Before you build
Remodeling permits and approvals
Which department answers which question, what the model code exempts, how review and inspections run, and the approvals that are not permits.
Plan Your Remodel Permit fees by city
Written by HyreRemodel Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
A remodel needs a building permit when it changes structure, adds space, or installs or alters electrical, plumbing, gas or mechanical systems.
The model code most places start from, the 2021 International Residential Code (IRC), exempts finish work such as painting, tiling, cabinets and countertops in Section R105.2.
Your city or county adopts and amends that code, so its building department has the final word. The contractor should pull the permit.
What should you know before you apply for a permit?
Planning decides whether it is allowed on your lot. Building decides whether it meets the code. Ask planning first.
Describe the actual scope. One call, and its answer is current in a way no published guide can be. Our permit checker shows the pattern.
Whoever pulls the permit answers for the work. A permit never closed leaves the work undocumented at resale.
Plan your remodel, then check the permits
Free, with no obligation. A person at HyreRemodel replies by email. Matching with remodeling contractors is not live yet.
Planning or building: which department answers what?
Each can refuse a project for reasons the other does not look at. An addition can be well designed and structurally sound and still be refused for crossing a setback.
| Compared on | Planning and zoning | Building |
|---|---|---|
| The question | Is this allowed on this lot? | Does this meet the construction code? |
| What it checks | Setbacks, lot coverage, height, use, parking, historic districts, overlays | Structure, fire safety, egress, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, energy |
| When to ask | Before you pay for a design | Once you know what you want to build |
| If the answer is no | A variance or exception, decided at a public hearing | Redesign until it complies |
| Matters most for | Additions, ADUs, garage conversions, anything changing footprint or use | Nearly all construction work, including interior work |
See home additions and ADUs, where the planning answer comes first.
What does the model code exempt from a permit?
Section R105.2 of the 2021 International Residential Code lists the work that needs no permit. Anything not on the list falls under the general rule in R105.1 and needs one.
| Work | What the 2021 IRC says |
|---|---|
| Painting, papering, tiling, carpeting, cabinets, countertops | Exempt, as finish work. |
| Removing or altering a load-bearing wall | Not exempt. Needs a permit, and can need an engineer. |
| New or moved circuits, a panel or service change | Not exempt. Only five narrow electrical items are, such as replacing a breaker of the required capacity in the same spot. |
| Moving or replacing pipes, valves or fixtures | Not exempt. Clearing a clog, or fixing a leak without replacing or rearranging pipes, valves or fixtures, is. |
| Gas piping and connected appliances | Not exempt. Portable heating, cooking and drying appliances are. |
| A deck | Exempt only if it is 200 sq ft or less, no more than 30 in above grade, not attached to the house, and not serving the required exit door. |
| A shed or detached accessory building | Exempt if one story and 200 sq ft or less of floor area. Storm shelters are not. |
| Finishing a basement or attic, or an addition | Not exempt. Needs a permit. |
This is the model text, not your local rule. Cities and counties adopt an edition and amend it, so ask your building department before you rely on any row here.
How does the permit process run?
Eight steps, from the first zoning question to the record that documents the work. Inspections come before work is covered, and that fixes the order of a remodel.
For anything that changes footprint or use. It decides what is worth drawing.
What the department accepts varies. Structural changes can need drawings stamped by a licensed design professional.
Filed by the contractor. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits can be separate applications.
The department checks the drawings against code and zoning. Comments and resubmission are part of the process, and they add time.
Work may start. Permits carry an expiry, so ask how long yours lasts if the start slips.
At stages your department sets, while the work is visible: footing, framing, rough electrical, plumbing and mechanical, and insulation where inspected. Work covered too soon can have to come open again, and your contract decides who pays.
The whole job against the approved drawings.
The record that documents the work. Ask for the final sign-off: it is what a buyer’s inspector looks for.
What must be settled before demolition?
These come before the permit application, and before anyone opens a wall.
In a house built before 1978, paid work that disturbs more than 6 sq ft of paint per room inside, or 20 sq ft outside, or replaces a window, needs an EPA Lead-Safe Certified firm.
Older flooring, ceilings, mastic and insulation can contain it. Do not disturb them: have them tested before demolition.
A beam, a removed wall or a new opening needs an engineer and a permit first. Inspection decides whether a wall is structural.
Gas lines and panel or service changes need licensed trades and permits.
What does unpermitted work cost, and when?
Skipping a permit costs nothing until one of four moments. None of them is on your schedule.
| Factor | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Selling | A buyer’s inspector or appraiser finds work missing from the permit record. Expect renegotiation, a demand to permit it after the fact, or a stalled sale. |
| Appraisal or refinancing | Finished space that was never permitted can be left out of the living area. |
| An insurance claim | An insurer can question damage tied to work that was never permitted or inspected. Ask yours how it treats it. |
| Enforcement | A city can require an after-the-fact permit, opened walls, work brought to current code, or removal. |
A contractor who suggests skipping the permit to save money is asking you to carry all four risks so that the work avoids inspection. See choosing a contractor.
Call planning before you pay for a design.
No amount of engineering fixes a zoning problem. For anything that changes the footprint or the use, the planning answer decides what is worth drawing, and it costs one phone call.
What to ask your building department
And which trade permits are separate?
And do they need a stamp?
For this type of application.
And how are they worked out? See permit fees by city.
And how much notice do you need?
And which local amendments apply?
Or under any special review?
Worth asking about any house you own or are buying.
Which approvals are not permits?
A private agreement with its own timeline. HOA approval is not a permit, and a permit is not HOA approval.
Where it applies, it governs appearance (materials, windows, visible changes) in ways building codes do not.
Zoning relief decided at a public hearing, with neighbors notified. It can be refused.
A service upgrade or new connection runs on the utility’s process. Septic systems can need review when bedrooms or a dwelling are added.
Which permit mistakes cost the most?
It makes you the responsible party for the work passing inspection. Ask why a contractor wants it that way.
The saving is small and the four risks above transfer to you.
The wall or ceiling can have to come open again.
An open permit leaves the work undocumented for the next buyer.
Your inquiry
Tell us about the remodel
Nothing goes to a remodeling contractor unless you agree.
Free, with no obligation: a person at HyreRemodel reads your request and replies by email. Matching with remodeling contractors is not live yet, so this is not a quote, and nothing goes to a contractor unless you agree.
Plan Your Remodel
One short form: your address and how to reach you. A person at HyreRemodel reads it and replies.
Questions
What remodeling work needs a permit?
What is the difference between planning and building departments?
Should I or the contractor pull the remodeling permit?
Can I get a permit for work that is already done?
Do I need a permit if I do the work myself?
Does HOA approval replace a building permit?
Written and audited by
HyreRemodel Research Desk
Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a remodeling contractor and not a sales floor.
We read the statute, the licensing register or the municipal fee schedule ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify.
This program is new, and the counts below are small: they are what we have actually published, not what we intend to.
- 7
- studies published
- 7
- states in the contractor store we measure against
- 264
- source documents linked from these pages, 101 of them on .gov domains
- 22,183
- license records measured September 5, 2026
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. Licensing facts come from the issuing board or the statute that creates the credential. Permit-fee facts come from the municipality that publishes the schedule. We do not cite an article that cites a source; we open the source and record the date.
- Our own store is titled to the states it covers. We hold verified contractor records for seven states. An asset that rests on those records is titled to those states. National claims rest on federal or state-agency data (Census, BLS, EPA), never on our counts.
- Absence of a record is not a finding about the company. A board that does not publish disciplinary history in a form we retrieved is excluded from any “clean record” claim. Unable to verify is not unlicensed. Not required is not not carried.
- Fact, calculation, analysis and recommendation stay labelled. A statute is a source fact. A count we derived from our store is a HyreRemodel calculation. What that count means is analysis. What a homeowner should do next is a recommendation.
- We do not remodel homes, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention. Nobody buys a position on this site.
Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Sources & retrieval dates
Information on this page is general and may vary by location, building code, zoning, the condition of your house and your own circumstances. It is not legal, design or engineering advice.
HyreRemodel is not a remodeling contractor: we do not design, build or manage remodeling work, and we do not supervise or warrant it. This page explains the work so you can judge a proposal and a contractor.