Ward County, North Dakota - Building Inspector

Ward County, North Dakota

county

Minot, ND

Required

Permits are pulled through the Tax Equalization Office at the Ward County Courthouse, 225 SE Third St., Second Floor, Minot, and the County states the scope of its counter in terms: "Building permits for townships and cities who have relinquished permitting authority to the county are issued through the Tax Equalization Office." Inspections are booked directly with the Building Inspector on 701-857-6429, by appointment. The submission is two documents rather than one - the Building Permit Application, and the Building Permit Checklist, which the County requires "WITH ALL BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS THAT REQUIRE A SITE PLAN." The application is reviewed before any money changes hands - the form tells applicants in a bold stop-sign notice not to send payment until the application has been reviewed and approved by the County - and it carries the reminder that "this application is not a Building Permit, nor does it authorize the start of construction." The fee is $4.50 per $1,000 of estimated construction cost based on current ICC Building Valuations. The County publishes two different validity periods and they should be reconciled with the office rather than assumed: the application states "Building Permits are valid for 180 days from the date of issue," while the ordinance provides that a permit "shall be good only for one year from date of issuance" and separately that a permit is cancelled if construction has not begun within six months. Three other approvals can attach to a job here even though none is a roofing approval: a Floodplain Permit with a surveyor-stamped Certificate of Elevation where the site is in the floodplain, First District Health Unit approval for septic and water where the property is not on municipal services, and township approval where the township requires it.

Ward County writes no building code of its own; it adopts the North Dakota State Building Code by floating reference and enforces the edition currently in force. North Dakota imposes no building code on a local government automatically. NDCC 54-21.3-03(6) provides that "The governing body of a city, township, or county that elects to administer and enforce a building code shall adopt and enforce the state building code. However, the state building code may be amended by cities, townships, and counties to conform to local needs." Ward County is such an electing jurisdiction, and the North Dakota Department of Commerce lists it among the state's code enforcing counties with a named building official. The County instrument is the Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance, adopted 1 July 2025 and amended as of 5 May 2026. Its Section 6.02 provides that for residential construction "that certain building code shall be the same as the North Dakota State Building Code as identified in Section 54-21.3-03 of the NDCC and amendments thereto and on file in the office of the Ward County Building Inspector," and Section 6.03 does the same for commercial and industrial structures. That is a floating adoption - it names no edition and moves with the state - and the County confirms which edition it is enforcing on the face of its own Building Permit Checklist, which reads "CODES: North Dakota State Building Code 2026, International Code Council: IRC, IBC, IFGC, IMC, IFC, and Ward County Ordinances." On the state side, the North Dakota State Building Code Book states that "Effective January 1, 2026, the North Dakota State Building Code consists of the 2024 International Building Code (IBC), International Residential Code (IRC), International Mechanical Code (IMC), International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC), International Energy Conservation Code, and the International Existing Building Code as published by the International Code Council (ICC)." So a Ward County house is on the 2024 International Residential Code with the North Dakota amendments. Two limits a roofer should carry. The code book states "NO APPENDICES ARE ADOPTED," and it states that the State Building Code "does not include the International Property Maintenance Code, or the International Fire Code," which "to be in effect, must be adopted separately by each city, county, or township" - Ward County's checklist names the IFC among the codes it applies. Plumbing and electrical work is not on this track at all: the checklist notes that "Plumbing, and Electrical codes in Ward County are enforced, and inspected by the State of North Dakota Plumbing, and Electrical Boards."

Required — Ward County adopts the North Dakota State Building Code, whose residential half is the International Residential Code with North Dakota amendments; the County's own checklist names the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code, which is built on the 2024 International Residential Code. The two instruments that could change the roofing chapter were both read in full and neither does. The Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance contains no roof-covering provision at all, and the North Dakota amendment set for the 2024 International Residential Code amends thirty sections, none of them in the roof-assemblies chapter. The base residential code drip-edge requirement for asphalt-shingle roofs, at Section R905.2.8.5, therefore applies in Ward County unmodified, with no local softening and no local addition. Take the installation extent and the fastener spacing from the edition of the residential code the Building Inspector confirms is in force for your permit. About drip edge

Required — Sourced from Ward County's own published design criteria rather than inferred from the climate. The Ward County Building Permit Checklist, under "REQUIRED DESIGN CRITERIA," prints the line "Ice Barrier Underlayment Required - Yes". That is the County's fill-in of the climatic and geographic design criteria the residential code leaves to each jurisdiction, so an ice barrier is required on a Ward County re-roof. The County does not restate how far up the slope the barrier must run. Neither the Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance nor the North Dakota amendment set touches the residential code's roof-assembly chapter, so the extent of the barrier is governed by the unamended base residential code - take that extent from the edition the Building Inspector confirms is in force for your permit, currently the 2024 International Residential Code under the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code. About ice & water barrier

Not required — No mid-roof, roof-deck or in-progress roof inspection stage exists in Ward County. The County publishes its own enumeration of required inspections, "WARD COUNTY REQUIRED INSPECTIONS," organised by project type, and it was read in full: NEW RESIDENCE lists footings, foundation, underground plumbing, foundation waterproofing, rough electrical, plumbing and mechanical, framing, final electrical, plumbing and mechanical, final building inspection and certificate of occupancy; GARAGES, SHEDS, POSTFRAME BUILDINGS, ACCESSORY STRUCTURES lists footings, post holes, final electrical, framing and final; DECKS lists postholes, footings and final; SIGNS lists footings, size verification, electrical and final. No roof, roof-covering, underlayment or mid-roof stage appears anywhere on that document, and the Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance creates no roofing inspection stage of its own. Two practical points. Inspections are the permit holder's job to book, and the County says so in capitals on the same document, warning that it is the permit holder or agent's responsibility to contact the office for all inspections or be subject to a fine or re-inspection fee. And where a re-roof turns structural and the framing is opened up, the framing inspection on that list is the one that applies - the County describes it as "After framing is complete, including exterior doors, and windows. Before installing any insulation, drywall, or siding."

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in Ward County, at either level of government. County level: the Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance, adopted 1 July 2025 and amended as of 5 May 2026, is the instrument that adopts and administers the building code in the county, and it was read in full - all eight articles across 121 pages, Article I through Article VIII. It contains no UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV or FM 4473 provision, and it contains no roof-covering provision of any kind; its only roof references are to roof-mounted solar energy systems and to rooftops as impervious surface. State level: the North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code, published in the 2026 North Dakota State Building Code Book, were also read in full - thirty numbered section amendments - and none of them addresses roofing or impact rating. An impact-rated shingle may still be worth buying in a hail-prone market, and an insurer may discount for one, but nothing in Ward County or North Dakota law requires it.

THE COUNTY'S TWO PUBLISHED STATEMENTS PULL IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS ON REPAIR WORK, AND NEITHER NAMES ROOFING, so a Ward County roofer should settle a re-roof with the Building Inspector before bidding rather than assume either answer. Both statements are set out here so the reader can see the gap. (1) The enacted ordinance. Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance Section 6.01(2) reads: "No structure of any kind used for residential, commercial or industrial purposes, including accessories thereto, shall hereafter be built, altered or moved within the zoned area of Ward County until a building, alteration, or moving permit has been obtained from the office of the Building Inspector," and then carves out repairs: "No permit is required for maintenance or repair of existing residences, commercial structures, or accessory structures which does not alter the strength or plan of said structure or its mechanical installations, but such maintenance or repair shall comply with all requirements of this regulation." A like-for-like re-shingle arguably sits inside that carve-out; a tear-off that replaces sheathing or rafters plainly does not, because it alters the strength of the structure. (2) The County's own application form states the requirement more broadly: "Building Permits are generally required to construct, alter, repair, move, demolish, or change the occupancy of a building, or structure." It then gives examples rather than an exhaustive list, naming buildings exceeding 120 square feet in size, building foundations, load bearing walls, decks larger than 120 square feet in area and more than seven inches above grade, and fences more than eight feet five inches in height. That text sweeps in repair without the strength-or-plan qualifier the ordinance attaches. THREE FURTHER LIMITS ON THE COUNTY'S REACH. First, the ordinance's permit rule runs to "the zoned area of Ward County," not to every acre of it. Second, Section 6.04 exempts farm property outright: the provisions on "building permits", "demolition permits" and "moving permits" in Articles V and VI "shall not apply to farm buildings, or farm lands meeting the definition of a 'Farm'" - the County calls this the Permit Exemption for Farm Properties - although the same section requires farm RESIDENTIAL structures, other habitable structures and structures open to the public to apply for a Farm Property Building Permit, so a farmhouse roof is not exempt even where the machine shed is. Third, and separately from the County ordinance, NDCC 54-21.3-04 exempts from the state building code chapter buildings "which are neither heated nor cooled" and any building "used for agricultural purposes, unless a place of human habitation or for use by the public." Permit fees are not roofing-specific: the application states "The fee for a Building Permit is $4.50 per $1000 of estimated construction cost (based on current ICC Building Valuations)."

Ward County publishes its own design criteria, and it states the WIND SPEED BASIS on the face of the document, which removes the ambiguity that catches roofers in most jurisdictions. The Ward County Building Permit Checklist prints a block headed REQUIRED DESIGN CRITERIA, and its lines read, each figure aligned to the label the County prints beside it: Frost Depth 48 inches; Ultimate Wind Speed 115 mph (exposure category C); Seismic Design Category A; Mean Annual Temperature 40F; Winter Design Temperature Negative 20F; Ground Snow Load Per ASCE 7 Hazard Tool; Air Freezing Index 4000; Ice Barrier Underlayment Required Yes; Flood Hazards FIRM 2000. The 115 mph figure is an ULTIMATE design wind speed, and the County labels it that way rather than leaving the basis to be guessed. An ultimate speed and a nominal or fastest-mile speed are not interchangeable, so do not convert between them and do not apply this figure to a fastening method that expects a nominal one. The exposure category is given as C, the open-terrain category, which is what most of this county is. Note also that the ground snow load is not a printed number here: the County sends the designer to the ASCE 7 Hazard Tool for the specific site rather than publishing a single county-wide value, so a roof-structure calculation needs the site-specific lookup.

Ward County imposes no layer rule of its own, so the rule is whatever the adopted code says. The Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance was read in full - all eight articles across 121 pages - and contains no roof-covering, shingle, recover or re-roofing provision; its Article VI adopts the North Dakota State Building Code instead of writing construction requirements. The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code were read in full, thirty numbered section amendments, and none reaches the roof-assemblies chapter. So the base International Residential Code provisions on installing a new roof covering over an existing one apply in Ward County unmodified, with no local cap added and none removed. That base text was not opened for this record, so no layer count is stated here and none should be inferred from this entry: confirm the permitted number of layers with the Ward County Building Inspector before bidding an overlay, on 701-857-6429.

No Ward County roof-sheathing rule exists, and that is established by reading rather than assumed. The Ward County Land Zoning Ordinance, adopted 1 July 2025 and amended as of 5 May 2026, was read in full - all eight articles across 121 pages - and it contains no construction standard for roofs, no sheathing provision and no roof-covering provision of any kind. Its Article VI does not write construction requirements; it adopts them, providing at Sections 6.02 and 6.03 that "that certain building code shall be the same as the North Dakota State Building Code." The North Dakota amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code were also read in full, thirty numbered section amendments, and none reaches the roof and ceiling construction chapter. So the base residential code's roof sheathing and decking provisions apply in Ward County unmodified, and there is no local span table, thickness minimum or fastener schedule to reconcile them against. One Ward County rule does bear on structural work uncovered during a re-roof, though it is not a sheathing rule: Ordinance Section 6.01(2) requires a permit before a structure is "built, altered or moved," and the framing inspection on the County's required inspections list is called before insulation, drywall or siding go on.

5.50% on materials in the parts of Ward County that have no city sales tax - North Dakota state sales and use tax of 5%, plus Ward County's 0.5% local sales, use and gross receipts tax. The North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner's Local Taxes by Location Guideline, rates effective 1 July 2026, lists Ward County at a current rate of 0.5% with a maximum tax (refund cap) of $50.00 per sale, and states the stacking rule plainly: "The county sales, use, and gross receipts tax is in addition to state and city sales, use, and gross receipts tax." Six municipalities inside the county levy a city tax on top of that county half - the guideline names Berthold, Burlington, Carpio, Kenmare, Minot and Surrey - so a job inside one of those city limits carries the city rate as well and is not at 5.50%. WHO PAYS IT ON A ROOF. North Dakota treats a roofing contractor as the final consumer of the materials installed into real property: "A contractor or subcontractor entering into any contract, except for a labor only contract, is regarded as the final user or consumer of all tangible personal property installed into real property." So the contractor pays the tax on its material purchases and does not charge the homeowner sales tax on an install-plus-materials re-roof; selling materials without installing them is a taxable retail sale instead. TWO WARD COUNTY SPECIFICS. First, Ward County is one of the sixty jurisdictions whose ordinance carries the limited exemption for "materials that are purchased within the jurisdiction, but later installed outside of the jurisdiction where the sale took place" - so a contractor who supplies a certificate of exemption at the yard owes local use tax where the goods are installed rather than where they were bought. Second, do not read the $50.00 maximum tax as a cap on a roof: the Tax Commissioner states that "the maximum tax (refund cap) is calculated on each material purchase a contractor makes to fulfill a construction contract, not on purchase orders or the entire construction contract itself," and that "most construction activity which is subject to local sales or use tax will include more than the specified maximum tax in total local tax costs."