Plumbing permits by state: who issues them and what they cost.
Who issues a plumbing permit, what it costs and which forms you need — read out of the permitting authority’s own fee schedule, never copied from another website. Nothing here is national, because none of it is.
Minnesota plumbing permits are issued locally where a city or county runs its own plumbing inspection program under an agreement with DLI, and by DLI itself everywhere else.
No city permit guides published yet. 87 county pages list the plumbers filed in each one.
Washington plumbing permits are issued by the city or county building department with jurisdiction, under one statewide plumbing code; L&I licenses the contractor and does not issue the permit.
No city permit guides published yet. 39 county pages list the plumbers filed in each one.
Nevada plumbing permits come from the city or county building official, under the building code that city or county adopts; NSCB licenses the contractor.
No city permit guides published yet. 17 county pages list the plumbers filed in each one.
Plumbing permits in Texas are issued by cities, not counties. Texas Occupations Code §1301.551 puts permitting and inspection with the municipality, and unincorporated Texas has no residential plumbing permit authority at all — which is why these guides are written per city, and why there is no county permit page.
Every figure in these guides is read out of the issuing city’s own published fee schedule and dated on the page. Where a city has not published its current schedule, we say so rather than repeat a number from somewhere else. Guides ship one city at a time, and the list below is what exists today — not what we intend to cover.
Permit guides
10 statewide plumbing permit guides, every figure sourced.
Each guide covers one state: who issues the plumbing permit, which rules apply, and the published source behind every figure on the page.
Neither a sewer line replacement nor a whole-house repipe is among the five jobs the statute carves out of the permit requirement. Expect a permit, and confirm it with your city.
Texas law says a plumber who pulls a permit owes no city registration fee. We read 26 cities' own documents: most charge nothing, and five print a figure.
Yes. Every Texas city we have checked against its own published pages requires a permit to replace a water heater, including a straight like-for-like swap. Not one of them treats it as a free appliance change.
How long a plumbing permit stays good in 19 Texas cities, read from each city's own code: start deadlines, inspection clocks, extensions and renewal fees.
Which plumbing code 26 Texas cities enforce, IPC or UPC and which edition, read from each city's own ordinance, with the conflicts between city documents.
There is no single answer in Texas, and that is the first thing worth knowing. The state licenses the plumber. Your city decides whether the job needs a permit, who may apply for it, and who is allowed to do the work.
What a failed plumbing inspection costs in 26 Texas cities, read from each city's own fee document: first re-inspection fees, ladders, and how to avoid paying.
Replacing a water heater needs a plumbing permit nearly everywhere in Texas. What it costs is a different question in every city, and the answer is not on any one page.
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