City of Middleton, Wisconsin - Building Inspection

City of Middleton, Wisconsin

city

7426 Hubbard Avenue, Middleton, WI 53562

Required

Required

Permits are taken out through the City Building Inspection Department at 7426 Hubbard Avenue, open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on 608-821-8370 or at [email protected]. Under Municipal Code Section 11.04(1) the Building Inspector is appointed by the Common Council, and Section 11.04(2) bars that officer from being interested directly or indirectly in the construction of buildings, so do not expect a contractor recommendation. Applications, inspection requests and project status all run through the City online Permit and Inspection Portal, which the City hosts on iWorQ. THE PIECE OF MIDDLETON PROCEDURE MOST LIKELY TO CATCH AN OUT-OF-TOWN ROOFER IS THE AFFIDAVIT. The City has published a Residential Building Inspection Standard Operating Procedures document carrying an effective date of September 15, 2026, and its rule for reroofs reads: "Re-roofing, door, and window replacements carried out on a like-for-like basis will require the submission of a building code compliance and workmanship affidavit upon completion. The permit shall remain open until the notarized affidavit is provided. This document must be submitted to the building department no later than one week after the project's completion. Contractors with more than three overdue affidavits will be ineligible to apply for new permits." The form is the City own Affidavit of Workmanship and Code Compliance (Roofing), revised 08/11/26, and it must be sworn before a notary. It asks the contractor to write in the permit number, site address, contractor licence number, the nail schedule of purling and re-nailing of decking, the amount of framing or sheathing repair, the specifications and type of underlayment overlap and the roof pitch, the sealed edges, objects and valleys with the valley material type, the nail schedule for eave drip, metal and roof shingles, the roof vent types and quantities for gas, plumbing, dryer, range and bath, and whether attic ventilation is on ridge or off ridge - and to attest that "All work was performed in compliance with the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code (SPS Chapters 320-325)." Photograph and record those details on the roof; they are not reconstructable from the ground a week later. Note the City announcement page states the effective date of the policy and procedure change as September 14, 2026 while the procedures document itself states September 15, 2026; both are reported here and neither is chosen. On ordinary inspections, requests are made through the portal, by email or on 608-821-8370; a request placed by 2:00 p.m. is considered for next-day inspection; the City does not schedule specific time slots; and under Municipal Code Section 11.05 the Building Inspection Department makes the inspection within forty-eight hours of notification. Two further procedural facts worth pricing: a failed inspection or a reinspection requirement carries a $50 reinspection fee that must be paid before the reinspection is scheduled, and a second failed inspection on the same trade results in a stop-work order until a mitigation resolution is accepted by the inspector. For an occupied dwelling the contractor, the homeowner or an adult representing the owner must be present, or the inspector will not enter and the inspection fails.

STATE CODE, ADOPTED BY THE CITY WITH THE EXEMPTIONS CUT OUT. One- and two-family dwellings in Middleton are built to the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code, chs. SPS 320 to 325 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code. That is Wisconsin own text rather than an adoption of the International Residential Code, which is why its roofing rules read differently from the IRC and why no IRC edition year applies to a house here. The local instrument is Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code, the Building Code of the City of Middleton. Section 11.01(3) adopts by reference, "including all subsequent amendments and recodifications thereto", ch. SPS 305 on licences, certifications and registrations, ch. SPS 316 the electrical code, chs. SPS 320-25 the Uniform Dwelling Code "[excepting therefrom Chapters SPS 320.05 (1), (3) and (5)]", ch. SPS 327 for camping units, chs. SPS 360-366 for building and HVAC, and chs. SPS 381-387 the plumbing code. The adoption floats rather than freezing an edition. Penalties are the City own: the state provisions are adopted "exclusive of any penalties or enforcement and abatement procedures". Commercial work runs on the chs. SPS 360-366 track and is not the subject of the residential fields recorded here; the City Building Inspection Department has stated separately that it is delegated for building, HVAC, plumbing, fire alarm and fire suppression plan reviews on commercial projects. Chapter 11 was read in full - all sixteen sections from 11.01 to 11.22 - and beyond the roof-covering percentage rule in Section 11.01(4)(d) it adds no roof-assembly requirement of any kind. The codification carries the Code through Ordinance No. O1689, enacted June 16, 2026.

Not required — No drip edge is required by code on a Middleton roof, at either level of government. The statewide Wisconsin uniform dwelling code, unlike the International Residential Code, carries no drip edge requirement: SPS 321.28, "Weather protection for roofs," was read in full - general drainage and fasteners, underlayment for shingles, asphalt shingles, ice dam protection, other roof coverings, reroofing, and every flashing paragraph - and no provision requires a drip edge at an eave or a rake. The only drip edge language anywhere in the Wisconsin dwelling chapter is a masonry chimney cap rule, which is not a roof edge requirement. On the City side, Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code was read in full and the words drip edge do not appear in it, and neither does any other roof-edge or roof-flashing requirement. Two practical qualifications, though, and in Middleton they have teeth. Drip edge may still be required as a matter of the shingle manufacturer installation instructions, which SPS 321.28(3)(a) makes binding for asphalt shingles, so read the wrapper before leaving it off. And the City own roofing affidavit asks the contractor to state, under oath, the nail schedule for eave drip, metal and roof shingles - so whatever is done at the eave has to be written down and sworn to. About drip edge

Required — STATE-SET AND SLOPE-CONDITIONED - read the trigger carefully, because it is narrower than the International Residential Code rule used in most other states. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 321.28(4)(a) requires that "Shingled or shake roofs that extend over a heated area of a dwelling or attached garage and that have a slope of 4:12 or less shall be provided with ice dam protection in the form of sheet metal or a product labeled as meeting the requirements of ASTM D 1970." SPS 321.28(4)(b) sets the extent: the protection "shall extend at least 30 inches up the roof slope from the roof edge and at least 12 inches up the roof slope beyond the inner face of the exterior wall." The trigger is the roof slope, not the climate zone, so a steeper roof is not covered by the requirement at all - although the shingle manufacturer instructions may still call for it, and SPS 321.28(3)(a) makes those instructions binding for asphalt shingles. Middleton adds nothing to this: Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code was read in full and contains no ice barrier or ice dam provision. The Wisconsin uniform dwelling code sets these roofing rules statewide, but does not reach every house. It does not apply to a one- or two-family dwelling whose construction began before June 1, 1980, or to additions or alterations to one, unless the municipality has adopted chs. SPS 320 to 325 for that purpose - ask the building inspector before assuming it governs an older home. The code also states that it does not apply to repairs or maintenance, and it defines a repair to include replacing existing equipment with the equivalent, while a separate section regulates reroofing by name. Wisconsin has not resolved which of those two provisions governs a like-for-like tear-off, so confirm with the authority issuing the permit. MIDDLETON HAS ANSWERED THAT SCOPE QUESTION MORE DIRECTLY THAN ANY OTHER WISCONSIN MUNICIPALITY IN THIS DIRECTORY, AND A ROOFER SHOULD READ IT IN THE CITY OWN WORDS. Municipal Code Section 11.01(3) adopts a list of state administrative codes by reference and says of that list: "This Section shall apply to all additions and alterations to existing structures, except as noted below". Item (c) of the list is the dwelling code, and it is adopted in these terms: "Uniform Dwelling, Chapters SPS 320-25, Wisconsin Administrative Code [excepting therefrom Chapters SPS 320.05 (1), (3) and (5)]." Those are the exemption provisions themselves - (1) is the pre-June-1980 dwelling carve-out and (3) is the repairs and maintenance carve-out - so the City has adopted the dwelling standards while excepting the very subsections that would keep older houses and repair work outside them. As a matter of the Middleton code, then, neither the age of the house nor the characterisation of a reroof as a repair takes the job outside what the City enforces. This record reports what the City enacted and does not adjudicate how that interacts with the state statute; that is a question for the Building Inspection Department on 608-821-8370. Middleton also carries the roof-covering percentage rule that turns up across Wisconsin building chapters, at Section 11.01(4)(d): "Every alteration or repair to any structural part or portion of any existing building shall, when deemed necessary in the opinion of the Building Inspector, be made to conform to the requirements in this Code for new work, and not more than twenty-five (25) percent of any roof covering shall be replaced in any period of twelve (12) months unless the entire roof covering is made to conform with the requirements of this Code for new buildings." On a partial reroof that is the sentence to price against. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NO MID-ROOF OR ROOF-COVERING INSPECTION STAGE IS REQUIRED, AND ON A LIKE-FOR-LIKE REROOF MIDDLETON SUBSTITUTES A NOTARISED AFFIDAVIT FOR THE INSPECTION ALTOGETHER. Municipal Code Section 11.05 lists the inspections to be completed for all building projects whenever applicable, in full: footing, foundation, rough, insulation and energy, and final. The rough inspection is the one a reroof can run into - it covers all general construction and framing work and is "to be completed after all rough work is finished but before it is covered or concealed" - so replaced rafters or decking must be looked at before they are sheeted over. None of the five is a tear-off, underlayment or roof-covering stage. The City published Residential Building Inspection Standard Operating Procedures, carrying an effective date of September 15, 2026, then close the loop a different way for reroofs: "Re-roofing, door, and window replacements carried out on a like-for-like basis will require the submission of a building code compliance and workmanship affidavit upon completion. The permit shall remain open until the notarized affidavit is provided." The affidavit is the City own Affidavit of Workmanship and Code Compliance (Roofing), sworn before a notary, due no later than one week after completion, and a contractor carrying more than three overdue affidavits is ineligible to apply for new permits. Treat that as the closing obligation on the job rather than as paperwork, because the permit does not close without it. Inspection requests go through the City Permit and Inspection Portal, by email or on 608-821-8370.

Not required — No impact-resistance or hail-rating mandate applies in Middleton. The statewide Wisconsin uniform dwelling code contains no UL 2218 requirement, no Class 4 or Class IV impact rating and no FM 4473 reference anywhere in the chapters that govern one- and two-family dwellings, including the roof coverings section; its catch-all for coverings not otherwise addressed sends the installer to the manufacturer instructions or a national standard recognised by the department, which sets no impact class. Impact-resistant shingles are an insurer-driven upgrade in this market, not a code obligation. One caution for reading paperwork on a Wisconsin job: a Class A, B or C designation, or a reference to ASTM E108 or UL 790, is a FIRE rating and says nothing about hail, and ASTM D3161 or D7158 is a WIND rating. Only UL 2218 or FM 4473 answers impact. On the City side, Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code was read in full and contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 requirement, and the City published permit page, inspection procedures and roofing affidavit set no shingle rating. One reading caution specific to this chapter: the word impact appears in it several times and every occurrence is a development IMPACT FEE - law enforcement, fire and EMS facilities - which has nothing to do with hail.

A RE-ROOF NEEDS A PERMIT IN MIDDLETON UNLESS IT IS NON-STRUCTURAL AND UNDER A THOUSAND DOLLARS, AND THE CITY WRITES BOTH HALVES OUT. Municipal Code Section 11.05(1), headed "Permit Required", provides that "No person shall excavate for, erect or construct any building or structure, nor add to, enlarge, move, improve, alter, convert, repair, extend or demolish any building or structure, or cause the same to be done, without first obtaining a building permit therefor from the Building Inspector". Section 11.05(2) is then headed "Minor Repairs; Permit Not Necessary" - and unlike the plan-waiver clauses that look like this in other Wisconsin codes, it really is a permit exemption, and it names roofing: "Notwithstanding Subsection (1) no permit shall be required for any repairs that are non-structural including, but not limited to replacement of same or smaller size windows and doors, siding, gutters, and roofing where the total cost of repairs or maintenance is less than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00); however, no heating, plumbing or electrical repairs shall be subject to this exception." READ BOTH CONDITIONS TOGETHER: the work must be non-structural AND the total cost of repairs or maintenance must be under $1,000. A full tear-off and reroof on a house will exceed that figure on materials alone, and any deck or rafter replacement fails the non-structural half whatever it costs, so the practical answer on a reroof is that a permit is required. A partial reroof also has to clear Section 11.01(4)(d), under which not more than twenty-five percent of any roof covering may be replaced in any twelve-month period unless the entire roof covering is made to conform with the Code requirements for new buildings. On fees, the Municipal Code fee schedule files a reroof under Alterations and Repairs to Existing Buildings, where the building permit base fee is stated as the minimum fee plus $5.00 per $1,000.00 of cost or fraction thereof, and the minimum fee for residential work is $50.00. A separate line charges $250.00 for a permit to start construction on residential work. Fee figures move; confirm the current Appendix A schedule when you bid.

STATE-SET, AND EXPRESSED AS A PRESSURE RATHER THAN A DESIGN WIND SPEED IN MILES PER HOUR. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 321.02(1)(c) provides that dwellings "shall be designed and constructed to withstand either a horizontal and uplift pressure of 20 pounds per square foot acting over the surface area or the wind loads determined in accordance with ASCE 7-05, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures," with a published note that ASCE 7-05 allows for substantial reduction from 20 psf as applied to the surface area. Snow is the one input that varies geographically: SPS 321.02(1)(b)2. provides that roofs "shall be designed and constructed to support the minimum snow loads listed on the zone map," a statewide zone map, so a local ground snow figure is read off that map rather than stated as a single statewide number. IMPORTANT for anyone used to International Residential Code jurisdictions: because Wisconsin works in pounds per square foot and a zone map, there is no ultimate design wind speed in miles per hour here, and the 20 pounds per square foot figure must not be converted into one. Middleton sets no figure of its own: Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code was read in full and prints no wind speed, no wind pressure and no ground snow load for a dwelling anywhere. What the City does is adopt and enforce the state numbers, through the Section 11.01(3)(c) adoption of chs. SPS 320-25.

STATE-SET. Middleton writes no reroofing layer rule of its own - Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code, all sixteen sections, was read in full and contains no layer limit, no recover rule and no shingle provision - so the statewide rule governs unmodified. The statewide Wisconsin uniform dwelling code bars installing a new roof covering over the existing covering in three situations: where the existing roof or covering is water-soaked or has deteriorated so that it is inadequate as a base for additional roofing; where the existing roof is wood shake, slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile; or where the existing roof already has two or more applications of any type of permanent roof covering. So at most two total layers, and fewer than that where the deck is wet or deteriorated or the existing roof is one of the listed materials. A complete tear-off to the deck is not restricted by that rule at any layer count. There is no local route past two layers here of the kind a few other Wisconsin municipalities publish on calculations submitted to the inspector, so a roof already carrying two applications is a tear-off in Middleton. The Wisconsin uniform dwelling code sets these roofing rules statewide, but does not reach every house. It does not apply to a one- or two-family dwelling whose construction began before June 1, 1980, or to additions or alterations to one, unless the municipality has adopted chs. SPS 320 to 325 for that purpose - ask the building inspector before assuming it governs an older home. The code also states that it does not apply to repairs or maintenance, and it defines a repair to include replacing existing equipment with the equivalent, while a separate section regulates reroofing by name. Wisconsin has not resolved which of those two provisions governs a like-for-like tear-off, so confirm with the authority issuing the permit. MIDDLETON HAS ANSWERED THAT SCOPE QUESTION MORE DIRECTLY THAN ANY OTHER WISCONSIN MUNICIPALITY IN THIS DIRECTORY, AND A ROOFER SHOULD READ IT IN THE CITY OWN WORDS. Municipal Code Section 11.01(3) adopts a list of state administrative codes by reference and says of that list: "This Section shall apply to all additions and alterations to existing structures, except as noted below". Item (c) of the list is the dwelling code, and it is adopted in these terms: "Uniform Dwelling, Chapters SPS 320-25, Wisconsin Administrative Code [excepting therefrom Chapters SPS 320.05 (1), (3) and (5)]." Those are the exemption provisions themselves - (1) is the pre-June-1980 dwelling carve-out and (3) is the repairs and maintenance carve-out - so the City has adopted the dwelling standards while excepting the very subsections that would keep older houses and repair work outside them. As a matter of the Middleton code, then, neither the age of the house nor the characterisation of a reroof as a repair takes the job outside what the City enforces. This record reports what the City enacted and does not adjudicate how that interacts with the state statute; that is a question for the Building Inspection Department on 608-821-8370. Middleton also carries the roof-covering percentage rule that turns up across Wisconsin building chapters, at Section 11.01(4)(d): "Every alteration or repair to any structural part or portion of any existing building shall, when deemed necessary in the opinion of the Building Inspector, be made to conform to the requirements in this Code for new work, and not more than twenty-five (25) percent of any roof covering shall be replaced in any period of twelve (12) months unless the entire roof covering is made to conform with the requirements of this Code for new buildings." On a partial reroof that is the sentence to price against.

STATE-SET. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 321.27(9) sets the deck standard for one- and two-family dwellings in three parts. For structural sheathing, "The allowable loads and spans for structural sheathing shall be in accordance with the grade stamp on the panel." For roof boards, where the rafter spacing is 24 inches on center or less, "roof boards may be used that have a minimum thickness of 5/8-inch for solid sheathing and 3/4-inch for spaced sheathing," and where the rafter spacing is greater than 24 inches on center, "roof boards shall be tongue and groove, at least 1.5 inches thick." For roof planks, they "shall be tongue and groove or splined and at least 2 inches, nominal, in thickness," shall "terminate over beams unless the joints are end matched," and shall be "laid so that no continuous line of joints will occur except at points of support." Wisconsin expresses this as a panel grade-stamp and board-thickness rule keyed to rafter spacing rather than the International Residential Code formulation used in IRC states, so do not carry an IRC sheathing specification onto a Wisconsin job. Middleton adds nothing of its own for a house roof: Chapter 11 of the Municipal Code was read in full and contains no roof sheathing, decking or roof-nailing provision - its only sheathing requirements are for the separation between a garage and a dwelling. What Middleton does do is make you write the deck work down. The City Affidavit of Workmanship and Code Compliance (Roofing) has lines for the nail schedule of purling and re-nailing of decking and for the amount of framing or sheathing repair, and that affidavit must be notarised and filed within a week of completion. Note also Section 11.05(2), under which the permit-free window for non-structural repairs is lost the moment the work becomes structural, whatever it costs.

5.5% on materials. Wisconsin state sales and use tax is 5%, and Dane County levies the half-point county tax on top of it: the county row in the Department of Revenue sales tax rate chart, county code 13, shows a state rate of 5% and a county rate of 0.50% with an effective date of April 1991. Middleton lies wholly within Dane County, so one rate applies across the city. No municipal sales tax applies - the Department of Revenue states that the city of Milwaukee is the only municipality that imposes a city sales and use tax - and no premier resort area tax applies, since Middleton is not on the Department published list of municipalities that have adopted one. The rate chart is Department of Revenue Guidance Document Number 100047, dated January 16, 2026. Do not carry a Wisconsin rate across a county line without checking: two counties in this state, Waukesha and Winnebago, levy no county tax at all and sit at 5.0%. How the tax falls on a roofing job matters more than the rate. Wisconsin treats a roof as real property - the Department of Revenue contractor guidance answers it by name, listing roofs as real property for residential installation, residential repair, commercial installation and commercial repair alike - so the roofing contractor is the consumer of what it installs. The contractor pays sales or use tax when buying shingles, underlayment and other materials, and "is not permitted to collect sales tax from its customers on its sales price from sales of real property construction activities," meaning neither labour nor materials are taxed on the reroofing contract. The exception runs the other way: selling lumber, roofing materials or other tangible personal property WITHOUT installation is a retail sale and is taxable. So the rate is a cost input on the material purchase rather than a line on the homeowner invoice.