Town of Smyrna, Tennessee - Building Safety Department

Town of Smyrna, Rutherford County, Tennessee

city

Smyrna, TN

Not required

Required

The Building Safety Department lists the adopted codes, effective April 15, 2026, as the 2024 International Building Code, 2024 International Residential Code, 2024 International Plumbing Code, 2024 International Mechanical Code, 2024 International Fuel Gas Code, 2024 International Property Maintenance Code, 2024 International Fire Code, 2024 International Energy Conservation Code, 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code and 2024 International Existing Building Code, together with the 2017 National Electric Code and the most recent edition of ICC A117.1. The Town publishes its own modifications to those codes line by line. Smyrna is two editions ahead of the Tennessee statewide minimum of the 2018 International Residential Code, which the state scheme permits and effectively encourages: a local government may not be less stringent than the state minimum and its adopted edition must be within seven years of the latest published.

Not required — Not required. The Town of Smyrna's Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria sheet lists "Ice Barrier No", and the same entry appears in its line-by-line modifications as part of the amendment to Table R301.2. That entry is the operative act rather than a description of the weather: the adopted residential code conditions its ice barrier requirements on a history of local damage from ice damming as designated in Table R301.2, and Smyrna has made the designation in the negative. A roofer is free to install an ice and water barrier as good practice or because a shingle manufacturer's warranty calls for it, but the Town does not require one. About ice & water barrier

NOT A THRESHOLD BUT A CONDITIONAL EXEMPTION, and it is the most important thing a roofer can know about Smyrna. The Town's line-by-line modifications amend section 105.2 of the 2024 International Residential Code, Work exempt from permit, in four places, and the fourth reads: "(d) Add item #11. 'Roof covering replacement where the repairs do not involve replacement of the roof deck and/or structural framing.'" So an ordinary re-roof in Smyrna needs no building permit at all, whatever its size or cost - there is no dollar figure and no square-footage figure at which the obligation begins. THE CONDITION IS THE WHOLE OF IT, AND IT IS EASY TO CROSS WITHOUT NOTICING: the exemption holds only while the work does not involve replacing the roof deck or the structural framing. A job that opens up to reveal rotten decking moves from exempt to permitted the moment that decking is replaced, so a roofer who finds deck damage mid-tear-off should stop and call the Building Safety Department rather than carry on. The other three amendments to the same section are unrelated to roofing - they shrink the exempt accessory structure and the exempt deck from 200 square feet to 100, and add that "any fence used as a pool barrier will require a permit." Exemption from a permit is not exemption from the code: the roof assembly requirements of the adopted 2024 residential code still govern how the work is done.

The Town publishes a completed Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria sheet, and the same figures appear in its line-by-line modifications as an amendment to Table R301.2: ground snow load 13 lb; WIND SPEED 90 SUSTAINED OR 3 SECOND WIND GUSTS UP TO 115; topographic effects no; special wind region no; windborne debris zone no; seismic design D; weathering severe; frost line 12 inches; termite severe; ice barrier no; air freezing index 1500 or less; flood hazards in accordance with the adopted code; mean average temperature 60.8 degrees F; elevation 545; latitude 36. SMYRNA STATES BOTH WIND BASES ON THE FACE OF THE DOCUMENT, WHICH IS UNUSUAL AND USEFUL. A wind speed means nothing without the basis it is stated in, and a nominal figure and an ultimate figure for the same site differ by roughly the square root of 0.6 - close enough that the two look like a disagreement when they are the same loading twice. By publishing the sustained figure and the three-second gust figure together, the Town removes the question that a single unlabelled number leaves open. Note also the seismic design category D, which is high for a residential jurisdiction and reflects the New Madrid seismic zone.

Two layers maximum - one overlay is permitted, and a second existing layer requires a tear-off. Smyrna adopts the 2024 International Residential Code and publishes its modifications line by line; they were read in full and touch the permit exemptions, the climatic and geographic design criteria, flood provisions, certificates of occupancy and a handful of definitions. None of them amends section R908 or any part of the roof assemblies chapter, so the adopted code text governs unchanged. In the 2024 edition the operative provision is section R908.4, Roof recover, whose closing Exceptions block carries the same three bars the earlier editions state at R908.3.1.1. Section R908.3.1.1 of the 2024 International Residential Code provides that a roof recover shall not be permitted where any of three conditions occur, the third being "where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." One existing layer may be recovered; a second forces removal. The other two conditions apply whatever the layer count: a covering that is water soaked or has deteriorated to the point that it is not an adequate base for additional roofing, and a covering of slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile. TENNESSEE PUTS A FLOOR UNDER THIS THAT IS WORTH KNOWING: the statewide minimum for one- and two-family dwellings is the 2018 International Residential Code, and Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0780-02-23-.12(2) provides that "no city, county, town, municipal corporation, metropolitan government, or political subdivision of the State of Tennessee shall adopt or enforce any ordinance prescribing less stringent standards ... than those established hereunder" without the state fire marshal's written approval. A Tennessee jurisdiction may therefore be stricter than the two-layer rule but cannot be more permissive than it. Note that this rule governs the work itself and is unaffected by the fact that Smyrna requires no permit for a straightforward roof covering replacement.

9.75% in the Town of Smyrna - the 7% Tennessee state sales tax plus the 2.75% local tax levied by Rutherford County, which is the statutory maximum. Tennessee sets the state rate and lets each county or incorporated city levy its own local tax on top: the Department of Revenue states that "any county or incorporated city, by resolution or ordinance, may levy the local sales and use tax on the same privileges that are subject to the state's sales or use tax," and that "the local tax rate may not be higher than 2.75% and must be a multiple of .25." THAT CAP IS WHY A CITY RATE IS NOT ADDED TO ITS COUNTY RATE: several Tennessee cities levy the full 2.75% while sitting in a county that levies less, and stacking the two would exceed the statutory maximum. Where an incorporated city has its own rate, that rate is the local rate inside the city; where it has none, the county rate applies. The figures here are from the Department of Revenue's own machine-readable rate file for the third quarter of 2026, which the Department publishes for use in tax calculation applications. The Town of Smyrna levies no separate municipal sales tax - it has no entry of its own in the Department of Revenue rate file - so the Rutherford County rate applies inside the town, and the rate is the same here as in the unincorporated county around it.