Permit checklist builder
Permit desks reject on paperwork far more often than on plumbing. The scope decides which drawings and calculations they expect and which inspections you have to book, and both lists are predictable once you know the scope. Tick what the job is and take the printed list to the counter.
Documents to submit
- Permit application, completed
- Contractor licence and registration on file with the jurisdiction
- Certificate of insurance
- Job valuation or fixture count for the fee schedule
- Owner authorisation where the applicant is not the owner
- Appliance make, model and input rating
- Location and clearances
- T&P discharge routing
- Expansion control device and its pre-charge
Inspections to schedule
- Final — relief discharge, seismic strapping where required, combustion air
Your own notes
What the plan checker is actually looking for
On a residential plumbing permit the reviewer wants three things they can check against a table: sizes with the calculation behind them, vent arrangement with the trap arm lengths written on it, and materials named to a standard. A riser diagram with sizes and a fixture unit schedule answers most of the first two on one sheet.
What slows a review down is a drawing that shows intent without numbers. Put the fixture unit totals and the trap arm lengths on the face of the drawing and the questions stop.
Ask two questions at the counter
Inspections are a sequence, not a list
Underground before backfill. Rough before anything is covered. Final before the fixtures are used. Cover work that has not been inspected and the remedy is to open it again at your cost — no jurisdiction accepts photographs in place of an inspection, and none of them make an exception because the drywall is already up.
Book the rough with slack in it. A failed rough that has to be re-inspected costs a day, and days on a plumbing rough are days the framer, the electrician and the drywall crew are all waiting.
Code notes
IPC Ch. 1 The administrative chapter is where permit requirements, exemptions and inspection authority live — and it is the chapter jurisdictions amend most heavily. Two towns on the same code edition can have completely different submittal requirements. Always confirm with the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) before you print the drawings.