Roofing in Rowan County, NC
About 13.7% of Rowan County's owner-occupied homes, roughly one in seven, were built before 1950, and 8.7% date from 1939 or earlier.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25036, Rowan County, checked .
Page updated .
Housing
How old the homes are in Rowan County
The typical owner-occupied home in Rowan County, measured by the median, went up in the 1980s: the Census Bureau's 90% interval runs from 1984 to 1988.
Homes built before 1980 make up 42.8% of the county's owner-occupied total.
Rowan County's rented homes are older than its owned ones: the Census Bureau puts the renter-occupied median at 1979, against 1986 for owner-occupied homes.
Sources (2)
Permits
Permits for a reroof in Rowan County
Rowan County Building Inspections issues building permits, reviews plans and inspects work across the county, and its page names Salisbury, China Grove, Rockwell, Granite Quarry, Faith and Landis among the municipalities it serves.
Applications can be made in person or online through the county's Citizen Self Service portal, which gives an application its permit number on submission and sends an email once the permit is issued. The approved plans and the Rowan County permit card have to be on site for every required inspection.
Building Inspections is at 402 N Main Street, Room 207, in Salisbury (704-216-8619). Its hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and it issues or accepts permits and plan reviews until 4 p.m.
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 (2)
- Rowan County, Building Inspections, checked .
- Rowan County, Permitting Process, checked .
Storms
Recorded storm damage in Rowan County
NOAA files Rowan County's ice storm of December 4 and 5, 2002 under its account of the North Carolina foothills and northwest piedmont, where ice built up to between a quarter and a half inch thick. The Rowan zone's own record lists $10 million in property damage.
The EF1 tornado of March 28, 2010 touched down in Spencer, just east of the town center, and moved northeast. NOAA's record describes mainly minor roof damage to numerous homes along its path, a brick chimney blown off a house and trees fallen onto several others, before it crossed the Yadkin River.
On August 1, 2025, thunderstorm gusts estimated at 60 knots brought trees down east and south of Spencer and along the south side of High Rock Lake. NOAA's record notes several trees on houses and manufactured homes there, some of them extensively damaged.
Ice Storm
, $10M in recorded property damage. NOAA event 5326413
Tornado, F2
, near GRANITE QUARRY, $500K in recorded property damage. NOAA event 5453701
Tornado, EF1
, near SPENCER, $500K in recorded property damage. NOAA event 220858
Thunderstorm Wind, 80 kt
, near CHINA GROVE, $500K in recorded property damage. NOAA event 128689
Thunderstorm Wind, 60 kt
, near TRADING FORD, $250K in recorded property damage. NOAA event 1293113
Sources (3)
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5326413, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 220858, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1293113, checked .
Hail
Recorded hail in Rowan County
Golf-ball size, 1.75 inches, is the largest hail NOAA has recorded in Rowan County since 2000. Its database lists ten reports at that size, each on a different day, and none above it.
Before dawn on March 25, 2012, hail up to golf-ball size piled as deep as 8 inches in places, and the NC DOT was sent to plow hail-covered roads in the northwest of the county, from Mt Ulla to Woodleaf.
The newest report came on June 26, 2023, when the public reported golf-ball-size hail between Salisbury and the Rowan County town of Cleveland.
1.75 in hail
, near WOODLEAF. NOAA event 1120320
1.75 in hail
, near KANNAPOLIS. NOAA event 830872
1.75 in hail
, near GRANITE QUARRY. NOAA event 385846
1.75 in hail
, near MT ULLA. NOAA event 372030
1.75 in hail
, near SPENCER. NOAA event 354822
NOAA record through June 2026.
Sources (3)
- NOAA Storm Events Database, bulk data files, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 372030, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1120320, checked .
Towns
Town by town in Rowan County
Salisbury
Salisbury's median owner-occupied home was built sometime between 1972 and 1982, going by the Census Bureau's 90% interval for the city.
China Grove
On July 21, 2008, a microburst with gusts estimated at 80 knots hit the China Grove area, and NOAA records major structural damage at a business there: the roof was blown off one building and a brick warehouse collapsed.
Rockwell
On June 26, 2001, a fire truck answering a call at Rockwell ran into golf-ball-size hail and flooded roads, according to NOAA's record.
Granite Quarry
About 5 miles southeast of Granite Quarry, an F2 tornado in the early hours of January 14, 2005 flattened a barn and badly damaged metal industrial buildings, and NOAA notes minor roof damage to a house next to the barn.
Faith
On February 16, 2025, thunderstorm winds blew trees onto houses in and near Faith, and NOAA records $50,000 in property damage.
Landis
The EF1 tornado of August 7, 2023 touched down in Catawba County and crossed southern Iredell County before entering Rowan, where it passed between Landis and China Grove and lifted east of Landis. NOAA's record notes minor structural damage there and other buildings hit by falling trees.
Kannapolis
The City of Kannapolis says Cabarrus County handles building code inspections throughout its city limits, the Rowan County side included.
Kannapolis spans Rowan County and Cabarrus County.
Sources (8)
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25037, Salisbury city, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 128689, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5255054, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5453701, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1238483, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1136773, checked .
- City of Kannapolis, Starting a Business, 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 expectancies, which assumes recommended maintenance and normal wear and tear rather than extreme weather, rates 3-tab asphalt shingles for about 20 years and architectural shingles for about 30.
Close to three quarters of Rowan County's owner-occupied homes, 72.3%, were built before 2000. On any of them still under its original roof, that roof is at least 27 years old in 2026, which is past InterNACHI's 20-year estimate for 3-tab shingles.
NOAA's Rowan County storm narratives describe roofing pulled off by wind: shingles blown off houses in a July 2010 thunderstorm, a garage's tin roof blown away in 2002, part of a barn's tin roof peeled off in 2014, and a metal roof torn off a mobile home in 2016.
In the EF1 tornado at Mt Ulla on April 11, 2024, the National Weather Service survey found a house whose roof deck was lifted, with a significant loss of roof covering, and metal sheeting peeled from a school gym.
Sources (4)
FAQ
Roofing questions in Rowan County
Where do Salisbury homeowners get a building permit?
From Rowan County Building Inspections, not the city. Salisbury is on the county office's list of municipalities it serves, and the office is at 402 N Main Street, Room 207, in Salisbury (704-216-8619). The City of Salisbury's Land and Development Services Department handles zoning, and the city's permits page says "almost all development activity must receive a city Zoning Permit before obtaining a Building Permit from the county." That page does not say whether a roof replacement counts; the department takes questions at 704-638-5208.
How long does a Rowan County building permit stay valid?
Rowan County's Permitting Process page says a permit expires six months after it is issued if work has not started. Once work has begun, the permit expires immediately if the work stops for 12 months, and no further work may be done until it is reinstated.
Has Rowan County recorded hail larger than golf balls?
Not in NOAA's Storm Events Database from 2000 through June 2026. All ten of the county's reports of hail 1.75 inches or larger in that time measured exactly 1.75 inches, golf-ball size. The newest fell on June 26, 2023, between Salisbury and the town of Cleveland in Rowan County, and in March 2012 hail of that size lay deep enough on roads between Mt Ulla and Woodleaf for the NC DOT to be sent out to plow it.
What did the December 2002 ice storm do in Rowan County?
NOAA's record lists about $10 million in property damage in the Rowan County zone alone from the ice storm of December 4 to 5, 2002. NOAA's account of the storm in the foothills and northwest piedmont puts the ice at 1/4 to 1/2 inch.
What share of Salisbury's homes date from before 1940?
About one in eight of Salisbury's owner-occupied homes, 12.3%, were built in 1939 or earlier, the oldest category in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey. Across Rowan County the figure is 8.7%.
Sources (9)
- Rowan County, Building Inspections, checked .
- City of Salisbury, Permits and Zoning, checked .
- Rowan County, Permitting Process, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, bulk data files, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1120320, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 372030, checked .
- NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5326413, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25036, Salisbury city, checked .
- U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024, table B25036, Rowan County, checked .
Nearby
Neighboring counties
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