City of Roswell, Georgia - Community Development, Building Division

City of Roswell, Georgia

city

Roswell, GA

Required

Required

Roswell is an all-electronic shop and it is strict about it. Every permit application goes through the Roswell Permitting and Licensing HUB, the city's online self-service portal, and the Building Division states plainly that it does not accept permit applications by email or phone, and does not accept inspection requests by email or phone either. Inspection results are entered on site from the inspector's tablet and emailed to the permit holder. The one thing that still has to be done in person is the Contractor Exemption Affidavit, which the form itself says must be submitted in person by the exempt contractor before a permit is issued. The work class to apply under is Residential Building - Roof Covering, described in the city's Work Classes Glossary as an application to repair, replace or recover existing roof coverings on residential dwellings or an accessory building or structure. Fees, from the Building Permit Fee Schedule adopted December 9, 2024 and effective January 1, 2025 as revised April 7, 2025: a non-refundable $25 application fee on all permits, then a flat $135.00 for roofing, siding or windows with one inspection included and re-inspections charged on top at $50 for the first, $75 for the second and $100 for the third and each after that. The fee for work done without a permit is 200 percent of the original permit fee. A permit becomes invalid if the work is not commenced within six months of issue or is suspended or abandoned for six months, with ninety-day extensions available in writing for justifiable cause. Two further things a roofer should have ready. Roswell City Code section 5.4.23 requires everyone performing work regulated by the building chapter to hold a current City of Roswell business licence, which the city calls the Occupational Tax Certificate and renews through the same HUB account; and where the state requires a contractor licence, the state licence number must be supplied to the city before the permit is issued. The Building Division also states that a permit will not be issued to an owner who is neither a licensed contractor nor the occupant of the residential structure being altered. On the job site the permit, the job card and any stamped approved plans must be present and available at the inspection, and the inspector needs access between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. with someone present at an occupied residence, or the inspection is failed and re-inspection fees apply. The Building Division does not give appointment times, because its inspectors work as combination inspectors. General permitting questions go to Resident and Business Services on 770-641-3727; the Chief Building Official is Robert Sheppard, CBO, on 770-817-6756, at Roswell City Hall, 38 Hill Street, Suite G-30.

Roswell enforces the Georgia state codes and does not freeze an edition. Roswell City Code section 5.3.1(a) adopts by reference "the latest edition of each as adopted and amended the latest editions of the following Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes", listing the International Building Code, National Electrical Code, International Fuel Gas Code, International Mechanical Code, International Plumbing Code, International Residential Code, International Energy Conservation Code, International Fire Code, International Residential Code Appendix G, International Existing Building Code, Standard Unsafe Building Abatement Code, International Property Maintenance Code, the National Green Building Standards as voluntary, and the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code. Section 5.3.2(i) applies the International Residential Code to every one- and two-family dwelling. Because the adoption floats with the state list rather than naming a year, the operative residential standard for a Roswell house today is the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, with Georgia Amendments 2026, which the Georgia Department of Community Affairs adopted effective January 1, 2026. Two things follow that a roofer should keep straight. First, Georgia has no local code adoption to look up - under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) the mandatory codes apply to any structure built in Georgia "whether or not the local government chooses to locally enforce these codes", so compliance is statewide and automatic while enforcement is the local choice. Roswell has plainly chosen to enforce, and its Building Division describes its own Chapter 1 as the locally adopted administration and enforcement ordinance for the state mandated minimum codes. Second, do not carry the 2024 date across the whole suite. Georgia's energy code is off cycle and is still the International Energy Conservation Code, 2015 Edition, with Georgia Supplements and Amendments 2020. Roswell has not adopted the Disaster Resilient Building Code IRC Appendix, which the Department of Community Affairs lists as permissive and which appears in the state amendment packet as Appendix U. The one International Residential Code appendix Roswell names is Appendix G, at section 5.3.1(a)(9), and section 5.3.3 states that "The City of Roswell hereby adopts Appendix G of the International Residential Code." The Roswell Code of Ordinances is codified through Ordinance No. 2025-11-10, adopted November 10, 2025, Supplement 17.

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT LOCALLY SET, and it applies in Roswell exactly as it applies everywhere else in Georgia. The International Residential Code is one of the codes Georgia designates as a mandatory state minimum standard, so under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) it binds construction here whether or not the City elects to enforce it locally. The City Code says the same from the local side: section 5.3.1(a) adopts by reference "the latest edition of each as adopted and amended the latest editions of the following Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes" and names the International Residential Code among them, and section 5.3.2(i) applies that code to every one- and two-family dwelling. Because the adoption floats with the state list rather than naming a year, the operative residential standard for a Roswell house is the 2024 edition with Georgia Amendments 2026. The Georgia Department of Community Affairs amendment packet for the 2024 Residential Code carries no amendment to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies; the packet's full text is archived in this project and was measured rather than skimmed, at zero occurrences of any R9-hundred section number and zero of the phrase "Chapter 9". So the Chapter 9 drip-edge provision at Section R905.2.8.5 stands as written for Georgia. The City's own building instrument was re-opened in full for this entry rather than taken from an earlier report: Chapter 5, Building and Construction, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Roswell, Georgia - all seven of its articles, 5.1, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9, and every one of their 109 sections, some 75,000 characters - searched on anchored terms with zero hits for "drip", zero for "R905", zero for "Chapter 9" and zero for "shingle". The four occurrences of "roof" in the whole chapter are all in the required-inspection list at section 5.4.39, describing when the frame and rough-in inspections are made. Roswell writes no amendment to the Residential Code anywhere in the chapter, and Chapter 5 is the Code's only building and construction chapter. APPENDIX U IS NOT ADOPTED. The only Residential Code appendix Roswell takes is Appendix G: it is listed at section 5.3.1(a)(9) as "International Residential Code, Appendix G", and section 5.3.3 provides in full that "The City of Roswell hereby adopts Appendix G of the International Residential Code." That is an enumeration, not a silence: Appendix G is the only Residential Code appendix Roswell takes. The Department of Community Affairs adopts Appendix U, "Disaster Resilient Construction", as an optional permissive code that a local government must adopt for itself, and the appendix limits its own reach at AU101.3.1 to new development and to substantial improvements to existing development. Roswell has not adopted it. The operative ICC text of R905.2.8.5, which sets the extent, lap and fastening specifics, sits behind the ICC paywall; this record does not restate it and does not rely on any third-party republication of it. What is recorded is the sourced fact that the requirement is in force in Roswell unamended. Unlike much of Georgia, a Roswell reroof is normally inspected: the City runs a named permit work class for it, "RESIDENTIAL BUILDING - ROOF COVERING (BLDR)", covering an application to repair, replace or recover existing roof coverings on residential dwellings or an accessory building or structure. About drip edge

Not required — No mid-roof, dry-in or in-progress roofing inspection is required in Roswell. Roswell City Code section 5.4.39 sets out the inspections the chief building inspector shall make, trade by trade, and the list is closed on its face - Building takes footing or foundation, slab, frame, moisture barrier and final; Electrical takes temporary pole, underground, rough-in and final; Plumbing takes underground, rough-in, final and required tests; Mechanical takes underground, rough-in and final; Gas takes rough piping, final piping and final; Energy takes foundation, frame and final. There is no roof-sheathing, roof-nailing, underlayment or mid-roof stage anywhere in it. Do not be misled by the building frame inspection, which is taken "after the roof, all framing, fire blocking and bracing, are in place" - that is a framing stage on new construction, not a check on a reroof part way through. The city's own fee schedule confirms how a reroof is inspected in practice: the building permit fee table prices "Roofing/siding/windows" at $135.00, "only 1 Inspection", with re-inspection charged separately. So plan on one inspection at the end of the job, and note that the inspector is not scheduled to a set time - the Building Division says its inspectors work as combination inspectors and it cannot give appointment times. Inspections must be requested through the Roswell Permitting and Licensing HUB; the Division does not take inspection requests by email or phone, and it charges a failed-inspection and re-inspection fee if nobody is there to give access between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Not required — No impact-resistance requirement applies in Roswell. The Georgia State Amendments to the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, effective January 1, 2026, were read in full and make no amendment to the Code's roofing chapter and contain no reference to UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473. Roswell's own building chapter, Chapter 5 of the City Code, was read in full - all seven articles, covering general provisions, building and technical codes, permits and inspections, the construction board of adjustment and appeals, land clearing and solid waste disposal, temporary structures and trenching - and it states no impact, hail or Class 4 roofing requirement either; it adopts the state codes by reference and adds administration, not roofing content. Keep the three ratings apart when a supplier or an adjuster uses the word class. Impact resistance is UL 2218 and Class 1 to 4; fire classification is ASTM E108 or UL 790 and Class A, B or C; wind is ASTM D3161 or D7158. An insurer's discount for an impact-resistant shingle is a matter for the policy, not a Roswell code requirement.

Roswell sets no dollar figure and no square-foot figure for a roof. It publishes a named permit work class for the job instead. The Building Applications Work Classes Glossary, revised February 19, 2026, describes "RESIDENTIAL BUILDING - ROOF COVERING (BLDR)" as an "Application to repair, replace, or recover existing roof coverings on residential dwellings or an accessory building/structure", so repair, replacement and recover are all inside the same permit class. The permit trigger behind it is Roswell City Code section 5.4.1, which requires any owner, authorized agent or contractor who desires to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change the occupancy of a building or structure to apply to the chief building inspector and obtain the permit first. The only written carve-out is section 5.4.3, headed Minor Repairs, which reads in full that "Ordinary minor repairs may be made with the approval of the chief building inspector without a permit, provided that such repairs shall not violate any of the provisions of the technical codes." Note the shape of that exemption. It is not automatic and it is not defined by size or cost - it runs through the chief building inspector, so the decision is a phone call rather than a threshold you can read off a page. The Building Division's own permit FAQ gives the only worked examples of routine maintenance needing no permit, and they are "painting, floor coverings, and wallpaper". Roofing is not among them.

Roswell publishes no basic design wind speed of its own, and a roofer should not assume one. What the city does is require the designer to state the criteria on the drawings. Its Residential Building - Addition Plan Review Checklist asks the reviewer to confirm "Design criteria noted on plans: wind speed, ground snow load, seismic design category, and frost depth per City of Roswell - Zone 3", against a code reference of "2024 IRC R301.2 - ASCE 7-22". The checklist does not define what Zone 3 means and gives no figure for any of the four criteria, and no wind speed appears anywhere else in Roswell's building chapter or its published building forms. The state layer supplies no figure either: the Georgia State Amendments to the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, make no amendment to the Code's roofing chapter, and their only wind-related change to the residential chapters is a new exception to the foundation anchorage rule at R403.1.6 keyed to a basic wind speed not exceeding 115 miles per hour. So for a Roswell address take the design wind speed and exposure category from the Building Division or from the project engineer rather than from a neighbouring jurisdiction's number.

No Roswell rule and no Georgia rule - the base code governs. Roswell's building chapter, Chapter 5 of the City Code, was read in full across all seven of its articles, and it writes no overlay, recover or layer limit of its own; section 5.3.1(a) adopts the Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes by reference and the rest of the chapter is administration, permits, inspections, appeals and site work. The Georgia State Amendments to the International Residential Code, 2024 Edition, effective January 1, 2026, were also read in full and make no amendment to the Code's roofing chapter. So the recover and re-roofing limits that apply on a Roswell house are the base 2024 International Residential Code provisions as published, unmodified by either the state or the city. That base text sits behind the International Code Council's paywall and is not restated here, so confirm the operative layer count with the Building Division before quoting a recover rather than a tear-off. One local point does bear on the decision even though it is not a layer rule: Roswell's permit work class for the job, Residential Building - Roof Covering, covers repair, replacement and recover alike, so choosing a recover does not put the job outside the permit.

7.75% combined in Roswell. The Georgia Department of Revenue's Sales and Use Tax Rate Chart effective July 1, 2026 lists jurisdiction code 060 as "Fulton*", at 7.75%, and its own footnote defines the asterisk as "Fulton County outside of Atlanta, Hapeville, College Park, and East Point". Roswell is a north Fulton County city and is none of those four, so the county figure is the Roswell figure. That 7.75% is the 4% Georgia state rate plus the local components the chart marks M for MARTA, L for LOST, E for Educational and Tf for the Fulton TSPLOST. The rate does not change on October 1, 2026 - the Department has published the chart effective that date and Fulton code 060 is still 7.75% on it. Fulton is one of the Georgia counties that splits by city rather than running one rate county-wide, so a Roswell roofer working across the county line into the City of Atlanta buys materials at 8.9%, and at 8.75% in Hapeville, College Park or East Point. Under Georgia Department of Revenue rule 560-12-2-.26(1) the contractor is the consumer of the tangible personal property it uses in improving real property and pays the tax on it at purchase, so the tax on the shingles is the roofer's own cost rather than a line the homeowner is charged. Whether a separately stated roofing labour charge is taxable is not addressed by that rule and is not stated here.