Atlanta, GA
Georgia keeps its codes on two shelves, and only one of them reaches your roof without a local vote
The Department of Community Affairs publishes the state minimum standard codes in two groups and says plainly what separates them: the mandatory codes are applicable to all construction whether or not they are locally enforced, and the permissive codes are only applicable if a local government chooses to adopt and enforce one or more of them. That single sentence splits every code argument on an Atlanta roof in half. Half your citations stand up on state law alone. The other half do not exist for that address until somebody locally adopted them, and finding out which half you are holding is the first move.
By Kyle Hamrick, Founder
A code citation is worth what its source is worth. On this desk that means naming the document a requirement actually comes from, checking which of the state's two groups that document sits in, and reading the edition off the current published listing instead of off the last file that looked similar. None of that is glamorous and all of it survives review.
The Estimate Company is run by a licensed independent insurance adjuster, with claims experience across many states, writing for contractors nationwide. What we bring to an Atlanta file is code mechanism, carrier behavior, and claim pattern, confirmed for the address rather than assumed from a statewide rule.
Licensed independent adjuster in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Alabama, writing for contractors nationwide. More about Kyle.
Two shelves, two mechanisms, and the book most relevant to a re-roof is on the weaker one
What the state actually publishes, and why the grouping is the whole story
The Department of Community Affairs posts the current state minimum standard codes as adopted by the Board of Community Affairs, and it posts them under two headings rather than one. On the mandatory heading sit the Building Code and the Residential Code, both at the 2024 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, the Fire Code at the 2024 Edition, the Plumbing, Mechanical, and Fuel Gas Codes at the 2024 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, the National Electrical Code at the 2023 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, the Swimming Pool and Spa Code at the 2024 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, and the Energy Conservation Code at the 2015 Edition with Georgia Supplements and Amendments.
On the permissive heading sit three: the Property Maintenance Code at the 2018 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2021, the Existing Building Code at the 2018 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2021, and the National Green Building Standard at the 2008 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2011. The department separately lists the Disaster Resilient Building Code appendices to the Building and Residential Codes on the permissive side as well. Read those two lists side by side and the older edition years all sit under the second heading, which is not an accident so much as a consequence: a book nobody is required to enforce gets revisited less often.
Mandatory means the structure owes it whether or not anybody local is checking
The department states the rule directly. Any structure built in this state must comply with the mandatory codes, whether or not the local government chooses to locally enforce them. It goes further and says that because state law gives those enumerated codes statewide applicability, local governments are not required to adopt them at all, though a local government must adopt administrative procedures in order to enforce anything, and it may choose which of the mandatory codes it wishes to locally enforce.
Sit with what that does to a supplement. Applicability and enforcement come apart. A requirement can be binding on the building while sitting outside whatever the local office happens to review, which means the absence of a local inspection on a given item is not evidence the item was optional. That is a genuinely useful thing to be able to say to a desk adjuster who has decided that anything nobody inspected must have been discretionary. Code driven A mandatory-tier requirement needs no local adoption behind it to be cited.
Permissive means nothing until a jurisdiction votes, and the re-roof book is here
For a permissive code to be enforced, the department says, that code must be adopted by ordinance or resolution by the local jurisdiction, with a copy of the adopting instrument forwarded to the department. No ordinance, no reach. And the book sitting on that shelf is the one an estimator would most want on a re-roof over older stock: the Existing Building Code, the document that governs how far a repair pulls the rest of an assembly along with it.
So the question a contractor asks constantly, whether the code requires the whole roof once enough of it is being touched, has two legitimate answers in this state depending on nothing but local adoption, and the honest thing to do is confirm it for the address rather than borrow an answer from a neighboring county's file. The same caution applies to the property maintenance book beside it. Both are worth citing when they are adopted and both are worth leaving out when they are not, because a citation a reviewer can dismiss on a technicality damages the lines around it. Verify with local building dept Confirm permissive adoption with the authority having jurisdiction over that address before the scope leans on it.
What this page will not tell you, and why the argument survives anyway
We do not state what any particular local government here has adopted, enforced, or declined to enforce, because that is a fact to be confirmed on the file and not inferred from a page written in advance for every address at once. What makes the two-tier structure worth building a file around is precisely that it still works without that confirmation: everything on the mandatory shelf reaches the structure regardless, so a supplement can be fully argued on that half while the permissive half stays a question the contractor asks the office holding the parcel.
Practically that means writing the mandatory-tier lines as obligations and the permissive-tier lines as conditional, in the same document, clearly labeled. A reviewer who sees that distinction drawn on purpose treats the rest of the file differently, because almost nobody draws it.
Three checks that decide whether a citation holds here
Which shelf, before which section
Most estimators reach for a section number first and never ask which document it came out of. Reverse that order in this state. Identify the book, place the book on the mandatory or the permissive list, and only then quote the provision, because the shelf determines what kind of sentence you are allowed to write about it. One shelf produces the word required. The other produces the phrase required where adopted, and the difference between those two is the difference between an argument that survives a reviewer and one that invites a single-line rejection.
The edition year, freshly pulled, book by book
The department states that a local government choosing to locally enforce any of these codes must enforce the latest editions and the amendments adopted by the department. Those amendment years are recent on the mandatory books and older on the permissive ones, and they do not move in step, so the shortcut of assuming one year across the shelf produces citations that are correct in substance and wrong on their face. Pull each one. Code driven Latest edition and current amendment, per book, per file.
Appendix text is not code until one of three things happened to it
The department is explicit that under the Uniform Codes Act the appendices are not enforceable unless referenced in the body of the code, adopted by the department, or specifically adopted by a municipality or county. That is a three-way test, not a formality, and the department itself lists two disaster resilient appendices on the permissive side, which tells you how seriously the distinction is taken. If a line in your supplement traces back to appendix language, it needs one of those three routes established before it goes in. Verify with local building dept Establish the route that made the appendix enforceable, or leave the line out.
What a reviewer does with a code argument that never says which shelf it came from
The large national personal lines writers hold most of the residential book across this metro, joined by the regional and nonstandard companies that pick up what those carriers decline. The behavior worth predicting is not company specific though, and chasing it company by company is mostly wasted effort. What is predictable is what any reviewer does with an unlabeled code citation: reads it as an assertion, checks nothing, and prices the covering. A citation carrying no indication of whether it binds by state law or by local ordinance gives a reviewer nothing to verify and therefore nothing to approve.
After a broad event the file frequently lands with somebody working from outside the state on a checklist built where every code question is a local adoption question. Hand that reviewer a supplement that says here is the provision, here is the shelf it sits on, here is why the shelf means it applies without local action, and you have answered the question the checklist was going to ask two weeks later. That is the whole trick, and it shortens files more reliably than another photograph of the same slope. The reinspection supplement is the route once a second visit to the roof is unavoidable and the code question is already settled on paper. Where a settlement already withheld more than the condition of the material justified, depreciation recovery is a separate track with its own argument.
Evidence discipline underneath all of it is the ordinary kind and it does not change because the code structure is unusual. The roof claim inspection checklist is the field sequence that gets condition on the card while the material that would prove it is still on the building.
What gets recovered on an Atlanta roof file
Ordered by how often the item is missing when a file reaches our desk.
Status key: In scope. Usually omitted. Code driven. Verify with the authority having jurisdiction. Every status is spelled out in words beside the item, so nothing depends on color.
Every cited provision sorted onto the mandatory tier or the permissive tier before it is argued
Code driven
Two shelves, two mechanisms, one roof. A provision out of a mandatory book binds the structure by operation of state law and needs no local action behind it. A provision out of a permissive book binds nothing until a jurisdiction adopts it by ordinance or resolution. Sorting each cited line onto the right shelf first tells you whether you are stating a fact or making a request.
Drip edge at eaves and rakes
Code driven
The requirement travels in the residential book, and DCA has that book on the mandatory list, so it reaches the structure whether or not anyone locally took it up for enforcement. That is the sentence worth putting in front of a reviewer who has learned to treat edge metal as an upgrade request, because it converts the line from a preference into an obligation nobody had to vote for.
Existing-building provisions confirmed as locally adopted before any repair-versus-replace argument leans on them
Verify with local building dept
DCA files the International Existing Building Code under permissive, not mandatory, at the 2018 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2021. An argument built on it is only as good as the local adoption behind it, and there is no statewide default to fall back on if that adoption never happened. Establish it for the address, in writing, before the scope depends on it.
Property maintenance provisions kept out of a storm-damage argument unless adoption is confirmed
Verify with local building dept
The property maintenance book sits on the same permissive shelf, same 2018 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2021. Reaching for it on a hail or wind file is tempting because its language on weather-tight condition sounds tailor-made. It also hands a reviewer an easy dismissal if the jurisdiction never adopted it, and a dismissed citation costs credibility on the lines that would otherwise have held.
Code appendix confirmed as enforceable by one of the three routes before a line rests on it
Verify with local building dept
Appendix text is not enforceable in this state on its own. DCA says it becomes enforceable only when it is referenced in the body of the code, adopted by DCA, or specifically adopted by a municipality or county. Two of the permissive items on DCA's own list are appendices, which is the clearest possible warning that appendix material here is a check, never an assumption.
Edition and amendment year pulled off the current state listing rather than off last season's file
Code driven
The mandatory books carry recent amendment years and they do not all move together. Copying a citation forward from a job written before the last cycle produces a supplement that argues the right thing under a superseded document, and a reviewer who bothers to look gets to set the whole argument aside without addressing it. Re-pull the edition every file. It takes a minute.
The mandatory tier is not one vintage, so each book gets its own edition check
Verify with local building dept
Sitting on the mandatory shelf together does not make two books the same age. The current state listing puts the building and residential codes at one edition year and the energy code at a considerably older one carrying its own separate supplements. Assuming a single year across the whole shelf is how a citation ends up half right, and half right on a code argument reads exactly like wrong.
Ridge cut, ridge vent, and cap course written as three billable operations
Usually omitted
Three distinct things happen at the peak and a fast estimate pays for exactly one. A blade opens the ridge line, a vent gets seated into the slot that blade produced, and a cap shingle bought on its own purchase order finishes the run over the top. Price the visible cap alone and the first two operations rode along free, a shortfall nobody catches until the crew invoices the hours it actually spent up there.
Starter course at eaves and rakes
Usually omitted
Starter is a distinct product with a distinct purchase order, cut and fastened on its own pass before the field goes down. Skip the line and you have not just underpaid the job, you have described a roof the manufacturer will not warrant against wind. That makes the omission a coverage exposure sitting quietly inside a pricing error.
Decking replacement priced once the covering is off, not guessed from the ground
In scope
Nothing under the shingles can be priced while the shingles are still there. Older intown housing that has reached re-roof age is exactly where a fastening surface turns out to be something a current schedule was never designed to bite into, and that discovery lands after the first estimate is already written and signed. Document what tear off exposed the day it is exposed.
Detach and reset on attached porches, sunrooms, and rooftop equipment
Usually omitted
No crew shingles through an attached structure or a mounted array. Somebody takes it loose, works the field around the hole it leaves, and puts it back, and that sequence is billable labor with nothing to do with the square count the estimate was generated from. An aerial report cannot see a screen room and will not price one.
Interior damage tracked back to the specific opening the storm made
Usually omitted
Water that got in through a wind-opened gap does not present itself the same day. It shows up in the ceiling and the insulation once the tarp comes down, by which point a reviewer with no photographs is free to read it as long-standing wear. Tying the stain to the opening, with dates, is the difference between an interior scope that survives and one that gets waved off.
Matching and discontinued shingle documentation obtained before a patch gets priced
In scope
Saying the profile is no longer made is an assertion. A distributor letter or a manufacturer notice sitting in the file is evidence, and only the second one moves a patch scope onto a full-slope replacement. Get the paper while the supplier still remembers the product rather than after the adjuster has already written the repair.
Overhead and profit once one loss puts several trades on one address
In scope
One event that takes the shingle field, bends the gutters, and stains a ceiling has just created a scheduling problem, because those three crews cannot all stand on the property at once and cannot work in any order. Somebody sequences them, and sequencing is the labor being billed. How many trades landed on that schedule decides the charge, never how large the total came out.
Each becomes a written line with a reason attached, inside a real Xactimate file. Depending on the claim it ships as a roofing supplement, an Xactimate supplement package, a supplemental estimate, or a full claim estimate written from scratch.
What happens to your file after you send it
- 01
Every code line in the carrier estimate gets sorted onto its tier
Before anything gets argued, each provision the file touches is placed on the mandatory shelf or the permissive shelf, because that placement decides whether the requirement stands on its own or needs a local adoption behind it. A citation with the wrong shelf under it is not a weak argument, it is a different argument.
- 02
Editions and amendment years get re-pulled from the current state listing
The books on the mandatory shelf do not all carry the same edition year and the amendment years move on their own schedule, so every provision the supplement depends on gets its edition and amendment confirmed against the current published listing rather than inherited from a file written earlier in the season.
- 03
The supplement is written in Xactimate and delivered as a PDF
Real file, real price list, real sketch. You get the PDF as the deliverable, and the ESX free any time you ask for it. Retail estimate work with no supplement attached delivers the ESX. Written same day or next day, submitted next day. One to three extra days on large commercial and multi structure work.
- 04
We stay on the file until the carrier answers
Follow-up, desk adjuster calls, and reinspection support when the carrier sends someone back to the roof. The file does not close on our side because it went quiet on theirs.
Two promises, stated separately
Promise one: the fee
The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery. If a file produces no additional approved recovery, you pay nothing on that claim. That is the whole fee structure, and it applies claim by claim.
Promise two: the guarantee
Send us an average of 2 claims per week for 12 months. If that volume does not produce a minimum of six figures in additional margin for your company, we write you a $5,000 check at the end of the 12 months. The volume, the 12 month term, the six figure threshold, and the $5,000 figure are one set of terms and they always travel together.
Two different promises, no overlap. The fee describes what a single claim costs you. The guarantee describes what a year of steady volume is worth. Nothing in the fee structure is a guarantee, and the guarantee does not change the fee.
Atlanta questions we get from contractors
Does Georgia run one statewide building code, and does that settle an Atlanta roof?
It runs two, and no. The Department of Community Affairs publishes its adopted codes in two groups. The mandatory group, per DCA's own wording, is applicable to all construction whether or not it is locally enforced. The permissive group is only applicable if a local government chooses to adopt and enforce one or more of those codes. So the state does reach every address, but it reaches half the shelf by operation of law and the other half only where somebody locally voted it in. An estimator who treats the two groups as one shelf will overstate one argument and undersell another on the same roof.
Which books are on the mandatory side, and at what edition?
DCA's current listing puts the International Building Code and the International Residential Code there at the 2024 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, the International Fire Code at the 2024 Edition, the Plumbing, Mechanical, and Fuel Gas Codes at the 2024 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, the National Electrical Code at the 2023 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, the Swimming Pool and Spa Code at the 2024 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2026, and the Energy Conservation Code at the 2015 Edition with Georgia Supplements and Amendments. Note the last one. A tier is not a vintage, and the mandatory group is not all one edition year.
Is the Existing Building Code in force on a re-roof here?
That is exactly the question the two-tier structure makes worth asking, because the answer is not automatic. DCA lists the International Existing Building Code, 2018 Edition with Georgia Amendments 2021, on the permissive side, alongside the International Property Maintenance Code at the same edition and amendment year. A permissive code binds only where the local jurisdiction adopted it by ordinance or resolution and forwarded a copy to DCA. So a repair-versus-replace argument that leans on existing-building provisions has to establish local adoption first, and that is a per-address confirmation rather than a statewide assumption.
If the mandatory codes apply anyway, why does local adoption matter at all?
Because enforcement and applicability are two different facts and only one of them is settled statewide. DCA states that Georgia law gives the enumerated codes statewide applicability, that local governments are not required to adopt the mandatory codes, that they must adopt administrative procedures in order to enforce them, and that a local government can choose which of the mandatory codes it wishes to locally enforce. A provision can therefore be binding on the structure while sitting outside what the local office actually reviews. Knowing that distinction changes whether you argue the code to the inspector or argue it to the desk adjuster.
Can a supplement rely on a code appendix here?
Only after checking, and the check is cheap. DCA states that the Uniform Codes Act makes the appendices of the codes unenforceable unless they are referenced in the body of the code, adopted by DCA, or specifically adopted by a municipality or county. Two of the items DCA lists on the permissive side are themselves appendices, the Disaster Resilient Building Code appendices to the Building and Residential Codes. A line resting on appendix text is therefore resting on the weakest footing available in this state until somebody confirms which of those three routes made it enforceable for the address.
What happens to an old edition cited from a file written last year?
It gets replaced before submission. DCA states that a local government choosing to locally enforce any of these codes must enforce the latest editions and the amendments adopted by DCA, and the amendment years attached to the mandatory books moved recently enough that a citation copied off an older job is a live risk rather than a theoretical one. Pull the edition and the amendment year off the current DCA listing for every provision the supplement leans on, every time. A correct argument attached to a superseded edition reads as sloppy work to a reviewer who checks.
How much does a supplement typically recover?
On claims where the roof is already approved for full replacement, our own closed files show a median recovery of about $4,000, with half landing between roughly $1,800 and $9,500. Claims that start denied or repair-only run far higher.
How fast is turnaround, and what does it cost?
Estimates are written same day or next day and submitted next day. Larger commercial and multi structure files take one to three extra days, said up front. Carrier response runs about three weeks as a general expectation. The standard fee is 15 percent of supplemental recovery, and a file with no additional approved recovery owes nothing on that claim.
Atlanta and the Georgia market
Atlanta sits inside the wider Georgia market, and the two-tier structure described above is the same statute everywhere in it. What changes address to address is who adopted what on the permissive side. Augusta runs one merged government at the fall line, Savannah splits its permitting three ways on the coast, and Cartersville answers to a city office or a county office depending on which side of a limits line the parcel falls. Three different local pictures, one shared state structure sitting underneath all of them. Files also come in from Alpharetta, Marietta, Roswell, Kennesaw, Acworth, Cumming, Canton, and Decatur.
Send one Atlanta file and see how many of its citations sit on the weaker shelf
Send the carrier estimate over next to your measurements, the storm date, and your jobsite photos. Every provision the file touches gets placed on the mandatory list or the permissive list, every edition and amendment year gets re-pulled from the current state listing, and the scope comes back the next business day with each line labeled for what actually holds it up.