Roofing in Caledonia, Wisconsin

Required

Required

STATE CODE, ADOPTED BY THE VILLAGE AND EXTENDED TO PRE-1980 HOUSES. One- and two-family dwellings in Caledonia are built to the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code, chs. SPS 320 to 325 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code. That code is Wisconsin's own text rather than an adoption of the International Residential Code, which is why its roofing rules read differently from the IRC and why no IRC edition year applies to a house here. The current local adoption is Municipal Code section 15-1-3(b)(4): "The Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code, SPS 320-325 and SPS 327, and their successors, of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, and all amendments thereto, is adopted and incorporated by reference and shall apply to all buildings within the scope of this ordinance," and section 15-1-3(b)(2) states the reason plainly - "to maintain required local uniformity with the administrative and technical requirements of the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code." The adoption floats rather than freezing an edition, since it takes the code "and their successors" and "all amendments thereto." Section 15-1-3(b)(5) requires the Building Inspector to be certified by the Division of Industry Services as a Uniform Dwelling Code Construction Inspector, with UDC HVAC, Electrical and Plumbing certifications held by that inspector or assistants. Commercial work runs on a different code set under section 15-1-33. READ TITLE 15 WITH ONE EYE ON ITS AGE. Alongside the current adoption, the Village still carries older provisions using superseded chapter names: section 15-1-3(a) refers to chapters IND 50 through 64, section 15-1-29(b) adopts the dwelling code as "Chapters ILHR 20 through 25", and section 15-1-13 requires construction in accord with named chapters of a "Wisconsin Uniform Building Code, as revised, prepared by the Building Inspectors Association of the State of Wisconsin." Those are reproduced here as enacted, not interpreted; section 15-1-3(b)(3) supplies the Village's own conflict rule, that the most restrictive provision applies. Title 15 was read in full, all of Chapter 15-1's thirty-three sections, and it adds no roof-assembly requirement of its own. The codification is current through September 15, 2025.

Permits are taken out at the Building Department, Village Hall, 5043 Chester Lane, on 262-835-4451; Village Hall is open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Village describes the department as providing "services for commercial and residential construction projects" with its own senior building inspector, building inspector, residential and commercial electrical inspectors, residential and commercial plumbing inspectors and an administrative coordinator, and invites questions by phone or at the counter. Note that new homes are filed differently from everything else: since November 19, 2019 the Village has used the State of Wisconsin Online Building Permit System for new home applications, with the Village submittal following state acceptance. A reroof is an ordinary Village building permit. Ordinance section 15-1-7(a) requires a weatherproof card signed by the Building Inspector to be posted at the job site during construction. Section 15-1-7(c)(1) voids a permit unless operations begin within four months, or if work is suspended for sixty days after starting, with an extension available where the delay was outside the applicant's control; a lapsed permit is reissued at the regular fee rate and all work must be completed within twenty-four months of issuance. Section 15-1-6(c) lets the Building Inspector waive plans, specifications and survey for minor alterations and repairs where the work is sufficiently described in the application. Where a job touches drainage, section 15-1-6(e)(2) carries a rule a roofer should know: no existing provision for conveying water from the roof of a dwelling may be altered or replaced unless roof water is carried by gutters and downspouts to the ground so that it does not reach the sanitary sewer, directly or indirectly.