Shelby County, TN Building Safety: Plumbing Permits (2026)

Shelby County Code § 6-115 adopts the 2021 Edition of the ICC International Plumbing Code, with a copy on file in the Shelby County Commission and Memphis City Council Minutes Office. Section 6-116 layers on local amendments attached to Ordinance No. 526, and together the 2021 IPC and those amendments are named the 2021 Memphis and Shelby County Plumbing Code. Section 6-117 then specifies which appendices carry force locally: Appendix A, Plumbing Permit and Inspection Fees, as locally re-drafted; Appendix B, Rates of Rainfall for Various Cities; Appendix C, Structural Safety; Appendix D, Degree Day and Design Temperatures; and Appendix E, Sizing of Water Piping System, while every other IPC appendix is not adopted.

Because Appendix A is the adopted permit-and-fee schedule, anyone installing or altering plumbing outside Memphis, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Millington, Arlington or Lakeland pulls a plumbing permit under that appendix rather than a freestanding county ordinance. Section 6-118 sets the effective date at December 31, 2021, for both the City of Memphis and the unincorporated county, contingent on concurring passage by both legislative bodies, or the later adoption date if they act separately. The chapter cross-references water and sewage regulation at § 8-108 and § 6-7, and stormwater management at Chapter 36.