City or County: Two Offices, Two Code Editions

Two houses a mile apart in this county can be governed by building codes six years apart. It is an unusual situation, and it catches people out often enough to be worth writing down.

Inside the city

The City of Murfreesboro Building and Codes Department is open weekdays eight to half past four, with the counter closing to payments at four.

Its presently adopted codes are the 2018 International Residential Code and 2018 International Building Code, along with the 2018 plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas, property maintenance, fire, energy and existing building codes, plus the 2017 National Electrical Code, all adopted under Ordinance 18-O-71.

On whether foundation work needs a permit, the city’s own fee schedule is direct: building permits are required as prescribed by the International Residential Code for all construction, alteration, and repairs other than ordinary maintenance repairs. Underpinning a footing or rebuilding a foundation wall is not ordinary maintenance.

The residential fee for additions or alterations to primary structures is $8.00 per $1,000 of valuation with a minimum of $50.00, where valuation means the whole contract including labour, materials, site preparation, design fees, overhead and profit. In practice a $12,000 pier job is about $96 and a $30,000 project about $240.

The city also allows homeowners to self-permit their primary residence, but where a property is intended for rental use, a Tennessee licensed contractor must obtain the permit.

Outside the city

Rutherford County Building Codes is open weekdays eight to half past four, with no permits issued after quarter past four. It covers unincorporated areas only, and separately supplies certified inspectors to the City of Eagleville.

The county currently operates under the 2024 International Building and Residential Code series, adopted by the Board of Commissioners. It quotes 2024 IRC Section R105.1 directly: any owner, or owner’s authorised agent, intending to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move, demolish or change the occupancy of a building shall first make application and obtain the required permit.

Two county provisions worth knowing:

• Double fee. Anyone commencing work requiring a permit before obtaining it pays twice the established fee.
• Expiry. A permit becomes invalid if work does not begin within 180 days or if more than 180 days pass between inspections, and every building permit expires two years from issue.

The county also requires that a general contractor be licensed and bonded with the State of Tennessee to obtain a permit, and points homeowners to verify.tn.gov to check credentials.

Everywhere else nearby

Smyrna and La Vergne run their own city building departments and applications go to them, not to the county. Eagleville is served by the county. Addresses in Woodbury, Shelbyville, Nolensville and Lebanon fall under Cannon, Bedford, Williamson and Wilson counties respectively, each with their own arrangements.

Why the code edition difference matters

Mostly it does not change a residential foundation repair much in practice, since the fundamentals of footing depth and bearing are stable across editions. Where it does matter is in the details a plan reviewer will look at, and in what a contractor assumes. Somebody who works mostly in unincorporated county and picks up a city job is working from a different book than the reviewer is.

It also matters for a very practical reason: a contractor who is not sure which office covers your address is telling you how often they work here. Anybody regularly doing foundation work in this county knows the answer without looking it up.

The five-minute call

Before scheduling anything structural, ring the relevant office and ask two questions: does this scope need a permit, and does it need an engineer’s sealed plan. Both jurisdictions enforce the IRC, which lets the building official require additional documentation, so the engineered-plan question is decided case by case rather than by a blanket rule.

Full detail on both offices, plus the two Tennessee contractor licence thresholds that apply here, is in the permits and licensing guide.