Roofing in Bismarck, North Dakota

Not required

LOCALLY ELECTED AND LOCALLY AMENDED - North Dakota imposes no building code on every municipality. Under NDCC 54-21.3-03(6) a city, township or county "that elects to administer and enforce a building code shall adopt and enforce the state building code", and the same subsection adds that "the state building code may be amended by cities, townships, and counties to conform to local needs" - with no stringency limit, no state approval and no notice requirement attached. Bismarck is an electing city. Bismarck Code of Ordinances Title 4 (Building Regulations), Section 4-02-02, adopts by reference the City of Bismarck Building Code, consisting of the 2021 International Building Code, the 2021 International Residential Code (including appendix AJ), the 2021 International Mechanical Code, the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code, the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code, the 2021 International Existing Building Code, the Wiring Standards of North Dakota and the North Dakota State Plumbing Code, most recently re-adopted by Ordinance 6544 (March 27, 2023). The City's Building Inspections Department publishes the same 2021 list as its adopted codes, adding ICC ANSI A117.1 2017, the National Electrical Code with the North Dakota State Wiring Standards, and the Uniform Plumbing Code with the North Dakota State Plumbing Standards. Section 4-02-06 then carries the City's own amendment list, running to more than thirty pages and organised by code. A 2024-edition update is UNDER WAY AND NOT YET ADOPTED: the Building Inspections Department states it "is in the process of updating the City's current building code regulations to the 2024 edition" of the IBC, IRC, IEBC, IECC, IMC and IFGC, sets an amendment submittal deadline of August 17, 2026, lists an open house as "TBD", and marks its draft code amendments "(Will be posted in August 2026)". The 2021 editions above are what the City publishes as adopted, and the 2024 package is a proposal in progress with no adopting ordinance and no effective date published. One further provision a roofer should know exists: Section 4-02-03 (Subsequent Editions) states that subsequent editions or revisions of the adopted codes "shall be considered adopted and in full force and effect within the city upon the adoption thereof by the State of North Dakota and/or the City of Bismarck and the filing of one copy thereof in the office of the City Administrator." That clause matters because the STATE base has already moved: the North Dakota Department of Commerce, Community Services - the agency the Century Code charges with maintaining the state building code - reports that on September 11, 2025 eligible cities and counties and eligible members of the Building Code Advisory Committee "adopted the 2024 updates to the IBC, IRC, IMC, and IFGC and the proposed amendments," together with the 2024 IECC and IEBC, and states that "The new North Dakota State Building Code will go into effect Jan. 1, 2026." Bismarck nonetheless publishes the 2021 suite as its adopted codes and describes its own move to the 2024 editions as still in progress. Both positions are stated here as published; which edition governs a particular Bismarck permit is a question for the Building Inspections Department, and a roofer should confirm the operative edition with the Building Official before pricing work to a specific edition.

Residential reroofing sits outside Bismarck's building-permit system: the City's amendments to the International Building Code and the International Existing Building Code both add reroofing to the list of work exempt from permit, and the Department publishes no reroofing permit type and no reroofing application form. Work that does need a permit is applied for through eTRAKiT, the City's online permit and licence portal, or by emailing the Building Inspections Department; inspections on issued permits are requested through eTRAKiT one day ahead, or by telephone on 701-355-1465, and the permit must be in ISSUED status before an inspection can be requested. Building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing inspectors are assigned by district across the city and its extra-territorial area, and the Department publishes district maps to identify the inspector for a given address. Two jurisdictional points a roofer working the edge of town should know: the Department administers the codes both inside the City and in the Bismarck extra-territorial area, but the City does NOT hold electrical jurisdiction in the extra-territorial area, where electrical work must be inspected by the North Dakota State Electrical Board. Under Bismarck Code of Ordinances Section 4-02-06, where work requiring a permit is started before the permit is obtained, the permit fee is doubled.