For many building projects, permit services are essential to be able to proceed in a timely fashion. Permit services must be budgeted into any building expense, as getting a permit for a contractor can cost as much as $400. For filing a project, costs can be as much as $3000 or even more, ranging up to $3,500. However, permit services do not always need to have such potentially prohibitive costs. They can cost as little as $100, but pricing tends to depend on locality and size as well as the value and type of work that is intended to be completed. Permit services can include permit expediting services, often involving the work of a permit expeditor. This may tend to cost more, but it can help to move the project along more quickly.
Permit services are particularly important for residential building. A residential building permit is necessary more often than it is not, as nearly 100% (around 98%) of all privately owned residential type buildings are built in places that issue permits. As up to 40% of the people in the United States are looking into home renovations, being knowledgeable about permit services as well as residential building permits is very important. For example, many building codes require air quality to be a certain standard, as the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) tells us that we spend at least 90% of our lives inside some type of building. Therefore, it’s important for the air that we breathe inside of them to be as high quality as possible.
There are a few common types of renovations when it comes to privately owned residential buildings. First, room renovations were and are by far the most common type of renovations done by homeowners. However, the installation of solar panels on private residential buildings has become a more and more popular option in the past few years. In fact, the installation of one or more solar panels has increased by nearly 500% in the last five years alone. One solar panel can power an entire home, but it must be at least 600 square feet in size in order to provide an effective amount of power and be considered a power source that contributes a sizable amount of energy.
Building or renovating a residential home is an exciting process, but it requires builders, contractors, and owners to be knowledgeable about permit services.