City of Williston, North Dakota - Building Safety Division

City of Williston, North Dakota

city

Williston, ND

Required

Williston's Building Safety Division sits within City Development Services at 113 4th Street East, 2nd Floor, Williston, and takes permit applications by email at [email protected] or at the counter; the department line is 701-577-8115. To apply the City asks for the address and legal description of the property, the intended use, the estimated cost of construction, and a site plan showing the size and location of all existing buildings together with the proposed project; basic construction drawings help, and new homes need two sets of drawings, a complete set of truss drawings and a completed application. The City states that a permit generally takes less than an hour to issue depending on the information provided and the complexity of the project, that new homes and garages need a minimum of three weeks, and that failing to allow enough time for approval before starting work will result in a fine. Approved plans must be kept on the job site from the beginning of construction until the building is complete and all final inspections are made. Williston will not issue the permit until it has a copy of the contractor's North Dakota contractor licence and current liability insurance on file.

The City of Williston publishes its adopted code on its own Building Safety FAQ, which states that as of January 1, 2026 the City follows the North Dakota State Building Code, consisting of the 2024 International Building Code, 2024 International Fire Code, 2024 International Residential Code, 2024 International Mechanical Code, 2024 International Fuel and Gas Code, 2024 International Energy Efficiency Code and the 2018 Uniform Plumbing Code, together with the Laws, Rules and Wiring Standards of North Dakota, being the 2026 edition of NFPA 70 (National Electrical Code) and the 2018 edition of NFPA 101 (Life Safety Code). Residential roofing therefore runs on the 2024 International Residential Code as adopted through the state code. Note the North Dakota framework this sits in, because it decides how far the answer travels: NDCC 54-21.3-03 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, and that the state building code may be amended by cities, townships and counties to conform to local needs. North Dakota attaches no stringency limit, no state-approval step and no notice requirement to that local amendment power, so a North Dakota roofing answer is a per-city question and the state code is a starting point rather than a ceiling or a floor. Williston's own adoption is expressly floating rather than frozen: Code of Ordinances Section 5-11 adopts "the regulations contained in the State Building Code adopted under N.D.C.C. Section 54-21.3-03" without naming an edition, and Section 5-31 provides that those provisions "may be amended, supplemented, added to and modified" by rules promulgated by the State and by subsequent amendments approved by the membership of the International Code Council. That is why the City moves to a new edition without passing a new adopting ordinance. Two cautions follow. First, the North Dakota State Building Code states that no appendices are adopted at state level, so any ICC appendix in force in Williston is there because Williston itself adopted it. Second, while the base code floats, the City's own amendment text did not float with it: its building and residential amendment lists, Code of Ordinances Sections 5-13.1 and 5-14.1, were enacted in 2014 by Ordinances 997-A and 997-B and are written against the 2012 editions by section number. Both are still on the books.

Required — Williston enforces the North Dakota State Building Code, which for residential work is the 2024 International Residential Code. The state's own amendments to that code, read in full, reach Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11 and 21 and do not touch Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. Williston's residential amendments in Code of Ordinances Section 5-14.1 (Ordinance No. 997-B, May 27, 2014) touch Chapter 9 in exactly one place - they add a reroofing section - and nowhere alter the drip-edge provisions. The base 2024 International Residential Code drip-edge requirement for asphalt shingle roofs therefore applies in Williston unmodified, and this record does not restate its detail. About drip edge

Not required — Williston publishes a "Standard Building Inspections" schedule listing the inspection stages its inspectors perform - foundation (setbacks, footing, foundation wall, masonry wall, slab or floor, damproofing and foundation drainage), framing (water-resistive barrier or housewrap, framing rough-in, acoustical ceiling grid, above-ceiling, fire and smoke resistant construction and penetrations), insulation, and final inspection, followed by separate standard plumbing and HVAC schedules. Read in full, the only roofing inspection stage in that document is expressly scoped to commercial projects, covering built-up roof insulation, sheathing and decking, access ladders and hatchways, and a final. No in-progress, deck or mid-roof inspection stage is set for residential roofing work. That does not remove the ordinary framing and final inspections from a residential job, and the document itself notes that not every listed inspection applies to every project, so the inspector may still call for a look at a deck exposed during a tear-off. It is the permit holder's responsibility to arrange inspections, a 24-hour period is required for inspection appointments, and there is no additional charge for them.

Not required — No impact-resistance mandate applies in Williston. Two amendment sets sit between the model code and a Williston roof, and both were read in full. The North Dakota State Building Code effective January 1, 2026 amends the 2024 International Residential Code only in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11 and 21 - administration, definitions, building planning, foundations, floors, wall construction, energy efficiency and hydronic piping - and contains no amendment to Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies. Williston's own residential amendments, Code of Ordinances Section 5-14.1 (Ordinance No. 997-B, adopted May 27, 2014), amend the permit-exemption list, garage opening protection, guards, frost protection and add a reroofing section, and contain no impact-rating provision. Neither set imposes a UL 2218 or Class 4 impact-resistant roof covering requirement, and no such requirement appears anywhere in the City's building chapter. Insurers writing hail cover in the Bakken may still offer a premium credit for an impact-resistant shingle, but that is an insurance product, not a Williston code requirement.

NO SIZE OR DOLLAR THRESHOLD FOR ROOFING - Williston names re-roofing as permitted work outright. The City's Building Safety FAQ answers "When do I need a permit?" with a list running both ways: permits are required for any new construction, addition, remodeling project or structural alteration as well as mechanical and plumbing projects; permits are NOT required for finish work such as new cabinets, painting, patios made of brick or paving stones, or concrete slabs; and the FAQ then states that you DO need a permit for sheet rock, siding, re-roofing, replacing windows or a deck. Re-roofing is therefore on the required side of the City's own published exemption list by name, not merely unaddressed by it, and nothing in that answer scales the requirement to the size or value of the job. The FAQ also states more generally that before any work is started you must acquire a building permit. What the value of the job does change is the fee, not the requirement: Williston charges remodeling permits on the value of the work in material and labour, starting at $15.00 for a total valuation of $1.00 to $500.00, then $15.00 for the first $500.00 plus $2.00 for each additional $100.00 up to $2,000.00, then $45.00 for the first $2,000.00 plus $9.00 for each additional $1,000.00 up to $25,000.00, and so on up the published schedule. A plan review fee of up to half the permit fee is collected at the time of submittal. Note also that Williston requires a copy of the contractor's North Dakota contractor licence and liability insurance before it will issue the permit at all. Two further provisions of the City's codified building chapter belong beside that FAQ answer, and a roofer should read all three rather than any one of them. Code of Ordinances Section 5-14.1(a) is Williston's own amended version of the residential code's "Work exempt from permit" list, and its ten items are sheds of 120 square feet or less, fences not over 8.5 feet, retaining walls not over four feet, water tanks to 5,000 gallons, sidewalks and driveways, painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, counter tops and similar finish work, prefabricated pools less than 24 inches deep, swings and playground equipment, window awnings projecting not more than 54 inches, and decks of 200 square feet or less that are not more than 30 inches above grade, not attached to a dwelling and not serving a required exit door. Roofing appears nowhere on that exempt list. Separately, Section 5-29, a provision dating from 1989 and last amended in 2003, makes it unlawful to construct any building or structure other than a fence in the City's jurisdiction "where the cost of such construction exceeds $2,000," or to alter or remodel a building so as to change the bearing walls, beams or supports, without first securing a permit, and adds that all work on commercial buildings and replacement or relocation of required exits requires a permit regardless. Whether an ordinary re-roof falls inside or outside that $2,000 construction provision is a question the City's own documents do not answer in terms, and this record does not answer it either. The City's current published position is the FAQ one, that a permit is required for re-roofing, and Building Safety on 701-577-8115 is the place to settle any borderline job.

Williston publishes one set of structural design criteria for the whole department rather than a residential climatic and geographic design criteria table. Its Building Safety FAQ answers "What are the City of Williston's load requirements?" as follows: follow the 2024 International Building Code and ASCE 7-22; 110 mph, stated by the City as the ultimate design wind speed; exposure category and risk category based on building type; seismic 0; frost depth 48 inches. Two things a roofer should read carefully here. First, the City states the BASIS of the wind figure on the face of its own answer - 110 mph is an ultimate design wind speed, not a nominal or three-second-gust working figure - so it must not be dropped into a method that expects a nominal speed. Second, the City frames the whole answer against the International Building Code and ASCE 7-22 rather than against the residential code's own design criteria table; Williston publishes no Table R301.2(1) of its own that this record could locate, so confirm the residential figures with Building Safety at 701-577-8115 before engineering a residential roof assembly to them. One further caution on the frost figure, because the City publishes two: the FAQ says 48 inches, while Code of Ordinances Section 5-36(4)(a) requires footings and foundations to be placed below the frost penetration level and "in no case less than 50 inches below adjacent ground." Both are the City's own text and this record states both rather than choosing between them. Williston publishes no ice barrier entry in its design criteria, which is why this record takes no position on ice barrier underlayment.

WILLISTON HAS ITS OWN REROOFING PROVISION, AND IT IS A POINTER RATHER THAN A LAYER COUNT - read it before assuming the model-code rule governs. Williston Code of Ordinances Section 5-14.1, the City's amendment list to the residential building code (Ordinance No. 997-B, Sections 1-5, adopted May 27, 2014), closes with subsection (e), which reads in full: "Section R907 Reroofing be added, and as added be enacted as follows: Sec. R907. Reroofing. The City of Williston hereby adopts Appendix R of the 2012 I.R.C. in its entirety." Its commercial counterpart, Section 5-13.1(d) (Ordinance No. 997-A, same date), adds a Section 1510 Reroofing that adopts and incorporates Appendix N of the 2012 International Building Code. So the number of existing roof covering layers that may remain before a tear-off is required is set in Williston by an appendix adopted by reference, and the text of that appendix is not reproduced anywhere in the City's code. This record does not restate it and proposes no layer count. Two further facts a roofer needs in order to read that provision correctly. First, the North Dakota State Building Code states in terms that NO APPENDICES ARE ADOPTED at state level, so an appendix reaches a North Dakota job only where the local jurisdiction has adopted it - which is what Williston has done here, and it is exactly the kind of local amendment NDCC 54-21.3-03 permits. Second, the City's adoption of the base code floats to the current edition (the City states it follows the 2024 editions from January 1, 2026) while this 2014 amendment names the 2012 edition of the appendix. Confirm with Williston Building Safety on 701-577-8115 which appendix text the City applies to a reroof before pricing a recover over an existing layer.

Governed by the unmodified base code. Williston adopts the North Dakota State Building Code by reference in Code of Ordinances Section 5-11, and for residential work that is the 2024 International Residential Code. The state's amendments to the 2024 International Residential Code, read in full, amend sections in Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11 and 21 only, and contain no amendment to Chapter 8, Roof-Ceiling Construction, the chapter carrying the code's roof sheathing and decking provisions. Williston's own residential amendment list, Section 5-14.1 (Ordinance No. 997-B, May 27, 2014), amends the permit-exemption list, garage opening protection, guards and frost protection and adds a reroofing section, and likewise contains no amendment to Chapter 8. The base 2024 International Residential Code roof sheathing requirements therefore apply in Williston unmodified. Two local provisions sit alongside them and neither is a sheathing rule: a pole building must have a roof pitch of at least two inches in twelve and be built to the State Building Codes (Section 5-314), and a metal building must carry a minimum live roof load of at least 30 pounds per square foot (Section 5-32). Note also that Williston's published inspection schedule sets a roof insulation, sheathing and decking inspection for commercial projects only.