Permits and the rough-in inspection
What happens between pulling the permit and closing the walls.
When you need a permit
New drains, new vents, moving a fixture and adding a bathroom need a permit almost everywhere in the US. Swapping a faucet or a toilet on the same flange usually does not. The building department's website lists what needs one, and many let homeowners pull a plumbing permit for their own house.
The visits
- Underground, for a slab: the trench is open, the pipe is in and holding water.
- Rough-in: walls and floors open, drains and vents in, the system filled with water or air for the test, supply lines in.
- Final: fixtures set and working.
What the inspector looks at
- The test holding, with no drop.
- Pipe sizes and the fall on horizontal runs.
- That every fixture is vented, and how.
- Fittings turned the right way for the direction of flow.
- Primer on every PVC joint (the purple ring), cleanouts where needed, nail plates over pipes in studs.
- Holes and notches in joists and studs within their limits.
A rough-in sheet on the stud answers most of these before they are asked. Find your layout.