Roofing in Marietta, Georgia

Required

STATE-GOVERNED, NOT CITY-SET. Georgia designates a specific list of codes as MANDATORY state minimum standard codes that bind construction anywhere in the state whether or not the local government elects to enforce them locally. O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) provides that on and after July 1, 2004 the codes enumerated in O.C.G.A. 8-2-20(9)(A)(i)(I)-(VIII) and (9)(B)(i)(I)-(VIII) "shall have state-wide application and shall not require adoption by a municipality or county"; the Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) restates this as "Georgia law gives the enumerated codes statewide applicability," so local governments need not formally adopt them but must adopt administrative procedures in order to enforce them. The International Residential Code is on the mandatory list. The operative residential standard is therefore the Georgia State Minimum Standard One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code = the 2024 International Residential Code with Georgia Amendments (the "Georgia State Amendments to the International Residential Code (2024 Edition), Revised January 1, 2026" packet), which the DCA Board adopted with an effective date of January 1, 2026. Marietta's Plan Review page states that all plans must comply with the current International Building Code, International Residential Code, Georgia Fire Codes and City of Marietta construction codes. A local government MAY adopt local amendments, but only ones MORE stringent than the state minimum, only where justified by local climatic, geologic, topographic or public safety factors, only after submitting the proposal with legislative findings to DCA for review and written recommendation, and only after filing the adopted amendment with the department. No Marietta-specific roofing amendment on file with DCA was located, so the state text is the operative roofing standard for Marietta. APPENDIX U, DISASTER RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION, IS NOT AMONG THE PERMISSIVE CODES MARIETTA TAKES UP. The Department of Community Affairs adopts that appendix to the Residential Code as a permissive code rather than a mandatory one, and the appendix states the same of itself at AU101.3.1: "The provisions of this appendix are not mandatory unless specifically referenced in an adopting ordinance of [NAME OF JURISDICTION]. If adopted, the provisions shall apply to all new development and to substantial improvements to existing development." The Department's guidance sets out the route: "in order for a local government to enforce one or more of these permissive codes, that code or codes must be adopted, either by ordinance or resolution, by the local jurisdiction", with a copy of the ordinance or resolution forwarded to the Department under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(b). Marietta records both halves of that choice in one section. Code of Ordinances section 7-4-2-020, State minimum standard codes adopted, declares in paragraph A the intention "to enforce the latest edition of the following Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes, as adopted and amended by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs" and lists the nine mandatory codes, the International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings among them; paragraph B then adopts by reference the International Existing Building Code, and paragraph C the Standard Existing Building Code and the Standard Swimming Pool Code. Those three are the permissive codes Marietta has taken up, and Appendix U is not one of them. Article 7-4-2 is the whole of the City's building instrument, Chapter 7-4 holding only that article and a fair housing article, and it was read in full: the word appendix does not occur in it once, and neither does Disaster Resilient. So the enhanced roof-deck sealing and shingle fastening the appendix carries at AU408 do not apply in Marietta. Note in any event that AU101.3.1 would limit the appendix, where a jurisdiction does adopt it, to new development and to substantial improvements to existing development, and the appendix does not define substantial improvement, so it is not a rule about how an ordinary reroof is installed. The Code of Ordinances is codified through Ordinance No. 8523, enacted June 10, 2026.

Marietta states the permit trigger broadly and does not carve roofing out of it. The city's Building Permits guidance provides that a permit is required "whenever an owner or contractor intends to construct new, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish a building or structure, or install or alter any electrical, gas, mechanical, or plumbing system," and adds that utility construction and site development also require permits. Re-roofing a dwelling is an alteration/repair of a structure and falls inside that trigger; roofing does not appear among the exemptions Marietta publishes (its "Is anything exempt from a permit?" guidance surfaces fence construction as an exemption, subject to separate Planning and Zoning height, location and configuration requirements).