Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Michigan City, IN?

Roofing questions: Michigan City, IN

Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Michigan City, IN?

Yes, a permit is required to replace a roof in Michigan City, IN. NO THRESHOLD, AND MICHIGAN CITY SAYS SO TWICE. Most Indiana cities leave a roofer to work out whether a re-roof counts as a remodel. Michigan City does not. Code of Ordinances section 22-72(a), headed "Roofing, siding, windows", states: "No person shall re-roof, re-side, or install or replace any window or door for a Class 1 Structure or Class 2 Structure without first obtaining a building permit from the planning department. Replacement of broken glass for a window or door shall be an exception to this requirement." That is the only exception in the subsection, and it is a glazing exception, not a roofing one. Section 22-75, headed "Reroofing, re-siding or replacement window permit", says it again from the other direction: "No person, by himself or his servant, or as a servant or agent of another, shall reroof, re-side or replace a window to any building in the city without having made application to the planning director for a permit therefor and payment of the applicable fee set forth in section 50-132." Note the words "to any building" - section 22-75 is not limited to the Class 1 and Class 2 structures section 22-72 names. So there is no square-footage, dollar-value, layer-count or repair-versus-replacement threshold to measure a job against in Michigan City: if the work is a re-roof, it needs a permit before it starts. WHAT THE APPLICATION MUST SAY. Section 22-75(a) requires the application to state "the class of material offered for sale or class of material to be used in reroofing", the name of the owner, the location of the building, and the name and address of the person proposing to do the work; section 22-75(b) adds that "The estimated cost of reroofing, re-siding and replacing the window shall be stated in each application for a permit." TIMING IS PART OF THE RULE: "The application for a permit shall be filed and the permit granted before any work is started". STARTING EARLY COSTS DOUBLE - section 22-75(e) provides that if work is initiated before the permit issues, "except in cases of emergency (such as fire, storm damage and the like)", the applicant pays twice the regular permit fee. THE FEE is set by section 50-132(a), which covers both the general building permit and the reroofing permit: "General construction, $100.00 to $1,000.00, $40.00 minimum, plus $10.00 for each additional $1,000.00", with a further "Fee per inspection: $45.00". That fee schedule was enacted by Ordinance No. 4749, adopted November 6, 2024. A TARP IS NOT AN ANSWER TO A DELAY: the City has written its own section into the property maintenance code, section 304.7.1 "Temporary Roof Cover", providing that "Excluding emergency repairs, the use of tarps for roof and building repairs is prohibited. Temporary tarps placed upon a roof for emergency repairs shall be limited to ninety (90) days."

Is ice & water shield required in Michigan City, IN?

Yes. REQUIRED IN LaPORTE COUNTY. This is a county-by-county answer in Indiana and it is the field most often got wrong here by carrying an answer up from a job further south. The state 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 46 is LaPorte, 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 LaPorte 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 F, weathering Severe. The whole Lake Michigan shore reads the same way - Lake and Porter Counties to the west and St. Joseph County to the east are all "Yes" - so a crew working the northern corridor is on the same answer throughout. Michigan City has no power to change it: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from an ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules. WHAT THE BARRIER HAS TO BE. 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 same section carries one exception: "Detached accessory structures not containing conditioned floor area." Note that 24 inches inside the exterior wall line is measured from the wall, not from the eave, so on a house with a deep overhang the barrier runs further up the slope than a 36 inch roll suggests.

Is drip edge required in Michigan City, IN?

Yes. STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and unconditional on a shingle roof. Michigan City cannot vary it: 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.

Can you roof over an existing roof in Michigan City, IN?

NO LOCAL LAYER RULE, AND NO INDIANA CITY MAY WRITE ONE. Michigan City's residential code is the state's: Code of Ordinances section 22-111 incorporates title 675 of the Indiana Administrative Code together with later amendments, and 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, incorporates the 2018 International Residential Code. That rule runs to 245 numbered sections and its only amendments touching the model roofing chapter are word and sentence deletions in the rooftop photovoltaic section and in the asphalt shingle attachment and flashing sections. It makes no amendment at all to the model code's reroofing and roof recover section, which does not appear anywhere in the Indiana rule. Chapter 22 of the Michigan City Code of Ordinances, Buildings and Building Regulations, was read in full - all fourteen articles - and it contains no roof-covering provision of any kind: its roofing references are the reroofing permit requirement itself, sidewalk shed construction, protection of adjoining roofs during construction, the weathertightness standard in the housing code, the roofing contractor registration, and the temporary tarp rule. So the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof applies here exactly as published, and neither the state nor the City has changed it. Base-code rule, read at 2018 International Residential Code Section R908.3.1.1, Roof recover not allowed, 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." One existing layer may be recovered; a second existing layer means a tear-off to the deck. Michigan City could not change it: 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. The number of layers a particular roof may carry therefore comes out of the adopted International Residential Code itself, and a roofer planning a recover rather than a tear-off should settle the existing layer count with the department against that code before quoting. Either way the job needs a Michigan City reroofing permit, and the permit application has to state the class of material going on.

Do roofing contractors need a license or registration in Michigan City, IN?

Yes. A CITY REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED, AND THE ORDINANCE NAMES ROOFING. Indiana issues no state roofing, general-contractor or home-improvement credential - the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency's published list of regulated professions includes plumbing but carries no general-contractor, roofing, building or home improvement credential - so in Indiana the question is always local, and in Michigan City the answer is yes. Code of Ordinances section 22-661 provides that "No general building contractor, building contractor, or building subcontractor shall engage in business within the city without registering in the office of the planning department, providing proof of insurance, and paying a registration fee in the amount established in section 50-138, payable to the city controller." The same section defines who that covers: any person who "for a fixed sum price, fee percentage, or any compensation, shall build, construct, alter, repair, add to or erect any building or structure within the city, or who shall undertake to perform any of such acts", and it states that "The term shall include all ancillary contractors, including, but not limited to: roofing, siding, masonry, plaster, drywall or cement finishing contractors, steel workers, glazers, sewage contractors, well installers, and elevator contractors". So a roofing contractor registers. THE TERMS. The fee, set by section 50-138 as enacted by Ordinance No. 4749 of November 6, 2024, is $150.00 for both registration and renewal. Registration runs to December 31 each year, and renewal "will be automatic from year to year by submitting proof of insurance and paying the renewal fee established in section 50-138 by February 1." A registration is not transferable to another name, business or firm. Registration does not replace the permit - the section states that "Nothing in this section relieves the general building contractor or building contractor from obtaining normal permits from the planning department" - though "Once registered, a building subcontractor may work under the permit of the general building contractor or building contractor." TWO EXCLUSIONS, both in section 22-661: "Any private person doing such work upon his own private home or property", and plumbing, electrical and mechanical contractors and other specialised trades, which are registered or licensed separately under the same chapter. A homeowner re-roofing their own house therefore does not register, but still needs the permit. IF THE JOB TOUCHES ANOTHER TRADE: electrical and mechanical contractors are licensed rather than merely registered, under Division 5 of the same article, which carries an examination requirement and its own insurance conditions; and plumbing contractors register under section 22-663. Those are separate credentials and a roofing registration does not cover them. THE CITY ALSO REGULATES VEHICLE SIGNAGE for contractors, in section 22-572, so check that requirement before sending a crew.

What building code does Michigan City, IN use?

STATE-SET, AND MICHIGAN CITY'S OWN ADOPTION FLOATS FORWARD WITH IT. The residential rule is the state's: 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 formally readopted November 18, 2025, and it is the newest rule in its article. Michigan City takes it up whole. Code of Ordinances section 22-111, headed "Adoption of title 675 (Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission) of the Indiana Administrative Code", provides that "The articles of the state fire prevention and building commission as set out in the articles of title 675 of the Indiana Administrative Code are hereby incorporated by reference and shall include later amendments to those articles as the amendments are published in the Indiana Register or the Indiana Administrative Code, with effective dates as affixed therein." That is a floating adoption, and Indiana law would make it one anyway: IC 22-13-2-3(b) provides that a local 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." So there is no stale local edition to worry about here, and no city in Indiana can be on a different residential 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 SEPARATE CODES, DO NOT CONFUSE THEM: alongside the state residential code the City has adopted the 2012 International Property Maintenance Code as its property maintenance code, by section 22-800, with a long list of local amendments in section 22-801. That governs the condition of an existing building, not how a new roof is installed. One vocabulary warning: "Class 2 structure" in Michigan City's code, as in Indiana law generally, 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.