Boston, MA
Boston plumbing permit cost
A Boston plumbing permit is $20.00 plus $5.00 for each fixture — the sheet's entire plumbing row
and the City's page restates it as "$20, plus $5 per fixture". There is no allowance, no ceiling and no cost ladder behind it: five fixtures come to $45.00, eight to $60.00, and a permit whose fixture count has not been supplied still carries the $20.00 application fee. Only a licensed contractor may apply, and the contractor must be the one doing the work.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing permit — application fee, $20.00Permit fee | $20.00 flat fee | Every permit of this type | — |
| Plumbing permit — $5.00 per fixturePermit fee | $5.00 per fixture | Each fixture on the permit | — |
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
Re-plumbing a first-floor bathroom on one permit — tub, lavatory, toilet, dishwasher and kitchen sink, five fixtures in all.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Fixtures | 5 |
Example total
$45.00
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 2Rules considered 2
| Component | How it is calculated | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Plumbing permit — application fee, $20.00Permit feeISD's sheet: "Plumbing: $20.00 primary fee plus $5.00 each fixture." boston.gov: "There is a $20 application fee plus $5 for each fixture, such as toilets and sinks." This is the primary fee, charged for every plumbing permit including one whose fixture count the reader has not supplied; the fixture row is charged beside it.Show the working
| $20.00 flat fee | $20.00 |
Plumbing permit — $5.00 per fixturePermit feeISD's sheet, and the City's page: "$5.00 each fixture" / "$5 for each fixture, such as toilets and sinks". Charged on the fixture count with no allowance and no ceiling, so five fixtures are $25.00 beside the $20.00 application fee and eight are $40.00. The count is the plumbing namespace's own `fixtures`, so an electrical device count on the same calculator cannot be billed as a fixture here.Show the working
| $5.00 per fixture | $25.00 |
| Total | $45.00 |
Assumptions
- Calculated from 2 fee rules in effect on 2026-09-28.
- Amounts are rounded to the nearest cent, once, at the end of each component.
The sheet's plumbing row is two numbers: a $20.00 primary fee and $5.00 for each fixture. Five fixtures are $25.00 of rate, so the permit is $45.00.
There is no allowance and no ceiling to read: the sixth fixture costs another $5.00, so eight fixtures are $20.00 plus $40.00, or $60.00, and a permit with no count supplied carries the $20.00 alone. The fee does not touch a valuation at all — plumbing is the one of these three pages where the cost of the work is never an input.
Cambridge, a few miles west, prices the same five fixtures differently: $50.00 for up to five and $5.00 for each one after them, which is $50.00 for this job against Boston's $45.00. Both readings are asserted in their cities' tests.
What is different in Boston
The count is the whole fee. ISD's sheet prints one line — "Plumbing: $20.00 primary fee plus $5.00 each fixture" — and boston.gov gives it examples, "such as toilets and sinks": a five-fixture bathroom is $20.00 plus $25.00, or $45.00, and an eight-fixture rough-in is $20.00 plus $40.00, or $60.00. Every fixture is charged individually from the first one, which is the opposite of the block a neighbouring city prices — Cambridge charges $50.00 for up to five fixtures and $5.00 for each one after them — and both are asserted in their own tests.
Nothing else rides on this row. Sprinkler work is a separate line on the same sheet at $20.00 plus $1.00 a head, gasfitting another at $20.00 plus $5.00 an appliance meter, and the only inspection price the sheet prints is the Off Hour Inspection at $250.00, which is after-hours attendance rather than a re-inspection — so no re-inspection fee and no sprinkler head is charged on this page.
As with the rest of Boston's schedule, no plan review percentage, no technology fee and no state surcharge exists to add: searches of the sheet and the permit pages come back empty, and Massachusetts levies nothing of its own on a local permit. Fees are due upfront, work must start within six months, and starting early doubles the fee under the sheet's DOUBLE FEE.
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 is ISD's plumbing row — a $20.00 application fee and $5.00 a fixture. It excludes:
- Sprinkler and gasfitting work, which the same sheet prices on their own rows: sprinkler at $20.00 plus $1.00 a head, and gasfitting at $20.00 plus $5.00 an appliance meter with $.09 per 1,000 BTU for boilers and furnaces, $50.00 for each furnace, and the stored-gas and propane rows. Fire alarm and sprinkler permitting is largely Fire Prevention's, and the permitting hub links there.
- Re-inspection and after-hours fees. The sheet's only inspection price is the Off Hour Inspection at $250.00 (with the Off Hour Application at $100.00 an event); it prints no plumbing re-inspection fee at all, so none is invented here.
- The DOUBLE FEE for work started without a permit or on an undervalued estimate — a doubling rather than a charge, printed in capitals on the sheet.
- Plan review, technology and state surcharges — none exist in this jurisdiction's text, on the sheet or on the permit page.
- Water and sewer charges from the City, which are utility charges rather than permit fees, and other agencies' approvals — fire protection plans, and Parks and Recreation for work within 100 feet of a park or parkway.
- Contractor licensing, which is a requirement rather than a fee: plumbing permits are available to licensed contractors only.
What you need before applying
- Plumbing permits are available to licensed contractors onlyRequired
The plumbing page states it three ways: "Plumbing permits are available to licensed contractors only", "The permit applicant must be the contractor performing the work", and "If you're a homeowner, you must hire a licensed contractor to apply for the permit and complete the work". The fixture count that sets the fee is therefore always filed by the trade that does the work.
- A final inspection is called for, and other agencies' approvals ride alongRequired
The permit pages describe the loop an application runs — review by planning and zoning, any documentation or sign-off from other agencies uploaded to the portal, issuance, then inspection — and the City recommends verifying that the permit record shows closed once the inspection passes with no further work required. A fire protection plan and narrative are required where the project has fire protection, and Parks and Recreation approval is required for work within 100 feet of a park or parkway. The only inspection price on ISD's sheet is the Off Hour Inspection at $250.00, which is after-hours attendance rather than a re-inspection, so no re-inspection fee is charged here.
Common questions
How much is a plumbing permit in Boston?
$20.00 plus $5.00 for each fixture — that is the whole row. Five fixtures are $45.00, eight are $60.00, and a permit with no fixture count supplied still carries the $20.00 application fee. There is no cost ladder, no allowance and no ceiling, and no plan review or technology fee to add.
What counts as a fixture?
The fixtures the plumbing work installs — the City's own examples are "toilets and sinks", and the sheet charges each one at $5.00 from the first. The count is the entire variable part of the fee, which is why the page asks for fixtures rather than for a valuation: plumbing is the one of Boston's three permits where the cost of the work is never an input.
Do I need a licensed contractor for a plumbing permit?
Yes. The permit page states "Plumbing permits are available to licensed contractors only" and "The permit applicant must be the contractor performing the work"; a homeowner "must hire a licensed contractor to apply for the permit and complete the work". The same rule applies to electrical permits.
Does this fee cover sprinklers or gas work?
No. ISD's sheet prices those on their own rows — sprinkler at $20.00 plus $1.00 a head, and gasfitting at $20.00 plus $5.00 an appliance meter, $.09 per 1,000 BTU for boilers and furnaces, $50.00 for each furnace and the stored-gas and propane rows — and fire alarm and sprinkler permitting is largely Fire Prevention's, whose forms the permitting hub links to. This page prices the plumbing row only.
When is the fee paid, and how long do I have to start?
Upfront: both permit pages say all fees are due when you file, online in the portal or in person at 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, 5th Floor. Work must start within six months of issuance, with a possible 180-day extension for some project types, and starting before the permit issues is the sheet's DOUBLE FEE — ISD "may: charge double the permit cost".
Source and verification
The documents behind every figure on this page, with the dates that make them checkable.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
ISD — Building Division Permit Fees (Rev. 2021), the two-page sheet every figure here comes from
Read 2026-09-25 as a two-page PDF of 263,477 bytes served from boston.gov's own file store, footed on both pages with the department's block: Inspectional Services Department, 1010 Massachusetts Ave. (5th Floor) Boston, MA 02118, www.boston.gov/ISD, (617) 635-5300, Rev. 2021. The two columns were extracted twice, because they are laid out as separate text blocks: pdftotext's table-preserving mode mispairs them — Plumbing picks up the Off Hour Inspection amount and Use of Premises picks up Sprinkler's rate — while the reading-order mode emits each row's cells together and pairs them correctly, and that is the transcription this site uses. Four rows are independently confirmed by the City's live permit pages, where each prints the same two numbers.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-25: Fees as "$20, plus $5 per fixture", stated again as "There is a $20 application fee plus $5 for each fixture, such as toilets and sinks" — the sheet's plumbing row in the City's own web words, with a worked pair of numbers to check it against. The page also carries the licence rule the sheet does not: "Plumbing permits are available to licensed contractors only", "The permit applicant must be the contractor performing the work", and a homeowner "must hire a licensed contractor to apply for the permit and complete the work".
- City websiteCityPrimary source
ISD — Short-Form Permit (minor alterations)
Read 2026-09-25 for the City's definition and its restatement of the fee: "A Short-Form Permit covers minor alterations that don't change a building's structure or use", with Fees as "$20, plus $10 per $1,000 of estimated cost" and again in prose as "There is a $20 application fee and $10 per every $1,000 of the work estimate". The page also lists what an application carries — a scope of work naming materials, floors and rooms, an estimated total project cost entered without special characters, design plans stamped by a Massachusetts registered engineer or architect, and a nominal fee letter where the work does not follow the intended zoning — and states that all fees are due upfront and that starting work early may mean ISD charges double the permit cost.
Verification
Last verified against the official source in Sep 2026.