City of Rugby, North Dakota - Building Inspector

City of Rugby, North Dakota

city

Rugby, ND

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Building regulation in Rugby is run by a building inspector created by the City's own code. Section 17.04.010 provides that "There is created the position of building inspector, who shall be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the city council", and Section 17.04.020 makes it that officer's duty "to see to the enforcement of all ordinance provisions relating to buildings and zoning and to inspect all buildings or structures being erected or altered, frequently as may be necessary to ensure compliance with the city ordinance." Applications go to the city auditor or the building inspector, and a permit is valid for six months. THE STOP ORDER POWER IS BROAD AND FAST. Section 17.04.030: "The building inspector shall have the power to order all work stopped on construction or alteration or repair of buildings in the city, when such work is being done in violation of any provision of any ordinance relating thereto, or in violation of Title 19. Work shall not be resumed after the issuance of such an order except on the written permission of the inspector, provided that if the stop order is an oral one, it shall be followed by a written stop order within an hour. Such written stop order may be served by any policeman." Section 17.04.040 gives the inspector a right of entry to any premises where altering, repairing or constructing is going on, at any reasonable hour. THE FIRE LIMITS ARE THE RULE MOST LIKELY TO CATCH A ROOFER OUT. Section 17.04.110 makes it unlawful to construct a building within the fire limits "unless the exterior walls and roof of such building or structure are covered with or constructed of nonflammable material", with a carve-out for wooden porches, balconies or ornamental work no higher than the second story. Section 17.04.100 keeps the fire limits as they stood on 3 June 1957 but provides that once the City enacts a zoning ordinance, everything zoned for other than residential use becomes the fire limits - and Rugby has a zoning title. AND A REPAIR BAR THAT HAS NO MODERN EQUIVALENT. Section 17.04.120: "It shall be unlawful to repair any existing frame building within the fire limits after the same has been damaged by any cause to fifty percent of its value. Any existing frame building in the fire limits may be brick veneered." On a badly storm-damaged frame building inside the fire limits, that provision has to be cleared with the building inspector before a repair is quoted at all. Separately, Chapter 17.04 carries a full dangerous buildings procedure at Sections 17.04.430 to 17.04.550, and a building moving scheme at Sections 17.04.370 to 17.04.390 requiring a permit, route approval and a bond.

RUGBY'S CODIFIED BUILDING TITLE IS ITS OWN CODE, NOT AN ADOPTED MODEL CODE, AND THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ON THIS PAGE. Title 17 of the Rugby Municipal Code, Buildings and Construction, was read in full. Its Chapter 17.04, the Building Code chapter, runs from Section 17.04.010 to Section 17.04.560 and derives from Ordinance 70 of 1957, with later amendments including Ordinance 387 of 2014 to the permit section. Across that whole chapter the phrase "International" does not appear once, and neither does "State Building Code": the chapter sets out its own fire limits, its own construction regulations, its own floor and roof loads, its own wind pressure, its own working stresses, masonry and concrete rules, egress and fire escape rules, and its own dangerous buildings procedure. The other chapters of Title 17 cover the plumbing code, the electrical code and areas of special flood hazard. The codified text used here is current through Ordinance No. 461, enacted 3 February 2025. THE STATE FRAMEWORK, STATED AND NOT ADJUDICATED. North Dakota has no building code of general application. Under NDCC 54-21.3-03(6) "The governing body of a city, township, or county that elects to administer and enforce a building code shall adopt and enforce the state building code", though "the state building code may be amended by cities, townships, and counties to conform to local needs", and the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book states that "Effective January 1, 2026, the North Dakota State Building Code consists of the 2024 International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), International Mechanical Code (IMC), International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Energy Conservation Code, and the International Existing Building Code as published by the International Code Council (ICC)." Rugby does not appear on the North Dakota Department of Commerce's directory of code enforcing jurisdictions, and that document says of itself that "Jurisdictions not on this list may have elected to adopt the State Building Code; therefore, we advise contacting the local governing body to confirm building code requirements", so absence from it proves nothing either way. WHAT THIS MEANS IN PRACTICE. This record does not decide whether a modern model code applies in Rugby alongside the City's own title, because that is a legal question rather than a sourceable fact. What it does say is that the City's own codified building code is the one quoted throughout this record, and that a roofer should ask the building inspector, in terms, which code the permit will be written to before pricing a job here. Section 17.04.050 requires all building construction to be "performed in strict compliance with the ordinances of the City of Rugby, and the provisions of this chapter, and any other such rules and regulations as the City shall make from time to time".

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in Rugby, at either level of government, and that is established by reading the instruments in full rather than by failing to find one. CITY LEVEL. Rugby Municipal Code Title 17, Buildings and Construction, is the City's building instrument, and its Chapter 17.04 was read in full, Sections 17.04.010 through 17.04.560, current through Ordinance No. 461 enacted 3 February 2025. It contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 provision, and no impact, hail or roof-covering rating requirement of any kind. Nor does the City's business licensing title, which carries no roofing or contractor provisions. STATE LEVEL. The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code, published in the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book, were also read in full - thirty numbered section amendments - and none addresses roofing or impact rating. THE ONE ROOF-COVERING RULE RUGBY DOES HAVE IS A FIRE RULE, NOT AN IMPACT RULE, AND CONFUSING THE TWO WOULD BE EXPENSIVE. Section 17.04.110 provides: "It shall be unlawful to construct any building or structure within the fire limits unless the exterior walls and roof of such building or structure are covered with or constructed of nonflammable material; provided, that this shall not operate to prohibit the construction of wooden porches, balconies or ornamental work no higher than the second story within such fire limits." Non-flammable is a fire property. Impact resistance under UL 2218 is a hail rating graded under an entirely different standard, and nothing in Rugby or North Dakota law requires it. An impact-rated shingle may still be worth buying, and an insurer may discount for one.

RUGBY REQUIRES A PERMIT BEFORE WORK STARTS AND SETS A PLANS THRESHOLD AT $2,500, BUT IT PUBLISHES NO LIST OF WORK EXEMPT FROM PERMIT AND NAMES ROOFING NOWHERE. Title 17 was read in full and contains no exemption schedule in either direction. THE PERMIT RULE. Section 17.04.050 provides: "No person shall begin any construction work on their property for which a permit is required until that person has made application for a permit to the city building inspector or city auditor and the permit has been issued. All building construction shall be performed in strict compliance with the ordinances of the City of Rugby, and the provisions of this chapter, and any other such rules and regulations as the City shall make from time to time for the execution of the same." THE APPLICATION AND THE $2,500 LINE. Section 17.04.060 requires an application to the city auditor "accompanied by a statement of the proposed location, dimensions and manner of the proposed construction, alteration or repair of such building or structure." It continues: "Where the cost of the proposed construction, alteration or repair shall exceed two thousand five hundred dollars there shall also be furnished to the city auditor a complete copy of the plans and specifications of the same, and where such cost shall be less than two thousand five hundred dollars, there shall be furnished to the city auditor such sufficient information as shall enable the building inspector to make all necessary records and a complete description of such building or structure." Note what that threshold does and does not do: it decides whether full plans and specifications must be filed, not whether a permit is needed. A permit issued under that section "shall be valid for six months from the date thereof", and Section 17.04.070 makes it unlawful to vary materially from the submitted plans without an amended plan approved by the building inspector. THE FEE SCHEDULE, WHICH IS IN THE CODE. Section 17.04.090 sets fees: measuring lot lines $50; a fence, deck or shed up to 10 feet by 12 feet $25; a shed over that size $75. For a residential home, remodeling and additions cost $75, and new construction $100 for a project valued from $0 to $250,000 or $200 from $250,001 and up. For commercial property, remodeling and additions cost $100, and new construction $400 up to $1,000,000, $750 from $1,000,001 to $4,000,000, and $1,000 from $4,000,001 and up. There is no roofing line on that schedule; a reroof would most naturally be priced as remodeling, but the City has not said so and the building inspector should be asked. TWO STATE-LEVEL CARVE-OUTS THAT REACH ROOF WORK. NDCC 54-21.3-04 exempts from the state building code chapter "Buildings which are neither heated nor cooled" and "Any building used for agricultural purposes, unless a place of human habitation or for use by the public". Those are exemptions from the state chapter and not from Rugby's own ordinance, which is a separate instrument.

RUGBY STATES ITS OWN DESIGN LOADS, AND THEY ARE EXPRESSED IN A FORM MODERN PRACTICE NO LONGER USES, SO READ THE UNITS BEFORE USING THEM. The figures are in Section 17.04.180, headed "Floor loads and wind pressure", which opens: "The design for all buildings and other structures shall conform to good engineering practice. The following table gives the minimum uniform live loads in pounds a square foot which shall be used in the design of buildings, except that the specified live loads (but not the roof or sidewalk loads) may be reduced by twenty percent in buildings of fireproof construction." THE ROOF NUMBER. In that table the entry for roofs is 30 pounds per square foot, and the section's own opening sentence expressly excludes the roof load from the twenty percent fireproof-construction reduction, so 30 is a floor rather than a starting point. THE WIND NUMBER, AND WHY IT CANNOT BE CONVERTED. The same section provides: "Buildings and other structures shall be designed to resist a horizontal wind pressure of twenty pounds on every square foot of surface that is exposed, in addition to the dead loads and live loads specified above." That is a PRESSURE in pounds per square foot, not a wind SPEED in miles per hour. It is not the same quantity as the ultimate design wind speed or the nominal wind speed that a modern code's climatic table gives, and it must not be converted into one or compared with one. Where a modern fastening schedule or a product approval is written to a design wind speed, ask the building inspector how the City reconciles it with this section rather than doing the arithmetic yourself. THE ANCHORAGE RULE THAT GOES WITH IT. "If the overturning moment due to wind pressure exceeds seventy-five percent of the moment of stability of the structure due to dead load only, the structure shall be anchored to its foundations, which shall be of sufficient weight to insure the stability of the structure. Sufficient diagonal bracing or rigid connections between the uprights and horizontal structure members shall be provided to resist distortion." WHAT IS NOT HERE. Rugby's title states no ground snow load, no seismic design category, no frost depth, no winter design temperature and no ice barrier determination, because it is not built on a model code's climatic and geographical design criteria table. Those figures have to come from the building inspector.

Rugby imposes no layer rule, and unusually for this directory there is no adopted model code sitting behind the City's silence to supply one. Chapter 17.04 of the Rugby Municipal Code was read in full, Sections 17.04.010 through 17.04.560, current through Ordinance No. 461 enacted 3 February 2025, and it contains no roof-covering, shingle, recover or re-roofing provision and no limit on the number of layers. The City's building chapter is its own code rather than an adoption of the International Residential Code, so unlike most jurisdictions in this directory there is no base code text to fall back on that this record can point at. That is why no layer count is stated here and none should be inferred, in either direction: the absence of a City rule is not permission for an unlimited number of layers, because it is not settled on the face of the City's code which other code, if any, applies alongside it. What the City's own chapter does impose on a roof is a minimum uniform live load of 30 pounds per square foot, which is the practical constraint on stacking covering weight, and, inside the fire limits, a requirement that the roof be covered with or constructed of nonflammable material. Ask the building inspector two questions before bidding an overlay in Rugby: how many layers the City will permit, and which code the permit will be written to.

Rugby publishes no roof sheathing or decking standard, and that is established by reading the City's own building chapter in full rather than by failing to find one. Chapter 17.04 of the Rugby Municipal Code was read from Section 17.04.010 to Section 17.04.560, and the word "sheathing" does not appear in it; there is no span table, no panel thickness minimum and no fastener schedule for a roof deck. The chapter's structural provisions are about other things: permissible working stresses, mortar, materials for concrete, bearing power of soils, masonry walls, monolithic concrete walls, and beams entering party and fire walls. WHAT THE DECK HAS TO CARRY, WHICH IS STATED. Section 17.04.180 sets a minimum uniform live load for roofs of 30 pounds per square foot, and expressly excludes the roof load from the twenty percent reduction it allows for other live loads in buildings of fireproof construction. The same section requires structures to be designed to resist a horizontal wind pressure of 20 pounds per square foot of exposed surface. THE FIRE LIMITS RULE REACHES THE COVERING, THOUGH NOT THE DECK. Section 17.04.110 makes it unlawful to construct a building within the City's fire limits "unless the exterior walls and roof of such building or structure are covered with or constructed of nonflammable material". Section 17.04.100 fixes those limits as the fire limits in effect on 3 June 1957, and provides that if the City enacts a zoning ordinance then "all that part of the city zoned for other than residential use in such ordinance shall be and become the fire limits of the city". Rugby does have a zoning title, so check the zoning of the parcel before assuming a job is outside the fire limits. Where a tear-off exposes deteriorated sheathing, the sizing of the replacement is a matter for the building inspector under Section 17.04.080, which requires the inspector to make such inspections, tests or examinations of materials and methods as are necessary.

7.00% on materials in Rugby - North Dakota state sales and use tax of 5%, plus the City of Rugby's 2% local sales, use and gross receipts tax. THERE IS NO COUNTY COMPONENT. Pierce County does not appear in the county table of the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner's Local Taxes by Location Guideline, which lists only eight North Dakota counties as imposing a local tax, and the Rugby city row carries none of the shading or bracketed county name the guideline uses to mark a city that also owes county tax. The guideline, rates effective 1 July 2026, shows the City's rate history as 1% from 1-1-93 and 1% from 10-1-09, giving the current 2%. New farm machinery is not subject to the local tax, and permit holder compensation is 3% capped at $50.00 a month or $150.00 a quarter. AND THE MAXIMUM TAX CAP HAS BEEN REMOVED. The guideline's maximum tax column for Rugby reads $25 per sale from 1-1-93 and then none from 10-1-25, and the last dated entry is the one in force, so as of 1 October 2025 there is no per-transaction cap on Rugby local tax. WHO PAYS IT ON A ROOF. North Dakota treats a roofing contractor as the final consumer of the materials installed into real property: "A contractor or subcontractor entering into any contract, except for a labor only contract, is regarded as the final user or consumer of all tangible personal property installed into real property." So the contractor pays the tax on its material purchases and does not charge the homeowner sales tax on an install-plus-materials reroof; selling materials without installing them is a taxable retail sale instead. ONE RUGBY SPECIFIC. The City is NOT among the sixty jurisdictions whose local tax ordinance carries the limited exemption for materials bought inside the jurisdiction but installed outside it, so where a contractor buys on a certificate of exemption the guideline's default applies: "use tax is due to the local jurisdiction where the materials were purchased regardless of where the materials were installed." Buying in Rugby for a job out in Pierce County therefore still carries the Rugby local tax, even though the county levies none.