The Roofing Book

Permitting Authorities / Washington County - Building Inspector

Washington County - Building Inspector

Adopted code

The building permitting authority for unincorporated Washington County, Idaho, in the Weiser River valley on the Oregon line. The County runs a Building Inspector alongside its Planning and Zoning office out of the courthouse in Weiser and publishes a single combined building permit package - the application, a requirements checklist, the septic application and the highway district approach permit in one document. The fact a roofer needs from that package is on its first line: Washington County states that structural design must conform to the 2015 editions of the residential and building codes, which is an older edition than the one the State of Idaho adopted with effect from July 2024. This record reports both and does not adjudicate between them. The County publishes no roofing rules, no design criteria and no permit exemption list, and its codified County Code sits behind a vendor platform that would not open, so this is deliberately a thin record rather than a padded one.

Jurisdiction
Washington County, Idaho
Jurisdiction type
county
Address
256 East Court Street, Weiser, ID 83672
Contact
  • url: https://www.co.washington.id.us/389/Building-Inspector
  • phone: 208-414-3631
  • email: [email protected]
Contractor registration required
Required
Registration details
  • state_level: STATEWIDE. Idaho Code 54-5204(1), in the Idaho Contractor Registration Act: "On and after January 1, 2006, it shall be unlawful for any person to engage in the business of, or hold himself out as, a contractor within this state without being registered as required in this chapter." A roofer sits inside the definitions rather than at their edge: "Construction" means "the performance of building, altering, repairing, adding to, subtracting from, improving, reconstructing, moving, excavating, wrecking or demolishing any building ... or improvement to real property, or to do any part thereof" (54-5203(2)), and "Contractor" means any person who "undertakes, offers to undertake, purports to have the capacity to undertake, or submits a bid to, or does himself or by or through others, perform construction" (54-5203(3)(a)). Roofing is not separately licensed in Idaho, so this registration is the whole of the state credential. THRESHOLD. 54-5205(2)(f) exempts "one (1) undertaking or project considered casual, minor, or inconsequential, whether by one (1) or more contracts, the aggregate contract price of which, for labor and materials and all other items, is less than two thousand dollars ($2,000)" - a per-project figure covering labour and materials together, not annual revenue - and the same paragraph voids the exemption where the work is part of a larger project or where a job is split into contracts of less than two thousand dollars. A residential reroof is rarely under $2,000. An owner working on his own residential property is exempt, as is an owner who hires a registered contractor. WHAT IT TAKES. An application under oath, proof of worker's compensation coverage or a statement why it is not required, and general liability cover including products and completed operations of not less than $300,000 single limit. It is a registration rather than a competency licence and there is no examination. Registrations can be checked by name at the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses.
  • county_level: THE COUNTY COLLECTS THE STATE NUMBER AT THE COUNTER. The Washington County Building Permit Application has a contractor block with a printed field reading "State Registration #:" beside the contractor name, which is where the Idaho contractor registration number goes, exactly as Idaho Code 54-5209(1) requires of a permit issuer. Whether Washington County imposes a contractor registration or licence of its own on top of the state one was not established: the Washington County Code is published only on a vendor platform that would not open to this research, and nothing the County publishes on its own site imposes a separate county registration. No local negative is asserted here. The state registration above applies in Washington County regardless. Cities inside the county, Weiser among them, are separate jurisdictions and may impose their own requirements.
Permit process note
ONE PACKAGE, AND IT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED HALF FINISHED. Washington County publishes a single Building Permit Package containing the application, a requirements checklist, the Southwest District Health subsurface sewage application and the Weiser Valley Highway District approach permit. Its opening line is a warning: "Applications must include supporting documentation. Incomplete applications cannot be accepted." WHAT THE COUNTY WANTS BEFORE IT WILL ISSUE. Its Building Permit Requirements sheet lists three prerequisites - a septic permit from Southwest District Health, a fire department permit from Weiser Rural Fire Department, and compliance with the setback rule at Washington County Code section 5-3-4, with the sheet stating that "No permit can be issued unless 5-3-4 is met." Plans must be two sets "drawn by a registered design professional" and must include a plot plan, footing and foundation detail, wall bracing information with a shear panel schedule and portal frame details, floor plans, elevations, a complete cross section and "Roof framing and roof detail". The general notes must state the "Roof live load, roof dead load, floor live load, floor dead load", and engineering is required for walls over 12 feet. THE CLOCKS AND THE END OF THE JOB. "This permit becomes NULL AND VOID if work or construction has not commenced within six (6) months. Extension of the Building Permit may be granted per International Building Code. All building permits issued in the Al zone will be granted only one extension." The County also states that "FINAL INSPECTIONS ARE REQUIRED" and that a certificate of occupancy is required, and it reminds applicants that "Plumbing, mechanical and electrical permits and inspections are your responsibility" - those are the State of Idaho's rather than the County's. The application authorises the County to enter for inspections under the right-of-entry section of the building code as adopted and amended by the State of Idaho. ONE THING THAT CATCHES RURAL JOBS. A building permit issued in an agricultural zone must be accompanied by a nuisance waiver under Washington County Ordinance 5-4-1E, telling the owner that established agricultural operations nearby are not a nuisance.
Adopted code
THE COUNTY NAMES THE 2015 EDITIONS ON THE FACE OF ITS OWN APPLICATION, AND THE STATE HAS SINCE MOVED ON. The Washington County Building Permit Application, published by the County in its Building Permit Package, carries this line directly under its heading: "Structural design must conform to the 2015 IRC &IBC and Washington County Building Code." The same package refers a reader to "Washington County Code" for setbacks at section 5-3-4 and refers to "Washington County Ordinance 5-4-1E" for the agricultural nuisance waiver, so the County plainly has a code of its own that sits alongside the model codes. THE STATE POSITION, WHICH IS A DIFFERENT EDITION. 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", with a list of state amendments, effective July 1, 2024. 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, and 39-4116(6) provides that "Permits shall be governed by the laws in effect at the time the permit application is received." THIS RECORD DOES NOT DECIDE WHICH EDITION A WASHINGTON COUNTY PERMIT IS REVIEWED AGAINST. Both are stated because both are sourced, and the question of whether a state adoption reaches a county whose own published document still names an older edition is a legal conclusion rather than a fact this record can source. Ask the Building Inspector on 208-414-3631 which edition your job will be plan-checked to, and get it in writing if the difference matters to the design. WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED. The Washington County Code is published only on codelibrary.amlegal.com, which refuses automated access, so the County's building chapter and any amendments to the roofing chapter of the residential code have not been read. They are unknown here rather than shown to be absent, and the roofing fields that would turn on them are left unanswered in this record rather than filled from the model code.
Sales & use tax
6.0% - the Idaho state rate, with no local add-on in Washington County. 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 here. The first is the resort-city local-option tax under Idaho Code Title 50, Chapter 10; the Idaho State Tax Commission publishes the list of cities that levy one, and no Washington County city appears on it. The second is an auditorium-district tax, which the Tax Commission states can be charged only on short-term lodging of thirty days or less and so never reaches roofing work. Idaho counties levy no sales tax at all. 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 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 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. Note that Washington County borders Oregon, which has no sales tax at all; materials bought across the river are outside the Idaho sales tax but may attract Idaho use tax when brought back for a job here, which is a question for the roofer's accountant rather than for the building counter.

Related guides

Denver-Metro Roofing Permits Filing a Hail Insurance Claim Colorado Hail Season Prep Hiring a Contractor

Sources