City of Bismarck — Community Development Department, Building Inspections Division
- Phone
- 701-355-1465
North Dakota
Bismarck, ND permit fees and requirements
Bismarck prices construction on one ladder printed on both building sheets — eight bands on the total cost of job
from $40.00 flat to $3,408.45 plus $2.20 for each additional $1,000 — that prorates every fraction because neither sheet prints the round-up phrase. The sheets differ in one printed price: an unconditional 20% review fee on commercial permits the residential sheet never prints. Beside the ladder sit a trade sheet of flat rows, a four-band plumbing ladder, and electrical priced half by the City ($25.00) and half by the state board's job-cost bands.
Permit costs we have worked out
Each page shows the fee components, the formula the jurisdiction uses, and a worked example you can follow by hand.
Estimate your potential Bismarck permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Bismarck building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Bismarck electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Bismarck plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Bismarck
Two sheets that agree. The residential sheet ("Last Revised 1/01/25") and the commercial sheet ("Last Revised 1/10/2018") print eight bands that are numerically identical — same bases, same rates — so this jurisdiction models one ladder answering both classes rather than two rule sets that must agree to stay honest; a test charges each class at several valuations to keep them identical. The class switch does exactly one job the sheets actually differ on: "A Review Fee of 20% of the permit fee will be added to all Commercial Building Permits" is printed on the commercial sheet alone, and its word "all" leaves it unconditional — no plan-review fact gates it, because the sheet does not condition it.
Where Fargo's sheets print "or fraction thereof" in every band, Bismarck's never do, and the reading follows the phrase: every band prorates. $2,500 of job cost is $67.75 plus $500's share of the $8.40 rate — $4.20, for $71.95 — where a whole-thousand reading would be $76.15. The ladder was built to close and it closes at all seven seams: $40.00 + 15 × $1.85 is exactly $67.75 at $2,000, and the chain runs through $260.95, $413.45, $623.45, $1,983.45 and $3,408.45 with each closing figure the next band's printed base. Two typos are read as the figure the arithmetic confirms and recorded: the residential copy's "$50,0001.00" for $50,001.00, and the commercial copy's "$$4.20" doubled dollar sign.
One disagreement is kept rather than resolved: the Permit Fees hub still says "Permit Fees Effective January 1, 2020" while its own residential anchor points at the 2025 sheet — the dated documents win for their own figures, and the stale sentence is recorded beside them, exactly as Buffalo's hub date is. Electrical is split between two governments: the City's trade sheet charges a flat $25.00 permit, and the North Dakota State Electrical Board charges the inspection fee on the job cost, effective July 1, 2024 — a state fee, labeled as one in the breakdown.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Three permits, two measures — and one half of a third that belongs to the state.
Building: the total cost of job. Both sheets feed the same eight-band ladder. The residential sheet says how its number is produced — new construction from the area table's per-square-foot rates (1st Floor $165.67, 2nd Floor $79.50, Garage $25.00 and the rest), alterations from "the construction value based on the total bid amount of the project" — and the commercial sheet prices its own "TOTAL COST OF JOB". The ladder prorates: no band prints the round-up phrase, so a fraction of a $1,000 step is charged as the fraction it is. This site takes the valuation as its input; the area-times-rate derivation is the applicant's side of the exchange.
Plumbing: the same measure, its own four bands. $40.00 flat to $2,000, then $1.65, $1.10 and $0.60 per $1,000 over bases of $40.00, $69.70 and $157.70 — the same shape as the building ladder with plumbing's own figures, prorated the same way, closing at $20,000 and $100,000.
Electrical: the contract cost, billed by the state. NDSEB's basis is "the total amount of the contract or total cost to the owner, including extras", less the four exclusions the board names. The first band charges $50.00 and 2% of the balance above $500 to $20,000; above that, $440.00 and one tenth of one percent. The state table prints no round-up phrase either, so both rates are prorated — and the City's own $25.00 permit reads no cost at all.
Who to contact
The office that issues the permit, with the details we have verified. Confirm current hours before travelling.
What these fees do not include
The list is not a disclaimer: on a new house the fees left out can outweigh the permit fee several times over. Every entry here is stated on the permit page as well.
Not included in our estimates
These figures are Bismarck's own building, electrical and plumbing permit fees. They are not a project cost, and they exclude:
- Mechanical/HVAC permits. The trade sheet prices them by a ladder printed with figures identical to plumbing's; it is a separate permit quoted on this site's pages rather than attached to a mechanical page this site does not publish, so no mechanical figure enters any total here.
- The area-table derivation. The residential sheet's per-square-foot rates produce the valuation the ladder reads; taking off area and rate to reach that number is the applicant's calculation, quoted on the page rather than re-run.
- The hub's "Effective January 1, 2020" sentence. Contradicted by the 2025 residential sheet its own anchor links — recorded rather than followed, so a reader who lands on the hub first knows why the dates disagree.
- NDSEB's exclusions, hourly special services and correction-order charge. The four cost exclusions belong to the job-cost figure the board bills against; the $50.00-per-hour special services and the $50.00 correction-order administration charge are quoted beside the bands rather than charged by them.
- License, rental and administrative charges outside the permit sheets — not permitting, and not charged.
- The application fee that does not exist. Neither sheet prints one; nothing is missing from a total here for lack of one.
Official sources for this jurisdiction
The documents these figures are transcribed from. Where a source contradicts itself we keep both readings and say so on the permit page.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-25 as the Division's own one-page PDF, printed "Last Revised 1/10/2018". Transcribed in full: plumbing's four-band valuation ladder ($40.00 flat to $2,000; then $1.65, $1.10 and $0.60 per $1,000 over bases $40.00, $69.70 and $157.70); the mechanical/HVAC ladder, printed with figures identical to plumbing's; "Electrical permits $25.00"; Septic/Drainfield $75.00; Home Occupation $25.00; Temporary Use $50.00; Demolition $75.00; Moving $25.00; Manufactured Homes $150.00. The rows are split across this site's three pages by what they permit (reading f).
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
City of Bismarck — Commercial Permit Fees (the same ladder, plus the review fee)
Read 2026-09-25 as the Division's own one-page PDF, printed "Last Revised 1/10/2018". Transcribed: "TOTAL COST OF JOB" priced by eight bands numerically identical to the residential sheet's — same bases, same rates, verified row by row against the 2025 sheet — and the one line the residential sheet does not print: "A Review Fee of 20% of the permit fee will be added to all Commercial Building Permits." The commercial copy prints its fifth band's rate as "$$4.20" (a doubled dollar sign), read as $4.20 because $413.45 + 50 × $4.20 closes the next seam at $623.45. Extracted with pdftotext -table, which pairs the wrapping fee column that -layout mispairs, cross-checked against -layout.
- City websiteCity
City of Bismarck — Permit Fees hub page
Read 2026-09-25 as the index that links the sheets — and the source of this jurisdiction's kept disagreement: the hub still says "Permit Fees Effective January 1, 2020" while its own "Residential Permit Fees (PDF)" anchor points at the 2025 revision (the hub's link was followed, not the older /32654 copy the document centre also holds). The dated documents win for their own figures; the hub's 2020 sentence is recorded rather than deleted, exactly as Buffalo's stale hub date is.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
City of Bismarck — Residential Permit Fees (permit fee multiplier table and area valuation)
Read 2026-09-25 as the Division's own one-page PDF, printed "Last Revised 1/01/25" — the later of the two building sheets, which is why the shared ladder is sourced here. Transcribed: the eight-band permit fee multiplier table ($40.00 flat; then $1.85 per $100, $8.40, $6.10, $4.20, $3.40, $2.85 and $2.20 per $1,000, over printed bases $40.00 through $3,408.45), the area valuation table (Garage $25.00, 1st Floor $165.67, 2nd Floor $79.50, and the rest), and the valuation instructions (new construction from the area table; alterations "the construction value based on the total bid amount of the project"). The sheet prints its fifth range as "$50,0001.00" — a typo for $50,001.00, read as the figure the arithmetic confirms.
- Municipal codeCity
City of Bismarck — Title 4, Building Regulations (the ordinance the Division enforces)
Read 2026-09-25, HTTP 200 — the City's building ordinance, readable here unlike the codifiers that answered 403 in New Jersey, New York and Buffalo. Cited for jurisdiction context only: the fee sheets, not the ordinance, are the operative price list, and no figure on this site comes from Title 4.