Types of Construction Permits

Types of Construction Permits

There are many types of construction permits for your project. These construction permits are essential to your municipality to ensure compliance with regulations, design standards, codes, and more!

 

In this article, we run through all the various types of permits that exist but it will always depend on your jurisdiction and scope of your work. Let's jump into it!

 

Demolition Permit

 

A demolition permit is one of the first permits you have to pull if you are working on an existing site.

 

This permit is one of the easiest to obtain as the work is generally simple. Tearing down a house or small building can be done in a couple of days or a week. A larger office building would be a demolition permit that would be more involved because the health and safety aspect of the demolition of the building is more intense.  

 

In an earlier article, we covered if you need a permit to demolish a house.

 

Building construction permit

A building construction permit is for projects that include a new building or additions to an existing building. This could also include large alterations to your existing building.

 

Typical projects that need a building permit are houses, commercial/retail buildings, QSRs, and industrial buildings.

 

If you are building new you will most likely need all of the permits below as well. This is because you need all the infrastructure for this building.

 

MEP permit

MEP stands for mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing.

 

Mechanical: Typically a mechanical permit will be required for your HVAC systems. That will be the largest system in your building that will need a permit. But it also could include range hoods, cooling towers, chillers, boilers/steam piping, and fireplaces.

 

Electrical: An electrical permit will include work for all of your electrical needs in your building. Even if you are changing some electrical items in an existing building you may be required to pull an electrical permit, even if it is an over-the-counter review.

 

Electrical work under this permit could involve work such as:

  • Street lights/signals
  • Parking lights
  • Meter locations (provider will install the meters)
  • New lighting inside the building
  • Rewiring an existing building
  • Adding new loads or equipment
  • Installation of transformers and panels with connection of new service
  • And more

 

Plumbing: The plumbing permit includes all work for drainage and water systems within the building envelope. Anything outside of the building is typically handled by the civil engineering plans.

 

The work that the plumbing permit covers would be new water pipes, sanitary sewer systems to the restrooms or other waste lines, water heaters, gas, and compressed air lines.

 

Zoning Permit: A zoning permit is typically obtained before construction permits to ensure with the city that you can utilize a piece of property in a way that matches the use that the property has been zoned for.

 

Grading Permit: A grading permit is needed when your project will alter the elevation of the land on your property.

 

The grading permit will be provided upon review of the civil engineering plans completed by a professional civil engineer. They will include information about how the hardscape, landscape, finish floor elevations, detention basins, and other features are graded compared to the street, neighbors, and other features.

 

Your city will have a minimum sf of area that can be disturbed before a grading permit will be needed and sometimes they can be very small. Be sure to coordinate with your city before moving any dirt.

 

Sign Permit

A sign permit is needed when you will either reconstruct an existing sign or place a new sign.

 

Sign work could include monument signs near the right of way, billboards, or building signs. Your city will have many codes on this and can be very strict in my experience.

Check out the City of Phoenix's sign permit submittal checklist to learn all what is needed to obtain one. 

 

Fence Permit

Putting up a small 4' fence in your backyard? Chances are that you will need a permit for it. I know it seems like such a small project but many cities will require it. They do have limits to the size so it is worth it to check with the city to determine if you need one or not.

 

Check out our post on if you need a fence permit if you want to learn more.

 

Types of construction permits wrap up!

These are some of the typical permits that you will come across in new or existing modification construction. There are many more depending on the type of construction or work you are doing.

 

If you think you don't need a permit check out our post on what happens if you don't get a building permit. To keep it short, just go for the permit and save yourself a lot of headaches and time, but read the article if you want to learn what could happen to you if you don't!

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