The Expert Podcast

One of the most common questions that comes up from consumers and clients is what can you do without a permit and what do you need a permit for with regard to home repairs or upgrades or remodeling. Today we're going to look at seven common types of repairs and whether or not it needs a permit, why it would need a permit, and maybe why you can get away without a permit. Those items will read through them real fast and get into each one: decks, exterior decks, sheds, a disposal or other appliances,

removing or replacing an interior wall, doing redoing your driveway, doing a roof project, or a garage door opener. In addition, we're going to talk about electrical and plumbing because those come up a lot within all these elements and how you can work with a permit, without a permit, and maybe as a homeowner how you can do something without having to hire a licensed contractor. So let's take a look at these.

As always, put your comments below so we get some feedback on what your thoughts are and remember these answers sometimes are different in different jurisdictions. You know, don't take any one person's word for it. Make sure you get good legal advice if you're going to do something and don't rely on the video to tell you what you need a permit for. Check your own jurisdiction of what's required in your area.

So the first and one of the most common types of projects people do on their house is putting on a deck on your house. And does that need a permit? Well, in most jurisdictions—county, city, depending on where you're located—a ground level deck smaller than a certain size does not need a permit for you to do yourself.

What triggers a permit in many areas is the height of the deck. If the deck is above sometimes 30 inches, 36 inches, some places it's 2 feet (24 inches), you need to have a permit. And why is that? Well, the reason is if you're doing a deck without a permit and you're doing it yourself as a homeowner and if you build it wrong and it collapses, well, if it's at ground level or foot tall it's probably not going to hurt anybody that bad.

If it's three feet or higher and that deck falls and people are on it, somebody could get hurt. And there are things you can do when you're building a deck. There could be serious problems that don't look like you're doing anything wrong but if you do attachments incorrectly, use the wrong kind of fasteners that rust out, or use the wrong kind of joist hangers, that deck could fail a year, two, five years down the road and somebody can get hurt pretty bad.

Another trigger for decks in many cases has to do with how it's attached. If it's a ground level floating deck meaning it's not attached to the house, then you're fine. If you attach it to the house, many times you need a permit because that attachment needs to go on a ledger board with flashing so water doesn't get into your house envelope.

Look, you have siding on your house and that siding helps protect what's behind it—the sheathing, the insulation, the interior of your house. And if you attach a deck incorrectly, you could introduce moisture and water into the boundary envelope of your house

and destroy the interior of your house. You can get mold. It can get into even floors below. So that's one of the other triggers that sometimes is an issue. If it's attached to your house, you need a permit.

Another issue is the size. If the deck is bigger than 400 or 500 square feet, you might need a permit. The other reason for having a permit if it's higher is because above a certain height you need a railing. If you have a deck above two feet, you don't want it to be open on the end. Somebody could just fall off and get hurt.

So those are the triggers. Those are the things to look into and make sure that even if you are allowed to do a deck without a permit, that you get some good advice. You know, watch several YouTube videos. Make sure you're using pressure treated lumber. Make sure you have it fixed to the ground properly so that it's not going to sink, it's not going to get rot, mildew, right? It's not going to be all crooked. You want it to be nice anyways, even if you don't have a permit.

Number two is a shed. It's kind of related to a deck. There's a lot of triggers that are similar in most jurisdictions. A shed does not need a permit if it meets certain criteria. Some places it's the size—there's many areas where there's a trigger size: 150 square feet, 200 square feet, some places it's 100 square feet.

If you build a small deck and it's below a certain height, sometimes 12 or 15 feet, you don't need a permit. You still have to abide by the land use conditions meaning that it has to have a certain setback. It can't be right up against your property line. You might need five or ten feet away from a property line. You might need to be five or ten feet away from your existing structure.

You might need to have a setback away from existing utility lines like where the sewer line goes, the septic system is, maybe your electrical. You can't put it above where the electrical comes into your house. You still have to abide by those.

Even if you don't need a permit, you probably have conditions you have to abide by. Some parts of the country you can't build the shed in front of your house, between the house and the street. You have to build it behind the house. So be aware of what your criteria are.

Again, even if you don't need a permit, you want to do it correctly. You want to have it properly affixed to the ground so if a wind storm comes, it's not going to tip over your shed or blow it into your neighbor's yard or tip over your fence. Those are a lot of the trigger terms.

Now remember as soon as you start doing something with that shed with electrical or plumbing or anything that is a little more advanced, that's probably going to trigger needing a permit because electrical almost always needs a permit.

What some people do to get around that is if you build a small shed, power it with solar and LED lights. We have a client that put a nice shed in their yard. We did some of the footings and construction for them. They did a lot of finish work and they didn't want to pull electrical permit.

So what they did was they put three deep cycle car batteries, two solar panels on the roof, and a bunch of LED lights, have a regular light switch. It's all low power, didn't need a permit and it lights them up fine. They don't have an outlet to plug in a bandsaw but at least they have lights and a little fan and it makes it more comfortable.

The third one is something that people run into quite a bit and that's kitchen appliances. Look, if you buy a dishwasher or a clothes washer or an oven or stove, most of the time you don't need a permit because it just plugs in.

Most dishwashers have a regular standard plug that plugs into a wall outlet. Anything where you don't have to open up electrical boxes and do wiring most of the time doesn't need a permit.

A dishwasher is kind of a gray area in some places because you do have to plumb in water. Now most of the time the water line screws on like a hose so you don't have to open up pipes or cut pipes and the drain from your dishwasher plumbs in with a little clamp onto your drain line for your sink so technically does not

need a permit because you're not breaking open or opening up any water or sewer pipes. Same thing with a clothes washer. Clothes washer plugs in and has a drain line that just dumps into an open drain and it has a screw-on type valve water feed.

Now a disposal is a little bit different. A disposal seems like it would be simpler because it's much smaller. Well, why do I need a permit for that if I don't need one for a dishwasher? Well, here's the problem with the disposal. When you install a disposal into your kitchen,

that is not a plug-in appliance. It has two bare wires hanging out the end that you have to wire into an electrical box because it's switched. You have a switch somewhere in addition. You're breaking open the sewer system, your drain system, your p-trap to put that disposal in.

Now people do this all the time without a permit but technically in most jurisdictions you probably need a permit to do this. If you don't get a permit, the SWAT team's probably not going to swoop in and lock down your house, red tag your

house but be aware that there's a reason for it. Reason number one is you're dealing with electrical. If you wire it incorrectly it's a fire hazard or a shock hazard. If that wiring is not done right and you touch your metal sink or your valve for your sink and there's electricity going to it, you can get shocked. Electricity is no joke.

You're also opening up your main drain to your sink where you can have sewer gases that come into the house or back up and that could be a health hazard. So even though you don't need a permit

even though you might be able to get away with it, it might be a good idea to at least look into what you're doing to make sure it's done correctly. Plus it's a pain in the neck to put it in to get it aligned right and attached to the bottom of the sink. It's not an easy job.

What about a wall, an interior wall of a house? Can you remove one? Can you add one? Well, it's a gray area in most jurisdictions. A non-structural partition wall technically doesn't need a permit as long as you're not changing the function

and structure of the house. However, you want to make sure if you're demoing a wall, removing a wall, that it's not load bearing. If it's a true partition wall that's just there without holding up the ceiling or the second floor, you're probably going to be okay without a permit.

But if you remove a structural wall, you absolutely need a permit because you have to add beams, headers, sometimes additional posts, footings, and all kinds of other things. Otherwise the house can fall down.

If you're adding a wall, a non-structural wall, again probably no permit. If you're adding a structural wall or moving a load bearing wall, then yes you need a permit.

Driveways: can you repave your driveway or add a driveway without a permit? It depends. Most jurisdictions consider repaving your driveway or putting a new driveway as minor work.

The one trigger is if you add more impervious surface in your property and if the jurisdiction has stormwater or water runoff controls, they may require permits. This is most common in new subdivisions or in places with environmental regulations.

If you add a driveway that's going to change where water drains, that's a problem. If you put a driveway in that blocks drainage ditches or changes flow to your neighbor's property, that might be a permit issue.

For most homeowners, repaving the driveway or replacing your driveway in kind does not require a permit. Adding a new driveway, especially a big one, might trigger a permit.

Roof projects: in many areas, roof replacements that replace shingles with shingles generally do not need a permit.

However, if you change the structure of the roof, add dormers, or add significant changes, then yes, a permit is needed. Also if you have to replace structural elements like rafters or sheathing or add insulation in a way that requires inspection, then a permit might be needed.

Garage door openers: installing a garage door opener is usually a minor electrical project. If it only plugs into a regular outlet, you probably don't need a permit.

If you have to run new electrical circuits or open up electrical panels, then yes, a permit might be required.

Electrical and plumbing: these are always tricky because local codes often require permits for electrical and plumbing work. Small repairs might be allowed without permits.

Most jurisdictions require permits for electrical wiring, new circuits, major plumbing repairs, or adding plumbing fixtures.

If you are a homeowner doing minor repairs, you may be allowed to do some work without a permit, but be very cautious.

Always check local codes before doing electrical or plumbing work.