City of Springfield, Illinois - Office of Public Works, Building and Zoning Division

City of Springfield, Illinois

city

800 East Monroe Street, Springfield, IL 62701

Required

Required

Building permits for the City of Springfield, Illinois are administered by the Building and Zoning Division of the Office of Public Works. The Office of Public Works' own "Permits and Forms" page hosts the current Building Permit Application and the Building Code Board of Appeals Application as downloadable forms. General Public Works contact: 217-789-2255; the City's main switchboard is 217-789-2000 (800 East Monroe Street, Springfield, IL 62701). Permit fees are set by the schedule at Section 170.10.25, based on total declared construction value including materials and labor; every permit expires if work is not commenced within six months or is suspended or abandoned for six months (Section 170.10.21(b)). An applicant may appeal to the Springfield Building Code Board of Appeals (Section 170.10.07).

Springfield Code of Ordinances, Title XVII (Building Regulations), Chapter 170 ("Building Code"), Article I, Division 1, Section 170.10.03 ("Adoption of the International Building Code, the International Residential Code, the International Existing Building Code, the International Property Maintenance Code, and the NFPA 101 Life Safety Code"), subsection (a), states, in part: "The 2012 International Building Code (IBC), the 2012 International Residential Code (IRC), the 2012 International Existing Building Code (IEBC), and the 2012 International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC), all published by the International Code Council, Inc., and the NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, 2000 Edition ... are hereby adopted." This section's own amendment history ("Ord. No. 826-12-06, 12-19-06; Ord. No. 487-10-09, 10-8-09; Ord. No. 139-04-10, 4-6-10; Ord. No. 122-14-13, 4-2-13; Ord. No. 409-11-13, 11-19-13") shows it has not been amended since 2013, even though the chapter as a whole is codified through Ordinance No. 146-04-26 (enacted April 7, 2026, per the Municode job banner) -- so the 2012-edition adoption is current as codified. Subsections (c)-(i) of the same section (read in full, all 34,900 characters of Section 170.10.03) delete and insert specific IBC/IRC/IEBC/IPMC provisions: on the IRC side, deleted are Section R105.2 (Work exempt from permit), R112 (Board of Appeals), R313.1 and R313.2 (automatic fire sprinkler systems), R501.3 (fire protection of floors), and Chapter 11 (Energy Efficiency); inserted are a jurisdiction name at R101.1 and a local Table R301.2(1) at Section R301.2 (see wind_design_criteria and ice_water_shield_required). All of Chapter 170's remaining articles (Article II, Local Installation Standards, Sections 170.11.01-.10; Articles III-VII on demolition, moving buildings, and unsafe/vacant buildings and health/sanitation) were also fetched and read; across the whole of Chapter 170 Article I and Article II (45,322 characters) there is no amendment to IRC Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies), and no occurrence of "R905," "R908," "shingle," "sheath," or "drip." This record therefore states the 2012 IRC as Springfield's adopted residential code, with the local amendments disclosed above and no local Chapter 9 amendment found.

Required — Springfield's own local amendment table (Section 170.10.03(f)) adds design-criteria entries to IRC Table R301.2(1) but states nothing about drip edge, so it does not touch the base 2012 IRC's drip-edge provision. Because Chapter 170's adoption of the 2012 IRC is otherwise unamended on this point (see adopted_code), the base 2012 IRC drip-edge requirement at eaves and rakes applies in Springfield; this record points to that base provision without quoting or paraphrasing text nobody has read this session. About drip edge

Required — Springfield's own local amendment to IRC Table R301.2(1), Section 170.10.03(f), states verbatim: "ICE SHIELD UNDERLAYMENT IS REQUIRED." This is a city-enacted requirement, not a restatement of a state default (Illinois has none - see adopted_code). About ice & water barrier

Not required — CITY-SOURCED negative. Section 170.10.06 ("Inspections"), the chapter's only general inspections provision, was read in full: it names "Building inspections" generically -- the permittee "shall notify the department" "[u]pon completion of each portion of the permitted work," and separately when work "is to be concealed from view" -- and enumerates no dedicated roof-covering, mid-roof, or dry-in inspection stage. No other section of Chapter 170 names a roof-specific inspection step.

Not required — CITY-SOURCED negative. Chapter 170, Article I (the whole of the IBC/IRC/IEBC/IPMC adoption section and all of the city's own structural-standards article, 45,322 characters) was read in full and contains zero occurrences of "UL 2218," "Class 4," "Class IV," "impact," or "hail." Illinois' own statutes and administrative rules likewise contain no impact-resistance mandate for roof coverings (see the state lever); the one "Class 4" hit anywhere in Illinois law is a felony grade in the roofing licensing statute, unrelated to hail rating.

No roofing-specific dollar threshold is stated. The city's own Section 170.10.03(e) deletes the IRC's base "Work exempt from permit" provision (Section R105.2) outright, so the operative exemption list is the city's own, at Section 170.10.22 ("Exempted work"), read in full: it lists twelve categories (small accessory buildings, low fences, non-permanent partitions, short retaining walls, small water tanks, unroofed stoops/slabs and driveways, finish work such as painting and window replacement without altering rough openings, low window awnings, playground equipment, short-term tents, and floating boat docks), none of which is roof covering replacement or repair. One general, non-trade-specific exemption also appears at subsection (a)(9): "Alterations and remodeling where the total cost of all projects within a six-month period is less than $1,000.00 and does not constitute or affect corridors, exit ways, and load-bearing members" -- this record does not determine whether a given roofing job falls under that dollar figure. Separately, the permit fee schedule at Section 170.10.25(a) states that "the value to be used in computing the building permit fees shall be the total value of all construction work including materials and labor for which the permit is issued and shall also include all finish work, painting, roofing, electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, elevators, fire-extinguishing systems and any other permanent equipment" -- naming roofing by name as a fee-driving, permitted category.

Springfield's own local amendment to IRC Table R301.2(1), Section 170.10.03(f), states, in the ordinance's own formatting: "GROUND SNOW LOAD 30 PSF; WIND SPEED 90 MPH, EXPOSURE 'C' OR 'D'; ... SEISMIC DESIGN CATEGORY 'B'; WEATHERING 'SEVERE'; FROST LINE DEPTH 36"; TERMITE 'MODERATE TO HEAVY'; DECAY 'SLIGHT TO MODERATE'; WINTER DESIGN TEMPERATURE 2 DEGREES; ICE SHIELD UNDERLAYMENT IS REQUIRED ... AIR FREEZING INDEX 1,285; MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE 52.6 DEGREES." Two further city sections corroborate the same figures independently: Section 170.11.03 amends IBC Figure 1608.2 to set the ground snow load (Pg) at 30 pounds per square foot ("The minimum snow load for design purposes shall not be less than 30 pounds per square foot"), and Section 170.11.08 states "For section 1609.4, only exposure c or d shall be used for wind design." This record states the figures as the city's own ordinance prints them; it does not adjudicate whether the 90 mph figure is a nominal or an ultimate design wind speed.

Springfield adopts the 2012 International Residential Code (see adopted_code), and its local amendments to the IRC (Section 170.10.03(e)-(f), read in full) do not touch Chapter 9 (Roof Assemblies) or the base code's roof re-cover/replacement layer provision. This record does not independently classify the 2012 edition's layer-count rule: it has not itself read the 2012 IRC's re-cover/replacement section this session, so no section number, quote, or classification is stated here.

Springfield adopts the 2012 International Residential Code (see adopted_code). Its local amendments to the IRC (Section 170.10.03(e)-(f) and Article II, Sections 170.11.01-.10, all read in full) do not touch the IRC's roof deck-sheathing provisions (base IRC Chapter 8), so the base 2012 IRC sheathing provisions apply unmodified in Springfield. No local sheathing-specific requirement was found.

Illinois does not tax the roofing contract; it taxes the contractor's own purchase of materials incorporated into the property (86 Ill. Adm. Code 130.1940(c): a construction contractor "incurs Use Tax on the cost price of the tangible personal property that is incorporated into real estate," with "roofing materials" named by name), and repair and full replacement are taxed identically (130.1940(a)(3) defines "construct" to include "repair"). The rate that applies to that materials purchase is the rate where the supplier or the contractor's own place of business sits (86 Ill. Adm. Code 130.2075), not the rate at the job address. The Illinois Department of Revenue's own address-level machine-readable Retailers' Occupation Tax rate file (the same data the MyTax Illinois Tax Rate Finder, https://mytax.illinois.gov/?Link=TaxRateFinder, serves) lists Springfield's general jurisdiction (location code 084-0001-6R00, Sangamon County) with a "Purchases" (construction-contractor / use-tax) general-merchandise rate of 6.250% -- the state rate alone, unchanged since at least 2019-07-01, meaning no additional Springfield home-rule component applies to a contractor's own materials purchase at this location code. (By contrast, the file's "Receipts" rate -- the rate a RETAILER charges an ordinary buyer -- is 9.750% through 2026-06-30, rising to 10.250% effective 2026-07-01; that figure governs an over-the-counter retail sale, not a contractor's use-tax liability on materials converted into a customer's roof.) Practical effect: a roofer's own state-and-local tax cost on materials for a Springfield job is ordinarily 6.25%, keyed to where the roofer or supplier is based, not to the 9.75%-to-10.25% retail rate printed for Springfield addresses generally.