The benchmark, by trade and city
"Reached final" is the share of all permits a year or more old with a final. The next three columns describe firms with 10 or more permits of that type: the finished share of the firm at the bottom tenth and at the top tenth, and how many of those firms finished fewer than 70%.
| City | Trade | Reached final (all permits) | Bottom tenth of firms | Top tenth of firms | Firms with 10+ permits | Of those, under 70% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami, FL | Roofing | 97.5% | 92.7% | 99.6% | 75 | 0 |
| Seattle, WA | Electrical | 94.6% | 85.1% | 99.0% | 252 | 2 |
| Minneapolis, MN | Roofing | 93.0% | 75.6% | 98.8% | 351 | 19 |
| Austin, TX | Electrical | 90.4% | 76.3% | 96.8% | 336 | 14 |
| Cape Coral, FL | Pool | 90.4% | 77.7% | 96.0% | 34 | 2 |
| Sacramento County, CA | Roofing | 88.1% | 78.0% | 96.8% | 117 | 7 |
| Seattle, WA | Heat pump and AC | 85.6% | 64.8% | 96.7% | 118 | 17 |
| Sacramento County, CA | HVAC | 84.1% | 66.2% | 94.0% | 97 | 19 |
| Honolulu, HI | Solar | 83.4% | 64.3% | 96.3% | 44 | 8 |
| San Francisco, CA | Remodel | 81.9% | 66.9% | 92.6% | 67 | 10 |
| Saint Paul, MN | Roofing | 76.2% | 42.5% | 91.6% | 290 | 113 |
| Minneapolis, MN | Remodel | 75.5% | 56.1% | 90.9% | 84 | 24 |
Three things stand out.
Trade matters. Small, single-visit jobs finish most often: 97.5% of Miami roofing permits and 94.6% of Seattle electrical permits reached a final. Remodels and solar, with more inspections and more ways to stall, finish less: 75.5% for Minneapolis remodels, 83.4% for Honolulu solar.
City matters as much. Roofing in Minneapolis (93.0%) and Saint Paul (76.2%), across the river from each other, are far apart. In Saint Paul, 113 of 290 busy roofing firms finished under 70%; in Minneapolis, 19 of 351. Part of that gap is how each city records finals, not how roofers behave, which is why a national cut-off like "80% is good" misleads.
The bottom tenth is the line to watch. A firm below its own city's bottom-tenth figure for the trade is finishing fewer permits than nine in ten of its busy peers. That is the firm to ask, directly, which of its permits are still open and why.
How many permits a contractor should have
There is no legal minimum, but there is a practical one for judging a record. We compute the benchmark only for firms with 10 or more permits of a type, because a firm with three permits and one open one shows 67% on a sample too small to mean anything. Many firms never get there: 60.2% of Columbus remodel firms and 49.4% of Minneapolis remodel firms filed exactly one remodel permit in three years. A firm with few permits may be new, may mostly work elsewhere, or may be letting homeowners pull permits as owner-builders; ask which.
The opposite signal is a firm with a long record that stopped. Our compare pages flag firms with 5 or more permits and none in the last 12 months: 144 roofing firms in Minneapolis, 102 electrical firms in Seattle. Some retired or renamed; some closed. Check the licence before you sign with one.
How to check a contractor's finished jobs, in five minutes
- Open the compare page for your city and trade (for example Seattle electrical or Minneapolis roofing) and find the firm. Its row shows permits, finished share and the last 12 months.
- Compare its finished share to the bottom-tenth figure in the table above for the same city and trade.
- On the city's own permit search, open two or three of its permits that are not finaled. Note the issue date and status.
- Ask the contractor about those addresses. "Waiting on the homeowner to schedule the final" is a real answer; "I don't know" is not.
Our permit history guide has the search link for every city, and contractor red flags covers the other two record checks: licence status and a firm going quiet.
See Seattle electricians ranked by finished share →
Why a permit stays open
Open does not always mean abandoned. A permit stays open when the contractor never books the final, when the homeowner will not let the inspector in, when a correction is pending, or when the job is simply long. The clock is real, though: Seattle says its construction permits "typically expire 18 months after the issue date" (Seattle SDCI). An expired, unfinaled permit stays on the address and turns up when the house is sold. Our open permit guide explains how to close one.
What this does not tell you
A final inspection says the work met code at the time it was inspected, not that the customer was happy or the job came in on budget. Cities record finals differently, so compare firms within a city, not across cities. Permits less than a year old are left out of the finished share because many are simply still in progress. And a firm can only be measured on the work it permitted; jobs done without a permit are invisible here.
How we know this
"Reached final" is the share of permits issued at least a year before the city's data ends (September 2026 for these cities) that the city recorded as finaled or closed with a final inspection, weighted by permits. The firm figures take each firm with 10 or more permits of the type, compute its own finished share, and report the 10th and 90th percentile across those firms and how many fall under 70%. "Gone quiet" is a firm with 5 or more permits in the three-year window and none in the last twelve months. The permit expiry rule is quoted from Seattle SDCI, read 21 October 2026.
Numbers come from City of Seattle (SDCI) building, trade and electrical permits on single-family and duplex homes (the city's open-data exports); City of Minneapolis construction permits (CCS); City of Saint Paul approved building permits; Sacramento County building permits on single-family, duplex and townhouse homes in the unincorporated county (the County's Accela permit layer); City of Miami building permits (since 2014); City & County of Honolulu building permits (DPP); San Francisco DBI building permits on one- and two-family homes, with the contractor from the city's permit contacts file; City of Columbus Building & Zoning Services permits on 1-, 2- and 3-family homes (the city's Accela permit layer), data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- What percentage of building permits get a final inspection?
Across a city and trade, most do: 97.5% of Miami roofing permits a year or more old reached a final, 94.6% of Seattle electrical permits, 75.5% of Minneapolis remodel permits and 76.2% of Saint Paul roofing permits. Remodels and solar finish less often than small trade jobs.
- What is a good completion rate for a contractor?
One at or above the middle of its own city and trade. Among Seattle electricians with 10 or more permits, the bottom tenth finished 85.1% or less and the top tenth 99.0% or more; among Minneapolis remodelers the same range was 56.1% to 90.9%. Compare a firm to its own city's spread, not to a national number.
- How many permits should a contractor have?
Enough to judge: we only compute a finished-share benchmark for firms with 10 or more permits of a type. Seattle had 254 electrical firms at that level and Minneapolis 355 roofing firms. A firm with one or two permits is not a bad firm, just one without a record to read; 60.2% of Columbus remodel firms filed exactly one.
- How can I check if a contractor finished previous jobs?
Look its permits up on the city's permit search, or on our compare page for your city and trade, and count how many show a final inspection. Then ask about the open ones, and ask for two addresses of finished jobs like yours.
- What counts as a contractor's evidence of work?
The strongest is the public permit record: the job address, the date, the filed value and whether the inspector signed it off. References and photos help, but they are chosen by the contractor. A permit with a final inspection is the one piece of evidence a third party checked.
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- What does a suspended contractor license mean? The rules, and how often it shows up in permits
- Permit vs no permit: what happens if you build or remodel without one, what it costs, and how to get a permit after
- Busiest months for home projects, by city and trade (2026 data)
- How concentrated is the contractor market? Top-5 share by city and trade
- Does a new roof add home value? What Realtors, Berkeley Lab and the permit file say
- Hiring an electrician: 5 red flags and 10 questions, checked against electrical permits in 45 cities
For one city
- Building permit renewals — Seattle SDCI (accessed 2026-10-21)