PermitNotebook

The Library

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.

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 2026-08-01

Where You Can Replace a Roof Without Pulling a Permit

Six of the 62 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 2026-08-01

Guide 2026-08-01

The Seven Foot Fence Rule Is Not a Rule

The building code exempts fences under seven feet, so the internet repeats seven feet. Across 36 jurisdictions that publish a height, we found thresholds from one foot to eight, and four Phoenix-area cities that draw the line at three.

By PermitNotebook Research last checked 2026-08-01

Guide 2026-08-01

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 2026-08-01

Guide 2026-08-01

Jurisdictions Cannot Agree What Counts as a Pool

Thirty jurisdictions publish a numeric pool permit threshold. Eighteen measure depth, nine measure surface area, and three 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 2026-08-01

Guide 2026-07-25

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 2026-07-25

Guide 2026-07-25

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 2026-07-25

Guide 2026-07-25

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 2026-07-25

Guide 2026-07-25

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 2026-07-25

Rule tracker

Every tracked change