City of West Allis, Wisconsin - Building Inspection

City of West Allis, Wisconsin

city

West Allis, WI

Required

West Allis's own "Do I Need a Permit For..." guidance page states that a homeowner who resides at the property, or a contractor holding the two required State of Wisconsin certifications (a Dwelling Contractor Certification and a Dwelling Contractor Qualifier Certification), may apply for a building permit. The stated process: submit a building permit application and plans detailing the proposed work; review can take up to 10 business days; once issued, work may begin; the homeowner or contractor must then schedule inspections with the inspector, for example excavation-before-pour, rough inspections (building, electrical and plumbing) before covering work with finish materials, and a final inspection before use or occupancy. For roofing specifically, the City states that an ordinary re-roof of a house is treated as maintenance and does not generally require a permit at all, so this general inspection sequence would not be triggered for that narrow category of work; a permit is stated to be required only where the project involves a structural change, such as converting a flat roof to a pitched roof or adding a dormer. West Allis's own codified municipal code (hosted at westallis.municipalcodeonline.com) could not be opened this session -- its content endpoint returned HTTP 500 "Unauthorized Access" to every scripted request tried, with and without a browser user-agent -- so the underlying enacted ordinance behind this guidance was not independently read. Confirm with West Allis Building Inspection, 414-302-2489, before relying on the guidance for an edge case.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. West Allis has no authority to adopt or amend a different residential building code for a one- or two-family dwelling. Wisconsin's residential code is not a straight IRC adoption: it is the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code (UDC), Wis. Admin. Code chs. SPS 320-325, drafted by Wisconsin and promulgated by the Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) under Wis. Stat. ch. 101, subch. II. SPS 321.01 applies the chapter to "the design and construction of all one- and 2-family dwellings," and the roof-coverings section, SPS 321.28 (Weather Protection for Roofs), was most recently amended by CR 15-041 (Register December 2015 No. 720, eff. 1-1-16) -- confirmed against the Wisconsin Legislature's own published chapter, which carries a Register November 2024 No. 827 currency stamp. Preemption: Wis. Stat. Section 101.65(1)(a) lets a municipality "[s]ubject to sub. (1c), exercise jurisdiction over the construction and inspection of new dwellings by passage of ordinances," and Section 101.65(1c) provides that a municipality "[m]ay not make or enforce an ordinance under sub. (1) that is applied to a dwelling and that does not conform to this subchapter and the uniform dwelling code adopted by the department under this subchapter." That is a conformity (match/non-match) test, not a minimum floor -- the section contains no "may be more restrictive" carve-out -- so West Allis applies SPS 321 verbatim for one- and two-family dwellings. SPS 321 governs one- and two-family dwellings only; roofing on buildings of three or more units, and other commercial work, falls under the Wisconsin Commercial Building Code (Wis. Admin. Code chs. SPS 361-366, adopting the IBC), which this record does not cover. West Allis's own municipal code (hosted at westallis.municipalcodeonline.com) could not be read this session -- see permit_process_note and roofing_permit_required -- but the UDC's conformity mandate means the City has no lawful room to set a different technical roofing rule regardless.

Not required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, and a genuine Wisconsin/IRC divergence rather than a research gap. Wis. Admin. Code Section SPS 321.28 ("Weather Protection for Roofs"), subsections (1) through (7), read in full from the Wisconsin Legislature's own published chapter, contains zero occurrences of "drip edge" tied to a roof eave or rake -- verified by a direct term search of the fetched section text this session. Wisconsin's UDC is Wisconsin-drafted, not an IRC clone, and it has no counterpart to IRC R905.2.8.5. Manufacturer instructions can still require drip edge as a condition of the shingle warranty, and SPS 321.28(3)(a) requires asphalt shingles to be installed per those instructions; but there is no code mandate as such, and West Allis may not add one for a one- or two-family dwelling (Wis. Stat. Section 101.65(1c)). About drip edge

Required — STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET, but SCOPE-LIMITED BY ROOF SLOPE -- read the trigger before pricing the job. Wis. Admin. Code Section SPS 321.28(4)(a) requires ice dam protection on shingled or shake roofs that extend over a heated area of the dwelling or an attached garage AND that have a slope of 4:12 or less; the protection must be sheet metal or a product labeled as meeting ASTM D1970. Wisconsin's UDC therefore does not impose the IRC's across-the-board cold-climate ice barrier on steeper roofs -- it is a Wisconsin-drafted rule, not an IRC clone. Extent, verbatim, SPS 321.28(4)(b): the ice dam protection "shall extend at least 30 inches up the roof slope from the roof edge and at least 12 inches up the roof slope beyond the inner face of the exterior wall." That is a different measurement convention from the IRC's "24 inches inside the exterior wall line" -- do not substitute IRC ice-barrier language on a Wisconsin job. West Allis may not impose a different ice-barrier rule on a one- or two-family dwelling (Wis. Stat. Section 101.65(1c)). The mandate genuinely exists in Wisconsin code, but it is the 4:12-or-less slope condition described here, not a bare yes-or-no answer, that governs a given roof. SCOPE -- the same Uniform Dwelling Code limits that govern the layer rule govern this one, because Wis. Admin. Code SPS 320.05 exempts work from the code as a whole rather than from any single section. SPS 320.05(1) excludes dwellings whose construction commenced before the code's effective date, and additions or alterations to such dwellings, unless the municipality has adopted chs. SPS 320 to 325 for that purpose -- whether West Allis has done so is NOT established by this record, because the municipal code section that would say so could not be opened this session. That date is June 1, 1980 for chs. SPS 320, 321, 323, 324 and 325 under SPS 320.03; Wis. Stat. 101.615 states December 1, 1978 for the subchapter as a whole -- report both. SPS 320.05(3) further excludes "repairs or maintenance to dwellings or dwelling units," and SPS 320.07(61) defines "repair" to include "the replacement of existing fixtures, systems or equipment with the equivalent" fixture, system or equipment. On a dwelling built before 1980, confirm with West Allis Building Inspection that the ice dam rule applies before pricing it in or out. About ice & water barrier

Not required — CITY-SPECIFIC administrative practice, as far as it could be established this session without the enacted municipal code (see repair_permit_threshold). West Allis's own guidance page states that an ordinary re-roof of a house is treated as maintenance and does not generally require a City building permit at all, so for that common category of work there is no City permit under which an in-progress deck, underlayment, or mid-roof inspection could be called -- and therefore no mid-roof inspection to schedule. Where a permit IS required (a structural change such as converting a flat roof to a pitched roof, or adding a dormer), the same guidance page describes a general inspection sequence -- rough inspections "before covering any work with finish materials" and a final inspection before use or occupancy -- but does not name a roofing-specific mid-roof stage, and this record does not state whether that general sequence includes one for a structural roof permit. Confirm with West Allis Building Inspection, 414-302-2489, for any roofing project that does require a permit.

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in West Allis. Wis. Admin. Code Section SPS 321.28 ("Weather Protection for Roofs"), the UDC's roof-coverings section, was read in full from the Wisconsin Legislature's own published chapter this session and contains zero occurrences of "UL 2218" and zero occurrences of "Class 4" or "2218" anywhere in subsections (1) through (7) -- verified by a direct term search, not inferred. Its catch-all, SPS 321.28(5), reads "All roof coverings not otherwise addressed in this section shall be installed in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions or a national standard recognized by the department," which sets no impact class. West Allis cannot add such a requirement for a one- or two-family dwelling (Wis. Stat. Section 101.65(1c)). Impact-resistant shingles remain a voluntary, insurer-driven upgrade in this market rather than a code obligation. (Note that any ASTM E108 / UL 790 "Class A/B/C" designation encountered on a Wisconsin job is a FIRE rating and is not evidence of an impact requirement.)

HELD ON THE BOOLEAN -- the field this record cannot fill is roofing_permit_required itself, because the honest answer needs a qualifier a bare boolean cannot carry. The City's own guidance page, "Do I Need a Permit For...", answers the "Roofing" question this way, in full: "Re-roofing a house is considered maintenance and does not generally require a permit. However, if structural damage is found on your house, a permit may be required to replace any roof structural members (this does not include the plywood or OSB sheathing that goes down on the roof rafters or trusses). A building permit is not required to re-roof a dwelling unless the project involves structural changes such as changing a flat roof to a pitched roof or adding a dormer. The West Allis municipal code only allows two layers of roofing material on a house, so if you have two layers already, they will have to be removed before installing the new roofing material. The amount of attic ventilation on your house cannot be reduced through a re-roofing project." So the City's own stated RULE is fairly clean -- no permit for an ordinary re-roof, a permit is required only where the project involves a structural change such as converting a flat roof to a pitched roof or adding a dormer -- but it is web guidance, not the enacted ordinance text, and the word "generally" hedges it. West Allis's municipal code is hosted at westallis.municipalcodeonline.com, an Angular application whose content endpoint (book/content) returned HTTP 500 "Unauthorized Access" on every attempt this session, with and without a browser user-agent, so the enacted provision this guidance is presumably restating could not be opened and compared against it. Per this project's standing rule on an enacted ordinance against a city's own web guidance, where the two cannot be compared the boolean is held rather than set from guidance alone. Until the enacted municipal code section can be read: treat the City's own stated rule above as the practical answer for an ordinary like-for-like re-roof with no structural change, and confirm with West Allis Building Inspection, 414-302-2489, before relying on it for a project involving a flat-to-pitched conversion, a dormer, or any other structural change to the roof.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Wisconsin's UDC uses a prescriptive pounds-per-square-foot system plus a statewide snow-load zone map, NOT the IRC's county-by-county "ultimate design wind speed (mph)" table -- do not translate it into an mph figure. Wis. Admin. Code Section SPS 321.02(1)(c), read from the Wisconsin Legislature's own published chapter this session, requires dwellings to be designed to withstand "either a horizontal and uplift pressure of 20 pounds per square foot acting over the surface area or the wind loads determined in accordance with ASCE 7-05, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures." Snow: SPS 321.02(1)(b)2 -- "Roofs shall be designed and constructed to support the minimum snow loads listed" on a statewide zone map (Figure 321.02), rather than a single statewide number, so a West Allis/Milwaukee County ground snow load must be read off that figure; this record does not state a numeric value for West Allis. Fastening: SPS 321.02(3)(h) -- "All building components shall be fastened to withstand the dead load, live load, snow load, and wind load," per the Table 321.02-2 fastener schedule, with engineered alternatives allowed.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET -- the rule is the same in West Allis as everywhere else in Wisconsin, for the one- and two-family dwellings the Uniform Dwelling Code reaches -- which is not all of them; read SCOPE below before applying it to an older house. Wis. Admin. Code Section SPS 321.28(6) REROOFING prohibits installing a new roof covering over an existing one where any of the following exist: (a) the existing roof or roof covering is water-soaked or has deteriorated such that it is inadequate as a base for additional roofing; (b) the existing roof is wood shake, slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile; or (c) the existing roof has 2 or more applications of any type of permanent roof covering. Practical effect: at most one overlay over one existing layer, for a maximum of two total applications of roofing, and only when the existing covering is sound and is not shake, slate, clay, cement, or asbestos-cement tile. West Allis cannot impose a different layer limit for a one- or two-family dwelling (Wis. Stat. Section 101.65(1c)). The City's own guidance page independently states "the West Allis municipal code only allows two layers of roofing material on a house, so if you have two layers already, they will have to be removed before installing the new roofing material" -- that is reported here as the City's own web statement, which matches the state rule's practical effect in substance, not as the basis for this classification; the underlying municipal code section itself could not be opened this session (see repair_permit_threshold) to confirm whether it independently restates a flat two-layer cap or simply points to the state UDC. SCOPE -- the Uniform Dwelling Code does not reach every dwelling, and the rule above governs only the ones it does. Wis. Admin. Code SPS 320.05(1) EXISTING DWELLINGS provides that the code "shall not apply to dwellings and dwelling units, the construction of which was commenced prior to the effective date of this code, or to additions or alterations to such dwellings." SPS 320.03 fixes that effective date for chs. SPS 320, 321, 323, 324 and 325 at June 1, 1980 (the same section sets December 1, 1978 for ch. SPS 322, the energy chapter -- a different date for a different chapter, not a conflict). Wis. Stat. 101.615 separately applies the whole subchapter to "a dwelling the initial construction of which was commenced on or after December 1, 1978" -- the statute and the administrative rule state different dates for what is, in substance, the same threshold; report both, do not pick one. A municipality may close the gap itself: SPS 320.02(2)(d) provides that "[a]ny municipality may, by ordinance, adopt the provisions of chs. SPS 320 to 325 to apply to any additions or alterations to existing dwellings" -- whether West Allis has done so is NOT established by this record, because that would be in the municipal code section that could not be opened this session. Separately, SPS 320.05(3) REPAIRS provides that the code does "not apply to repairs or maintenance to dwellings or dwelling units," and SPS 320.07(61) defines "repair" to mean "the act or process of restoring to original soundness, including redecorating, refinishing, nonstructural repairs or maintenance, or the replacement of existing fixtures, systems or equipment with the equivalent fixture, system or equipment" -- a fair description of a like-for-like tear-off and replacement -- while SPS 321.28(6) regulates reroofing by name. Those two provisions are in genuine tension; this record states both and does not adjudicate between them. On a dwelling built before 1980, or on a like-for-like replacement, confirm scope with West Allis Building Inspection before relying on the layer rule.

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Wis. Admin. Code Section SPS 321.27(9) ("Roof Sheathing, Boards and Planking"): (a) structural sheathing -- "The allowable loads and spans for structural sheathing shall be in accordance with the grade stamp on the panel."; (b)1. where rafter spacing is 24 inches on center or less, "roof boards may be used that have a minimum thickness of 5/8-inch for solid sheathing and 3/4-inch for spaced sheathing."; (b)2. where rafter spacing is greater than 24 inches on center, "roof boards shall be tongue and groove, at least 1.5 inches thick."; (c) roof planks, as an alternative, "shall be tongue and groove or splined and at least 2 inches, nominal, in thickness," shall "terminate over beams unless the joints are end matched," shall be "laid so that no continuous line of joints will occur except at points of support," and "shall be nailed or fastened to each beam." Note that Wisconsin's UDC, unlike the IRC as amended in some states, does not state a blanket "solidly sheathed deck" mandate for asphalt shingles -- spaced sheathing at 3/4-inch is expressly contemplated at (9)(b)1 -- while SPS 321.28(3)(a) separately requires asphalt shingles to be installed per the manufacturer's instructions, which commonly do require a solid deck. West Allis cannot impose a different sheathing rule for a one- or two-family dwelling (Wis. Stat. Section 101.65(1c)).

West Allis's combined sales and use tax rate is 5.9% -- the 5.0% Wisconsin state rate plus the 0.9% Milwaukee County sales and use tax. Per the Wisconsin Department of Revenue's own published sales-tax FAQ, read directly this session: "Seventy Wisconsin counties have adopted a 0.5% county tax. Milwaukee County sales and use tax increases from 0.5% to 0.9%, effective January 1, 2024." West Allis is a separate municipality within Milwaukee County and is NOT the City of Milwaukee, which matters because the same DOR page states "The city of Milwaukee is the only municipality that imposes a city sales and use tax. The 2% city of Milwaukee sales and use tax is effective January 1, 2024" -- that 2% city-level add-on applies only to a location inside the City of Milwaukee's own boundary and does not reach West Allis. There is no separate City of West Allis sales tax and no special-district add-on established by this record.