Do you need a plumbing permit in Virginia?
By Mario Bailey Last checked
- Always required
- 9
- of 12 jurisdictions
- Conditional
- 3
- depends on size or scope
- Not required
- 0
- exempt outright
Plumbing Permit rules nationwide, beyond Virginia.
Requirements and size thresholds for plumbing permits vary by locality. The table below compares what each Virginia county or city requires. Always confirm with the local office before starting.
Comparing states? See plumbing permit rules across every locality we cover.
The application steps and inspection sequence for plumbing permits come from the model code rather than from Virginia law, so they read the same wherever you build. We keep that walkthrough in one place: how a plumbing permit application and its inspections work, start to finish. What changes between Virginia jurisdictions is below: who requires a permit, what they charge, and which office you file with.
Swipe sideways to see thresholds and confidence.
| Locality | Permit required? | Typical threshold | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arlington County | Yes | Replacement of fixtures, appliances or piping of the same type, size and location on equipment not fueled by gas is exempt; work on gas fueled equipment always requires a permit and inspections. | Confirmed on official page |
| Chesterfield County | Yes | Not specified | Confirmed on official page |
| Culpeper County | Conditional | Not specified | Based on building code |
| Fairfax County | Yes | Not specified | Confirmed on official page |
| Fauquier County | Conditional | Not specified | From an official source |
| Henrico County | Yes | Not specified | Confirmed on official page |
| Loudoun County | Yes | Not specified | From an official source |
| Orange County | Yes | Not specified | Confirmed on official page |
| Prince William County | Conditional | building permit required for alterations to supply or drain systems; like-for-like fixture replacement without altering systems is exempt | Confirmed on official page |
| Spotsylvania County | Yes | Not specified | From an official source |
| Stafford County | Yes | Not specified | Confirmed on official page |
| Virginia Beach | Yes | State code exempts replacement of plumbing fixtures and well pumps without alteration of the water supply and distribution systems; other plumbing work needs a permit. | From an official source |
| No localities match your filter. | |||
What a plumbing permit costs in Virginia
9 Virginia jurisdictions we cover publish a fee figure for this work. Each line is quoted from that office's own schedule and linked to its citation. The figures are not comparable to one another: some are flat minimums, some a percentage of job value, some charged per fixture, so what you pay depends on which schedule applies and on your job's valuation.
$228 for a new single-family dwelling; $114 for an addition or renovation requiring new rough-in ($57 if rough-in is pre-existing); $57 for backflow prevention or water/sewer line installation or repair, per the FY2025-26 residential fee schedule
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Residential addition or alteration plumbing work starts at the $141.75 base fee for Level One (1 to 7 fixtures), rising by level to $350.70 for over 22 fixtures, per Appendix Q effective 2026-07-01
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A single-trade plumbing permit is $84.15 including the technology fee at the $75 minimum ($0.03 per sq ft above it), per the county fee schedule effective 7/1/2025
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Existing-dwelling trade permit fee applies: $100 for the first $5,000 of labor and materials cost, plus $6 per additional $1,000 or fraction thereof, plus a 2% state levy; a new-dwelling trade permit is a $100 flat fee plus $2 state levy ($102 total), per Henrico's residential trade permit fee schedule.
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Base fee for adding, replacing or relocating plumbing equipment in a 1 or 2 family dwelling is $70; new or replacement water service and sewer connections are each a separate $70, per the July 2022 fee schedule
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Billed under the residential Trades category for plumbing work at $0.15 per square foot with a $100 minimum, plus Virginia's 2% state surcharge, per the FY27 Tax and Fee Schedule
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Residential plumbing is a base fee of $88.44 ($110.65 with surcharges) plus $7.36 per fixture or appliance ($9.20 with surcharges), per the FY27 BDD Fee Schedule
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Minimum plumbing permit is $100, totaling $147 over the counter after the 2% building surcharge and $45 processing fee, per the county plumbing-only packet under the 7/1/2025 Unified Fee Schedule
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Residential plumbing trade work bills under the All Trades line at $60 per trade per system, plus the 2 percent state levy and 2.75 percent technology fee, per the Development Services Fee Schedule effective 11/1/2024
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Jurisdictions not listed publish no dollar figure we could quote. Absence does not mean a permit is free.
Common questions about plumbing permits in Virginia
- Do I need a plumbing permit in Virginia?
- In most of Virginia, yes. Permits are issued locally, so the answer comes from your Virginia city or county rather than a single statewide rule. Of the 12 Virginia jurisdictions we have verified for plumbing work, 9 require a permit outright, 3 depend on the size or scope of the job, and 0 require none.
- Is there a plumbing permit exemption in Virginia?
- 3 of the 12 Virginia jurisdictions we cover set a threshold rather than a flat rule, so the same job can be exempt in one Virginia county and permitted in the next. The table above lists each Virginia jurisdiction's published threshold in its own words, with the source and the date we verified it.
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