PermitNotebook

What we found out, written down

Every research page, guide, and tracked rule change PermitNotebook Research has published lives here, each one checked against an official source before it went up. Where a rule everyone repeats turns out to be wrong, we say so and show the count.

Guides
25
each checked against a source
Rule changes tracked
6
statute-cited
Research pages
4
from records we ingest

Research

Measured from permit and inspection records we ingest and normalise ourselves.

Research

What does a building permit cost?

Verified fees read from official fee schedules across the localities we cover, plus medians from real permit records.

By PermitNotebook Research

Research

Do you need a permit?

The verdict landscape across every rule we have verified: what usually needs a permit, what usually does not, and where thresholds sit.

By PermitNotebook Research

Research

First-time inspection pass rates, measured

First-time residential inspection pass percent by trade, measured from real inspection event logs across the localities we cover, with administrative closure events excluded.

By PermitNotebook Research

Guides

Guide

How to Find Out If a Permit Was Pulled

Permit records are public. In 79 of the 137 jurisdictions we cover you can look one up yourself online, 37 of them by street address alone, and in the rest a phone call does it. How to search, what a missing record does and does not mean, and how to report work with no permit.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

What Happens If You Remove a Wall Without a Permit

Taking out a wall is the one remodel step that is never on the exemption list, load-bearing or not. What the code actually says, what the 27 states we cover do about it after the fact, and why the bathroom-remodel rule is the closest thing to a national answer.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Stop Work Order for No Permit: What It Means and How to Lift It

A stop work order is not the penalty. It is the pause before one. What the order has to say, what you can keep doing while it stands, and the three things every office wants before it lets work resume, with the statute in each of the 27 states we cover.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

The EV Charger Permit Question Comes Down to Whether You Plug It In

In all six states where we have read the statute, the line is the same: a cord-and-plug charger on an existing outlet is maintenance, and a hardwired 240 volt circuit is permit-triggering electrical work. Two of the six let you start before the permit is filed.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

The Fence Permit Question Is Almost Never About the Fence

Fence permits are the most exempted type we track: 15 of 137 jurisdictions require none at all. Where a permit is needed the trigger is height, and it runs from 1 foot in Maricopa County to 9 feet in Eugene.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Replacing an HVAC System Needs a Permit in Almost Every Place We Checked

HVAC is the second most uniformly permitted type we track: 102 of 137 jurisdictions require a permit outright and none exempt the work. The exemption people rely on covers like-for-like swaps, and it is narrower than it sounds.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

A Pool Permit Is Rarely One Permit

Across 137 jurisdictions, 82 attach a safety barrier requirement to the pool permit and 59 name electrical work as separate. The pool permit fee you were quoted is usually one line of three.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

There Is No Such Thing as The Penalty for Building Without a Permit

We read the unpermitted-work statute in all 27 states we cover. In roughly half of them the state sets no penalty at all, because the state does not issue building permits. Exposure runs from $10 a day in Missouri to a felony in Florida.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Only Three of Thirteen Project Types Have Any Permit Exemption at All

Of the thirteen residential permit types we track across 137 jurisdictions, only three have any place that requires no permit at all. Sheds, decks and pools have none. Here is what the exemptions actually cover and where they apply.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

The 30 Inch Deck Rule Is Real. It Is Also Not the Whole Test

The IRC exempts decks under 30 inches, so that is the number the internet repeats. Across 137 jurisdictions we verified, 82 skip the number entirely and just require a permit, four draw the line at 18 inches, one at 16.5, and twenty-three measure area instead of height.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Replacing a Water Heater Usually Needs a Permit. The Fuel Decides

The same like-for-like swap costs $20 in Boston, $147 in Spotsylvania County, and no permit at all in Chicago. Across 16 jurisdictions we verified, the deciding question is usually not where you live but what the unit burns.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Where You Can Replace a Roof Without Pulling a Permit

Six of the 127 jurisdictions we have verified let you re-roof a house with no building permit at all, and most of the rest allow it only under conditions. Here is who exempts what, with the rule each one publishes.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

The Seven Foot Fence Rule Is Not a Rule

The building code exempts fences under seven feet, so the internet repeats seven feet. Across 61 jurisdictions that publish a height, we found thresholds from one foot to nine, and four Phoenix-area cities that draw the line at three.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Jurisdictions Cannot Agree What Counts as a Pool

Seventy-four jurisdictions publish a numeric pool permit threshold. Fifty-two measure water depth, eleven measure surface area, and nine measure volume in gallons. They are not answering the same question, which is why a national answer does not exist.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Your City Does Not Always Issue Your Permit

In eleven of the jurisdictions we cover, the electrical or plumbing permit is issued by a state agency, a health department, or the power utility, not the city or county building office. Applying to the wrong one costs you weeks.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Failed a Permit Inspection? What Happens Next

What a correction notice means, what re-inspection costs in Fairfax County, Chandler, and Seattle, and how permit expiration interacts with getting the fix done.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

What Inspectors Check at Residential Inspections, by Trade

The standard residential inspection sequence and the code-cited checkpoints inspectors look for in framing, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical rough-ins, plus decks, roofs, water heaters, and bathroom remodels.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Who Pulls the Permit When You Hire a Contractor

What it means to be the permit holder, contractor-of-record versus owner-builder rules in seven states we have verified, and why jurisdictions that address it tend to want the contractor, not the homeowner, holding the permit.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Guide

Why Permit Fees Vary So Much Between Cities

Why building permit fees are not one number: valuation-based fees versus flat fees, plan review billed as a separate line, trades handed off to a different agency entirely, and why a single national average cannot capture any of it.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked

Rule tracker

Every tracked change