Does Nashville require a permit to replace a roof?

Yes. Metro Nashville lists installing roofing as permit work and exempts only repairs of 33 percent of the roof area or less.

Does Tennessee require a permit for a new roof?

The state does not issue building permits. Each city or county building department decides, under its adopted code. Nashville requires one; other jurisdictions must be asked directly.

Who pulls the roofing permit, the homeowner or the roofer?

The contractor, in the contractor's name. A roofer asking you to pull an owner-builder permit for their work is shifting liability for the work to you.

Guide · checked 2026-09-17

Do You Need a Permit to Replace a Roof in Tennessee?

The state of Tennessee does not permit roofs. Your city or county building department does, under whichever edition of the International Residential Code it has adopted, and the answer to "do I need a permit" changes at the city limit. Here is what the jurisdictions say in their own words, and nothing more.

Why there is no single answer

Building permits are issued by the local building official under a locally adopted code. Columbia adopted the 2024 International Residential Code on January 1, 2026; unincorporated Maury County is on a different edition; Metro Nashville has its own permit procedures; Williamson County and the City of Franklin run separate departments a mile apart. Whether a like-for-like re-roof needs a permit, and what the fee is, is set by each of them. Anyone who tells you "Tennessee requires a permit to re-roof" is generalising.

Nashville and Davidson County

Metro Nashville's residential permit page lists installing "siding, roofing, fireplaces or solar panels" among the work that requires a building permit, and lists "repairs to an existing roof not to exceed 33 percent of the roof area" among the normal maintenance repairs that do not. So in Metro, a full replacement is permit work and a patch under a third of the roof is not. Registered contractors file through the ePermits portal; the Codes Department is at 800 President Ronald Reagan Way, 615-862-6500.

Williamson County, Franklin and Brentwood

Williamson County Building Codes (1320 West Main Street, Franklin, 615-790-5718, with an online plan-review portal) covers the unincorporated county. Franklin and Brentwood issue their own permits inside their limits. None of the three pages we read states in plain words whether a re-roof needs a permit, so this site does not assert it either way. Call the department for the address in question before the tear-off.

Columbia and Maury County

Inside Columbia, Development Services (700 N Garden Street, 931-560-1500) issues permits under the 2024 IRC by Ordinance 4566. The county's Building and Zoning office covers the unincorporated county and states that its service does not include Columbia. Neither page states the re-roof rule.

Knoxville, Memphis and Chattanooga

Each is a separate city department with a separate county department around it (Knox County Codes Administration, Shelby County and Memphis Division of Planning and Development, Hamilton County and Chattanooga Land Development). We have not yet read those pages for the re-roof rule and do not repeat what roofing companies' blogs say about them. The metro pages on this site will carry each rule once it is read from the jurisdiction's own page.

What the permit is for

A permit buys an inspection: someone who does not work for the roofer looks at the decking, the underlayment, the ice-and-water at the eaves and valleys, the flashing and the ventilation before the shingles cover them. The IRC's re-roofing chapter, in every recent edition, also limits how many layers of roof covering may be left in place, so a permitted job is a job where the second-layer shortcut gets caught. Where a permit is required, the roofer pulls it, and a roofer who suggests skipping it is telling you something about the rest of the job.

Who pulls it

The contractor, in the contractor's name, in every jurisdiction we have read. A roofer asking the homeowner to pull an owner-builder permit for the roofer's work is shifting the liability for the work to you.

Common questions

Does Nashville require a permit to replace a roof?: Yes. Metro Nashville lists installing roofing as permit work and exempts only repairs of 33 percent of the roof area or less.
Does Tennessee require a permit for a new roof?: The state does not issue building permits. Each city or county building department decides, under its adopted code. Nashville requires one; other jurisdictions must be asked directly.
Who pulls the roofing permit, the homeowner or the roofer?: The contractor, in the contractor's name. A roofer asking you to pull an owner-builder permit for their work is shifting liability for the work to you.