City of Oshkosh, Wisconsin - Inspection Services Division

City of Oshkosh, Wisconsin

city

215 Church Avenue, P.O. Box 1130, Oshkosh, WI 54903-1130

Required

Required

Roofing permits are issued by the Inspection Services Division of Community Development at 215 Church Avenue, Oshkosh. The City states that homeowners and contractors apply online for building and mechanical permits, that all required site plans and building plans should be ready to upload before an application is started, that permits may be paid online by debit card, credit card or check with an additional fee for online payment, and that construction may not begin until the permit has been issued and payment has been received. The City has also announced a move to a new online permit portal without publishing a changeover date, so check which portal is live before starting an application. TWO ROOFING CONDITIONS ARE PUBLISHED ON THE SAME PAGE AND ARE EASY TO MISS: no more than one layer of existing shingles may remain under new shingles, and a metal roof on a residential building must meet City guidelines and be approved by the City of Oshkosh Planning Division. That second one is a separate approval from the building permit and is worth lining up before the material is ordered. Inspections are requested on (920) 236-5128 and are performed within two business days of the project being ready, and the City charges a $100.00 re-inspection fee where the project was not ready, where violations found earlier have not been corrected, where the same violations recur for the same contractor or homeowner, or where no access to the job is provided. The permit card must be posted in public view before work begins. General line (920) 236-5055, email [email protected]; the Chief Building Official is Jerry Fabisch.

STATE-GOVERNED FOR DWELLINGS, AND NOT AN IRC ADOPTION. The City of Oshkosh publishes its own applicable-code list. Under the heading "Applicable Codes for One and Two Family Dwellings and Accessory Buildings" it gives, for building and heating, the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code (chs. SPS 320 to 325 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, promulgated by the Department of Safety and Professional Services), with the 2017 National Electrical Code as amended by SPS 316 for electrical work and the Wisconsin plumbing code for plumbing. The Uniform Dwelling Code is Wisconsin's own drafted text rather than an adoption of the International Residential Code, which is why its roofing rules read differently from the IRC's. Its scope section, SPS 321.01, provides: "The provisions of this chapter shall apply to the design and construction of all one- and 2-family dwellings." Oshkosh cannot set different technical roofing requirements for a dwelling. Wis. Stat. 101.65(1c) bars a municipality from making or enforcing a dwelling ordinance that does not conform to the uniform dwelling code, and SPS 320.06(1)(a) requires a municipality exercising jurisdiction to adopt the code in its entirety by ordinance and provides that "No additional requirements within the scope of this code may be adopted by a municipality unless approved by the department." READ THE CITY LIST CAREFULLY, because it carries a second and a third code set. Commercial and multifamily residential buildings of three or more units are listed under the 2015 International Codes with Wisconsin amendments, including the 2015 International Building Code and SPS 361 to 366; buildings constructed prior to 1914 are listed under SPS 375 to 379. The 2015 International Building Code is the commercial track and is not the code that governs a house roof in Oshkosh. Whether the City holds a department-approved addition under SPS 320.20, and whether it has adopted chs. SPS 320 to 325 to reach alterations to dwellings built before June 1, 1980, are not established by this record.

Required — STATE-SET AND SLOPE-CONDITIONED - this is narrower than the International Residential Code rule and the difference matters on most Oshkosh roofs. 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 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." Two cautions. First, Wisconsin's trigger is the roof slope, not the climate zone, so on roof areas steeper than 4:12 the uniform dwelling code does not itself impose an ice barrier - the shingle manufacturer's installation instructions may still require one, and SPS 321.28(3)(a) makes those instructions binding for asphalt shingles. Second, the Wisconsin measurement convention is 30 inches up the slope from the roof edge and 12 inches beyond the inner face of the exterior wall, which is not the IRC's 24-inches-inside-the-exterior-wall-line convention; do not substitute IRC ice-barrier language on a Wisconsin job. 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. About ice & water barrier

Not required — CITY ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICE, and Oshkosh does not stage one. The City's published One and Two Family Inspection Requirements sheet lists the inspections that may be required on a job, and the full list is footing or post hole, foundation, underground plumbing, basement floor, electrical service, sewer and water laterals, rough building, rough heating, rough electrical, rough plumbing, insulation, final heating, final electrical, final plumbing and final building. No roof-sheathing, roof-deck or other mid-roof stage appears on it. The rough building stage is defined on the sheet as "The structural work shall be inspected and approved prior to installing insulation", which is an interior framing stage rather than a roof-deck stage. A reroof pulled under an Oshkosh building permit is therefore inspected at the final building stage. The sheet also warns that construction shall not proceed beyond the point of an inspection until that inspection has been completed and passed, and that work may continue if the inspection is not performed within two business days from the time the project is ready.

Oshkosh publishes no dollar-value and no square-footage threshold that exempts roofing work from a permit. The City lists roofing among the work a permit may be required for, in the entry "Siding and roofing work", and its published list of work needing no permit is short and specific: interior painting or wallpapering, pouring a concrete sidewalk of up to 4 feet in width, flooring, and replacement of a faucet. Roofing is not in it, and none of the four items carries a dollar figure. The Inspection Services Division fee schedule points the same way: its building fee table is introduced as covering, among other work, roofing and siding, and its lowest band runs from $0 to $1,000.00 of valuation at a fee of $37.00, so the smallest roofing valuation still draws a permit fee rather than an exemption. Starting the work first is expensive: the schedule charges commencing work without permits at triple fee, or $100.00 plus the normal permit fee, whichever is greater. Confirm the scope of a specific job with Inspection Services on (920) 236-5055.

STATE-SET, AND EXPRESSED AS PRESSURES AND A SNOW ZONE RATHER THAN AN IRC-STYLE DESIGN WIND SPEED. 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 departmental note that ASCE 7-05 allows for substantial reduction from the 20 psf figure as applied to the surface area. Fastening is governed by SPS 321.02(3)(h): "All building components shall be fastened to withstand the dead load, live load, snow load, and wind load", to the minimum fastener schedule at Table 321.02-2, with engineered alternative fastening permitted under SPS 321.02(3). Snow load is the one input that varies geographically: SPS 321.02(1)(b)2. requires roofs to be designed and constructed to support the minimum snow loads listed on the zone map at Figure 321.02, which divides the state into two zones, Zone 1 at 40 psf and Zone 2 at 30 psf. Winnebago County lies south of the zone boundary drawn on that figure, in Zone 2, so the minimum roof snow load for Oshkosh is 30 pounds per square foot. SPS 321.27(3)(c) allows that snow load to be reduced for roof slopes greater than 30 degrees by the factor Cs given in that paragraph. IMPORTANT: because Wisconsin works in pounds per square foot and a two-zone map, there is no IRC-style ultimate design wind speed in miles per hour for Oshkosh, and the 20 psf figure must not be converted into one.

STATE-SET, AND RESTATED BY THE CITY IN ITS OWN WORDS. Wisconsin's uniform dwelling code bars installing a new roof covering over the existing covering in three situations: where the existing roof or roof covering is water-soaked or has deteriorated such 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 has 2 or more applications of any type of permanent roof covering. The practical effect is at most two total layers, and fewer than that where the deck or the existing covering is wet or deteriorated, or where the existing roof is one of the listed materials, which may never be recovered at any layer count. A complete tear-off to the deck is not restricted by this rule. The City of Oshkosh states the same limit on its permit page, among its additional requirements: "No more than one layer of existing shingles may remain under new shingles." 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.

STATE-SET, NOT CITY-SET, and written as a thickness and span rule rather than the IRC's formulation. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 321.27(9), "Roof sheathing, boards and planking", provides at (a) that "The allowable loads and spans for structural sheathing shall be in accordance with the grade stamp on the panel"; at (b)1. that 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 at (b)2. that where the rafter spacing is greater than 24 inches on center, "roof boards shall be tongue and groove, at least 1.5 inches thick". Roof planks are allowed as an alternative under (c): tongue and groove or splined and at least 2 inches nominal in thickness, terminating over beams unless the joints are end matched, laid so that no continuous line of joints occurs except at points of support, and nailed or fastened to each beam. Note that the panel grade stamp, not a table in the code, is what fixes the allowable span for structural sheathing, so the answer on a given Oshkosh job is read off the panel.

OSHKOSH IS 5.0%, NOT THE 5.5% THAT COVERS MOST OF WISCONSIN. Winnebago County is one of the few Wisconsin counties that levies no county sales and use tax at all, so the rate on materials in Oshkosh is the Wisconsin state sales and use tax of 5% and nothing else. The Department of Revenue rate chart shows Winnebago with an empty county column and an empty city column, while the neighbouring counties a supply run can easily cross into - Outagamie, Calumet and Fond du Lac - each add 0.5%. Oshkosh sits wholly inside Winnebago County: the County lists Oshkosh among the cities it serves without the "parts of" qualifier it applies to Appleton, which does straddle county lines. Wisconsin's only municipal general sales tax is the city of Milwaukee's, and it does not reach here. HOW THE TAX ACTUALLY FALLS ON A REROOF: Wisconsin treats a roof as real property, so a roofing contractor is the consumer of the materials it installs. The Department of Revenue states that when a contractor is a consumer, "its sales price from labor and material related to real property construction activities is not subject to sales tax", and that such a contractor "is not permitted to collect sales tax from its customers" on that work. The tax is instead paid by the contractor when it buys the shingles and underlayment, and shows up as cost rather than as a line on the homeowner's invoice. The exception to watch: selling roofing materials without installation is a retail sale and the contractor must charge tax on it.