Last reviewed October 31, 2026.
The roofer’s estimate is on the kitchen table, a few blocks from the county courthouse, and one question is left: who issues the permit? In Mineola, neither town does. The village, incorporated in 1906 according to its own history page, keeps its own Building Department at 155 Washington Avenue. A roof job inside the village starts there.
Mineola’s paperwork never says reroof
Search the village’s posted material for the word reroof and you come up empty. The Building Department page asks residents planning “any construction or renovation in or outside of the home” to contact the department for the permits and code inspections they need. It names decks, fences and pools. Roofs don’t make the list.
The nearest thing to a roofing rule hides in the permit packet. Its Building and Construction Inspection Acknowledgement, which the owner or applicant signs in front of a notary, says permitted work gets inspected before any part of it is enclosed or covered. It lists “exterior roof” right beside framing, wall sheathing and the trades. So the village inspects roofs that are under permit. Which roof jobs need one, it never says.
The permit application spells out its main rule in capitals: “NO WORK SHALL COMMENCE BEFORE A BUILDING PERMIT HAS BEEN ISSUED.” Before you sign a contract, call the Building Department at 516-746-0750 and describe the job: tear-off or overlay, any new plywood, any change to the roof framing or shape. Write down the name of the person who answers and the date.
What a Mineola permit costs
The fee schedule, marked revised August 4, 2026, starts a building permit at $100 for the first $1,000 of work and adds $20 for each additional $1,000. Run a $15,000 contract through that formula and you land at $380. The sheet doesn’t say how a partial thousand is counted, though, so confirm the number at the counter.
| Item on the Mineola schedule | Fee |
|---|---|
| Building permit | $100 for the first $1,000, plus $20 per additional $1,000 |
| Legalize and maintain existing work | Triple the fee |
| Certificate of completion | $50 |
| Dumpster, roll-off or storage container | $150 per month |
| Scaffolding | $500 per month |
| Architectural Review Board, residential | $250 |
A tear-off with a roll-off at the curb needs one more form: the separate Dumpster Permit Application posted on the village forms page.
Putting together a Mineola permit package
Mineola wants everything at once. The application form, revised October 1, 2024, turns away copies and faxes and says every application must arrive as a complete package. The checklist asks for:
- the completed application
- the Nassau County assessor’s form
- a legible property survey
- three sets of construction plans, signed, sealed and stapled
- notarized signatures
The packet’s checklist page goes further. Plans must come from a registered architect or professional engineer and meet the current New York energy conservation code, and incomplete applications are returned.
Nothing in that checklist carves out a simple reroof, so ask on the call whether a like-for-like job needs sealed plans. Once the permit is issued, the application says the red permit card has to be displayed prominently at all times.
The department sits at 155 Washington Avenue, Mineola, NY 11501, open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The certificates Mineola wants on file
Contractors file three certificates: workers’ compensation, New York disability (on form DB-120 only) and general liability coverage of no less than $2,000,000. The village has to be the certificate holder on every policy and an additional insured on the liability policy. An owner doing the work alone signs a notarized affidavit in the packet and hands in a homeowner’s insurance certificate instead.
The village does not license roofers. Nassau County’s home improvement FAQ says contractors who remodel residential homes in the county must be licensed, and our Nassau license guide shows how to check one before you sign.
Legalizing roof work after the fact
The first inspection on any permit doubles as a look around. Mineola’s application warns that the building inspector will check for structures that were never legalized. The owner then has one month to fix it, after which “failure to legalize will result in summons, stoppage of construction, and/or court action.” The fee schedule prices legalizing and maintaining existing work at triple the normal fee.
One gap in the paperwork: we found no published figure for how long a Mineola permit stays valid. The county assessor’s form in the packet has boxes for a date work must begin and a permit expiration date, but the village does not post the length. Ask when you file.
Historic sites, truss framing and design review in Mineola
Chapter 294 of the village code covers designated historic sites. Once a property is designated, no one may make an exterior alteration or a material change in its appearance without a certificate of appropriateness from the Board of Trustees, and the Building Department may not issue a permit until that certificate exists. Ordinary maintenance and repair that keeps the same design, material, color and outward appearance is excluded. So on a designated house, a switch from slate to asphalt, or a new color, goes in front of the board first.
Rehabilitation work on an existing house brings in another form, the Notice of Truss Type Construction. An architect or engineer signs and seals it to report truss, pre-engineered wood or timber construction in the floor or roof framing, and the form names the Mineola Fire Department at 171 Jericho Turnpike.
The Building Department page says it works with the Zoning Board, the Planning Board and the Architectural Review Board. Chapter 198 sends architectural review to the Planning Board. For a one- or two-family house in a residential district, though, it exempts alterations that keep the front building lines and rooflines and add no more than 40% to the floor area. The same chapter exempts exterior alterations that do not change building coverage or floor area from site plan approval. Neither section mentions roofing material or color, so raise that on the call too.
Hempstead or North Hempstead makes no difference here
Nassau County counts 64 incorporated villages across its three towns, and its directory files Mineola under the Town of Hempstead. The Town of North Hempstead lists Mineola among its 30 villages, at the same 155 Washington Avenue address. We found no official source that settles how much of the village sits in each town. For a roof permit, the split does not matter. Chapter 25 of the village code sets up a village Department of Building and Code Enforcement, headed by the Superintendent of the Building Department.
Cross the village line and a town takes over. The North Hempstead guide and the Hempstead guide cover those rules.
