City of Wabash Building Department

City of Wabash, Indiana

city

202 S Wabash St, Wabash, IN 46992

Required

Required

WHERE. The Building Department is in City Hall, 202 S Wabash St, Wabash, IN 46992, on (260) 274-1491, fax (260) 563-0876, open 8:00 am to 4:00 pm and generally closed from noon to 1:00 pm, with Jeff Knee as Building Commissioner. The department's page names its administrative assistant as "your first point of contact for assistance, forms, and for scheduling inspections." Forms go by email to [email protected], and permit fees can be paid online through the City's Building Permit Payments link. WHAT IS FILED. The City's Improvement Location Permit (Building Permit) application, on which Roof is one of the listed types of improvement, naming the contractor and every subcontractor; each contractor must already be registered with the Building Commissioner. TIME AND MONEY. Section 7-10(a) allows the building official "up to fifteen (15) days to review application before issuing a permit"; a permit under which no work starts within six months expires; and a copy of the permit must be kept on the premises while the work is done. The roofing permit fee under section 7-17 is $25.00, a reinspection caused by work not being ready is $25.00, and failing to apply costs three times the permit fee. ONE THING THAT CATCHES PEOPLE OUT. In a historic district established by the City Council, the City Code defines a certificate of appropriateness as a permit the historic preservation commission must issue before the building commissioner may issue a building permit for "remodeling, renovation, moving or other outward changes to appearance", and roof shape is among its design standards. Check whether the address is in a historic district before quoting a change of roofing material.

THE CITY ADOPTS NO EDITION OF ITS OWN; ITS ADOPTION IS EXPRESSLY FLOATING. Section 7-7, Adoption of regulations by reference, last amended by Gen. Ord. No. 3, 2023 on April 10, 2023, reads: "The following rules, regulations, and codes, as set out in the following Articles of Title 675 of the Indiana Administrative Code, and any subsequent amendments thereto, are hereby incorporated by reference as the rules and regulations governing the construction and alteration of buildings and structures in the City of Wabash, Indiana." The list that follows includes "Article 14 - Indiana Residential Code" alongside the building, plumbing, electrical, mechanical, energy, swimming pool, fire and fuel gas codes and the NFPA standards. So Wabash tracks whatever Article 14 is as published from time to time rather than freezing an edition. WHAT ARTICLE 14 REACHES AS READ IN SEPTEMBER 2026. The Indiana residential rule is 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, which adopts and amends the first printing of the 2018 International Residential Code. The City writes no technical roofing amendment to it. TWO OLD LOCAL PROVISIONS WORTH KNOWING ABOUT, both confined to the downtown fire limits that section 7-49 describes by street boundaries. Section 7-50 requires a new building there to have its roof "composed of metal, slate, tile or gravel", and section 7-51 provides that no person shall alter, repair or rebuild a frame or wooden building within the fire limits where the cost "will exceed twenty percent (20%) of the value of such building when complete unless such repairs are made of fireproof material." This record reports both as codified and does not decide how they sit alongside the state code. The codification is current through General Ordinance No. 12, 2024, enacted in September 2024.

Required — REQUIRED, BUT BY THE STATE RATHER THAN BY WABASH. The Indiana State Building Commissioner's memo of February 25, 2020 reproduces section R905.2.8.5 of the 2020 Indiana Residential Code as in force, opening: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and rake edges of shingle roofs." 675 IAC 14-4.4 amends R905.2.8 only by deleting the word "approved" and does not touch R905.2.8.5. The same memo states: "The 2020 Indiana Residential Code is in full force and effect statewide." Wabash has no drip-edge provision of its own and no power to add or remove one under IC 22-13-2-3(c). The provision's laps, extents and fastening are set out in the memo and are not restated here. About drip edge

Required — REQUIRED IN WABASH COUNTY BY THE STATE'S OWN TABLE, AND THE CITY'S PERMIT FORM SAYS SO TOO. The Indiana Residential Code's Table R301.2(1), as amended by 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, runs county by county, and the Wabash row reads ice shield underlayment required Yes. That Yes switches on section R905.1.2, which the State Building Commissioner's 2020 memo reproduces: "an ice barrier shall be installed for asphalt shingles, metal roof shingles, mineral-surfaced roll roofing, slate and slate-type shingles, wood shingles and wood shakes", with an exception for "Detached accessory structures not containing conditioned floor area." The memo puts the effect plainly: "there are specific counties in which it is always required (per Table R301.2(1))". The City's own Improvement Location Permit application carries the rule under its roofing-material line: "Ice and water shield is required to be installed on all primary structure roof alterations and on accessory structure roof alterations if the structure is heated." It adds that the membrane must run from the eave's edge to a point 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, which is the state figure rather than a local addition; the barrier's construction and its steep-slope extension are set out in the memo. About ice & water barrier

Not required — NO ROOFING INSPECTION IS SET BY THE ENACTED SCHEDULE, THOUGH THE BUILDING OFFICIAL CAN DESIGNATE ONE. In the improvement location permit table at section 7-17, every building category from new construction through electrical upgrades carries a minimum number of inspections, and the Roofing line is the only one with that column left blank. Section 7-17(c) names the work that may not be covered unseen: "No electrical, mechanical, plumbing, or thermal insulation work shall be covered without prior inspection." Roofing, underlayment and decking are not on that list. The same subsection also provides that "The building official shall, in all cases, designate the stage of construction when each required inspection shall be requested by the permit holder", so ask the Building Department at permit issue whether it wants to see the deck before it is covered.

Not required — NOT REQUIRED. All seven articles of Chapter 7 of the City Code, its contractor registration division and its zoning administration division were read in full. None sets an impact-resistance requirement: the word impact appears only where the street article speaks of ground "disturbed or impacted" by an excavation and where the flood-hazard article speaks of debris impact forces on a structure, and UL 2218, Class 4 and Class IV appear nowhere in them. The state rule the City adopts, 675 IAC 14-4.4, makes no impact-resistance amendment to the roofing chapter; its only roofing-chapter edits are the four word and sentence deletions described in this record's layer field. IC 22-13-2-3(c) would bar the City from enacting one. Impact-resistant shingles are an insurance and warranty decision in Wabash, not a code requirement.

A PERMIT IS THE RULE AND ROOFING HAS ITS OWN FEE LINE; THE ONLY FLOOR IS A ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR ONE. Section 7-10(a) of the City Code bars anyone from beginning "any construction, alteration or repair of any building or structure" without first obtaining a permit from the city building department. The enacted fee schedule at section 7-17 lists "I. Roofing" as its own permit category at $25.00, and its renovation and remodeling category expressly excepts "reroofing, residing or window replacement", so a reroof is priced on the roofing line rather than as a remodel. The City's own Improvement Location Permit (Building Permit) application lists Roof as a type of improvement and asks for the roofing material. THE THRESHOLD. Section 7-41(b), last amended by Gen. Ord. No. 4, 2024, reads: "No building permit shall be required for any remodeling in which the estimated cost of materials and labor is less than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00)." The zoning chapter draws the same line for the improvement location permit: section 10-7 requires one "before beginning construction, alteration or repair of any building or structure, the cost of which exceeds one thousand dollars ($1,000.00)". Neither section defines remodeling or says whether a small roof repair counts, so ask the Building Department before treating a patch under $1,000 as permit-free. THE COST OF GUESSING WRONG. Under section 7-17(b), failing to apply results in a fine "in an amount equal to three (3) times the amount of the permit for which applications should have been made." The department's own FAQ gives the practical advice: "Please call the Building Department to discuss your project. (260) 274-1491"

THE FIGURES ARE THE STATE'S COUNTY-INDEXED TABLE, NOT A WABASH ENACTMENT. Table R301.2(1) of the Indiana Residential Code, as amended by 675 IAC 14-4.4-5, gives the Wabash County row as wind speed 115 mph, seismic design category A, ground snow load 20 psf, frost depth 36 inches, winter design temperature 1 degree Fahrenheit, decay slight to moderate, termite moderate to heavy, weathering severe, ice shield underlayment required Yes, air freezing index 2000 and mean annual temperature 49.0 degrees. The City publishes no design criteria of its own, and IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars it from varying these locally. NOTE THE FROST DEPTH AND THE ICE-SHIELD COLUMN TOGETHER - 36 inches and Yes here, where Tippecanoe County prints 30 and No - because a detail carried across an Indiana county line will be wrong in one direction or the other.

NO CITY RULE AND NO STATE AMENDMENT, SO THE BASE CODE APPLIES UNMODIFIED. All seven articles of Chapter 7 of the City Code and the administration division of its zoning chapter were read in full. None uses the words overlay or tear-off or sets any rule on recovering an existing roof: the word "layer" appears only in the flood-hazard article, of flood insurance cover and of fill "placed in layers", and "recover" appears only of penalties, costs and attorney's fees and of disaster recovery. Section 7-7 adopts the state rules with no technical amendment attached. On the state side, 675 IAC 14-4.4 makes no amendment to the model reroofing section; its only edits anywhere in the roof assemblies chapter delete the word "approved" from two asphalt-shingle attachment and flashing sections, delete "printed" from a third and delete one sentence from the rooftop photovoltaic section. Nor could the City write its own: IC 22-13-2-3(c) provides that a city, town, or county "may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the commission's rules", and IC 22-13-2-3(a)(2) gives the state rules precedence over any local ordinance on the same subject. Base-code rule, read at 2018 International Residential Code Section R908.3.1.1, Roof recover not allowed, and quoted here rather than left behind the ICC paywall: a roof recover "shall not be permitted" where "the existing roof has two or more applications of any type of roof covering." One existing layer may be recovered; a second existing layer means a tear-off to the deck. Establish the existing layer count before quoting a recover.

NO LOCAL SHEATHING RULE EXISTS, AND NONE COULD. All seven articles of Chapter 7 and the zoning administration division were read in full. The word sheathing occurs nowhere in them, and deck occurs once, in a flood-hazard definition that lists "patio, deck support, or basement entryway". IC 22-13-2-3(c) bars the City from an ordinance more stringent or more detailed than the commission's rules, so it could not add one. The deck side of an asphalt reroof is therefore set by the state-adopted 2018 International Residential Code as incorporated by 675 IAC 14-4.4, whose roofing-chapter amendments are the four word and sentence deletions described in this record's layer field, none of which reaches the sheathing provisions. The base provision's own text is not restated here because it was not opened for this record.

7.00% in Wabash, the Indiana state sales and use tax rate, with no county or municipal add-on. The Department of Revenue's county tax information page states: "The sales tax for the entire State of Indiana is 7%." Its sales tax page likewise describes a single "seven percent sales tax". Neither Wabash County nor the City levies anything on top of the state rate, so 7.00% is the full rate a roofing contractor pays on materials purchased here.