Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Montrose County, CO?

Montrose County, Colorado

county

Montrose, CO

Building permit applications are submitted and viewed through the Montrose County Citizen Permit Portal, where applicants can upload drawings and supporting documents, pay permit fees, track application status through approval steps, and request inspections. The Building Division's resource list includes a Re-Roofing 2018 IRC guidance document for reroof work.

The Building Department performs inspections and enforcement of the currently adopted building codes. Inspections needed for a permit are requested and scheduled directly from the applicant's Citizen Permit Portal account, and inspection results can be reviewed in the portal.

Montrose County has adopted the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC), governed by the county's Building Code Resolution (Resolution 28-2023). The Building Division's guidance documents, including its re-roofing handout, reference the 2018 IRC.

Required — Required. Montrose County's building code resolution sets its own climate and geographic design requirements table, and that table answers "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" affirmatively for the unincorporated county. About ice & water barrier

Not required — Montrose County Resolution No. 28-2023, recorded June 27, 2023, was read in full. It amends and reaffirms the County's adoption, originally made by Resolution 33-2019, of the 2018 International Building Code, the 2018 International Residential Code, the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code, the 2018 International Property Maintenance Code, Chapter 14 of the 2018 International Existing Building Code, and the NCSBCS/ANSI A225.1-1994 non-permanent foundations guide for manufactured housing, throughout unincorporated Montrose County. Its twelve numbered sections were read in turn: they state the scope of the adopted codes and a most-restrictive-provision rule, define agriculture, agricultural buildings, dwelling units, farms, ranches and manufactured homes for County purposes, require zoning compliance before permit issuance, delete the board-of-appeals sections at Residential Code R112 and Building Code 113 in favor of a board the Commissioners may appoint, exempt federal and State agencies, and set out permit, fee, geotechnical and foundation, manufactured-housing, enforcement, nonliability and severability provisions, together with a table of climatic and geographic design criteria whose only roof entries are ground and roof snow loads keyed to elevation. No section of the resolution amends Chapter 15 of the Building Code or Chapter 9 of the Residential Code, and neither the adopted codes nor any County amendment requires impact-resistant roof coverings or names a UL 2218 or Class 4 standard. The Colorado Energy Office Statewide Building Code Adoption dataset, revised April 2, 2026, likewise reports a 2018 adoption for the County. The only statewide instrument reaching reroofing is the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code, 8 CCR 1507-39, effective July 1, 2026 in areas designated wildland-urban interface under that code, which requires a Class A roof covering tested to ASTM E108 or UL 790 where 25 percent or more of the roof surface is replaced, at Sections 101.6 and 403.2; that is a fire classification independent of impact rating, and the code sets no impact-resistance requirement.

A design wind speed of 90 mph with no topographic effects, and a seismic design category that splits across the county: B in the west end and C in the east end. Montrose County's building code resolution sets its own climate and geographic design requirements, which also give severe weathering, a slight to moderate termite probability, an air freezing index of 1,000 and a mean annual temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Roof snow load is tiered by elevation rather than given as one figure, rising in steps from 23 pounds per square foot below 6,000 feet to 106 pounds per square foot below 10,000 feet.

4.65 percent combined in the unincorporated county: 2.9 percent state, 1 percent Montrose County and 0.75 percent for the county public safety improvements special district. A town rate applies instead of this figure inside an incorporated municipality. Montrose County levies a 1 percent use tax reaching building materials. Rates read from the Colorado Department of Revenue publication DR 1002, January 2026 edition.