Sacramento, CA
Sacramento plumbing permit cost
A City of Sacramento plumbing permit is a flat amount for a named scope.
One $105 residential minor plumbing permit covers one or more of a set of listed scopes — a sewer service, a water service, a drain line, a water supply line, a gas service, a single kitchen or bathroom fixture, or a toilet replacement. A water heater installed, replaced or moved is $75. The same permit covers the gas work, which is why no separate gas permit appears here.
How this fee is calculated
These are the components the schedule defines for this permit, as they applied on 2026-09-28. A component only applies to your project if its conditions match — read that column before assuming a figure. Want a figure for your own project? Estimate this fee with the permit fee calculator.
| Component | Formula | Applies when | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential minor plumbing repair or replacement workPermit fee | $105.00 flat fee | plumbing item is minor residential | — |
| Water heater, new installation, replacement or movePermit fee | $75.00 flat fee | plumbing item is water heater | — |
A real permit fee is these components added together. The department’s final calculation is the one that applies — this is the schedule it will be based on.
A worked example
Follow the arithmetic by hand. Every line is produced by the engine from the rules above, so the total cannot drift away from the schedule behind it.
Worked example
A house in the City of Sacramento replacing a portion of its sewer service, repairing the domestic water service line, and replacing a toilet — permitted as one residential minor plumbing permit.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Occupancy class | Residential |
| Type of work | Replacement |
| Plumbing item | minor_residential |
Example total
$105.00
An estimate, not an official fee. It is calculated from the published fee schedule as it applied on 2026-09-28. The permit office’s own calculation is the one that applies, and your project may fall under rules this schedule does not describe.
Fee schedule as of 2026-09-28Rules applied 1Rules considered 2
| Component | How it is calculated | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Residential minor plumbing repair or replacement workPermit feeTable B.1: "Residential Minor Plumbing Repair or Replacement Work — $105", covering one or more of "sewer service, water service, drain line, water supply, gas service, kitchen — single fixture, bathroom — single fixture, toilet replacement". The sheet adds: "If more than one bathroom or one kitchen appliance or fixture repair is needed, use the kitchen or bathroom remodel section above, or calculate based on value. The only exception is that one or more toilets may be replaced in addition to another bathroom fixture."Show the working
| $105.00 flat fee | $105.00 |
| Total | $105.00 |
Fees that do not apply here
Listed so you can see what was considered and left out, rather than wondering whether something is missing. A rule can also be left out because it is not published for this permit at all, and that is stated where it matters.
- Water heater, new installation, replacement or move — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
Assumptions
- Calculated from 1 fee rule in effect on 2026-09-28.
- Amounts are rounded to the nearest cent, once, at the end of each component.
One permit, $105.00. The sheet is explicit that a permit under this category may authorise one or more of its listed scopes, and all three of these are on the list — the sewer service, the water service line, and toilet replacement, which it states as "one or more". The flat amount is the whole fee, and the gas service on the same list would not have added anything either.
Two variations show what moves the number. A water heater on its own is $75.00, for a new installation, a replacement or a move, and it is a separate permit from the minor plumbing scope rather than an item inside it — so a job doing both the re-pipe and the water heater pays $180.00. Two bathroom fixtures on the same job is not this permit at all: the sheet sends it to the $320.00 non-structural bathroom remodel or to a fee calculated from the project's valuation, which is the difference between $105.00 and several hundred dollars.
What is different in Sacramento
The $105 row is generous, and its limit is the thing to read carefully. Table B.1 lists the scopes one permit under this category may authorise — "replacement of portions of a residential sewer service from the city cleanout or the total replacement of a sewer service, and/or replacement or repair of a domestic water service line connecting the city valve to the structure, and/or replacement or repair of domestic water supply lines (re-pipe house), and/or replacement or repair of domestic drain line (re-pipe wastewater line), and/or replacement or repair of existing gas line service (or new leg), and/or single appliance or a plumbing fixture repair or replacement in the kitchen, and/or single appliance or a plumbing fixture repair or replacement in the bathroom, and/or toilet replacement (one or more)."
The limit is printed in the sheet's own words: "If more than one bathroom or one kitchen appliance or fixture repair is needed, use the kitchen or bathroom remodel section above, or calculate based on value. The only exception is that one or more toilets may be replaced in addition to another bathroom fixture, such as a shower valve." So a whole-house re-pipe with one bathroom fixture replaced is one $105 permit, while two bathroom fixtures on the same job are not this permit at all — they are a $320 non-structural bathroom remodel, or a fee calculated from the project's valuation. That is the single most expensive misreading available on this row, and it is why the page states it rather than only the price.
The water heater row is the other one most readers need. It is $75 for "new installation, replacement or move" — the last of which matters, because relocating a water heater is not a like-for-like swap. On the commercial side the sheet prices a like-for-like replacement at the same $75 and sends a commercial solar water heater to "a standard commercial remodel permit". A water heater is also the one plumbing row priced independently of the minor-plumbing scope, so a job doing both pays both.
What this figure does not include
Impact fees, utility connections and other departments’ permits are the usual omissions, and in some jurisdictions they are larger than the permit fee itself.
Not included in these figures
This estimate is Table B.1's residential minor plumbing scope and its water heater row. It excludes:
- The $320 non-structural bathroom remodel and the $425 non-structural kitchen remodel, which is where the sheet sends a job with more than one fixture; the building page prices them.
- The building permit on the same project, and the electrical and mechanical permits, none of which is included here; mechanical work is not priced anywhere on this site.
- Commercial plumbing work beyond the like-for-like water heater row. The flat scopes in Table B.1 are the residential ones, and a commercial project is priced from project value or under the commercial sections of the sheet.
- Sewer, water and drainage development fees and meter charges, which belong to the City's Utilities department and are impact and connection charges rather than plumbing permit fees. A reader will see them on the same invoice, which is the reason they are named.
- The City's water supply test, water meter and temporary construction water charges.
- Plan review where the City requires it, and the Technology Surcharge of 10% of the plan review and permit fees, for the same reason as on the building page.
What you need before applying
- A second fixture moves a plumbing job out of the $105 minor scopeRequired
Table B.1 prices "Residential Minor Plumbing Repair or Replacement Work — $105" and then states the limit on it: "If more than one bathroom or one kitchen appliance or fixture repair is needed, use the kitchen or bathroom remodel section above, or calculate based on value. The only exception is that one or more toilets may be replaced in addition to another bathroom fixture, such as a shower valve."
Common questions
How much does a plumbing permit cost in Sacramento?
A flat $105 for "Residential Minor Plumbing Repair or Replacement Work", and $75 for a water heater installed, replaced or moved. The $105 permit is not one item of work — the sheet prints a list of scopes it covers, from a sewer service and a water supply re-pipe through a gas line and a single kitchen or bathroom fixture to toilet replacement.
Table B.1, Residential Minor Plumbing Repair or Replacement Work
Can I do several plumbing items on one $105 permit?
Yes, if they are on the sheet's list: "Permits issued under this category may authorize one or more of these scopes of work under one permit." A sewer service replacement, a domestic water service line repair, a whole-house re-pipe, a drain line, a gas line and a single bathroom fixture all sit inside the one amount.
Table B.1, Residential Minor Plumbing Repair or Replacement Work
When does a plumbing job stop being a minor permit?
When more than one bathroom or kitchen fixture is repaired or replaced, in the sheet's own words: "If more than one bathroom or one kitchen appliance or fixture repair is needed, use the kitchen or bathroom remodel section above, or calculate based on value. The only exception is that one or more toilets may be replaced in addition to another bathroom fixture, such as a shower valve." So any number of toilets plus one other fixture stays at $105; two other fixtures do not.
Table B.1, Residential Minor Plumbing Repair or Replacement Work
Does moving a water heater cost more than replacing one?
No — the sheet prices "Water heater (new installation, replacement or move)" at the same $75. It does mark it as a separate permit from the minor plumbing scope, so a job replacing a water heater and re-piping a house pays $180.00 rather than $105.00.
Table B.1, Water heater
Is the gas work on a separate permit?
No. Gas service and a new gas line leg are both on the minor plumbing permit's list of scopes, and the sheet's $107 safety inspection row is explicitly for an "inspection of an electrical system or gas piping system … prior to reactivation of SMUD connection or PG&E gas supply" — so gas fittings appear on the plumbing side of the schedule rather than on a permit of their own.
Table B.1, Residential Minor Plumbing Repair or Replacement Work and Safety Inspection
Source and verification
The documents behind every figure on this page, with the dates that make them checkable.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-24. The document is the attachment the City's fee record for "Building Permit Fee" (fee 28 in its searchable listing) publishes: "Building-Permit-Fee-Tables-A-and-B.1_2025-0719.pdf", 1,341,269 bytes, sha256 beginning e1de2a29ae12011e. Table A carries the header "TABLE A — Effective July 20, 2020*" with a footer "Revised July 19, 2025", and Table B.1 is headed "Effective July 19, 2025"; the schedule is therefore recorded as effective 2025-07-19. Extracted in three `pdftotext` modes, because the first pass through Table A mis-paired the Commercial and Residential columns by one row for part of the page and produced a ladder in which the residential column ran ahead of the commercial one — the row-by-row mode is the one whose every bracket reproduces the document's own arithmetic, and it is the one modelled.
Verification
Last verified against the official source in Sep 2026.