Roofing in Wakefield, Nebraska

Required

Wakefield's building codes are in Chapter 9, Article 5 of its Municipal Code, and a roofer should read the residential line and the material line together. On the residential side, section 9-504 adopts a document "marked and designated as CABO One and Two Family Dwelling Code, including Appendix Chapters A through E, published by the Council of American Building Officials" as "the Code of the City of Wakefield, Nebraska, for regulating the fabrication, erection, construction, enlargement, alteration, repair, location and use of detached one- and two-family dwellings, their appurtenances and accessory structures", and the same subsection names the edition twice as the "1989 edition", alongside the CABO One and Two Family Dwelling Code Standards of the same year. That is a predecessor of the International Residential Code rather than an edition of it, and the City has not replaced it in the codified text. On the commercial side, section 9-503 adopts the "International Building Code, 2006 edition, as published by the International Code Council, excluding all appendices" as the Building Code of the City, with the changes listed in the same section, which insert the City's name and its own numbers into the model text. The balance of Article 5 adopts the Uniform Plumbing Code, the Uniform Mechanical Code, NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, Minimum Housing Standards and the National Electrical Code, each by its own section and each from the 1992 to 1994 ordinance series. Note the state framework this sits in, without drawing a legal conclusion from it: the Nebraska State Building Code operates as a default and Neb. Rev. Stat. 71-6406(3)(a) addresses local codes that include a prior edition, while 71-6406(2)(a) lets a locality amend, modify or delete portions of the code it adopts. Whether that changes which text a Wakefield inspector applies on a given job is a question for the City, not for this record. THE ONE TECHNICAL ROOFING RULE WAKEFIELD HAS WRITTEN FOR ITSELF, AND IT IS ABOUT MATERIAL RATHER THAN METHOD. Section 9-508, headed "Galvanized steel siding and roofing; prohibited", provides in full: "All siding and roofing materials other than wood, brick, masonry, asphalt or vinyl to be used in the construction, alteration or repair of structures, residential, commercial, industrial, or otherwise, within the municipal limits of the City of Wakefield, Nebraska shall have a baked in enamel finish of a color other than silver. Galvanized steel siding and roofing materials are prohibited." It was adopted by Ord. No. 377 of 7-6-94. In practice that rules out bare or mill-finish galvanized panel on any Wakefield roof, and it means a metal roof has to be a finished product in a colour that is not silver. Asphalt shingle is named in the carve-out and is unaffected. The rule is written to catch repair as well as new work, so it reaches a partial re-cover as well as a full replacement.

Wakefield runs permits through the Municipal Clerk at City Hall rather than through a building counter, and the Governing Body sits in the approval path. Applications go to the Clerk under section 9-201, and where the application is not one involving new utility lines it must be filed at least five days before the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Governing Body; the Clerk may then issue the permit on payment of the fee or, in the Clerk's discretion, send it to the Governing Body for final approval. That means the practical lead time on a Wakefield permit is set by the council calendar, not by a processing target, and a job filed just after a meeting can wait. Enforcement is through a Building Inspector appointed by the Governing Body, and section 9-101 provides that if the Governing Body fails to appoint one "the City Clerk shall be the Building Inspector ex officio" - so the person taking the application and the person inspecting the work may be the same officer. Section 9-102 makes it unlawful to refuse the Building Inspector entry to a site where construction, alteration, repair or relocation is taking place, at any reasonable hour. Fees are set by resolution of the Governing Body rather than fixed in the Code, so ask the City Clerk for the current schedule. Bring section 9-508 into the conversation early on any job that is not asphalt shingle, because it is a material prohibition rather than a permit condition and it will not surface on a permit form.