The Roofing Book

Home / Roofing by City / Savannah, Georgia

Roofing in Savannah, Georgia

Hail belt

Yes — a permit is required to replace a roof in Savannah, GA, issued by City of Savannah, Georgia - Development Services Department. Savannah's permit trigger is broad and its roofing carve-out is administrative. Code of Ordinances section 8-1038 requires anyone who desires to "construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish, or change the occupancy of a building or structure" to apply to the building official and obtain a permit first, and then allows that "Ordinary minor repairs may be made without a permit, provided that such repairs shall not violate any of the provisions of the minimum codes." The Development Services Department publishes the two lists that put a working edge on that: full roof replacement including underlayment is on the permit list, and patching under 100 square feet or replacing roof shingles only is on the no-permit list. Applications go through eTRAC, the City's online permit portal, or in person at 20 Interchange Drive. A signed application and a completed Complete Application Checklist are required for every permit type. A full roof replacement is marked "PLAN NEEDED: NO", so no drawings are called for, and section 8-1038 excepts "One- and two-family dwellings and domestic outbuildings, regardless of cost" from the requirement that a registered architect or engineer seal the drawings. The all-inclusive building permit fee is $8.00 per $1,000 of cost of construction up to $5,000,000 with a minimum fee of $45.00 including a $5 technology fee, and projects under $75,000 have their own fee schedule; permit valuations must include materials and labour. A permit becomes invalid if work does not start within six months or is suspended for six months, and the permit card must be posted on site. Three Savannah-specific traps. First, both of the Department's residential permit sheets close with the note that "All exterior work done in Historic Districts must have Historic Review Board approval", so the permit exemption for a shingle-only replacement does not remove that review. The City's residential permit guidance tells an owner whose home is in the Landmark Historic District, the Victorian District, Mid-City or Cuyler-Brownsville Phase I to contact the Historic Preservation Office on 912-651-1457 to determine whether special requirements apply. Second, for existing and historic buildings section 8-1036 provides that the minimum codes are "not mandatory" where the officials judge the building safe and the outcome in the public interest, and lets them apply the alternatives in Georgia's Uniform Act for the Application of Building and Fire Related Codes to Existing Buildings, O.C.G.A. 8-2-200 - so on an old Savannah house the building official has express room to accept an alternative. Third, in a historic district the review is not a formality where a roof is concerned, because Savannah's zoning ordinance writes roof standards of its own. Part 8, Chapter 3 of the Code of Ordinances, effective September 1, 2019, carries design standards for four local historic districts at sections 7.8.10, 7.9.10, 7.10.10 and 7.11.10, for the Savannah Downtown, Victorian, Cuyler-Brownville and Streetcar districts, and each has a roofs section. On a contributing resource the Downtown standards provide that "Original roof material shall be repaired rather than replaced, provided however, if the degree of degradation does not allow repair, the degradation shall be photographically documented and verified by the Planning Director, and the new roof shall be of the same material and configuration as the original (except wood or asbestos)", and that "Metal roofs shall have a metal drip edge covering all edges". For new construction, alterations to non-contributing resources and additions they provide that "Roof coverings shall be standing seam metal, v-crimp, slate or equivalent synthetic, tile, or architectural asphalt or similar shingles". The Victorian standards run almost the same way and tighten one line to "Metal roofs shall have a metal drip edge covering all edges and a maximum seam height of one (1) inch". Which review route you are on depends on the district. In the Savannah Downtown Historic District, section 3.19.7 puts among the applications the Planning Director decides "Minor changes to contributing and noncontributing resources including color changes, window and door replacement (provided the opening size remains the same), roof replacement and shutter installations", so a re-roof there is a staff level Certificate of Appropriateness measured against the section 7.8 standards, with no public hearing. In the other local historic districts section 3.18 governs instead: a Certificate of Appropriateness is required for "A material change to the exterior appearance of any contributing or non-contributing building or structure, or contributing object, including any alteration or addition", and the Historic Preservation Commission takes it at a public hearing. Both sections exempt "General exterior maintenance or minor, in-kind repairs" and anything not visible from a public right-of-way, so a like-for-like patch out of sight of the street sits differently from a full replacement on a street facade. Finally, Part 8, Chapter 1 carries the city's own ARTICLE F. - GREEN ROOFS (sections 8-1175 through 8-1183, Ordinance of 1-13-2011), and IT DOES NOT REACH AN ORDINARY RE-ROOF: section 8-1177 says the policy "shall apply to residential, commercial, and industrial properties within the city limits", which fixes which PROPERTIES are covered rather than which WORK, and nothing in the article requires anyone to build a green roof. Where it does apply it demands engineer- or architect-certified plans, compliance with the German FLL guidelines, a 20-year waterproof-membrane warranty and an installer accreditation whose reach is ambiguous on the face of the codification, under "a fine not exceeding $1,000.00 per day". Savannah, Georgia sits in one of the country's most hail-prone regions. This hub aggregates Savannah's roofing permit and contractor-registration requirements and impact-resistant material options — every fact linked to its sourced directory record.

Roofing permits & building code in Savannah

Roofing permit and contractor-licensing rules in Savannah are set locally by City of Savannah, Georgia - Development Services Department. Georgia issues no state roofing licence — O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(f) carves roofing out as a specialty trade — but the same statute at 43-41-17(c) preserves local licensing ordinances that have been in force since July 1, 2004, so a city or county credential may still apply, and Georgia’s state minimum standard codes are a mandatory floor rather than a ceiling, leaving a local government free to adopt stricter amendments — always confirm the current requirements with the authority before starting work.

Roofing permit
Required
Contractor registration
Required
Adopted building code
Savannah publishes its own enforced-code list, and it is current. "City of Savannah Construction & Life Safety Codes 2026" states that effective January 1, 2026 all construction in the jurisdictional limits of the City shall be designed and constructed to comply with the 2024 International Building Code, the 2024 International Residential Code, the 2024 International Plumbing, Mechanical and Fuel Gas Codes, the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code, the 2024 International Fire Code, the 2023 National Electrical Code, NFPA 101 (2024), the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code and the 2010 ADA Standards, each "including Georgia Amendments as adopted by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs." Note the energy code is off-cycle at the 2015 edition; do not carry the 2024 date across to it. Behind that list, Georgia has no local code adoption to look up. The 2024 International Residential Code with Georgia Amendments 2026 is a mandatory state minimum standard code adopted by the Department of Community Affairs effective January 1, 2026, and under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(a) it applies to any structure built in Georgia whether or not the local government chooses to enforce it locally. What a Georgia local government chooses is enforcement, not applicability. Savannah has chosen to enforce, and its own Code of Ordinances section 8-1001 adopts by reference "the latest editions as adopted and amended by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs," so the city list tracks the state list rather than freezing an edition. Two things sit behind that list. FIRST, SAVANNAH DOES WRITE ONE PIECE OF ROOFING LAW OF ITS OWN. Part 8, Chapter 1 of the Code of Ordinances carries, as ARTICLE F. - GREEN ROOFS, sections 8-1175 through 8-1183, adopted by Ordinance of 1-13-2011. It sets minimum standards for the design, installation and maintenance of vegetated roofs, and it carries an installer accreditation condition and mandatory warranty periods, so it is worth knowing about before quoting that kind of work. It does not reach an ordinary asphalt-shingle re-roof, and the permit note in this record sets out what it does and does not touch. SECOND, APPENDIX U, DISASTER RESILIENT CONSTRUCTION, HAS NOT BEEN SHOWN TO BE ADOPTED IN SAVANNAH. The Department of Community Affairs adopts that appendix to the Residential Code as a permissive code rather than a mandatory one, and the appendix says 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 gives the route a city must take: "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 forwarded to the Department under O.C.G.A. 8-2-25(b). Savannah names the appendices it takes, code by code, and none of them belongs to the Residential Code. Section 8-1001 states the intention to enforce the latest edition of the listed "Georgia State Minimum and Permissive Standard Codes, as adopted and amended by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs", and adds an appendix to three of them and only three: the Fire Code entry runs "to include the adoption of Appendix D - Fire Apparatus Access Roads", the Plumbing Code entry "Further amended by the adoption of Appendix C, Gray Water Recycling Systems", and the Property Maintenance Code entry "to include the adoption of Appendix A - Boarding Standard". Read section 8-1033 on its own and the position could look different, because under the heading Appendices it provides that "Appendices as adopted by the City of Savannah or the State of Georgia's Department of Community Affairs shall be considered an integral part of the codes" - but a permissive appendix is not in force until the city itself adopts it, and section 8-1001 shows Savannah making that choice deliberately and one code at a time. So the enhanced roof-deck sealing and shingle fastening the appendix carries at AU408 do not apply here. 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.
Registration details
  • state_level: STATEWIDE, AND IT TURNS ON WHAT KIND OF CONTRACTOR YOU ARE RATHER THAN ON THE TRADE. Georgia licenses residential and general contractors through the State Licensing Board for Residential and General Contractors under O.C.G.A. Title 43, Chapter 41, created by House Bill 1003 of 2004 and amended by Senate Bill 115 of 2007. There is no Georgia licence titled roofer: the chapter creates residential-basic, residential-light commercial and general contractor licences and no roofing class, and O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(e) names the Chapter 14 trades it deals with as plumbing, conditioned air contracting, utility contracting, electrical contracting and low-voltage contracting, which does not include roofing. Section 43-41-17(a) provides that from July 1, 2008 "no person, whether an individual or a business organization, shall have the right to engage in the business of residential contracting or general contracting without a current, valid residential contractor license or general contractor license". What pulls a roofing job inside that requirement is a definition rather than a trade: O.C.G.A. 43-41-2(9) makes a person a residential contractor where the work falls into the residential-basic or residential-light commercial category and "the total value of the work or activity or of the compensation to be received by the contractor for such activity or work, whichever is the higher, exceeds $2,500.00". That figure is per job, taken on the higher of work value or compensation; it is not an annual figure, not a materials-only figure, and not specific to roofing. TWO EXCEPTIONS REACH ROOFING AND NEITHER IS A DOLLAR TEST. The first is the specialty-contractor exception at O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(f), which begins "Nothing in this chapter shall preclude a specialty contractor from offering or contracting to perform or undertaking or performing for an owner limited, specialty, or specific trade contractor work". As Chapter 41 was first enacted in 2004 that sentence carried on to confine the exception to work that put no part of the job under anyone but the contractor's own direct employees; Senate Bill 115 struck that limitation out in 2007, so the exception no longer states a supervision test. In its place the same subsection directs that "The board shall by rule or policy by January 1, 2008 identify specialty contractors or other criteria to determine eligibility under the exemption of this subsection." The second is the repair exception at O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(g): "Nothing in this chapter shall preclude a person from offering or contracting to perform or undertaking or performing for an owner repair work, provided that the person performing the repair work discloses to the owner that such person does not hold a license under this chapter and provided, further, that such work does not affect the structural integrity of the real property." The board defined repair at Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. r. 553-8-.01 to mean "fixing, mending, maintenance, replacement or restoring of a part or portions of real property to good condition", on four conditions: written disclosure to the owner that the person is not licensed as a residential or general contractor, no delegation of supervision to anyone but employees, work that does not affect the life safety requirements or structural integrity of the property, and obtaining the permits and inspections the local authority requires. Whether a full tear-off and replacement is repair within that definition is a legal question neither the statute nor the rule answers. WHAT THE BOARD HAS SAID ABOUT ROOFERS, AND WHERE IT STOPS. No rule identifying specialty contractors was ever made: the board's regulations at Department 553 of the Georgia Administrative Code run twelve chapters - organisation, examination exemption, qualifications for licensure in each division, procedural rules, fees, written warranty, definitions, disciplinary action, inactive licence, changes in status, and licence renewal and continuing education - and not one of them names a trade. The statute allowed policy as the alternative to a rule, and on the policy side the board does name roofers. Its own consumer publication for homeowners, headed "TIPS FOR CONSUMERS" and handed out by Cherokee County at its permit counter, says at item 11 that "Certain types of contractor services are considered specialty services and do not require that the person be licensed. These include roofers, painters, brick masons, and more." The Georgia Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division takes the same position on its Consumer Ed site: "Please note that certain specialty occupations such as roofers, painters, drywall contractors, and repair handymen are not required to be licensed by the state." Georgia building departments repeat it - Johns Creek's homeowner and contractor guidance states that under state law a building or trade contractor must have a valid professional licence from the Secretary of State and that "There are exceptions for limited specialty contractors such as pool and retaining wall installers, roofers, etc." DO NOT TREAT THAT AS AN EXEMPTION YOU CAN RELY ON WITHOUT CHECKING YOUR OWN POSITION. The complete specialty list those documents point to cannot be read: the web address the board's own guidance gives for it no longer resolves, and the Secretary of State's site refuses automated requests, so no reachable published document sets out the criteria a roofing business would have to meet. The Tips document carries no date either. Two state publications describing roofing as a specialty service is a good reason to put your own position to the board before you bid; it is not a rule saying you need no licence. THE SANCTION IS WHY THIS IS WORTH SETTLING BEFORE YOU SIGN. Under O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(b) a contract entered into on or after July 1, 2008 for work for which a licence is required, between an owner and a contractor who does not hold one, "shall be unenforceable in law or in equity by the unlicensed contractor", and "no lien or bond claim shall exist in favor of the unlicensed contractor for any labor, services, or materials provided under the contract". AND ONE THING THE STATE DOES TO THE LOCAL LAYER. O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(c) provides that "no municipality or county may require any such person licensed under this chapter to comply with any additional licensing requirements imposed by such municipality or county relative to the performance of construction work subject to the licensing requirements under this chapter", while preserving a local licence, registration or certification requirement already "in effect and operation as of the effective date of this chapter or July 1, 2004, whichever is earlier" - and even then the local requirement may not shut a state-licensed contractor out of the jurisdiction. So where a Georgia city or county credential is pressed against a state-licensed contractor, the date the local scheme was adopted is the test.
  • city_level: Savannah operates no contractor registration or trade licence for roofers. Its codified licensing part, Part 6 Licensing and Regulation, was read in full and its thirty-five articles cover firearms, massage, vehicles for hire, junk dealers, amusements, alcohol, pawnbrokers, taxicabs, tour services and the like; none is a contractor, builder or construction-trade licence, and its only mention of roofing is a stable-shelter requirement. Savannah's trade permits are electrical, mechanical, plumbing and fire protection only - there is no roofing trade permit. What the City does do is check the state credential at the counter: Code of Ordinances section 8-1038 provides that where "the state requires a contractor to have obtained a state license before they are permitted to perform work, the contractor shall supply the local government with their license number before receiving a permit for work to be performed." Note also that under O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(c) a Georgia city may bind a state-licensed contractor to a local licence only under a scheme that was in effect on or before July 1, 2004, and no such Savannah scheme appears in its codified licensing part. A homeowner may permit work on their own residence in Savannah on a signed and notarised affidavit, provided they live there, have not permitted at another address within two years, and agree to hire contractors licensed in the State of Georgia for anything they do not do themselves. ONE SAVANNAH CREDENTIAL DOES REACH ROOFING WORK, THOUGH ONLY ONE KIND OF IT. Article F of Chapter 1 of the Code of Ordinances, the City's green roof article, provides at section 8-1179 that "The contractor/installer shall hold green roof professional accreditation from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities or another similar organization or demonstrate to the city proficient knowledge and experience with the green roofs". That is an accreditation condition on vegetated roof work, not a registration scheme: there is no register to join, no city licence to hold and no fee, and it does not reach an ordinary roof covering job. Note also that the sentence is the last item of section 8-1179 while the item before it carries, part way through, the lead-in "For green roofs required by the city Zoning Ordinance, the following additional standards shall apply", so whether the accreditation binds every green roof or only one the zoning ordinance requires is not settled by the codified text. Treat it as live and ask the Development Services Department before bidding vegetated roof work.
Permit process
Savannah's permit trigger is broad and its roofing carve-out is administrative. Code of Ordinances section 8-1038 requires anyone who desires to "construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish, or change the occupancy of a building or structure" to apply to the building official and obtain a permit first, and then allows that "Ordinary minor repairs may be made without a permit, provided that such repairs shall not violate any of the provisions of the minimum codes." The Development Services Department publishes the two lists that put a working edge on that: full roof replacement including underlayment is on the permit list, and patching under 100 square feet or replacing roof shingles only is on the no-permit list. Applications go through eTRAC, the City's online permit portal, or in person at 20 Interchange Drive. A signed application and a completed Complete Application Checklist are required for every permit type. A full roof replacement is marked "PLAN NEEDED: NO", so no drawings are called for, and section 8-1038 excepts "One- and two-family dwellings and domestic outbuildings, regardless of cost" from the requirement that a registered architect or engineer seal the drawings. The all-inclusive building permit fee is $8.00 per $1,000 of cost of construction up to $5,000,000 with a minimum fee of $45.00 including a $5 technology fee, and projects under $75,000 have their own fee schedule; permit valuations must include materials and labour. A permit becomes invalid if work does not start within six months or is suspended for six months, and the permit card must be posted on site. Three Savannah-specific traps. First, both of the Department's residential permit sheets close with the note that "All exterior work done in Historic Districts must have Historic Review Board approval", so the permit exemption for a shingle-only replacement does not remove that review. The City's residential permit guidance tells an owner whose home is in the Landmark Historic District, the Victorian District, Mid-City or Cuyler-Brownsville Phase I to contact the Historic Preservation Office on 912-651-1457 to determine whether special requirements apply. Second, for existing and historic buildings section 8-1036 provides that the minimum codes are "not mandatory" where the officials judge the building safe and the outcome in the public interest, and lets them apply the alternatives in Georgia's Uniform Act for the Application of Building and Fire Related Codes to Existing Buildings, O.C.G.A. 8-2-200 - so on an old Savannah house the building official has express room to accept an alternative. Third, in a historic district the review is not a formality where a roof is concerned, because Savannah's zoning ordinance writes roof standards of its own. Part 8, Chapter 3 of the Code of Ordinances, effective September 1, 2019, carries design standards for four local historic districts at sections 7.8.10, 7.9.10, 7.10.10 and 7.11.10, for the Savannah Downtown, Victorian, Cuyler-Brownville and Streetcar districts, and each has a roofs section. On a contributing resource the Downtown standards provide that "Original roof material shall be repaired rather than replaced, provided however, if the degree of degradation does not allow repair, the degradation shall be photographically documented and verified by the Planning Director, and the new roof shall be of the same material and configuration as the original (except wood or asbestos)", and that "Metal roofs shall have a metal drip edge covering all edges". For new construction, alterations to non-contributing resources and additions they provide that "Roof coverings shall be standing seam metal, v-crimp, slate or equivalent synthetic, tile, or architectural asphalt or similar shingles". The Victorian standards run almost the same way and tighten one line to "Metal roofs shall have a metal drip edge covering all edges and a maximum seam height of one (1) inch". Which review route you are on depends on the district. In the Savannah Downtown Historic District, section 3.19.7 puts among the applications the Planning Director decides "Minor changes to contributing and noncontributing resources including color changes, window and door replacement (provided the opening size remains the same), roof replacement and shutter installations", so a re-roof there is a staff level Certificate of Appropriateness measured against the section 7.8 standards, with no public hearing. In the other local historic districts section 3.18 governs instead: a Certificate of Appropriateness is required for "A material change to the exterior appearance of any contributing or non-contributing building or structure, or contributing object, including any alteration or addition", and the Historic Preservation Commission takes it at a public hearing. Both sections exempt "General exterior maintenance or minor, in-kind repairs" and anything not visible from a public right-of-way, so a like-for-like patch out of sight of the street sits differently from a full replacement on a street facade. Finally, Part 8, Chapter 1 carries the city's own ARTICLE F. - GREEN ROOFS (sections 8-1175 through 8-1183, Ordinance of 1-13-2011), and IT DOES NOT REACH AN ORDINARY RE-ROOF: section 8-1177 says the policy "shall apply to residential, commercial, and industrial properties within the city limits", which fixes which PROPERTIES are covered rather than which WORK, and nothing in the article requires anyone to build a green roof. Where it does apply it demands engineer- or architect-certified plans, compliance with the German FLL guidelines, a 20-year waterproof-membrane warranty and an installer accreditation whose reach is ambiguous on the face of the codification, under "a fine not exceeding $1,000.00 per day".

View the full Savannah permitting authority record →

Impact-resistant roofing materials for Savannah hail

Savannah, Georgia sits in one of the country's most hail-prone regions. For hail exposure, the highest impact rating a roof covering can earn is UL 2218 Class 4. These cataloged material categories reach Class 4:

Class 4 impact-resistant materials

Class 4 Impact-Resistant Shingle Corrugated Metal Panel Metal Shingle Rubber (Polymer) Shingle Standing-Seam Metal Roof Stone-Coated Steel Synthetic Shake Synthetic Slate Synthetic Tile

Browse every option on the Class 4 impact-resistant materials hub, and read the Class 4 impact-resistant shingles buyer's guide. Many insurers offer premium credits for a documented Class 4 roof — confirm terms with your carrier.

Local permitting authority

City of Savannah, Georgia - Development Services Departmentcity

Roofing guides

Class 4 Impact-Resistant ShinglesGuide Asphalt vs. Metal vs. TileGuide Wind & Fire RatingsGuide

Sources