If you are replacing a roof in Little Rock, you will not be pulling a permit, and nobody from the city will be coming to look at it. That is worth understanding properly, because it is often reported as good news and it is really a transfer of responsibility.
What the ordinance says
Little Rock Ordinance No. 22,204, passed in December 2022 and effective 1 January 2023, amended the city code so that permits are required for work exceeding $5,000 or requiring an inspection — “except for residential fences less than seven feet in height, residential roofs, painting, floor coverings and cosmetic changes.”
That exemption was carried forward again in the amendment adopted in December 2025, effective January 2026. So it is current, and it is not a temporary measure.
What it does not say
Here is the distinction that matters. The ordinance exempts residential roofing from the city’s permit and inspection process. It does not exempt the work from the Arkansas Fire Prevention Code, which incorporates the 2021 International Residential Code and applies in full regardless.
Every requirement still applies. Fasteners still have to be 12-gauge minimum with 3/8-inch heads, penetrating at least 3/4 inch into the sheathing. Shingles still need a minimum of four fasteners each. Drip edge is still required at eaves and rakes, still lapped at least two inches, still fastened at no more than twelve inches on centre — and underlayment still goes over the drip edge at the eaves and under it at the rakes. Step flashing at a sidewall is still a minimum of four inches by four inches with the vertical leg continuous behind the siding. A chimney wider than thirty inches across the slope still needs a cricket.
None of that changed. The only thing that changed is that no inspector will verify any of it.
Why that matters more than it sounds
On a permitted job, a bad install has a checkpoint. Someone independent looks at the deck, the flashing and the fastening before it disappears under shingles.
Without that checkpoint, the only people who will ever see the underside of your roof are the crew who built it. Nearly every layer of the assembly — the deck, the underlayment, the flashing, the starter strip, the fastening — is covered within days. If the starter strip was skipped at the rakes, if the nails went in above the manufacturer’s nail zone, if the kick-out flashing was left off where the roof meets a wall — there is no stage at which anyone catches it. You find out in the third or fourth year, in wind, or in a stain on a bedroom ceiling.
What to do instead
Since the city is not providing the check, build one into how you hire:
- Ask to see the deck. After tear-off and before underlayment. It takes five minutes and it is the only chance anyone gets.
- Ask what happens to soft sheathing and how it is priced, before work starts. Nobody can see decking through an old roof, so a quote that does not address it is incomplete.
- Ask which warranty tier the roof qualifies for. The stronger manufacturer warranties require matching components — starter at eaves and rakes, purpose-made hip and ridge cap, the manufacturer’s underlayment and ventilation — plus registration inside a deadline. Components dropped to sharpen a bid show up as coverage you do not have.
- Check registration. Since July 2021, Arkansas has required a roofing contractor registration certificate for residential roofing work over $2,000; working without one is a Class A misdemeanour, with each day a separate offence. Note too that the Contractors Licensing Board is explicit that “a Residential Roofing Registrant is NOT a licensed contractor” — they are different things.
None of this requires you to know roofing. It requires you to ask four questions that a competent contractor will answer without hesitating.
Sources
- Little Rock Ordinance No. 22,204 — the residential roof permit exemption
- City of Little Rock enforced construction codes — 2021 Arkansas Fire Prevention Code Vol. III
- Arkansas Residential Code, Chapter 9 — Roof Assemblies — the requirements that still apply
- Ark. Code Ann. § 17-25-603 — roofing contractor registration