How long does a home project take? Permit to final inspection, by job and city

Days from permit to final, by job

The median number of days from permit issue to final inspection, across each city's permits for the job. A dash means that city does not file the job as its own type.

Each city's Sacramento County, Cary, Cape Coral, Miami, San Diego and Saint Paul timeline page has every job type it files.

What the numbers say

The job's size sets the order; the city sets the scale. Trade permits mostly close before remodels, and remodels before additions and new homes; demolition, and Miami's electrical permits, are the exceptions. But the same job takes very different times by city: a remodel permit's usual life is 84 days in Cary and 206 in Saint Paul. Some of that is the work, and some is how quickly contractors book the final.

Days to final is not days of work. A roof replacement takes days on site, yet the usual roofing permit stayed open 128 days in Saint Paul and 19 in Sacramento County. The rest is waiting: for the inspector, for a correction, or for the contractor to call the inspection in. Seattle shows the other end of the process: it issues re-roof permits for the buildings that need one "on the same day that you apply online" (Seattle SDCI).

Not every permit closes. The days above are for permits that reached a final. In Saint Paul, 60.0% of remodel permits a year or more old had a final, against 90.2% in Sacramento County. The rest are still open or expired, and a contractor's open permits are the first thing to ask about; see what's a good completion rate for a contractor.

Time before the permit

None of the figures above include design, plan review or waiting for a contractor's calendar, because the clock starts when the permit is issued. For a small trade job the permit can be same-day, as Seattle's re-roof page says. For an addition or a new house, plan review adds weeks or months before the first day in the table. In an emergency, Elk Grove lets work start first, with the permit application due "the next working business day" (City of Elk Grove).

How long a permit lasts

Seattle says its construction permits "typically expire 18 months after the issue date"; you can renew up to 30 days before, and re-establish one that has been expired for less than a year (Seattle SDCI). Other cities set their own periods. If your job is past its city's usual figure in the table and the permit is still open, ask the contractor to book the final now, before the permit expires and has to be renewed. Our open permit guide has the steps.

See Sacramento County remodelers by finished share →

What this does not tell you

These are medians for each city's permit type. A small bathroom and a whole-house gut share the remodel type, and so do quick and slow contractors. Cities that do not split out a job (the dashes) fold it into a broader type such as plumbing or building. And the clock measures paperwork: a contractor can finish the work quickly and still leave the permit open for months.