When it comes to building and repair work this year, everything is going up.
The number of permits are up as well as prices.
In fact, they’re setting records.
And that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
“This year has been crazy. Prices are rising throughout our whole industry, and supplies are hard to come by,” Ron Boren, president of Boren’s Roofing in Iola, said. “It’s going to be an interesting summer.”
Bill Weston, with H & H Roofing, agreed. Supplies are limited and costly. But his crews are busier than ever, thanks to a hail storm last May that damaged dozens of local homes, especially in the north part of Iola and rural areas.
“It depends on the storm size and the density of the hail, but most storms, we’ll still be working on them two years after the fact,” Weston said.
The City of Iola issued a record number of permits in the past year — 527 since March 2020, according to Gregg Hutton, Iola’s code department director.
Most of that work is attributed to roofs damaged last spring. There have been so many, Hutton added a line to his database to keep track of roof permits specifically.
In December, the city issued 83 permits, and 59 of those were roofs at a housing complex in the northernmost part of Iola. That’s the highest number of permits issued since Hutton started keeping track in 2014. A year earlier, in December 2019, the city issued just six permits.
Typically, permits drop off in winter months. That happened this year, especially during a cold snap in February. But even considering that, permits remained high.
It’s not just roofs though. Homeowners are building garages, porches and fences. They’re putting on additions to their homes. They’re asking for permits for swimming pools.
“It’s the whole gambit,” Hutton said. “A lot of people were at home, and when you’re stuck at home, you want something to work on. You want a project.”
THE CITY of Iola requires a permit for many home and business projects.
If you want to start a project and aren’t sure if you need a permit, it’s best to ask, Hutton said.
Typically, permits are not expensive. For example, Iola charges $15 for a roof permit; some cities charge more, and some do not charge anything.
