Central Roof Repair · Kentucky code
A chimney cricket is required in Kentucky by a single sentence of code, and the sentence is stricter than the rule most people quote. It applies to any chimney or penetration more than 30 inches wide, it tells you to measure that width perpendicular to the slope, and a second sentence limits what the cricket may be covered with. If your chimney is the leak, this is the check that decides whether flashing alone was ever going to hold.
Last updated: October 12, 2026
When does Kentucky’s code require a chimney cricket?
When the chimney or penetration is more than 30 inches wide, measured perpendicular to the roof slope. The cricket goes on the ridge side — the uphill side — of it.
Section R903.2.2 of the residential code Kentucky has adopted reads: “A cricket or saddle shall be installed on the ridge side of any chimney or penetration more than 30 inches (762 mm) wide as measured perpendicular to the slope. Cricket or saddle coverings shall be sheet metal or of the same material as the roof covering.” That is the whole requirement, and it carries three details worth separating out.
Detail one: measured perpendicular to the slope
The width that counts is across the slope, not up it. A chimney that is 24 inches across the face and 40 inches deep going up the roof is not over the line; the same chimney turned ninety degrees is. This is the measurement people get backwards from the ground, and it is the reason two chimneys that look identical from the driveway can land on opposite sides of the rule.
Detail two: “or penetration” is not a throwaway phrase
The section is titled for crickets and saddles and most writing about it says “chimney.” The code text says “any chimney or penetration.” A wide mechanical curb, a built-up curb for equipment, a framed dormer cheek wall or any other obstruction more than 30 inches across the slope is inside the same sentence. If water has to choose a side to go around something that wide, the code wants a diverter built, not a bigger bead of sealant.
The code does not say chimney. It says any chimney or penetration more than 30 inches wide — and it tells you which direction to measure.
Detail three: what the cricket may be covered with
The second sentence is the one almost nobody quotes: cricket or saddle coverings “shall be sheet metal or of the same material as the roof covering.” Two options, and that is the list. A cricket framed correctly and then finished in a material that is neither sheet metal nor the roof covering itself does not meet the sentence, however well it sheds water on the day it is built.
In practice that is why you see crickets either shingled over with the field shingles or formed in metal. Both are compliant. Both also depend on the flashing underneath them being right, which is a separate section and a separate failure — the kick-out flashing requirement is the usual companion problem on a chimney that sits near a wall.
The one exception the code writes down
Unit skylights are carved out: those installed in accordance with Section R308.6 and flashed in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions “shall be permitted to be installed without a cricket or saddle.” A wide skylight is the one penetration over 30 inches that does not need one — provided both halves of that exception are satisfied, the installation standard and the manufacturer’s flashing instructions.
| Condition | Cricket required? |
|---|---|
| Chimney 30 inches or less wide across the slope | No, not by R903.2.2 |
| Chimney more than 30 inches wide across the slope | Yes, on the ridge side |
| Any other penetration more than 30 inches wide across the slope | Yes — the text says “chimney or penetration” |
| Unit skylight per R308.6, flashed per the manufacturer | No — the stated exception |
| Covering made of something other than sheet metal or the roof covering | Not compliant with the second sentence |
Which rulebook this comes from in Kentucky
815 KAR 7:125, Section 2(1), makes the 2015 International Residential Code the mandatory state residential building code for single-family dwellings, two-family dwellings and townhouses in Kentucky, “except that the Kentucky amendments in the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code shall supersede any conflicting provision in the 2015 IRC.” The state’s own published edition is the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition from the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction. So the right answer to “which code?” is: the 2015 IRC, read through Kentucky’s amendments.
One more line from the same regulation changes who ever checks. Section 2(2)(a) says permits, inspections and certificates of occupancy “shall not be required for a single-family dwelling unless required by local ordinance.” The code applies statewide; the inspection is a local decision. That is the whole reason a homeowner can end up with a non-compliant chimney detail and no paperwork anywhere saying so — covered further in whether a re-roof needs a permit in Central Kentucky and which rulebook applies in Lexington.
What we look at on a chimney leak
General craft, not a diagnosis of your roof: on a wide masonry chimney the water almost never comes through the front face. It stacks up on the uphill side, sits against the brick behind a wedge of debris, and finds the step flashing laps from above rather than below. A cricket removes the place where the water is allowed to stop. That is why a repair that only replaces flashing on a chimney over 30 inches wide tends to buy a season rather than fix a cause, and why the first measurement we take is the one across the slope.
If the chimney is the suspected source, the other two things worth looking at the same morning are the condition of the counterflashing where it enters the masonry joint and the underlayment immediately uphill. Chimney flashing repair and underlayment requirements on a low-slope shingle roof cover those two separately.
Is a cricket the same thing as a saddle?
The code uses both words for the same requirement — “a cricket or saddle” — so either term satisfies the section. In the field, cricket is the word most roofers use.
Does this apply to a re-roof, or only new construction?
R903.2.2 is a requirement of the residential code that Kentucky has adopted statewide; whether it is inspected on your job depends on whether your city or county requires permits and inspections, which 815 KAR 7:125 Section 2(2)(a) leaves to local ordinance for single-family dwellings. The building official having jurisdiction decides code questions on a specific roof.
My chimney is exactly 30 inches wide. Do I need one?
The text says “more than 30 inches,” so 30 inches even is not over the threshold. Measure across the slope, and measure the chimney, not the flashing.
Sources: Sections R903.2.2 and R903.3 of the 2015 International Residential Code as adopted for Kentucky, read October 12, 2026; adoption, supersession and the local-ordinance exception at 815 KAR 7:125, Section 2, Kentucky Legislative Research Commission; 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition, August 2024, Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction. Code text quoted as published. General information about Kentucky code requirements, not a code interpretation — the building official having jurisdiction decides that. Central Roof Repair is owned by Marcos Gil, who also publishes marcosgilrealty.com and investinthegorge.com.
By Marcos Gil, REALTOR® — Keller Williams Commonwealth · KY Real Estate License No. 296259 · Call or text (859) 310-1209.
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