Roofing in Germantown, Wisconsin

Required

Required

THE VILLAGE ADOPTS THE STATE CODES BY REFERENCE AND WRITES NO CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS OF ITS OWN. For a house the operative provision is Village Code Section 14.07(2): chs. SPS 320 to 326 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code are adopted by reference and "shall apply to all new one-family and 2-family dwellings and all additions to existing and new one-family and 2-family dwellings," and separately "shall pertain to all remodeling or alterations in existing one-family and 2-family dwellings." Section 14.07(1) adopts chs. SPS 361 to 366 for public buildings, multifamily dwellings and places of employment, expressly including "Any future amendments, revisions and modifications." Section 14.15, "Adoption of state codes," adds that upon the Village becoming a certified municipality the dwelling and commercial chapters together with the State Electrical Code, State Plumbing Code, State Flammable Liquids Code and State Well Drilling Code "are hereby adopted by reference and the Building Inspector shall enforce the provisions thereof," and adopts a further list of administrative code chapters "and subsequent revisions" for municipal enforcement. So there is no local edition year to check for a dwelling: the currently published text of the Wisconsin uniform dwelling code governs. ONE STRUCTURAL ODDITY WORTH KNOWING WHEN READING THE CODE YOURSELF: the dwelling-code adoption sits inside a section headed "CONSTRUCTION OF COMMERCIAL AND OTHER PUBLIC BUILDINGS." It is not misplaced by accident - Section 14.05(5) sends the reader there for houses in terms, providing that plans for all new one-family and two-family dwellings "shall comply with the provisions of all applicable building codes (see Section 14.07)". Section 14.07 was last amended by Ordinance #17-2020; the Village Code is codified through Ordinance No. 05-2026, adopted March 2, 2026. THE VILLAGE HAS FULL DELEGATED AUTHORITY FROM THE STATE. It announces that as of February 25, 2021 it "has been granted delegated authority by the WI Department of Safety & Professional Services (DSPS) to conduct all commercial building, HVAC, Plumbing, Fire Suppression & Fire Sprinkler System plan review and inspection services." Day-to-day permit processing, plan review and inspection are performed for the Village by a contracted inspection firm working out of Village Hall on the Village line; the permits and the code are the Village own. A NOTE ON WHERE LOCAL AUTHORITY STOPS, BECAUSE WISCONSIN DRAWS THAT LINE HARDER THAN MOST STATES. Wis. Stat. 101.65(1) lets cities, villages, towns and counties exercise jurisdiction over the construction and inspection of new dwellings by ordinance, but 101.65(1c) provides that they "may 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." It then goes a step further than a plain preemption clause: if a contract between the municipality and an owner requires the owner to comply with a non-conforming ordinance, "the owner may waive the provision, and the provision, if waived, is void and unenforceable." So a local roofing rule that departs from the state dwelling code is not merely unenforceable against the municipality - the owner can strike it out of a contract.

Applications are made on the Village Building Permit Application, a one-page form that asks for the project address, description of work, size, height, zoning district, setbacks and estimated cost, and carries separate lines for the contractor credential number and expiry and for the dwelling contractor qualifier number and expiry. Signing it grants the building inspector permission "to enter the premises for which this permit is sought at all reasonable hours and for any proper purpose to inspect the work which is being done," and commits the applicant, under SPS 320.10(4), to receive inspection results by email at the address given. The form warns that separate electrical, plumbing and heating permits may be required. The Building Inspection office is open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and the Village publishes a narrower window for reaching an inspector directly - 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. - with all inspections to be scheduled before 4 p.m. for next-day service, on 262-346-4460. Village Code Section 14.05(7) allows the Building Inspector to waive the filing of plans "for alterations, repairs or moving" where the character of the work is sufficiently described in the application. WATCH THE CLOCK ON AN ISSUED PERMIT: Section 14.05(11) provides that a building, electrical or plumbing permit "shall lapse and be void unless the permitted work is commenced within 6 months, or no significant progress has been made within one year, from the date of issuance thereof," and a lapsed permit costs 50 percent of the original fee to reissue. Cancel before any plan review or inspection work has been done and 75 percent of the fee is refunded.