City of Mountain Home - Building Services

Mountain Home, Idaho

city

160 South 3rd East, Mountain Home, ID 83647

Required

A ROOF DECK INSPECTION IS THE ONE THING THE CITY WILL DROP EVERYTHING FOR, AND A REROOFING CREW SHOULD KNOW IT. The Building Services page states: "Inspections must be called in prior to 9:00 am for same-day inspections by calling the Building Department. Inspections called in after 9:00 am will be scheduled for the following day, with the exception of roof deck inspections." Roof deck inspections are the only category the City carves out of its own next-day rule, so a deck opened after the morning cut-off can still be looked at that day where nothing else can. The City adds: "Inspection times are for AM or PM. We do not make appointments for a specific time", and "Inspection requests called in to the cell phone number of the Building Official will not be scheduled" - call the office line, 208-580-2091. WHO INSPECTS WHAT. The City states that it "does not regulate these codes and is instead regulated by the State of Idaho's Division of Building Safety Department. Provisions of these codes relate to plumbing, electrical, and mechanical." So the City's own inspectors cover the building side, including the roof, while the trades are a State matter. APPLYING. Building permits are applied for through the City's online permit portal, and the City's paper Building Permit Application asks for the "Contractor Registration Number", the property and owner details, a description under "I Request a Permit For", and the "Valuation of Project". Its own header repeats the scheduling rule: "Inspection Requests must be called into our office prior to 9:00 am for same day inspections." LEAD PAINT ON PRE-1978 HOUSES. The City reproduces the federal rule on its own page: renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in pre-1978 homes "must be performed by an EPA Certified Renovator working for an EPA Certified Firm". Tear-off work on an older Mountain Home house that disturbs painted trim or fascia can fall inside that rule.

THE 2018 EDITIONS SINCE THE END OF 2020, ON THE CITY'S OWN STATEMENT. The City of Mountain Home Building Services page states: "Keeping in line with the State of Idaho, the City of Mountain Home formally adopted the 2018 updates to the building codes currently in use by both the State and City. The changes became effective for all permits drawn from the City of Mountain Home Building Department on December 31, 2020." The City's own Current Building Codes handout puts the same thing as a list: "The City of Mountain Home is currently using; (As of January 1, 2021)", then the "2018 International Building Code", "2018 International Residential Code", "2018 International Energy Conservation Code", "2018 International Existing Building Code", "2018 International Fire Code", "1997 Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings", "2009 International Property Maintenance Code", "2012 International Mechanical Code (State Inspection)", "2015 Idaho (Uniform) Plumbing Code (State Inspection)", "2017 National Electrical Code (State Inspection)" and "2012 Fuel and Gas Code". A house is reroofed under the residential code in that list. A SECOND CITY PAGE STILL CARRIES THE OLDER LIST, AND IT IS DATED. The City's Land Use and Development page opens its own code list with "The City of Mountain Home is currently using: (As of January 1, 2018)" and then names the "2015 International Building Code", "2012 International Residential Code" and the rest of that generation. That list carries its own effective date of January 1, 2018 and is superseded by the December 31, 2020 adoption stated above. Both are set out here because both are published; use the 2018-edition list, and note that the design criteria quoted elsewhere in this record sit on that same Land Use and Development page and were not restated on the newer one. STATE FRAMEWORK. Idaho's residential code is set by the Idaho Building Code Board, not by the city. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03 adopts the "International Residential Code, 2018 Edition ... Parts I, II, III, and IX of the 2018 Edition for one (1)- and two (2)-family dwellings", effective July 1, 2024, with the state's own list of amendments; Idaho Code 39-4116(2) requires a local government that issues building permits and performs code enforcement to adopt the Idaho residential code parts I-III and IX by ordinance, and bars it from adopting provisions of a later IRC edition the Board has not adopted. Roofing sits in Part III and is included. Idaho Code 39-4116(6): "Permits shall be governed by the laws in effect at the time the permit application is received." WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED. The Mountain Home City Code is published only through a commercial codifier that refuses automated access, so the City's own adopting ordinance and any local amendment list could not be read for this record. No local amendment to the roofing chapter is asserted or denied here.

Required — THE CITY ANSWERS THIS ITSELF, IN ONE WORD, AND THE ANSWER IS YES. The published Mountain Home design criteria list, under the heading "Mountain Homes Design Criteria", carries the item "Ice Barrier Underlayment - yes". That is the City's own filled-in climatic and geographic design criterion, not an inference from snowfall or latitude, and it is the entry the residential code's ice barrier provision keys off. Read it beside the rest of the same list, which is set out under wind design criteria in this record. WHAT IT DOES AND DOES NOT SETTLE. It settles that an ice barrier underlayment is required on a Mountain Home roof. It does not state how far up the slope the barrier must reach; that is governed by the adopted residential code's own text, which this record does not restate. It also does not displace the shingle manufacturer's printed installation instructions, which the code makes binding and which may call for eave protection beyond the code minimum. Confirm the required extent with the Building Department at 208-580-2091 before ordering membrane, and price the job with the barrier in it rather than as an extra. WHERE THIS ITEM IS PUBLISHED. The design criteria list appears on the City's Land Use and Development page. The building-code list on that same page carries its own date of January 1, 2018 and has been superseded by the City's December 31, 2020 adoption of the 2018 editions; the design criteria block beside it was not restated on the City's newer Building Services page, so a reroofing contractor should confirm the criteria are current when applying. About ice & water barrier

THE CITY PUBLISHES A FULL DESIGN-CRITERIA LIST AND IT STATES THE WIND BASIS. Under the heading "Mountain Homes Design Criteria" the City publishes, item by item: "Seismic Design Category C", "Ground Snow Load 20 psf", "Wind Load 115 mph - 3-second gust", "Live Roof Load 30 psf", "Weathering Severe", "Frost Depth 24 inches", "Termite Moderate", "Decay Slight to Moderate", "Winter Design Temp. 10° F", "Ice Barrier Underlayment - yes", "Flood Hazards Firm - March 15, 1994", "Air Freeze Index 86.7", "Mean Annual Temp. 50.5°F", "Exposure C", "Elevation 3185' above sea level", "Lat. N43' 09°" and "Long. W115' 43°". WHAT THE ROOFING NUMBERS MEAN. The wind figure is 115 mph on a three-second gust basis; the City states the basis, so no conversion is needed and none should be attempted, because a nominal three-second gust figure and an ultimate design wind speed are different numbers for the same loading. Exposure C is the open-country exposure. The 20 psf is a GROUND snow load; separately, and unusually, the City also publishes a "Live Roof Load 30 psf", which is a roof figure rather than a ground one. Both are given here as the City prints them and neither is derived from the other in this record. ONE STATE FACT ON THE WIND SIDE. The State of Idaho deletes the model code's wind-borne debris opening-protection section statewide: IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03(d) reads "Section R301.2.1.2 Protection of Openings. Delete." That is a window and door provision rather than a roofing one, and under Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(b) a local jurisdiction may not re-adopt a provision the Idaho Building Code Board has expressly rejected. A CURRENCY NOTE. This list is published on the City's Land Use and Development page, whose building-code list is self-dated January 1, 2018 and is superseded by the City's December 31, 2020 adoption of the 2018 code editions. The design criteria block was not restated on the City's newer Building Services page. Confirm the criteria with the Building Department when applying.

6.0% -- the Idaho state rate, with no local add-on. Idaho Code 63-3619 imposes the state sales tax "at the rate of six percent (6%)". Idaho has only two kinds of local sales tax, and neither reaches roofing work in Mountain Home. The first is the resort-city local-option tax, which Idaho Code 50-1044 confines to a resort city "with a population not in excess of ten thousand (10,000)"; the Idaho State Tax Commission publishes the list of cities that levy one, and Mountain Home does not appear on it, nor does a county have that authority. The second is an auditorium-district tax, which the Tax Commission states "can charge a local sales tax only for short-term lodging (30 days or less)" and so never reaches roofing work. Idaho counties levy no sales tax at all. HOW A ROOF IS TAXED, WHICH MATTERS MORE THAN THE RATE: the Tax Commission's contractor guidance states that "Idaho sales tax law says contractors are the consumers (end users) of all the goods they use. As a result, they must pay sales tax on all purchases", and it names roofers among the contractors it covers. The roofer pays the 6% on materials at the supply house; the homeowner's invoice carries no sales tax line at all, on materials or on labour, because "a contractor doesn't charge sales tax to the customer" and the tax is absorbed into the bid. The Commission adds that "if sales tax is charged on the bill, the customer can refuse to pay it." A customer's own sales-tax exemption does not carry over to the contractor.