Approval: how long until the permit is issued
The wait before issue depends on whether anyone reviews plans. Published targets, read October 2026:
| Place | Job | Published review time |
|---|---|---|
| Bellevue, WA | Electrical, mechanical or plumbing permit with no plan review | "can be issued the same day" |
| Sacramento County, CA | Rooftop solar through SolarAPP+, licensed contractor | Issued the same day |
| Austin, TX | Express (minor repair) permit / interior remodel | Typically same day / 5 business days |
| San Francisco, CA | Window replacement, same-size openings | Goal: most approved within 2 business days |
| Philadelphia, PA | Plumbing permit | Without plans, while you wait in person or usually within 5 business days online; with plans, within 20 |
| Columbus, OH | Plan review, 1–3 family projects | "approximately one week"; up to 20 business days once a reviewer is assigned |
| Austin, TX | New construction and additions | 10 business days, 7 for each update (from 1 July 2026) |
| Mesa, AZ | New house | 10 working days per review |
| Orlando, FL | New house under 7,500 sq ft | 30 business days for a complete application (Florida Statutes 553.792) |
Corrections restart part of the clock: each resubmittal gets its own review. Mesa counts its 10 working days Monday to Thursday, about two and a half calendar weeks, so a plan set that comes back twice spends about seven and a half weeks in review alone.
After issue: how long until the final inspection
This is the part our data measures: days from the day a permit was issued to the day the permit office recorded the final inspection or closeout, for permits on houses and small residential buildings. "Usual across cities" is the middle city, so a small city counts the same as a big one.
| Job | Cities | Permits behind the figures | Usual across cities (days) | Middle half of cities (days) | Fastest city (days) | Slowest city (days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roofing | 22 | 83,099 | 44 | 34–86 | Elk Grove, CA (15) | Aspen, CO (385) |
| Electrical | 39 | 242,895 | 71 | 45–124 | Medford, OR (15) | Bismarck, ND (233) |
| Solar | 31 | 83,497 | 71 | 47–103 | Bellingham, WA (22) | San Francisco, CA (349) |
| Plumbing | 37 | 154,162 | 76 | 28–126 | Sacramento County, CA (8) | Naperville, IL (360) |
| HVAC | 36 | 218,274 | 76 | 48–137 | Ames, IA (7) | New York City, NY (417) |
| Remodel | 37 | 57,836 | 175 | 98–268 | Orlando, FL (59) | Aspen, CO (463) |
| New home | 24 | 44,634 | 238 | 177–340 | Greensboro, NC (156) | Miami, FL (648) |
Put together, a trade job or re-roof with no plan review usually goes from application to closed permit in about six weeks to three months, a remodel in roughly four to nine months, and a new house in most of a year. City by city, every trade, with the slow and fast cells named: how long building permits take, city by city.
What makes it slow
- Plan review. Anything structural, new floor area or a new house goes to plan review; trade swaps and re-roofs usually do not. The table above runs from same day to 30 business days on that difference alone.
- Corrections. Each set of comments means a resubmittal and another review (7 business days per update in Austin).
- Who books the final. The finish clock stops when the office records a final. Where the contractor or owner must call for it, permits sit open after the job is done; about one in five home permits a year old is still open in the usual city (see open permits when selling a house).
- Bundled jobs. A remodel or new-home permit stays open until the whole job passes, so it runs for months by design.
How to make yours faster
- Ask your contractor which permit type the job needs. An Express or no-plans permit is often issued the same day; one extra wall can move a job into plan review.
- Submit a complete application. Orlando's 30-day clock, for example, runs from a complete application, not from the first upload.
- Answer corrections the same week. The review time is per round.
- Book the final the day the work is done, and save the passed result. If your permit is already open long past the usual time for the job, see why a permit is still open.
To check how long a particular contractor's permits take to close, open your city's compare page: every firm shows its own finished share.
Every city's permit timing page
Each page below shows, for one place, the usual days from issue to final for each kind of work, with the middle half of permits. Places marked "(unincorporated)" cover county permits outside city limits only.
What our numbers cannot tell you
The finish figures start on the issue date, so they leave out plan review and any wait before filing; the approval column is each city's published target, not a measured wait. Cities that do not record the date a permit was finished (among them Chicago, Pittsburgh and Scottsdale) are left out of the cross-city figures, and a city-and-trade figure is shown only with 200 or more permits and, where recorded, at least half of its year-old permits finished. A few files end early: Honolulu's in June 2025.
How we know this
Finish times. Kaplan-Meier median days from issue to the recorded final, inspection or closeout, per city and trade, so permits still open count as "not finished yet" instead of being dropped; the cross-city figure is the median of those city medians, and the middle half is the 25th to 75th percentile of them. "Permits behind the figures" adds up the permits in the trade in each city counted. Same rules and files as our timing study, as of 25 October 2026.
Approval times. Quoted from each city's own permit pages under Sources, read 23 and 24 October 2026; they are targets, and your wait can be longer.
Numbers come from public permit records in 57 cities, data through October 25, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Pick your city and see how fast each contractor closes permits →
Questions
- How long does it take to get a building permit approved?
From the same day to about six weeks for a house, depending on whether plans are reviewed. Bellevue, WA issues trade permits that need no plan review the same day; Austin reviews an interior remodel in 5 business days and a new house or addition in 10; Florida law gives Orlando 30 business days for a complete single-family application under 7,500 sq ft. Each round of corrections adds another review.
- How long does a permit stay open after it is issued?
Until the final inspection is recorded. In the usual city in our data, that is 44 days for a roofing permit, 71 for electrical and solar, 76 for plumbing and HVAC, 175 for a remodel and 238 for a new house. In Seattle the usual electrical permit closes 42 days after issue.
- Why does the same permit take so much longer in some cities?
Mostly because of how the office closes permits. Where one visit finals a small trade permit, the clock is short (Medford's usual electrical permit: 15 days); where someone must book the final and often doesn't, it is long (Bismarck's: 233 days). A long figure is a reason to ask who books the final, not proof that local contractors are slow.
- Can I start work before the permit is issued?
No. Work starts after issue, and starting early is charged: Cambridge, MA triples the fee and Boulder doubles it. Plan for the review time before your contractor's start date.
- How can I speed up a building permit?
Apply for the smallest permit the job allows (an Express or no-plans permit is often same day), submit a complete application so the review clock starts, answer corrections quickly because each resubmittal is a new review (7 business days per update in Austin), and book the final inspection the day the work is done.
Build your own list
Pick your city and the kind of work. Every firm with a permit on record, sorted by what you value.
Related guides
- Plumbing Permits — City of Bellevue Development Services (accessed 2026-10-23)
- Frequently Asked Questions — Sacramento County Building Permits & Inspection (accessed 2026-10-23)
- Replace your windows — San Francisco DBI (accessed 2026-10-23)
- Get a plumbing permit — City of Philadelphia (2026-10-24)
- Residential Plan Review — City of Austin Development Services (accessed 2026-10-23)
- BZS Frequently Asked Questions — City of Columbus (accessed 2026-10-23)
- Residential Construction — City of Mesa Building Permit & Plan Review (accessed 2026-10-23)
- City of Cambridge Inspectional Services Department, Building Fees (accessed 2026-10-23)
- City of Boulder, Planning and Development Services 2026 Schedule of Fees (accessed 2026-10-22)
- Building Permit Guidelines (FL 553.792) — City of Orlando (accessed 2026-10-23)