Roofing in Cleveland County, NC
The 1970s account for 18.0% of Cleveland County's owner-occupied homes, nearly one in five.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25036, Cleveland County, checked .
Page updated .
Housing
How old the homes are in Cleveland County
Homes from before 1980 make up 46.5% of the county's owner-occupied stock, close to half. The 1990s hold nearly as large a share as the 1970s, at 17.6%.
The county's median owner-occupied home was built in 1983, and the Census Bureau's 90% interval for that median runs from 1981 to 1985.
Statewide the picture is younger: 11.3% of North Carolina's owner-occupied homes date from the 1970s, and 32.0% from before 1980.
North Carolina's statewide median for owner-occupied homes is 1993, a decade after Cleveland County's.
Sources (4)
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25036, Cleveland County, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25037, Cleveland County, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25036, North Carolina, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25037, North Carolina, checked .
Permits
Permits for a reroof in Cleveland County
Cleveland County has more than one building permit office. Inside Shelby's city limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction, the City of Shelby Building Services Department reviews plans, issues permits and performs inspections.
Shelby's own FAQ takes up reroofing with shingles, membrane, or tar and gravel, and answers in the city's words: "No, a permit for reroofing with these materials is not currently required." The same answer sends readers to the city's Building Inspections office, 704-484-6805, for more information.
Kings Mountain has its own Inspections & Codes Department as well. Enforcing the North Carolina State Building Code is among its services, it takes all building permit applications online through OpenGov, and it is at 1013 N. Piedmont Ave. in Kings Mountain (704-734-4599), open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays.
Cleveland County Building Inspections is the county government's own office. It sits at 1333 Fallston Rd. in Shelby, entered through the front door of the old American Red Cross building, and takes applications, scheduling requests and permit questions at 980-484-4997.
The Town of Boiling Springs names Cleveland County Inspections, at 980-484-4997, as the inspections contact on its permit applications page.
North Carolina rule
Under G.S. 160D-1110(c), work on a single-family home that costs $40,000 or less and follows the current edition of the North Carolina State Building Code needs no building permit, unless it falls into one of six listed categories. One category is "the addition of roofing, excluding replacement": that work needs a permit at any cost, while a roof replacement is not on the list. Work costing more than $40,000 falls outside the exemption. The statute speaks to building permits only, not to any other approval a property may need.
The $40,000 figure comes from Session Law 2023-108 (House Bill 488), which raised it from $20,000 for permit applications submitted on or after October 1, 2023.
The Office of State Fire Marshal reads the exemption as covering the replacement of roofing plus up to 15% of the total existing roof deck, on projects costing $40,000 or less. The paper states that its guidance is not legal advice.
Sources (3)
Sources (5)
Storms
Recorded storm damage in Cleveland County
NOAA's zone record for the ice storm of December 2002 in Cleveland County runs from 3 p.m. on December 4 to 8 a.m. on the 5th, and it carries $9 million in property damage, the largest figure in the list below.
Helene, second on that list, is filed by NOAA as a tropical storm for Cleveland County's zone on September 27, 2024, with $3 million in recorded property damage.
The EF2 tornado of February 6, 2020 is the stronger of the two tornadoes listed. It tracked east for a little over five miles, passing south of Kings Mountain, before crossing into Gaston County. The National Weather Service survey found trees snapped and uprooted along its path, homes damaged, and its worst damage where high-tension electrical transmission towers were blown down.
About an hour earlier that morning, an EF1 formed west of Lawndale and tracked northeast past Fallston into Lincoln County. Its damage was mostly snapped and uprooted trees, though the survey also notes minor roof damage to a mobile home and an outbuilding destroyed.
Ice Storm
, $9M in recorded property damage. NOAA event 5326492
Tropical Storm
, $3M in recorded property damage. NOAA event 1218171
Tornado, EF2
, near ARCHDALE, $750K in recorded property damage. NOAA event 871938
High Wind, 60 kt
, $500K in recorded property damage. NOAA event 29404
Tornado, EF1
, near LAWNDALE, $250K in recorded property damage. NOAA event 871936
Sources (4)
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5326492, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1218171, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 871938, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 871936, checked .
Hail
Recorded hail in Cleveland County
Cleveland County's large-hail record is recent as well as long. Six of NOAA's reports of hail at least 1.75 inches across date from 2020 or later, falling on four days, and the whole record since 2000 holds 27 such reports on 19 days in 15 different years.
The largest stones in that record were baseball size, 2.75 inches, reported by the public southwest of Mooresboro on the afternoon of May 6, 2022.
On April 9, 2011, NOAA describes hail up to golf-ball size falling in a nearly continuous swath from southwest of Casar, near the Rutherford County line, across Lawndale, Fallston and Waco to near Kings Mountain.
2.75 in hail
, near MOORESBORO. NOAA event 1029885
2.50 in hail
, near MOORESBORO. NOAA event 1029884
2.00 in hail
, near GROVER. NOAA event 889088
1.75 in hail
, near BOILING SPGS. NOAA event 1125045
1.75 in hail
, near CASAR. NOAA event 1104932
NOAA record through June 2026.
Sources (3)
- NOAA Storm Events Database, bulk data files, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1029885, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 299110, checked .
Towns
Town by town in Cleveland County
Shelby
Emergency management staff saw golf-ball-size hail in downtown Shelby on the evening of June 24, 2001, NOAA's record notes.
Kings Mountain
Nine in ten Kings Mountain residents live in Cleveland County; the 2020 Census put 1,110 of them in the city's Gaston County part.
Kings Mountain spans Cleveland County and Gaston County.
Boiling Springs
On July 3, 2023, the public reported golf-ball-size hail in Boiling Springs, the latest report of hail 1.75 inches or larger anywhere in Cleveland County's NOAA record through June 2026.
Lawndale
On October 23, 2017, an EF1 tornado touched down near Lawndale, and the National Weather Service survey traced the structural damage there to uprooted and snapped trees falling on houses.
Sources (5)
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5255046, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census, table P1, Kings Mountain city (Cleveland County and Gaston County parts), checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1125045, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 723467, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census place-by-county file for North Carolina, checked .
Common problems
Common roof problems on homes like these
InterNACHI's chart of estimated life expectancy says the life of a roof depends on local weather, building design, material quality and adequate maintenance. Its estimates put 3-tab asphalt shingles at about 20 years and architectural shingles at about 30.
A house built in the 1970s is 47 to 56 years old in 2026, longer than two of InterNACHI's 20-year 3-tab estimates laid end to end. Those homes are 18.0% of the county's owner-occupied housing, and any of them still under its first asphalt roof would be well past both of the chart's figures.
InterNACHI also cautions that roofs exposed to severe weather may have a shorter-than-normal lifespan, and that isolated storm damage may need repair to protect the service life of the roofing around it.
Severe weather is a regular part of Cleveland County's NOAA record: hail of 1.75 inches or more shows up in 15 different years since 2000.
Wind takes roofing too. On October 8, 2017, a weak EF0 tornado that NOAA calls unusually long-tracked ran from near Polkville into Burke County, and the structural damage it records was limited to shingles removed from homes and some metal sheet roofing.
Sources (4)
FAQ
Roofing questions in Cleveland County
Does Shelby require a permit to reroof a house?
The City of Shelby answers that itself: its Building Services Department reviews plans, issues permits and performs inspections inside the city limits and its extraterritorial jurisdiction. The city's FAQ says of reroofing with shingles, membrane, or tar and gravel: "No, a permit for reroofing with these materials is not currently required." It directs further questions to the Building Inspections office at 704-484-6805. North Carolina's statewide rule is in the permits section above.
Does Kings Mountain use Cleveland County's building inspectors?
No. Kings Mountain has a department of its own, Inspections & Codes, whose services include enforcing the North Carolina State Building Code, and it accepts building permit applications online through OpenGov. For a new septic tank, the city's page sends applicants to Cleveland or Gaston County Environmental Health for an improvement permit, which is then uploaded into the city's building permit application. The department's number is 704-734-4599.
Which office inspects building work in Boiling Springs?
Cleveland County's. On its permit applications page, the Town of Boiling Springs gives Cleveland County Inspections, 980-484-4997, as the contact for inspections. The county's Building Inspections office is at 1333 Fallston Rd. in Shelby.
How much large hail has Cleveland County had since 2020?
Six reports of hail at least 1.75 inches across, on four separate days, in NOAA's Storm Events Database from January 2020 through June 2026. The biggest was baseball-size hail, 2.75 inches, near Mooresboro on May 6, 2022. A trained spotter reported 2-inch hail near Grover, at the South Carolina line, on April 25, 2020, and the latest was golf-ball-size hail in Boiling Springs on July 3, 2023.
Where did the February 2020 EF2 tornado cross Cleveland County?
In the south of the county, near Kings Mountain. The National Weather Service survey traced a path that began near Archdale and ran east for a little over five miles, leaving Cleveland County about four miles south-southeast of Kings Mountain and continuing into Gaston County. Along it the survey found snapped and uprooted trees, damaged homes and toppled high-tension transmission towers, and NOAA lists $750,000 in property damage.
When were most of Shelby's homes built?
Mostly before 1980. In Census Bureau figures, 69.9% of Shelby's owner-occupied homes predate that year, and the median owned home in the city dates from about 1970 (90% interval 1966 to 1974). Boiling Springs is much newer, with a median in the 1990s (1994 to 1998).
Sources (13)
- City of Shelby, Building Inspections, checked .
- City of Shelby, FAQs (Internet Archive copy of October 5, 2026), checked .
- City of Kings Mountain, Inspections and Codes, checked .
- Town of Boiling Springs, Permit Applications & Forms, checked .
- Cleveland County, Building Inspections, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, bulk data files, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1029885, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 889088, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1125045, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 871938, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25036, Shelby city, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25037, Shelby city, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25037, Boiling Springs town, checked .
Nearby
Neighboring counties
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