Permit costs in Seattle, WA
Price the permit before you sign the job. Pick the trade and the contract value, and the estimator breaks down every line a Seattle residential permit normally carries — including the ones that show up after the application is already in.
Estimate the fee
Use the full contract amount — labor and materials. Under-declaring is the fastest way to a stop-work order.
Estimated Seattle permit cost
$249 – $624
Modelled range, not a quote from the Seattle building department.
- Building permit feeCalculated from a declared job value of $14,000.$199 – $474
- Re-inspection (if the first fails)Charged per return trip, so one missed dry-in call costs more than the permit.$50 – $150
Washington adds a state building code council fee per permit.
Method: valuation-based lines follow the stepped ICC/UBC Table 1-A progression that most residential schedules are still derived from, widened to reflect how much neighboring jurisdictions differ. Confirm the exact figure with the office listed on this page before you put it in a bid.
How Washington jurisdictions price a permit
Valuation-based. The building permit is read off a stepped table against the declared value of the work. Most tables trace back to the same ICC progression, which is why a $14,000 re-roof lands in a similar band across very different cities — and why the number climbs slower than the job value does.
Flat trade fee. Mechanical, plumbing and electrical permits are more often a fixed amount, then adjusted with adders: per fixture, per piece of equipment, per amp of service. A three-fixture bathroom and a whole-house repipe can start from the same base and finish far apart.
Everything after that. Plan review on structural scope, re-inspection charges, technology or archive fees, and on new conditioned square footage the impact fees — school, road, water, sewer — which regularly exceed the building permit by an order of magnitude.
Washington adds a state building code council fee per permit.
Who publishes the Seattle fee schedule
The office below sets the actual numbers. Their schedule is the only authoritative source — the estimate above is a planning figure.
Files with
Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI)
Online portal: Seattle Services Portal
Washington State contractor registration with L&I is required.
Seattle layers its own energy and unreinforced-masonry seismic requirements on top of the state code.
Put the fee in the proposal, not the surprise column
The cleanest way to handle a range is a stated allowance: name the estimated permit cost, state that the jurisdiction's published fee is passed through at actual, and note who files. Proposals generated in RapidPermit Systems carry that line automatically, so the conversation happens at signing instead of at invoicing.
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The forms, attachments and inspection sequence Seattle crews get held up on — one page, no account.
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Costs by trade in Seattle
Estimates only, for planning and bidding. Fee schedules change and vary by jurisdiction — confirm with the authority having jurisdiction before relying on a number.