Roofing in Watertown, Wisconsin

Required

STATE CODE, ADOPTED BY THE CITY AND EXTENDED TO EXISTING HOUSES, WITH A FLOATING (NOT FROZEN) REFERENCE. One- and two-family dwellings in Watertown are built to the Wisconsin Uniform Dwelling Code, the chapters of the Wisconsin Administrative Code numbered in the SPS 320s. That code is Wisconsin's own text rather than an adoption of the International Residential Code, so no IRC edition year applies to a house here. Municipal Code section 253-3(A)(1) provides that "The following codes are adopted by reference and made a part hereof," and subsection (A)(3) lists "Uniform Dwelling Code, Chapters SPS 320 to 325, Wis. Adm. Code, and all amendments thereafter. The Building Inspector and his delegated representatives are hereby authorized and directed to administer and enforce all of the provisions of the Uniform Dwelling Code, commencing December 1, 1978." Unlike some Wisconsin cities, Watertown's list includes ch. SPS 320 itself, the chapter carrying the state code's own scope, exemptions and definitions. The adoption floats rather than freezing an edition - "and all amendments thereafter" carries later amendments in automatically. Subsection (A)(3)(a) then does the thing that matters most for a roofer: "The Uniform Dwelling Code, as adopted, shall apply to all additions and alterations of existing one- and two-family dwellings." That sentence exercises an election Wisconsin gives every municipality: Wis. Admin. Code SPS 320.04(2)(d) provides that "Any municipality may, by ordinance, adopt the provisions of chs. SPS 320 to 325 to apply to any additions or alterations to existing dwellings," and without that election the code would by default reach only dwellings built on or after the code's effective date. Watertown has made that election. Subsection (A)(3)(b) sets the conflict rule: "When a conflict exists between the local Building Code and the Uniform Dwelling Code, the Uniform Dwelling Code shall take precedence over the local Building Code." Subsection (A)(3)(c) brings detached garages with over 200 square feet of floor area under the Uniform Dwelling Code as well. Commercial work runs on a different code set: subsection (A)(1) and (A)(2) adopt Chapters SPS 361 to 366 (the Commercial Building Code, including SPS 364 HVAC and SPS 366 Existing Buildings) and Chapter SPS 360 (erosion, sediment and storm water control), which is not the subject of the residential fields recorded here. Chapter 253 of the Municipal Code was read in full - all seven articles, all 59 sections - and adds no roof-assembly requirement of its own beyond the framing and sheathing rules described under the deck sheathing field below. One caution the ordinance does not resolve: Wis. Admin. Code SPS 320.05(3) separately exempts "repairs or maintenance" from the Uniform Dwelling Code as a freestanding statement, distinct from the additions-and-alterations election Watertown has made, and neither the state code nor Watertown's ordinance says how that exemption interacts with SPS 321.28(6), which regulates reroofing by name. That tension is not adjudicated here.