Naperville contractor license lookup: City registration, state roofing and plumbing licenses, and the permits

Which license each job needs in Naperville

Naperville's electrical permit page says "A state-licensed electrical contractor registered with the City of Naperville must perform all electrical installations", and the registration page says the City "requires electricians working in Naperville to register as an Electrical Contractor with the city". It also says the City "no longer renews electrical licenses that were originally issued through the City", so an electrician with only an old Naperville license must test again elsewhere or through the ICC (read 23 October 2026).

For plumbing, "All plumbing contractors must include the required documentation with every building permit application involving plumbing work, even if they've registered with the City before", starting with "A copy of State Contractor's Registration" (Plumbing Permit). Under the Illinois Plumbing License Law (225 ILCS 320), IDPH "licenses plumbers, plumbing contractors, plumbers' apprentices, irrigation contractors and retired plumbers" (IDPH).

Roofs and siding: no permit, still a license

The City's Building Permits page says a permit is not needed for "vinyl, aluminum, or cement board siding, or an asphalt composite shingle roof, as long as the existing roof sheathing remains in place", but metal, wood, slate or membrane roofs and brick, stone or thin-set masonry finishes do need one. Even without a permit, "the property owner is still responsible for ensuring the installation meets required building codes and that any roofer hired to do the work is licensed by the State of Illinois." No permit means no City record of your roofer, so the IDFPR search is the whole check.

How to run the lookup in five minutes

1. Ask what the firm holds: the City electrical registration, the IDPH plumbing license and contractor registration, or the IDFPR roofing license.
2. Plumber: search IDPH's verification by last name, business name or license number. Only active licenses appear.
3. Roofer: search the IDFPR lookup by name.
4. Electrician: ask for the registration and confirm it with the City, 630-420-6100.
5. Remodeler or builder: no license exists, so look up its permits (below) and its record on our Naperville remodeler list or addition list.

How to search Naperville permit records

Naperville runs permits through its Permitting, Plans and Licensing (Civic Access) portal. The City says the portal "will provide access to the permit and approved plans" and lists the required inspections, and that a permit must be posted "at the work site where it is visible from the street". Building Permits & Inspections is at 400 S. Eagle Street, 630-420-6100. One project can carry several permits: a pool, patio and fence each need their own.

The portal is organised by permit. Ours is organised by firm, on the Naperville permit statistics page and the compare lists.

What 7,312 Naperville permits show

"Finalized within a year" uses permits a year or more old in the City's current system, for firms with at least 8 of them. New homes rarely final inside a year (14.0%; the usual one takes 672 days), so read that row as build time, not abandonment. Fences are the opposite case: a short job, yet only 45.3% finalized within a year, and among the 18 fence firms with 10 or more permits the share runs from 23.6% at the 10th percentile to 58.7% at the 90th. Ask a fence contractor who books the final inspection.

See every Naperville remodeler by permits finalized →

Red flags in Naperville

• An electrician not registered with the City, or one relying on an old Naperville-issued license the City no longer renews.
• A plumber who is not on IDPH's active list.
• A roofer with no IDFPR license, especially on a shingle re-roof where no permit will be pulled.
• "No permit needed" for a metal or slate roof, a deck, a patio or a fence. Each needs its own.
• A firm that has gone quiet: 17 electricians and 10 driveway firms with 5+ permits filed none in the last 12 months of our data.

What this lookup does not tell you

Illinois has no statewide license for general contractors, we have not matched firms to the IDPH or IDFPR files, and the City publishes no registration list, so our Naperville pages show no license status; a blank there says nothing about the firm. Shingle re-roofs and siding need no permit, so roofers barely appear in the data. South Naperville is in Will County, which publishes no property values, so about a third of permits show no home value. Permits from the City's older system (to 2024) count toward totals but are not timed. Our data stops at September 2026. Statewide rules are in How to check a contractor's license in Illinois.