Twin Falls County - Building Department

Twin Falls County, Idaho

county

630 Addison Avenue West, Suite 1101, Twin Falls, ID 83301

Required

Required

HOW A JOB IS BOOKED AND INSPECTED. Building inspections are requested on the Twin Falls County building inspection line, 208-735-4429, and the department asks callers to "have ready: the permit number, property address, contact person and phone number, and type of inspection." The scheduling rule is early and strict: "Inspections called in after 7:00 am will be scheduled for the next working day." Inspections run "Monday through Friday, typically from 9:30 am to 4 pm, except holidays", are "typically done in the order received", and footing and foundation inspections take priority over everything else - which is worth knowing on a tear-off day, because a roof inspection is not at the front of the queue. Work outside those hours must be arranged with the inspector in advance. ON SITE. An Inspection Record Card is issued with every approved permit, and "The Inspection Record Card and the Approved Job Site Plans must be on site for all inspections." The permit holder, not the County, is responsible for requesting each inspection, and "Each required inspection must be requested by the permit holder and be signed off by the inspector prior to proceeding to the next phase of construction." A re-inspection fee may be charged where the work is not ready or a correction has not been made; the County's fee schedule prices an inspection fee at $55.00. Post the job address at the road so the inspector can find the site. TIMING. Residential plan review is "usually not more than seven business days" on a complete submittal, and "All permits expire after 180 days from the date of permit issuance or the date of last inspection."

THE 2018 EDITIONS WITH THE IDAHO AMENDMENTS, STATED BY THE COUNTY ON ITS OWN DEPARTMENT PAGE. Under the heading "**NOTICE TO BUILDING PERMIT APPLICANTS**" the Twin Falls County Building Department states: "Twin Falls County has adopted the 2018 versions, with Idaho Amendments, of the International Building Codes (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), Energy Conservation Code (IECC), Mechanical Code (IMC), Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Existing Building Code (IEBC), 2018 Fire Code (IFC) with Idaho Amendments, and the 2018 Idaho Manufactured Home Installation Standards." A house is built and reroofed under the residential code in that list. STATE FRAMEWORK, WHICH IS WHAT "WITH IDAHO AMENDMENTS" REFERS TO. Idaho's residential code is set by the Idaho Building Code Board, not by the county. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03 adopts the "International Residential Code, 2018 Edition ... Parts I, II, III, and IX of the 2018 Edition for one (1)- and two (2)-family dwellings", effective July 1, 2024, together with the state's own list of amendments; Idaho Code 39-4116(2) requires a local government that issues building permits and performs code enforcement to adopt the Idaho residential code parts I-III and IX by ordinance, and bars it from adopting provisions of a later IRC edition the Board has not adopted. Roofing sits in Part III and is included. Idaho Code 39-4116(6): "Permits shall be governed by the laws in effect at the time the permit application is received." ONE DOCUMENT ON THE COUNTY'S OWN SITE IS OUT OF DATE, AND A ROOFER SHOULD NOT BE CAUGHT BY IT. The County's residential handout, whose own footer reads "Revised 1/2014", still says "Twin Falls County adopted the 2012 International Building Code" and prints a wind load of "90 mph 3 second gust". Both figures are superseded by the department page quoted above and by the design criteria set out under wind design criteria in this record. Use the department page; treat the handout's code edition and wind figure as history. WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED. The Twin Falls County Code itself is published only through a commercial codifier that refuses automated access, so the County's own adopting ordinance and any local amendment list could not be read for this record. No local amendment to the roofing chapter is asserted or denied here.

THE TRIGGER IS AS BROAD AS IT GETS, AND IT NAMES REPAIR. The Twin Falls County residential building permit handout, under the heading "WHEN IS A BUILDING PERMIT REQUIRED", states: "A building permit is required any time a building or structure is erected, constructed, remodeled, enlarged, altered, repaired, moved, removed, converted, or demolished. This includes work within a building that would be considered non-structural, such as moving or erecting non-bearing walls." Replacing a roof covering is a repair or an alteration of an existing structure, so it is inside that sentence. The same handout adds "The law requires that a building permit be issued prior to any work being done", and the department's inspection page closes with "NO WORK TO BE DONE UNTIL PERMIT IS ISSUED". STARTING WITHOUT ONE IS EXPENSIVE. "The minimum penalty for work started without a permit is an amount equal to the building permit fee." THE EXEMPTION LIST IS DELIBERATELY NOT PUBLISHED, AND THE COUNTY SAYS SO. The same handout ends that paragraph: "There are some types of work that are exempt, and the building department can provide you with this information." On the remodelling side it repeats the point: "Check with the building department prior to start of any remodeling or repairs for a listing of limited exemption." So there is no published County threshold - no square footage, no dollar value, no repair size - below which roof work is exempt, and none should be assumed from a neighbouring jurisdiction. The only exemption the County does publish in writing is unrelated to roofing: "Permits are not required for accessory buildings under 200 s/f that are accessory to the residence." WHAT TO DO WITH A SMALL REPAIR. Ring Community Development Services on 208-933-9279 and ask for the exemption list before treating a patch as exempt. A reroof of a dwelling is not a borderline case; it is squarely within "repaired" and "altered".

THE COUNTY STATES THE BASIS, WHICH MOST IDAHO JURISDICTIONS DO NOT. Under "Building Design Criteria and Plan Preparation" the Twin Falls County Building Department publishes: "Wind Loading as follows: International Residential Code 115 mph, 3-second gust, International Building Code for risk category II buildings of 105 mph wind design." So the residential figure is 115 mph on a three-second gust basis, and the 105 mph figure beside it is the commercial number for risk category II buildings, not a second residential answer. The same block continues: "Height and exposure adjustment coefficient is "C"", "Snow Load 30 lbs. per sq. ft. (ground)", "Seismic design category "C"", "Design Temperature zero degrees Fahrenheit", "Weathering Probability rating for concrete is "Severe".", "Frost line depth is 24" below finished grade." and "Maximum soil bearing pressure is 1,500 lbs. per sq. ft. unless a soils investigation is provided". TWO THINGS THAT BEAR DIRECTLY ON A ROOF. The 30 pounds per square foot is a GROUND snow load; the roof snow load is derived from it under the code's own procedure and the County does not state it. And the County adds a truss rule that a reroofing crew opening a deck should know about: "Truss design drawings shall be in accordance with R802.10 and retained on site by the framing inspection" and "Trusses need to be marked on the underside of the truss in the interior of the building." DO NOT USE THE OLDER FIGURE THE COUNTY STILL HOSTS. Its residential handout, footer-dated "Revised 1/2014", prints "Wind Load 90 mph 3 second gust". That is the superseded criterion from the County's 2012-code era. A nominal three-second gust figure and a modern ultimate design wind speed are different numbers for the same loading and are never interchangeable, so take the current 115 mph three-second gust figure from the department page and do not convert between bases. ONE STATE FACT ON THE WIND SIDE. The State of Idaho deletes the model code's wind-borne debris opening-protection section statewide: IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03(d) reads "Section R301.2.1.2 Protection of Openings. Delete." That is a window and door provision rather than a roofing one, and under Idaho Code 39-4116(4)(b) a local jurisdiction may not re-adopt a provision the Idaho Building Code Board has expressly rejected.

6.0% -- the Idaho state rate, with no local add-on. Idaho Code 63-3619 imposes the state sales tax "at the rate of six percent (6%)". Idaho has only two kinds of local sales tax, and neither reaches roofing work in Twin Falls County. The first is the resort-city local-option tax, which Idaho Code 50-1044 confines to a resort city "with a population not in excess of ten thousand (10,000)"; the Idaho State Tax Commission publishes the list of cities that levy one, and no Twin Falls County city appears on it, nor does a county have that authority. The second is an auditorium-district tax, which the Tax Commission states "can charge a local sales tax only for short-term lodging (30 days or less)" and so never reaches roofing work. Idaho counties levy no sales tax at all. HOW A ROOF IS TAXED, WHICH MATTERS MORE THAN THE RATE: the Tax Commission's contractor guidance states that "Idaho sales tax law says contractors are the consumers (end users) of all the goods they use. As a result, they must pay sales tax on all purchases", and it names roofers among the contractors it covers. The roofer pays the 6% on materials at the supply house; the homeowner's invoice carries no sales tax line at all, on materials or on labour, because "a contractor doesn't charge sales tax to the customer" and the tax is absorbed into the bid. The Commission adds that "if sales tax is charged on the bill, the customer can refuse to pay it." A customer's own sales-tax exemption does not carry over to the contractor.