Do you need a permit to replace a roof in Waterloo, IL?

City of Waterloo, Illinois

city

100 West Fourth Street, Waterloo, IL 62298

Required

The City's Building Permits page says "Building Permits are required for the following construction" and lists a principal building, accessory buildings such as sheds 50 square feet and over, swimming pools, decks, and retaining walls over 4 feet high. The list does not name roofing or a roof replacement, and the page does not say either way whether a re-roof needs a permit, so this listing does not state a yes or no answer. The City's residential application says "Plumbers and roofers must be licensed by the State of Illinois" and "All utility connection fees, inspection fees and building fees must be paid before the building permit can be issued." The Building and Inspection page says "There is a 48 hour notice needed to be given to the Building Inspector to assure your project will be inspected."

THE 2006 INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE, WITH REVISIONS, PER THE CITY'S OWN PAGES. The City's Building Permits page says "The City of Waterloo has adopted the following as Building Codes for residential and commercial construction" and lists the "2012 International Building Code, with revisions" and the "2006 International Residential Code, with revisions." The residential permit application, revised July 2025, says "The City of Waterloo has adopted the 2006 International Residential Code with revisions" and to "Consult Chapter 6, Building Code, of the City of Waterloo Code of Ordinances for details." Chapter 6 is published by an outside code host, which this record did not read, so it does not state what the City's revisions say about roofs.

NO OSB ROOF SHEATHING, PER THE CITY'S RESIDENTIAL PERMIT APPLICATION. The application, revised July 2025, says "In no case shall particle board (OSB), yellow pine or chipboard be used for roof sheathing. Roof Sheathing must be ½ inch fir plywood grade or better, or the Zip System® roof panels with the Zip System® tape." The application is written for new dwellings and additions; it does not say whether the rule reaches sheathing replaced during a re-roof. This rests on the department's own written application, and the enacted text of Chapter 6 of the City Code was not read.

Illinois taxes the roofer, not the job, and the operative rate is not keyed to the Waterloo job address. Under 86 Ill. Adm. Code 130.1940(c), a construction contractor "does not incur Retailers' Occupation Tax liability as to receipts from labor furnished and tangible personal property (materials and fixtures) incorporated into a structure," but "incurs Use Tax on the cost price of the tangible personal property that is incorporated into real estate," with "roofing materials" named in the rule's own list of examples. Repair and replacement are taxed identically: 130.1940(a)(3) defines "construct" to include "repair, renovate or remodel." The Illinois Department of Revenue states the Use Tax rate as "6.25% of the purchase price or fair market value, whichever is greater." Where the contractor buys for resale, the local tax follows "the place of business at or from which the contractor or builder handles the transaction" (130.2075(b)(3)), so the combined rate on materials is the supply house's or the contractor's, which this record does not pin down. The authoritative lookup is the Illinois Department of Revenue's MyTax Illinois Tax Rate Finder.