Verified against the city’s published rules · page updated October 23, 2026 · rules change — confirm with the city before applying
Houston lets a homeowner pull a plumbing permit and do the work. The city’s own code says so in a section headed Homeowners, the permit page says so, and the application form a homeowner actually files lists water heaters by name.
What confused people for weeks, us included, is that Houston’s water heater page says the permit “must be obtained by a master plumber registered with the City of Houston”. That line is real. It is also printed, word for word, on Houston’s general plumbing fixture page, its sewer connection page and its gas permit page. It is the contractor rule, repeated on every contractor permit page. The homeowner route is a separate permit with its own form.
This page gives you that route, what it costs on the 2026 fee schedule, the code Houston enforces, how inspections work, and the handful of places where two city documents print two different numbers.
Houston Public Works issues plumbing permits through its Plumbing Inspections section, on the 4th floor of the Houston Permitting Center.
The address is 1002 Washington Ave., 4th Floor, Houston, TX 77002. Plumbing Inspections answers on 832.394.8870, by email at hpcplumbingsection@houstontx.gov, and keeps hours of 8 am to 4:30 pm. The Permitting Center’s main line is 832-394-9000, and the city says the building is “located right next to the Amtrak station”. Free parking is in Lot 1 and Lot 2.
The section’s own page lists what it does: registering plumbing licenses, conducting inspections, “Selling homeowner’s permits”, plumbing and irrigation permits, and natural-gas utility releases. So the same counter that sells the homeowner permit is the one that inspects the work.
Contractors apply online through iPermits, the city’s permit portal, after registering their state license with the city. Homeowners apply in person; the homeowner permit page gives no online route. If a job needs plans, they go in electronically through ProjectDox once the iPermits fees are paid.
Yes, if you own the house, live in it as your registered homestead, and do the plumbing yourself.
Three city documents say it, in three different registers.
The permit page. Houston’s Homeowner’s Plumbing Permit page (HPWCODE1099) opens: “A homeowner may obtain a permit to install and maintain plumbing if they: own, occupy, and have the property registered as their homestead; and will perform the plumbing work themselves.” Lower down it repeats the condition: “Applicant must own and occupy the residence as their homestead.” It lists no excluded jobs.
The code. Houston’s amendments to the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code, adopted by Ordinance 2023-907, add a section that the model code does not have. Section 102.10, headed Homeowners:
“In accordance with the Plumbing License Law, this code shall not prevent any homeowner from installing and maintaining plumbing in a building owned and occupied by the owner as his homestead if done in compliance with the requirements of all applicable state-adopted codes and ordinances of this jurisdiction. Such privilege does not grant the right to violate any of the provisions of this code or state-adopted codes, nor shall it be construed as exempting any such property owner from obtaining a permit and paying the required fees therefor, except for work that is exempt from permitting under this code.”
Section 104.3 then names who may apply for a plumbing permit at all: “Upon application by a state-licensed master plumber or by a property owner of a building owned and occupied by him as his homestead to install storm and sanitary sewers, plumbing fixtures, appurtenances and appliances for drainage, gas, water and/or sewer lines”. Two applicants, side by side: the licensed master plumber and the homestead owner.
The form. The homeowner page links the application you file, form CE-1284, the Homeowner’s Plumbing and Irrigation System Building Permit Application, revised January 2026. You initial four statements. Two of them carry the conditions: “I occupy the single-family residence as my homestead.” and “I will perform the below Plumbing work.” The fixture block beneath includes this line:
“Water Heaters: _________ Water Service:__________ Vacuum Breaker: __________ COST $________”
That is where the water heater question gets its answer. Nothing on either page of CE-1284 asks for a master plumber or a plumbing license number, and nothing carves water heaters out.
Houston’s water heater page (HPWCODE1101) says: “A plumbing permit is required for the replacement and installation of water heaters.” Under Conditions it adds: “Permit must be obtained by a master plumber registered with the City of Houston.” It does not mention homeowners.
Read alone, that looks like a bar. Read next to Houston’s other plumbing permit pages, it is boilerplate. The plumbing fixture page (HPWCODE1093) and the sewer connection page (HPWCODE1095) carry the identical sentence, and the gas permit page (HPWCODE1087) carries it with a leading article. Every one of those pages then sends the applicant to iPermits with a registered license. They describe the contractor permit. If the master-plumber line closed the homeowner route for water heaters, it would close it for every fixture too, and the city’s own code section 102.10 and its own homeowner form would mean nothing.
So our reading is: HPWCODE1101 is the contractor water heater permit, and a homestead owner-occupant takes the HPWCODE1099 route on form CE-1284. Houston has not said, in one sentence anywhere we read, that a homeowner may permit a water heater. This is the city’s own code and operative form read against its description pages. Take the form with you. If the counter says otherwise, the form, section 102.10 and section 104.3 are what to ask about.
CE-1284 has you affirm, in the homestead line you initial, that your Texas driver’s license or ID and your property documents are attached. The HPWCODE1099 page lists “Driver’s license or proof of homestead”, with an “or”. Bring both.
The form’s office-use box reads: “Authorized personnel check boxes based on HCAD confirmation.” HCAD is the Harris County appraisal district, and the boxes record whether the homestead is verified and whether the ID matches the HCAD owner. If your homestead exemption is not on file with HCAD, sort that out first. If your home is in a part of Houston whose homestead is recorded with a different county’s appraisal district, the form does not say how the city checks it. Call 832.394.8870 before you go.
The in-person steps on the homeowner page: take a ticket at the Information Desk for Plumbing Inspections, go to the 4th floor, wait to be called, and if the application is approved, pay at the cashier on the 1st floor. The cashiers keep 8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday. The page gives processing time as one business day and plan review as “Not Required”.
One more thing the code says that is worth knowing either way. Section 104.4.2 of the Houston amendments: “A permit and all its privileges are issued to the property owner, regardless of who submits the application or pays the fees.”
The statute underneath all of this is Texas Occupations Code §1301.051: “A property owner is not required to be licensed under this chapter to perform plumbing in the property owner’s homestead.” That is about the license. Section 102.10 is Houston adding the permit and the fees on top. Who may do plumbing for someone else is on who can legally do plumbing in Texas, and how Houston compares with other Texas cities is on Texas plumbing permits.
Almost everything, including a water heater; Houston publishes two short exemption lists and they are worded differently.
Houston’s plumbing permit list is long and specific: separate pages for a water heater, plumbing fixtures, a sewer connection, a gas opening, a lawn irrigation system, a vacuum breaker or backflow preventer, a wall heater, a yard light or barbecue opening, and more. The water heater page is plain: “A plumbing permit is required for the replacement and installation of water heaters.” The statewide picture on that job is on do you need a permit to replace a water heater in Texas?
For what does not need one, Houston prints two texts.
The plumbing fixture page says: “Exempt fixtures include toilets/water closets, lavatory and kitchen faucets, and garbage disposals.”
The code, section 104.2 as amended, exempts two things. Its first item covers stopping leaks in drains and in soil, waste or vent pipes, but says that once a trap or pipe has to be removed and replaced with new material, it is new work and needs a permit. Its second item reads:
“The clearing of stoppages, including the removal and reinstallation of bathroom or kitchen faucets or water closets, or the repairing of leaks in pipes, valves, or fixtures, provided such repairs do not involve or require the replacement or rearrangement of valves, pipes, or fixtures.”
Those two texts do not say the same thing. The web page exempts toilets, faucets and disposals as fixtures, which reads like replacement. The code exempts removing and reinstalling faucets and water closets while clearing a stoppage, and stops at “replacement or rearrangement”. The web page names garbage disposals; the code’s list does not. If you are swapping a toilet or a disposal, the web page is on your side and the code is narrower. Ask Plumbing Inspections which one they apply before you skip the permit.
The state floor is Texas Occupations Code §1301.551(c): a city with a plumbing ordinance must require a permit for plumbing “other than the repairing of leaks, the replacement of lavatory or kitchen faucets, the replacement of ballcocks or water control valves, the replacement of garbage disposals, or the replacement of water closets.” A city may still require a permit for any of those five. Our fixture-by-fixture read is on fixture and faucet permits in Texas. Sewer lines and repipes are never exempt: big-ticket plumbing permits in Texas. What happens if you skip one is on skipping a plumbing permit in Texas.
$131.12 is the floor for any Houston plumbing permit, homeowner or contractor: a $97.56 minimum plus a $33.56 administrative fee.
Houston prices plumbing from its 2026 Building Code Enforcement Permit Fee Schedule. The schedule is titled by calendar year, not fiscal year. The city’s fee notice says “most permit, license, and registration fees will increase by 1.3910% effective January 1, 2026”, tied to the Consumer Price Index, and that single-trade applications submitted before that date were grandfathered at 2025 rates. The schedule’s own header: “All permit fees are subject to the minimum and administrative fees.”
From the PLUMBING PERMIT FEES block and the general block:
There is no separate water heater line in the schedule. The water heater page prices it on the fixture rate: “$34.24 for the first three; $11.41 per heater thereafter”, with the $97.56 minimum noted beside it. There is no technology fee line anywhere in the eight pages.
So a single water heater, on the fixture rate, comes in under the minimum. CE-1284 states the result in terms: “Total Minimum Permit Fee $131.12”, which it spells out as the $97.56 minimum plus the $33.56 administrative fee. The same $131.12 note is on the contractor form, CE-1020, revised April 2026. Fixture-heavy jobs climb past it: ten fixtures on one permit is $34.24 plus seven at $11.41, or $114.11, plus the $33.56 administrative fee, $147.67 in all on our reading of the schedule.
That arithmetic treats the minimum as a floor, which is what a minimum is. Houston does not print a worked example, so if your quote depends on it, ask the cashier.
Two things to know about the administrative fee. It is non-refundable. And Texas Occupations Code §1301.551(g) says a master plumber, plumbing contractor “or other person who is required to obtain a permit under this section is not required to pay a plumbing registration fee or administrative fee in a municipality or any other political subdivision.” Houston’s schedule charges the administrative fee on every permit. We have not resolved how those two fit together, and we are not telling you the fee is unlawful.
If you start without a permit, the schedule prices an Investigation Fee for unpermitted construction at “$333.42 minimum or double fee whichever is greater”, in addition to the permit fee. The fee page of CE-1284 prints the same fee as $328.84. Both are Houston documents for 2026; we give you both.
Three web-page figures are out of date. The homeowner page still says “The minimum permit fee is $86.39 plus admin fee, for a total of $116.11.” The water heater, fixture and sewer pages each print “Minimum permit fee is $91.05” a few lines above a fee box that says the plumbing minimum is $97.56. The fee schedule, the January 2026 fee notice and both current forms agree on $97.56 and $131.12, and those are the figures used here. How Houston’s figures sit beside other cities’ is on what a plumbing permit costs in Texas, city by city.
A master plumber must register a state license with Houston before pulling a permit, and Houston charges nothing for it.
The Master Plumber Registration page (HPWCODE1165): “There is no fee for registering a Master Plumber license.” The registration form, CE-1390, revised January 2026, prints “Master Plumber License Registration No Registration Fee”. The Plumbing Inspections page gives the history: “Beginning September 1, 2009, master plumbers will no longer be required to pay a fee when registering with the City of Houston per HB 1354 which was approved in the State of Texas Legislature.”
The city asks for a Texas master plumber license, proof of insurance and a valid government-issued ID. First-time registration is in person on the 4th floor; renewals go by email. Registration is valid for one year. That fits §1301.551(g), quoted above, and §1301.551(h), which requires a plumbing contractor to register with a city that requires registration.
For a homeowner, the practical point is the inspection rule on the water heater page: “In order to schedule an inspection, the master plumber license registrations must be in good standing.” If you hire a plumber, ask whether their Houston registration is current, then check the state license itself with how to verify a Texas plumber’s license, screen by screen.
Houston enforces the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code with Houston amendments, effective January 1, 2024, and sends house plumbing to the 2021 International Residential Code.
The city’s list of adopted codes, form CE-1199, revised September 2026, opens: “The following are the current construction codes enforced by the City of Houston.” It lists the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code (with Houston Amendments), published by IAPMO, effective January 1, 2024. The city’s code adoption history, CE-1204, records the 2021 Houston Plumbing Code under Ordinance 2023-907, effective 01/01/2024, marked Current, replacing the 2015 code. The Code Development page adds that the package went to City Council on October 25, 2023.
Houston is a Uniform Plumbing Code city. Austin also judges plumbing against the UPC.
For a house, read one more section. Houston’s amendment 102.1.1 says plumbing for detached one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses up to three stories “shall comply with the Residential Code”, and that the plumbing code governs residential occupancies the Residential Code does not cover. The water heater page cites both the 2021 UPC Houston Amendments and the 2021 IRC Houston Amendments as its authority. So a homeowner replacing a water heater is building to the 2021 IRC as Houston amended it. We did not read the IRC amendments’ plumbing chapters for this page.
Houston does not publish the model codes themselves. The Code Development page points to IAPMO’s free online reading room for the UPC and to the ICC for the IRC.
A homeowner schedules by phone, one day ahead; a contractor schedules online or through the automated line.
The homeowner page: “To schedule an inspection, call Plumbing Inspections at 832.394.8870 one day prior to the desired inspection date.” The Plumbing Inspections page puts the duty on you: “If you have completed work under the Homeowner’s Permit option, you are responsible for scheduling the required plumbing inspections.”
Contractors on a water heater permit schedule online with the project number, license number and a scheduling PIN, or by calling the Interactive Response System at 713.222.9922.
Houston lists the inspections plumbing work may need: ground (before the foundation pour), rough (before wall covering goes up), sewer, gas test, and final. Keep a copy of the permit on site. If an inspection fails, you reschedule, and both permit pages warn that “Inspections that repeatedly fail may be charged a re-inspection fee in addition to an admin fee.” The reinspection fee on the schedule is $94.00. Applicants can sign up for email or text updates through the city’s Inspection Notification System.
Both permit pages give a valid period of 180 days. The amended code makes a permit inactive unless the work has started and been inspected by a city inspector within 180 days of issue, so do not buy the permit months before you plan to start. If the job includes gas, who may run a gas line and what the pressure test involves is on gas lines in Texas.
Whether the counter reads the homeowner route the way we do for a water heater. The code and the form support it; no Houston sentence says it in terms. Take CE-1284 and call 832.394.8870 if you want it in writing.
Which exemption list Houston applies. The fixture page and code section 104.2 differ on toilets, faucets and disposals.
The investigation fee. $333.42 on the fee schedule, $328.84 on the homeowner form.
How the minimum combines with fixture lines. We read it as a floor; Houston prints no worked example.
How the homestead check works outside HCAD. The form names only HCAD.
The adopting ordinance itself. Ordinance 2023-907 is published as a 12-page scan with no text layer, and we did not OCR it. The adoption number and date here come from the city’s own code list, adoption history and amendments document.
Every figure on this page comes from one of the documents below, each published by the body that sets, measures or administers the thing it describes. We record the document’s own date and the date we read it, because published pages change without notice.
| Source | Document date | We read it |
|---|---|---|
| City of Houston — Homeowner’s Plumbing Permit (HPWCODE1099) | undated city web page; footer reads ‘© 2026’ | 2026-10-12 (fetched as raw HTML with curl and a desktop Chrome user agent from the cloud container, HTTP 200; Cloudflare-obfuscated email addresses decoded from the page source; every quoted string tested against the tag-stripped HTML) |
| City of Houston — Water Heater (HPWCODE1101) | undated city web page; footer reads ‘© 2026’ | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, curl with desktop Chrome user agent, HTTP 200) |
| City of Houston — Plumbing fixture permit (HPWCODE1093) | undated city web page | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; read for the exempt-fixture sentence and the master-plumber line) |
| City of Houston — Sewer connection permit (HPWCODE1095) | undated city web page | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| City of Houston — Gas permit (HPWCODE1087) | undated city web page | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| City of Houston — Master Plumber Registration (HPWCODE1165) | undated city web page | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| City of Houston — Houston Public Works, Plumbing Inspections | undated city web page; its registration-fee paragraph dates the fee change to September 1, 2009 | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; full permit A to Z list for the section read) |
| City of Houston — Homeowner’s Plumbing and Irrigation System Building Permit Application, form CE-1284 | ‘revised: January 2026’ and ‘Form: CE-1284’ in its own footer; PDF created 9 December 2025, modified 15 January 2026; 2 pages | 2026-10-12 (both pages read as raw PDF text with pdftotext -layout; the fixture block, the four initialled statements, the HCAD office-use box and the full fee page transcribed) |
| City of Houston — Plumbing and Irrigation System Building Permit Application, form CE-1020 | ‘revised: April 2026’ in its own footer; PDF created 2 April 2026; 3 pages | 2026-10-12 (read as raw PDF text; read for the contractor field and the $131.12 minimum note) |
| City of Houston — Registration & Renewal Form for Master Plumber & Landscape Irrigator License, form CE-1390 | ‘revised: January 2026’ in its own footer; PDF created 2 February 2026 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw PDF text) |
| City of Houston — 2026 Building Code Enforcement Permit Fee Schedule | headed ‘2026 BUILDING CODE ENFORCEMENT PERMIT FEE SCHEDULE’; PDF created 16 December 2025; 8 pages; titled by calendar year with no fiscal dates | 2026-10-12 (all 8 pages read as raw PDF text, HTTP 200 from the cloud container; the PLUMBING PERMIT FEES block and the ADMINISTRATIVE & GENERAL block transcribed; searched for a water heater line, a technology fee and any surcharge and none found) |
| City of Houston — 2026 Fee Increase Notice | undated news page announcing an increase effective January 1, 2026; it is where the site’s ‘Fee Schedule’ menu item points, and it links /media/2636/download?inline under a heading that reads ‘Building Code Enforcement’s 2025 fee schedules’ | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| City of Houston — Houston Amendments to the 2021 Uniform Plumbing Code (Exhibit H to Ord. No. 2023-907) | cover reads adopted by Ord. No. 2023-907, passed October 25, 2023, effective January 1, 2024; PDF created 29 November 2023; 47 pages | 2026-10-12 (read as raw PDF text; because the document is a strike-and-underline markup, pages 3, 5 and 7 as printed were also rendered to images and checked by eye so that no struck word is inside any quotation; §102.10, the first sentence of §104.3, §104.2 item (2) and the first sentence of the §104.4.2 owner paragraph are fully underlined text with no strikes) |
| City of Houston — Houston Construction Code, list of adopted codes, form CE-1199 | ‘revised: September 2026’ in its own footer; PDF created 21 September 2026, modified 23 September 2026 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw PDF text) |
| City of Houston — Houston Code Adoption History, form CE-1204 | ‘revised: September 2026’ in its own footer; PDF created 18 September 2026 | 2026-10-12 (read as raw PDF text; PLUMBING CODES table read) |
| City of Houston — Code Development | undated city web page | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; the adopting ordinance it links, media/9541, was fetched and is a 12-page scan with no text layer; not OCR’d) |
| City of Houston — Houston Permitting Center, Contact Us | undated city web page | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| Texas Occupations Code ch. 1301, §1301.051 Plumbing by Property Owner in Homestead | current online codification; added by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 1421, Sec. 3, eff. June 1, 2003 | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200) |
| Texas Occupations Code ch. 1301, §1301.551 Municipal Plumbing Ordinances and Permits | current online codification; history line lists amendments through Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 981 (H.B. 2062), including Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1380 (S.B. 1354), eff. September 1, 2009 | 2026-10-12 (raw HTML, HTTP 200; subsections (a) through (j) read) |
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