Summit County, Ohio - Division of Building Standards

Summit County, Ohio

county

1030 East Tallmadge Avenue, Akron, OH 44310

Required

Not required

Summit County's Division of Building Standards is at 1030 East Tallmadge Avenue, Akron, OH 44310 (330-630-7280; fax 330-630-7296). Office hours are Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; inspections run Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Permits, inspection scheduling, and payment (credit card or check) are available 24/7 through the Division's own online portal at permitsearch.summitoh.net (Google Chrome required); cash and checks are also accepted in person (no cash accepted after 3 p.m.). The Division's own residential "Building Permit Application" (form REV. 4/24) is a single combined form for new construction, additions, alterations, re-roofing, siding, demolition, and accessory structures; a residential re-roof is priced at $40 plus the $50 base application fee, plus a 1% Ohio Board of Building Standards (OBBS) fee on the subtotal. A re-inspection fee applies for each failed inspection ($30 for the 1st and 2nd, $60 for the 3rd, $80 for the 4th). As of the county's own March 2024 building-code revision, mobile homes now require a county permit for repairs and alterations, and property owners performing work on homes they do not occupy ("flipped" homes) must use a qualified contractor responsible for the installation.

SET BY STATE RULE, with a county-specific administrative layer confirmed and a county-specific technical-code layer that could not be opened this session. Ohio regulates one-, two- and three-family dwelling construction statewide through the Residential Code of Ohio (RCO), adopted by the Ohio Board of Building Standards under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 3781 and codified at Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 4101:8. The roof-assembly rule (OAC 4101:8-9-01), the administrative rule (OAC 4101:8-1-01) and the climatic/geographic design-criteria rule (OAC 4101:8-3-01) were all read in full this session from the state's own codes.ohio.gov copies; all three carry an effective date of July 1, 2019 (Five Year Review date 7/1/2024). Ohio Rev. Code 3781.01(B) lets a municipal or county legislative authority add non-conflicting local building regulations. Summit County's Division of Building Standards (1030 East Tallmadge Avenue, Akron) is the certified residential building department for its member jurisdictions and administers its own permit intake, fee schedule, and (as of a March 2024 local revision, announced on the Division's own page) a permit-based contractor documentation process that replaced prior annual contractor registration. The Division's own page states that, effective 3/1/2024, RCO Chapters 4, 34 and 44 were modified (link to the state's own AG101 notice package, read in full this session -- 108 pages, no roofing- or impact-resistance-related content found, consistent with those chapters covering foundations/electrical, not roof assemblies), and separately that a Feb. 26, 2024 correction withdrew the proposed Chapters 34/44 amendments, leaving the 2019-edition RCO Chapters 34 and 44 (with the 2017 National Electrical Code) in effect pending a planned 4/15/2024 re-adoption; Chapter 4's 3/1/2024 amendment was unaffected by that withdrawal. Summit County's own codified Building Code (hosted at codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/summitcounty) could not be opened this session -- it returned a Cloudflare interstitial to curl, wget, and the WebFetch tool alike -- so whether that code adds roofing-specific technical provisions beyond the state RCO floor and the county's own permit-application fee schedule has not been fully determined in this record.

Not required — SET BY STATE RULE, and a genuine deviation from most other IRC-based states -- confirmed this session from the state's own copy. The entire text of RCO Section 905.2.8.5 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019) is: "905.2.8.5 Drip edge. Refer to Sections 903.1 and 905.1." Section 903.1 (General) requires only that roof coverings be secured "in accordance with the provisions of this chapter" and "the approved manufacturer's instructions," and Section 905.1 (Roof covering application) is a general wind-load-resistance provision -- neither imposes a drip-edge mandate. There is therefore no numbered Ohio provision requiring a drip edge at eaves and rakes with dimensional or fastening specifications. The county's own residential permit application does not separately address drip edge, and the county's own codified Building Code -- which could add a local drip-edge requirement under ORC 3781.01(B) -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code), so this record states only the confirmed state floor, not necessarily the complete picture for Summit County. About drip edge

Required — SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Table 301.2(1) (OAC 4101:8-3-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, pre-fills "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required" as "Yes" for the entire state, with footnote (h) reciting, verbatim, that per Sections 905.1.2, 905.4.3.1, 905.5.3.1, 905.6.3.1, 905.7.3.1 and 905.8.3.1, "all jurisdictions in Ohio have a history of local damage from the effects of ice damming." RCO Section 905.1.2 requires the ice barrier to extend from the lowest roof edge to a point not less than 24 inches inside the exterior wall line (36 inches on slopes at or above 8:12), consisting of not fewer than two layers of cemented underlayment or a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen sheet. No Summit-County-specific confirmation or expansion of this requirement was found; the county's own codified Building Code could not be opened this session (see adopted_code). About ice & water barrier

Not required — Sourced negative. RCO Section 108.2 "Required inspections" (OAC 4101:8-1-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, enumerates the complete statewide list of required residential inspections in subsections 108.2.1 through 108.2.12: lot line markers, footing/foundation, concrete slab and under-floor, lowest floor elevation, frame inspection, lath or gypsum board, fire-resistant penetrations, energy efficiency, testing of building service equipment, other inspections at the building official's discretion, compliance-with-construction-documents inspections, and industrialized-unit inspections. None of these names a discrete mid-roof, dry-in, or roof-covering inspection stage; the closest, 108.2.5 "Frame inspection," occurs "after the roof deck or sheathing... are in place" -- i.e., before roof-covering installation, not a check of the roof covering itself. The county's own residential permit forms likewise do not name a mid-roof inspection stage. The county's own codified Building Code -- which could add a local inspection stage -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code).

SET BY STATE RULE for the general exemption, with the county's own permit application confirming roofing is not treated as exempt work. RCO Section 102.10 (OAC 4101:8-1-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, lists the statewide "Work exempt from approval" -- eleven numbered items under "Building," including one-story accessory sheds up to 200 square feet, fences under six feet, small retaining walls, sidewalks/driveways, finish work such as painting and tiling, and decks under 200 square feet -- and roofing or re-roofing is not among them. Section 102.10.2 ("Minor repairs") separately allows minor repairs to residential structures without application or notice to the building official, but excludes any work involving structural members, egress, or building-service piping/wiring; it does not name a dollar or area threshold. Summit County's own residential "Building Permit Application" (form REV. 4/24) fee-schedules "RE-ROOF" as a standard, fee-bearing residential permit line item ($40 plus the $50 application fee) alongside new construction, additions, siding, and demolition, with no minimum-valuation or minor-repair carve-out for roofing identified on the form. The county's own codified Building Code -- which could add a county-specific numeric threshold -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code).

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Table 301.2(1) ("Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria"), OAC 4101:8-3-01 effective 7/1/2019, read in full this session from the state's own copy, pre-fills a Wind Design Speed of 115 mph (ultimate design wind speed) for the entire state -- the value is printed directly in the table rather than left blank for local fill-in -- along with Weathering "severe," Termite "Moderate to heavy," and Ice Barrier Underlayment Required "Yes." Wind exposure category is determined site-specifically per Section 301.2.1.4, not by state or county rule. Ground snow load is the one geographically-varying cell in the table and is NOT pre-filled statewide: the master rule leaves that cell blank, with footnote (o) directing, verbatim, "The jurisdiction shall fill in this section of the table using the Ground Snow Loads in Figure 301.2(6)." No Summit-County-specific reading of that figure was obtained from a Summit County primary source this session, so no ground snow load figure is stated here.

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 908.3.1.1 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, states: "A roof recover shall not be permitted where any of the following conditions occur: ... 3. Where the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." Section 908.3 (Roof replacement) separately requires that a full roof replacement "include the removal of existing layers of roof coverings down to the roof deck," with a narrow exception allowing an adhered ice-barrier membrane to remain in place under an additional ice-barrier layer. Together these provisions bar recovering over an existing roof that already carries two or more layers, effectively capping a re-covered roof at two total layers. Summit County's own residential permit application does not separately restate a layer limit, and the county's own codified Building Code -- which could add a local layer restriction -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code).

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.2.1 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, states verbatim: "Asphalt shingles shall be fastened to solidly sheathed decks." No Summit-County-specific deck-sheathing provision was found: the county's own Building Permit Application does not address deck sheathing, and the county's own codified Building Code -- which could add a local sheathing requirement under ORC 3781.01(B) -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code).

SET BY STATE RULE. RCO Section 905.2.5 (OAC 4101:8-9-01, effective 7/1/2019), read in full this session from the state's own copy, requires fasteners for asphalt shingles to be galvanized steel, stainless steel, aluminum, or copper roofing nails, minimum 12-gage shank with a minimum 3/8-inch-diameter head, complying with ASTM F1667, of a length to penetrate through the roofing materials and not less than 3/4 inch into the roof sheathing (through the sheathing where it is thinner than 3/4 inch). Section 905.2.6 requires not less than four fasteners per strip shingle or two fasteners per individual shingle, per the manufacturer's approved installation instructions, with additional fasteners required by the manufacturer's instructions where roof slope exceeds 21:12. Summit County's own residential permit application does not restate fastener specifications, and the county's own codified Building Code -- which could add a local fastening requirement -- could not be opened this session (see adopted_code). About roofing nails

Summit County's combined state-and-local sales and use tax rate is 6.75%, per the Ohio Department of Taxation's Sales and Use Tax Rate Map (dated March 31, 2026, reflecting rates in effect as of October 2025): a 5.75% state rate (per the map's own note 3, "The current state rate is 5.75%") plus a 0.50% Summit County permissive rate plus a 0.50% transit permissive rate, printed in the map's own county table as "Summit 0.50% 0.50% 6.75%." The map's narrative separately places Summit County among "31 lower rate counties, with rates between 6.50 percent and 7.0 percent."