Can you live in your home during a remodel? Kitchen, bathroom and roof jobs, and how long each permit stays open

How long remodel and roof permits stay open

Permits October 2023 to September 2026. "Reached final" is the share of permits a year or more old that the city closed out. Remodel types include whole-house jobs as well as kitchens and baths, so a kitchen alone sits toward the short end of its city's figure. Our how long do home projects take guide has 13 job types.

The split is clear. Roof permits close in about two to twelve weeks; remodel permits in about three months (Sacramento County, Cary) to most of a year (Saint Paul, Marin County). The roof is outside and the house stays usable. A remodel takes rooms out of use, and how long depends on what the room is.

Job by job

Roof replacement. Stay. The noise runs through the working day and debris lands near the walls, so move cars, patio furniture and anything hanging on interior walls under the roof. Ask whether the attic will be open to the sky at any point and what happens if rain comes; the contract should say (what a contract should include).

Kitchen remodel. Most people stay and set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere in the house. The question for the contractor is which days the water, power and gas will be off and for how long, and when the sink comes back. Ask for those dates in the schedule, and ask whether cabinets and counters are ordered before demolition starts: a delivery date after demolition means weeks without a kitchen while you wait.

Bathroom remodel. Fine if there is a second bathroom. With one bathroom, ask how many days the toilet will be out and whether a temporary one can be set up.

Whole-house or gut remodel. This is the job people move out for: several rooms, the heating or the electrical service off, and dust everywhere. Remodel permits that include whole-house work stay open longest in the table above.

Lead paint in a pre-1978 house

If the house was built before 1978, the dust is the real question. EPA warns that "home RRP projects that create even a small amount of lead dust are enough to poison your child", and recommends hiring a lead-safe certified contractor (EPA, read 23 October 2026). Under the RRP Rule, anyone paid to do the work must follow lead-safe practice once it disturbs more than "six square feet of painted surfaces per room" inside or 20 square feet outside, and "the replacement of any size window is a renovation". The rule covers people working "for compensation", so it does not bind a homeowner doing their own work. EPA does not tell occupants to leave, but if children or someone pregnant live in the house, keeping them out of the sealed work area, or out of the house during demolition, is the safe choice.

Find a certified firm on EPA's lead-safe firm search, and ask the contractor for its certification number.

Five questions to ask before work starts

1. Which days will the water, power, gas or heat be off, and for how long?
2. Which rooms will be closed, and how will the work area be sealed from the rest of the house?
3. When are the cabinets, fixtures or roofing materials ordered, and when do they arrive?
4. Who pulls the permit, and when is the final inspection booked? In California the contract must say who gets the permits and give a completion date (CSLB, read 23 October 2026).
5. Is the house pre-1978, and is the firm lead-safe certified?

See every San Francisco kitchen and bath remodeler by finished share →

What these numbers cannot tell you

Issue-to-final days measure how long the permit stayed open, not how many days a crew was in the house; a remodel can be finished for weeks before someone books the final. Permits do not say which room was remodelled, so kitchen and whole-house jobs sit in one type in most cities. Jobs done without a permit are not here.