Warren County Division for Building Services

Warren County, Kentucky

county

1141 State Street, Bowling Green, KY 42101

Required

The 2015 International Residential Code as amended by the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition (August 2024), the mandatory statewide residential code under 815 KAR 7:125 section 2(1), effective 12-3-2024. Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar Warren County from adopting or enforcing any other building code, or any additional or contradictory building-construction standard, for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses; only the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction may amend the code, and its amendments are effective statewide (KRS 198B.080(2)). Warren County's own building-services page confirms it enforces "the Kentucky Building/Residential Codes," though its posted document archive still links a "2018 Kentucky Residential Code, 2nd Edition" -- a stale reference in the County's own document list rather than a local variance, since Kentucky's scheme does not depend on local codification at all. One statewide carve-out applies here as everywhere in Kentucky: KRS 198B.010(4) excludes from "building" a farm dwelling or farm structure "located outside the boundary of a municipality" that is not retail, not a workplace for ten or more, and not timber storage -- relevant in a county jurisdiction, and this record does not decide whether any particular Warren County farm structure qualifies.

Required — Kentucky's own enacted amendment, KRC R905.2.8.5, read in full: "A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and gables of shingle roofs. Adjacent pieces of drip edge shall be overlapped a minimum of 2 inches ... Drip edges shall be mechanically fastened to the roof deck at a maximum of 12 inches on center ... Underlayment shall be installed over the drip edge along eaves and under the drip edge on gables." Kentucky adds an alternate-methods allowance in the same section: "Alternate methods to the standard metal drip edge may include site formed coil stock that creates a drip line as intended by the code. Wood, composite, and manufactured trim installed on the fascia shall create a drip line to prevent water from running back under the shingles, which will meet the requirements of the drip edge." KRC R101.3/R102.2 bar Warren County from varying this requirement. About drip edge

Not required — Warren County's own published required-inspection sequence -- "Footings, Foundation/Underfloor, Framing, Energy Efficiency" (required beginning January 1, 2023), and "Final" -- names no roof-covering or mid-roof stage, read in full from the County's building-services page. The state instrument agrees: Kentucky's amendments to IRC R109 Inspections name no roof-covering stage either. This describes the inspection stages that exist for a permitted project in Warren County; it does not resolve whether a reroof itself requires a permit at all (see repair_permit_threshold).

Not required — A counted negative across both Kentucky state code packets: "UL 2218," "Class 4," "Class IV," "impact," and "hail" each occur zero times across the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code (187,543 characters) and the 2018 Kentucky Building Code (478,874 characters). Kentucky Residential Code R102.2 -- "a local ordinance shall not establish any additional or contradictory building construction standard than those adopted in this code" -- closes the question at the local level too, so Warren County cannot add an impact-resistance mandate of its own.

NO ROOFING OR RE-ROOFING PERMIT CATEGORY, FEE LINE, OR FORM APPEARS ANYWHERE IN WARREN COUNTY'S OWN PUBLISHED MATERIALS. The Division for Building Services states it enforces the Kentucky codes "for new construction, alteration, relocation, demolition, and/or change of occupancy" -- read in full, that page names no roofing item. Its enacted fee ordinance (Warren Fiscal Court Ordinance #21-54WC, "Ordinance Establishing the Building Permit Fee Schedule," passed 10-22-2021, read in full) prices permits per square foot of "total building area under construction" and lists a closed set of flat-fee exceptions -- "swimming pools, demolition permits, electrical service meter poles, decks, fence, cellular tower, and signs" -- with no roofing entry in either the per-square-foot schedule or the exceptions list. The County's own residential permit application asks for "TOTAL SQUARE FT UNDER ROOF" and "PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION TYPE (ex: residence/barn/accessory structure)," which is a new-build form, not a repair or re-roof form, and no separate repair-permit application is published. The required-inspection sequence the County publishes -- Footings, Foundation/Underfloor, Framing, Energy Efficiency, Final -- is likewise oriented to new construction. Kentucky's own statutes cut in two directions and this record does not resolve which one governs a Warren County reroof: KRS 198B.010(21) defines "ordinary repair" to include, by name, "the replacement ... of nonstructural components of the building such as roofing ... that does not alter the structural integrity"; KRS 198B.010(11) then excludes "ordinary repair" from the definition of "construction"; and KRS 198B.060(8) attaches the permit requirement to "construction." Set against that, the Kentucky Residential Code's own scope at R101.2 reaches "alteration ... replacement, repair," and Warren County's own enforcement description above uses the word "alteration" without qualifying it as the state definition's narrower "substantial alteration." This record states both readings rather than adjudicating them. Call Building Services at 270-843-5360 to confirm treatment of a specific reroof.

Basic ultimate wind speed V_ult 115 mph for all Kentucky counties, including Warren County, per Kentucky's own replacement Table R301.2(1) (rendered from the state's published 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition). Ground snow load is the one per-county figure in that table: Warren County is not among the counties the table lists at 20 psf (Boone, Boyd, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Floyd, Gallatin, Grant, Greenup, Henry, Kenton, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Martin, Mason, Trimble), so the table's default 15 psf applies. Weathering is SEVERE and termite protection MODERATE TO HEAVY for all Kentucky counties per the same table. Footnote d warns that Section 301.2.1.3 converts the ultimate figure to a nominal design wind speed, V_asd, for methods that expect the nominal basis -- this record states the ultimate 115 mph figure as Kentucky's table gives it and does not convert it.

Kentucky's 2018 Kentucky Residential Code amendment packet, read in full and counted (187,543 characters), amends nothing in the reroofing section: "R908" occurs zero times, and Chapter 9 of the packet contains only one operative provision, R905.2.8.5 Drip edge. IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in the packet's table of contents at all. Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar Warren County from adopting or enforcing any different or additional standard on this point. This record points to the base 2015 IRC's reroofing section as the provision that applies, without quoting or classifying its operative content, which has not been separately re-opened for this record.

No state amendment reaches roof sheathing. Kentucky's residential code amendment packet, read in full, contains zero occurrences of "R802" or "R803," and IRC Chapter 8 does not appear in the packet's table of contents at all (the packet's own table of contents runs Chapters 1-7, 9, 11, 13-20, 24-44). Kentucky Residential Code R101.3 and R102.2 bar Warren County from adopting a different local requirement. The base 2015 IRC Chapter 8 roof-sheathing provisions apply unmodified.

6.00%, statewide, with no local component anywhere in Kentucky -- Kentucky's Department of Revenue states plainly, "There are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky." KRS 139.200 imposes "a tax ... upon all retailers at the rate of six percent (6%) of the gross receipts." The roofing contractor, not the homeowner, is the taxed party at the point of purchase: 103 KAR 26:070 section 2(1) makes "all sales to contractors, subcontractors, builders, or owners of building materials, fixtures, and supplies which are to be incorporated ... into any structure or improvement to real estate by the process of erecting, remodeling, replacing, or repairing the structure" taxable "at the time of sale to the contractor," and that regulation's own trade and materials lists name "Roofing" specifically (Section 1(2)(a) item 8; Section 1(6)(k)). A Warren County roofing contractor does not hold a resale permit and does not charge sales tax on the finished job; the finished construction is real property, not a retail sale.