What is the permit turnaround in Durham?

From issue to final inspection, the usual permit takes 154 days (middle half 109 to 207 days), from 4,052 permits issued Oct 2024-Sep 2025. The wait to get a permit issued is not in this file; ask the city for its current review times.

Which permits finish fastest in Durham?

Demolition permits, at 50 days. The slowest are new home permits, at 173 days. Bigger jobs take longer; so does work where the final inspection is easy to forget.

How Long Do Permits Take in Durham, NC? 154 Days Usual (2026)

Getting the permit vs finishing the work: two different clocks

“How long does a permit take?” can mean two waits. This page measures the second one.

Getting the permit (not measured): application → issue, the wait for the city to approve the plans. Ask the city for its current review times.

Finishing the work (measured here): issue → final. From the day the city issued the permit to the day it recorded the final inspection. We count only permits issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025, at least 12 months before the file ends, so slow jobs have had time to finish; a permit still open is not in the days.

By kind of work

Permits issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025. Usual days is the middle permit among those with a final date: half finished sooner, half later. Middle half is the range the middle 50% fell in. Kinds of work with fewer than 100 permits in that period are left out.

Kind of work	Permits	Finished	Usual days to final	Middle half (days)
New homes	2,620	93.1%	173	146–225
Remodels & repairs	818	79.7%	99	46–159
Additions	439	77.0%	143	75–238
Solar	306	89.2%	60	37–91
Garages, sheds & shade structures	122	65.6%	86	49–162
Other	164	84.8%	44	23–82

Download this table (CSV)

How long each kind of permit takes

Each kind of work on its own, issue to the city's final.

How long does building a new home take in Durham, from permit to final?

The usual new home permit in Durham takes 173 days from issue to final; the middle half take 146 to 225 days (2,438 permits with a final date, issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025). 93% of the 2,620 permits issued then have finished. Durham new home permits →

How long does a remodel take in Durham, from permit to final?

The usual remodel and repair permit in Durham takes 99 days from issue to final; the middle half take 46 to 159 days (652 permits with a final date, issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025). 80% of the 818 permits issued then have finished. Durham remodel and repair permits →

How long does a home addition take in Durham, from permit to final?

The usual home addition permit in Durham takes 143 days from issue to final; the middle half take 75 to 238 days (338 permits with a final date, issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025). 77% of the 439 permits issued then have finished. Durham home addition permits →

How long does a solar installation take in Durham, from permit to final?

The usual solar permit in Durham takes 60 days from issue to final; the middle half take 37 to 91 days (273 permits with a final date, issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025). 89% of the 306 permits issued then have finished. Durham solar permits →

How long does a garage, shed or patio cover take in Durham, from permit to final?

The usual garage, shed and shade structure permit in Durham takes 86 days from issue to final; the middle half take 49 to 162 days (80 permits with a final date, issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025). 66% of the 122 permits issued then have finished. Durham garage, shed and shade structure permits →

How long does a demolition take in Durham, from permit to final?

The usual demolition permit in Durham takes 50 days from issue to final; the middle half take 28 to 142 days (64 permits with a final date, issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025).

How Durham compares with other cities

From our cross-city data studies: the same measure, read the same way, for every city we cover.

173 days for the usual new home permit here, issue to final, against 238 days across 24 cities (4th quickest of 25). How long permits take, city by city →
99 days for the usual remodel permit here, issue to final, against 162 days across 35 cities (10th quickest of 36). How long permits take, city by city →
93% finished of new home permits a year or more old here, against 90% across 26 cities (12th highest of 27). Permit completion rates by city →
6.9% still open of new home permits a year after issue here, against 10% across 26 cities (12th fewest left open of 27). Permits still open after a year, by city →

Nearby permit data

How long permits take for other places in Raleigh–Durham. Each permit office keeps its own file, so the numbers are not added together.

Raleigh, NC Cary, NC Wake County, NC Holly Springs, NC

How these numbers are made

Source: City and County of Durham GIS, All Building Permits (PublicServices/Inspections MapServer layer 12; Durham Open Data), read 19 Oct 2026. We count permits issued October 2024 through September 2026; denied and withdrawn permits are left out.

Residential building permits from Durham City-County Inspections, the joint office that issues permits for the City of Durham and for unincorporated Durham County: new houses, townhouses and duplexes, additions, alterations, repairs, decks, roofs, accessory buildings and demolitions. Commercial permits and buildings of five or more units in the same file are not counted. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are not in this file. Chapel Hill, Raleigh and the other Triangle towns run their own permit offices and are not in this file.

The file names no contractor, so there are no contractor lists, rankings or firm pages for Durham.
This is the building permit file only. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are published only as a list of permits still open, so they are not counted.
The file covers the City of Durham and unincorporated Durham County together and does not say which a permit is in.
A permit counts as finished once the office issues its certificate of occupancy or completion; the final date is that sign-off date. The file has no expired status.
Solar, roofing, pools, fences and additions are sorted out of the broad alteration and repair permits by their work description. Decks count under Other.
The value is the building cost declared on the permit. The file has no ZIP code we can publish, so there are no ZIP code pages.
Each new townhouse unit gets its own permit, so new homes count units, not buildings. Townhouses are about half of the new homes.

Counts are permits, not jobs: one job can need several permits. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can. Sources and definitions →

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit Contractor Records and link to this page. Suggested citation:

Contractor Records, "How long do permits take in Durham, NC?", https://contractorrecords.com/durham/how-long-does-a-permit-take, data through September 2026, from Durham City-County Inspections building-permit records.

Link to a table: By kind of work · Each kind of permit.

Download the tables (CSV): Days to final by kind of work.

Common questions

What is the permit turnaround in Durham?From issue to final inspection, the usual permit takes 154 days (middle half 109 to 207 days), from 4,052 permits issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025. The wait to get a permit issued is not in this file; ask the city for its current review times.
Which permits finish fastest in Durham?Demolition permits, at 50 days. The slowest are new home permits, at 173 days. Bigger jobs take longer; so does work where the final inspection is easy to forget.
How many permits actually get finished in Durham?87% of the 4,642 permits issued Oct 2024–Sep 2025 have finished; the rest are still open (the file doesn't mark permits expired).
Why does an open permit matter to me?An unfinished permit stays with the property, not the contractor. It can hold up a sale or a refinance. Ask whoever does the work to call for the final inspection and show you the result.

Durham permit data →Durham permit statistics →Browse Durham permits →