Re-roof permit checklist — Chicago, Illinois
Assembled from Chicago’s own published permit rules. Every line below is quoted from a city document and linked to it. Nothing here is generated, estimated, or inferred from another jurisdiction.
Do you need a permit?
Chicago requires a permit for a re-roof.
A permit is not required for roof repair limited to 25 percent of the area of a roof surface where the work does not cut away or remove any part of an exterior wall or roof, or for roofing work on a structure such as a shed or gazebo that itself requires no permit. On residential buildings up to four stories and their accessory buildings, roof repair, roof recover, and roof replacement on a roof with a pitch of at least 2:12 require no permit; a permit is required for structural repair and for low-slope roofs.
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Sources
- reroof — permit rules ↗verified August 2026
Other permits Chicago publishes rules for
Listed because the city publishes a separate rule for each type — not because this project necessarily triggers one. Whether it does depends on your scope of work.
- Deck permit checklist
- Fence permit checklist
- Shed permit checklist
- Water heater permit checklist
- Retaining wall permit checklist
- Electrical work permit checklist
- General building work permit checklist
BuildSpec is a reference, not the authority having jurisdiction. Confirm requirements with Chicago before you build.