Valley County - Building Department

Valley County, Idaho

county

700 South Main Street, PO Box 1350, Cascade, ID 83611

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HOW A JOB IS BOOKED HERE, AND IT IS SLOWER THAN MOST. Valley County takes building permit applications on paper at its Cascade office or by post; its Building Permit FAQ carries the standing notice "We are not currently accepting permits via email. Please mail in your permits or drop them off at our office in Cascade." The same FAQ says processing "takes approximately 2-8 weeks ... depending on how busy we are. Usually, from May-October we are very busy", and the instruction packet asks applicants to "allow approximately up to 20 working days for your application to be processed". An electronic submittal is possible but carries a $50 fee plus copy charges. Fees are due when the permit is issued and the Building Department accepts only cheque or credit card. WHAT COMES BACK AND WHAT MUST BE POSTED. "You will be given a red permit card to be posted at your job site, a job copy of your plans to remain on site, an inspection pamphlet, and a receipt. You are required to post your house numbers and red card prior to starting construction." Since November 7, 2022 the owner must sign the application even where a contractor prepares it, and permits are issued in the property owner's name. INSPECTIONS. At least 24 hours' notice is required and requests must be phoned in to 208-382-7114 with the permit number, the owner name as it appears on the application and the physical address - the County states that inspection requests "MAY NOT be made in the field, they must be called into the office." Inspectors are available between 8:00 and 10:00 in the morning to answer questions; the rest of the day is the inspection schedule. A re-inspection fee of $50.00 is charged from the third visit for the same inspection onwards. The published required-inspection sequence is written for new construction, so ask the Building Department which inspections a reroof will draw rather than assuming; the packet itself says "Please check with us about any additional inspections before construction." OTHER TRADES ARE THE STATE'S, NOT THE COUNTY'S. "Permits are required by the State of Idaho for all plumbing, electrical and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) installations and the State provides these inspections", and the County does not supply those applications. The single exception the County keeps for itself is the wood-stove insert. Solar panels mounted on an existing structure are permitted by the County at a flat $200 fee including plan review and inspection, which is the closest published analogue to a re-cover job on an existing roof.

THE 2018 EDITIONS, STATED BY THE COUNTY TWICE IN ITS OWN DOCUMENTS, WITH AN ADOPTION DATE. The Valley County Building Department's Permit Application Information and Instructions, revised 5/20/2026, states on its first page: "Valley County is currently working out of the 2018 International Residential Code, 2018 International Energy Conservation Code, and the 2018 International Building Code. These were adopted as of January 1, 2021. Please check with the Building Department for all local ordinances relating to construction." The County's own Building Permit FAQ page repeats the same list in answer to the question "What are the design criteria for Valley County?" - "Currently, our governing code is 2018 IECC, 2018 IBC, 2018 IRC" - and the instruction packet requires that "The designer or owner must certify that the plans are designed in compliance with 2018 International Residential Code, 2018 International Building Code, 2018 International Energy Conservation Code, and Valley County Ordinances." WHOSE JOBS THESE CODES COVER. The same instruction packet limits the County's reach in terms: "Valley County's jurisdiction for building matters does not include the cities of Cascade, Donnelly, McCall, or the City of McCall's Area of Impact." A job inside one of those cities is filed with that city, not with the County, and this record does not speak to what those cities have adopted. STATE FRAMEWORK. Idaho's residential code is set by the Idaho Building Code Board rather than by a 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", and Idaho Code 39-4116(2) requires a local government that issues building permits and enforces the code to adopt the Idaho residential code parts I through III and IX by ordinance while barring it from adopting a later IRC edition the Board has not adopted. Roofing sits in Part III and is included. Idaho Code 39-4116(6) adds that "Permits shall be governed by the laws in effect at the time the permit application is received." WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED. Valley County's codified ordinances are published only on a vendor platform that refuses automated access, and the County's own instruction packet points readers to the Building Department "for all local ordinances relating to construction" rather than reproducing them. So whether Valley County has amended the roofing chapter of the residential code is unknown here rather than shown to be absent, and the roofing fields that would turn on reading those amendments are left unanswered in this record instead of being filled from the model code.

THE COUNTY STATES THE PERMIT RULE BROADLY AND PUBLISHES NO EXEMPTION LIST OF ITS OWN. Valley County's Building Permit FAQ answers "Do I need a building permit?" this way: "A building permit is required to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change the occupancy of a building or structure, the installation of which is regulated by code, or to cause any such work to be performed, shall first make application to the Building Official and obtain the required permit. See International Residential Code 105.1". Replacing a roof covering on a dwelling is work that alters or repairs a building regulated by the code, and the County publishes nothing that carves roofing out of that sentence. THE COUNTY GOES OUT OF ITS WAY TO SAY THE THRESHOLD IS LOW. Answering "If my building is less than 200 SF, do I still need a permit?" the same FAQ says "Yes. Any structure over 3 feet tall requires a permit in Valley County." The published fee table starts at a total valuation of "$1.00 to $500.00" with a $24.00 fee, so even the smallest priced work has a fee line rather than an exemption. There is no county dollar figure, square footage or number of squares below which roof work is exempt. WHAT TO DO ABOUT A SMALL REPAIR. The instruction packet's only guidance on partial work is a direction to ask: "REPAIRS / ALTERATIONS: If you are planning a change to an existing structure, it is best to speak with the Building Official before applying. The Building Official will determine the extent of any required plan drawings and may arrange to inspect the structure prior to issuing the building permit." Call the Building Department on 208-382-7114 before treating a patch as exempt. WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED. Valley County's codified building ordinance is published only on a vendor platform that would not open to this research, so the exemption list that ordinance carries - the local equivalent of the model code's exempt-work list - has not been read. Nothing the County publishes itself exempts a roof covering, but that is the County's published position rather than a reading of the ordinance text.

THE COUNTY PUBLISHES ITS DESIGN CRITERIA IN TWO PLACES AND THEY AGREE. The Valley County Building Department's instruction packet lists, under the heading "DESIGN LOADS", a roof snow load of "120 psf or 150 psf or 60 psf * (site specific, non-reducible) McCall is 150 psf", wind of "115 mph minimum, determined by exposure, Category C", "Seismic Design Category D", "Climate Zone 6" and a frost depth of 24 inches. The County's Building Permit FAQ page prints the same block in answer to "What are the design criteria for Valley County?", giving "Wind: 115 mph, Category C", "Seismic: Design Category D", a frost depth of 24 inches, "Climate Zone: 6" and, for snow, "determined by address, please contact the Valley County Building Department by phone or email." THE SNOW LOAD IS THE NUMBER THAT DECIDES A ROOF HERE, AND IT IS NOT ONE NUMBER. The instruction packet's own footnote to the design load table reads: "West Mountain area from Blackhawk (North) to, and including, Smith Ferry (South) is 150 lbs per square foot roof snow load. Most other areas of Valley County are 120 lbs per square foot roof snow load. Please call with any questions as to the snow loading requirements at your site before engineering is begun." The County calls these loads non-reducible and states elsewhere in the same packet that "Valley County has different snow load requirements as per location". So there is no county-wide figure to design to. Get the figure for the specific address from the Building Department before ordering material or engineering, and note that 120 and 150 pounds per square foot are among the heaviest residential roof snow loads published anywhere in this directory. READ THE WIND FIGURE CAREFULLY. The County prints 115 mph as a minimum and says the governing value is "determined by exposure", but it does not say whether 115 is an ultimate design wind speed or a three-second gust on the older nominal basis. Those are different numbers for the same loading and they are not interchangeable, so settle the basis with the building official rather than assuming one. Exposure Category C is the open-country exposure. A STATE DELETION THAT SITS NEXT TO THIS. IDAPA 24.39.30.600.03(d) reads "Section R301.2.1.2 Protection of Openings. Delete." That is a window and door wind-borne debris 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.

WHAT VALLEY COUNTY REQUIRES OF ROOF SHEATHING IS AN INSPECTION AND A DRAWING, AND IT NAMES THE NAILING PATTERN. The County's Inspection Requirements brochure lists a sheathing inspection among the required inspections and describes it as follows: "SHEATHING: This is done before house wrap or siding is placed. Wall and roof nailing pattern is required to be checked." The required-inspection list on the same brochure reads "BMP (if in riparian area), Excavation, Footing/Holes/Columns/Pads, Foundation, Wall and Roof Sheathing, Frame, Insulation, Final", and the instruction packet prints the same sequence. So on work that reaches the deck, the roof nailing pattern is inspected before it is covered, and the crew has to call it in at least 24 hours ahead. ON THE PLANS. The instruction packet requires the framing detail cross-section to show "Roof/ceiling (Sizing, spacing, and location of all rafters, beams, columns, joist, etc.)" and "Roof sheathing, wall siding, and sub-flooring", together with "Specifications for materials including grade, species, size, allowable stresses, etc." and a roof plan overview drawing. Construction plans must be stamped by an Idaho licensed engineer or architect and must include stamped structural calculations. WHAT THIS RECORD DOES NOT STATE. Valley County publishes no sheathing thickness, span rating or fastener schedule of its own, and its codified building ordinance could not be opened, so whether the County has amended the residential code's sheathing provisions is unknown. The figures a crew works to therefore come from the 2018 International Residential Code as the County has adopted it, and this record does not restate that text or borrow numbers from a neighbouring jurisdiction.

6.0% in unincorporated Valley County - the Idaho state rate, with no county add-on. Idaho Code 63-3619 imposes the state sales tax "at the rate of six percent (6%)", and Idaho counties levy no sales tax at all. BUT THREE VALLEY COUNTY CITIES LEVY A LOCAL-OPTION SALES TAX AND THE FLAT 6% IS WRONG INSIDE THEM. Idaho's resort-city local-option tax under Idaho Code Title 50, Chapter 10 is available to small resort cities, and the Idaho State Tax Commission publishes the list of cities that levy one. Cascade, Donnelly and McCall are all on that list, as are Stanley and Sun Valley elsewhere in the state. The Tax Commission states that "Resort cities have a choice in what's taxed and can include everything that's subject to the state sales tax. Some, but not all, choose to limit the local sales tax to lodging, alcohol by the drink, and restaurant food", and it directs anyone with a question to contact the city itself - Cascade on 208-382-4279, Donnelly on 208-325-8859 and McCall on 208-634-7142. So what a supply-house purchase costs inside one of those three cities depends on what that city chose to tax, and the city must be asked. Those three cities are also outside the County's building jurisdiction. HOW A ROOF IS TAXED IN IDAHO, 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 tax 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 does not charge sales tax to the customer. 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.