Monroe County, Indiana - Building Department

Monroe County, Indiana

county

501 N Morton St, Suite 220, Bloomington, IN 47404

Not required

WHERE AND WHEN. The Building Department is in the Showers Building North at 501 N Morton St, Suite 220, Bloomington, IN 47404, on (812) 349-2580, fax (812) 349-2967, email [email protected], with Robert LaRue as Building Commissioner. The office is open Monday to Friday 8:00AM to 4:00PM, but note the narrower window for anything involving money or paper: "Licenses & Permits may be picked up and payments made only between the hours of 9am-11am & 1pm-3pm". Applications are made online through the County's OpenGov portal and an account is required. The County asks that a residential project begin with a Residential Construction Planning Pre-Design, which it describes as "your first step in any residential project" and which "will determine the checklist of documents/ approvals/ permits that will be needed for a complete Improvement Location Permit application, which is a pre-requisite for a building permit." INSPECTIONS. Call (812) 349-2580 at least 24 hours ahead with the permit number ready. The County's published inspection schedule runs Footing, Foundation, Underslab, Rough-In, Fireblocking and Final, and then leaves the list open: "OTHER INSPECTIONS AS REQUIRED to include but are not limited to: Above the ceiling, electrical service, and others pertaining to specific features of projects." There is no published roofing stage, so on a permitted roofing job agree the visit with the inspector rather than assuming one. Three administrative points from the same schedule that cost time if missed: "It is the responsibility of the contractor or homeowner to contact the Building Department and inspections are assigned on a first in first out basis"; "The owner or contractor or a representative of said parties shall attend all inspections"; and "The orange permit card must be visible from the road, or no inspections will be performed." A re-inspection is $50.00.

STATE-SET, AND THE COUNTY PUBLISHES THE CITATION ITSELF. Indiana leaves a county nothing to adopt on the residential side. The Building Department's own County Building Codes page gives the residential entry as "2020 Indiana Residential Code:75-IAC-14 OTFDC Based upon:2018 International Residential Code(1st printing) with Indiana Amendments Effective December 26, 2019" - the missing 6 in the citation and the run-together spacing are in the County page as published, and the rule meant is 675 IAC 14. The rule itself provides at 675 IAC 14-4.4-1 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 the article - there is no later Indiana residential code. LOCALLY the County lists four of its own instruments under the heading "Current construction codes in effect in Monroe County": "Monroe County Building Code: (Chapter 430)", "Monroe County Licensing & Registration Ordinance #96-38", "Monroe County Building Code: (Chapter 432)" and "Monroe County Unsafe Building Ordinance #95-25". None of them can change the residential roofing rules: 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. Where an Indiana local instrument cites the Indiana Administrative Code, IC 22-13-2-3(b) makes that citation float forward: it "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". One vocabulary warning: "Class 2" in Indiana is a STRUCTURE class, broadly one and two family dwellings, and has nothing to do with a fire class or an impact class of roof covering - the County uses the phrase itself on its residential building permit, which is "for the construction of single-family, duplex, and modular residential structures ... (Class two structures)".

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT COUNTY-SET, and unconditional on a shingle roof. Monroe County 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, and it applies whether or not the job needs a County permit. About drip edge

Not required — NOT REQUIRED BY THE TABLE IN MONROE COUNTY - BUT THE MANUFACTURER CAN STILL REQUIRE IT, AND THAT IS THE HALF THAT CATCHES PEOPLE OUT. Indiana deletes the model climatic table and substitutes its own county-by-county table: 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 53 is Monroe, and it carries "No" 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; Monroe is not one of them, so an answer carried down from a South Bend, Fort Wayne or Gary job would be wrong here. The rest of the Monroe County row reads wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category C, ground snow 20 psf, foundation depth 24 inches, winter design temperature 9 degrees F and weathering Severe - the seismic category C is worth noting, because it is the highest of the three Indiana uses and only a handful of southern counties carry it. The Indiana State Building Commissioner sets out the qualification in terms: Sections R903.1, R904.1 and R905.1 require roofing materials to be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions, so "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 (per Sections R903 .1, R904.1 and R905 .1)." Monroe County is in that second group: the table does not compel an ice barrier, and the shingle manufacturer's printed instructions still can. The County may not add a requirement of its own, because IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a local ordinance more stringent or detailed than the state rules. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No impact-resistance requirement applies in Monroe County. 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: it deletes the text of the last sentence of Section R902.4 on rooftop-mounted photovoltaic panel systems, deletes the word "approved" from Section R905.2.6 on asphalt shingle attachment, deletes the word "approved" from Section R905.2.8 on flashing, and deletes the word "printed" from Section R905.2.8.4 on other flashing. Nothing in the rule imposes a UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 impact rating. The County could not add one on top: IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars a city, town or county from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state rules, and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives those rules precedence over any local ordinance on the same subject. Nothing the County publishes about permits, fees or inspections specifies a roof covering at all. Two things that get mistaken for an impact mandate in Indiana: the phrase "Class 2 construction", which runs through the State Building Commissioner's roofing guidance and appears on Monroe County's own residential permit description, and 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.

MONROE COUNTY PUBLISHES NO ROOFING PERMIT AND NO ROOFING FEE, SO ASK BEFORE YOU START. The County's residential fee schedule was read in full and has no roofing line anywhere in it. Its residential rows price new construction, modular home placement, additions and remodelling per square foot with a stated minimum - new construction at fourteen cents a square foot with a $125.00 minimum, additions at the same rate with a $75.00 minimum, remodelling at the same rate with a $50.00 minimum, and non-structural complete rehabilitation at ten cents a square foot with a $75.00 minimum. A flat "Alteration / Repair: $50.00" sits beside them, restoration after partial flood or fire damage is $100.00, and the rest of the schedule covers accessory structures, pools, demolition, relocation and services. Re-inspection is $50.00, permit renewal is 50% of the original fee and extension of an unexpired permit is "$50.00 per inspection". The online application catalogue points the same way: the County offers ninety-six permit and licence types through its portal and not one of them is a roofing permit. Its Residential Building Permit is described as covering "the construction of single-family, duplex, and modular residential structures, remodeling, as well as for additions of rooms, decks, and sunrooms, and for finishing unfinished spaces within a home", and its Residential Repair Permit is expressly for structural work - "repairing broken, degraded or failing existing systems such as replacing an existing foundation, replacing existing structural elements (posts/columns, broken joists/rafters/trusses) or similar", and "This permit is not for remodeling, additions, or converting use of area within a building." So a re-roof that reaches the rafters or trusses plainly needs a permit; a re-covering that does not is not addressed by anything the County publishes. Settle it with the Building Department on (812) 349-2580 before the tear-off, and note that the County asks every project to start with a Residential Construction Planning Pre-Design, which it calls "your first step in any residential project" and which produces the checklist of approvals a given job needs.

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 Monroe 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 C, ground snow 20 psf, a 24 inch foundation depth, a winter design temperature of 9 degrees F and Severe weathering. The County 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. Wind exposure category is still a site-by-site determination made under the residential code rather than a figure the county or state sets - the table's own footnote a reads "Wind exposure shall be determined on a site-specific basis in accordance with SECTION R301.2.1.4" - and Indiana amends that exposure-category rule at 675 IAC 14-4.4-4 for sites in a subdivision or master-planned community where the adjacent structures are not built yet.

NO LOCAL LAYER RULE, AND NONE IS POSSIBLE IN INDIANA. The residential code here is the state's: the County's own County Building Codes page names the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, based on the 2018 International Residential Code with Indiana amendments, effective December 26, 2019. That rule runs to 245 numbered sections and its only amendments touching the model roofing chapter are word deletions in the asphalt shingle attachment and flashing sections and in the rooftop photovoltaic section. 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. The County could not add one: 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. So the base International Residential Code rule on recovering an existing roof applies here exactly as published, and the number of layers a particular roof may carry comes out of that code. A roofer planning an overlay rather than a tear-off should settle the existing layer count with the Building Commissioner against that code before quoting.

7.00% statewide, with no county or city add-on in Monroe County. Indiana levies a single state sales tax rate. The Department of Revenue's own page listing what Indiana does tax at county level - 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 tax Monroe County levies is an income tax, not a sales tax, so there is no local percentage to add to a materials invoice. WHO PAYS IT 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 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.