Roofing in Salem, Oregon

Required

The 2026 Oregon Residential Specialty Code (ORSC), the State's code for one- and two-family dwellings, adopted by the Building Codes Division in OAR 918-480-0005, which provides that "The Low-Rise Residential Dwelling Code, identified in ORS 455.610, will be known as the Oregon Residential Specialty Code." The 2026 ORSC "is based on the 2024 edition of the International Residential Code for One-and Two-Family Dwellings (IRC), with Oregon specific amendments" and took effect October 1, 2026. Its administrative chapter, Chapter 1, has been mandatory since that date. For its construction chapters (Chapters 2 to 44, including Chapter 9, Roof Assemblies) the rule set a six-month phase-in ending March 31, 2027, during which the 2023 ORSC, based on the 2021 IRC, also remained adopted and building departments had to accept plans designed to either edition; the 2026 edition is mandatory from April 1, 2027. Under the rule, "Code requirements in effect at the time a plan review or permit application is filed controls the construction under the application unless the applicant agrees to be controlled by subsequent changes." The code is the same in every city and county: "The state building code shall be applicable and uniform throughout this state and in all municipalities, and no municipality shall enact or enforce any ordinance, rule or regulation relating to the same matters encompassed by the state building code but which provides different requirements unless authorized by the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services" (ORS 455.040(1)). A city may therefore have a different local requirement only with the director's authorization, and this record did not read whether this city holds any such authorization. Where a city does not run a building inspection program, the county administers the code inside the city, and where the county does not, the State does (ORS 455.148(5) and (6)). In Salem the city's Building and Safety staff at the Permit Application Center administer the Oregon Residential Specialty Code: the city's own page directs building permit applications and building code questions to the Permit Application Center and its Building and Safety staff, so Salem has its own building program and the county does not administer the code inside the city.