice. Merrillville does have its own food and beverage tax, which reaches restaurant meals and not building materials. ONE THING PECULIAR TO THIS CORNER OF THE STATE: Merrillville is a short drive from the Illinois line, and a crew buying materials in Illinois is buying under a different state's sales tax rules, with its own local add-ons, not Indiana's. Keep the two states' invoices apart. WHO PAYS THE INDIANA TAX DEPENDS ON THE SHAPE OF THE CONTRACT, NOT ON THE ROOF. Indiana Department of Revenue Sales Tax Information Bulletin #60 (March 2024) names roofing in its own definition of a contractor - "Examples of contractors include, but are not limited to, persons engaged in building, concrete work, carpentry, plumbing, heating and cooling, electrical work, roofing, plastering, tile work, road construction, landscaping, installing underground sprinkler or drainage systems, and making other improvements or repairs to real property" - and then splits on contract form. A "Time and Material Contract" is one "in which the cost of construction material and the cost of labor or other charges are stated separately"; a contractor working under one "is a retail merchant that is selling the construction material that it incorporates into real property, and must be registered with the department and collect sales tax on the material portion of their contracts", and may buy the material exempt for resale. A contractor working under any other form, such as a lump sum, is not a retail merchant: they "must pay sales or use tax on their construction material" and "do not collect sales tax from their customers". On labour the bulletin adds that "Installation charges separately stated on an invoice are not included in gross retail income." The bulletin is Department guidance and says of itself that information bulletins are not binding on the department or the taxpayer, so a roofer should settle their own contract form with an accountant.