Green Bay, WI
Green Bay plumbing permit cost
A Green Bay plumbing permit is priced on the fixture count at a rate the property class sets:
$7.00 per fixture in a one- or two-family dwelling and $8.00 in multi-family and commercial, charged from the first fixture with no allowance. Beside it: water heater replacement at $50.00 to $100.00, and the fire sprinkler row the schedule clamps in its own words — $2.50 per head, $70.00 minimum, up to $200.00.
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 — general plumbing, commercial, $8.00 per fixturePermit fee | $8.00 per fixture | property class is commercial | — |
| Plumbing permit — water heater replacement, commercial, $100.00Permit fee | $100.00 flat fee | property class is commercial and water heater is true | — |
| Plumbing permit — general plumbing, multi-family, $8.00 per fixturePermit fee | $8.00 per fixture | property class is multi family | — |
| Plumbing permit — water heater replacement, multi-family, $100.00Permit fee | $100.00 flat fee | property class is multi family and water heater is true | — |
| Plumbing permit — general plumbing, one- and two-family, $7.00 per fixturePermit fee | $7.00 per fixture | not (property class is provided and not (property class is one two family)) | — |
| Plumbing permit — water heater replacement, one- and two-family, $50.00Permit fee | $50.00 flat fee | not (property class is provided and not (property class is one two family)) and water heater is true | — |
| Plumbing permit — fire suppression system, $2.50 per head ($70.00 minimum, up to $200.00)Permit fee | $2.50 per sprinkler head | Each sprinkler head on the permit | min $70.00 · max $200.00 |
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 bathroom and kitchen remodel on one residential permit — tub, lavatory, toilet, kitchen sink, dishwasher and washing machine connection: six fixtures, plus a water heater replacement.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Fixtures | 6 |
| Water heater | Yes |
| Property class | one_two_family |
Example total
$92.00
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 7
| Component | How it is calculated | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Plumbing permit — general plumbing, one- and two-family, $7.00 per fixturePermit feeThe schedule's "One- and two-family residential plumbing permit fees — General plumbing (per fixture) $7.00". Charged from the first fixture with no allowance and no minimum — a five-fixture bathroom is $35.00 — the straight per-fixture shape, at $2.00 above Madison's $5.00.Show the working
| $7.00 per fixture | $42.00 |
Plumbing permit — water heater replacement, one- and two-family, $50.00Permit feeThe schedule's "One- and two-family residential plumbing permit fees — Water heater replacement $50.00". The residential pages require a plumbing permit for a water heater replacement ("Permits are required for turf watering systems, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, and water heater replacement, etc."), which is what makes this a permit row rather than a note. Multi-family and commercial print $100.00.Show the working
| $50.00 flat fee | $50.00 |
| Total | $92.00 |
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.
- Plumbing permit — general plumbing, commercial, $8.00 per fixture — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Plumbing permit — water heater replacement, commercial, $100.00 — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Plumbing permit — general plumbing, multi-family, $8.00 per fixture — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Plumbing permit — water heater replacement, multi-family, $100.00 — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Plumbing permit — fire suppression system, $2.50 per head ($70.00 minimum, up to $200.00) — sprinkler head count was not provided, so this component could not be calculated.
Limits of this estimate
- sprinkler head count is required by at least one fee rule and was not provided (input "custom.sprinkler_heads").
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.
Two rows charge: six fixtures at the residential $7.00 — $42.00 — and the water heater replacement at the residential $50.00. The permit is $92.00.
The fixture rate is charged from the first fixture with no allowance: three fixtures are $21.00, eight are $56.00. The same six fixtures in a multi-family building are $48.00 at $8.00, and the water heater there is $100.00 — $148.00 in all. The property class moves both rows.
The sprinkler row, had the job included fire suppression, would clamp: twenty heads at $2.50 is $50.00 charged at the $70.00 floor, while forty heads is $100.00, inside the bounds. Nothing here reads a valuation — plumbing is priced entirely by count and class.
What is different in Green Bay
The fixture rate is the whole variable fee for ordinary plumbing: five fixtures in a house are $35.00, eight are $56.00, and there is no minimum and no allowance — every fixture counts from the first. Multi-family and commercial pay a dollar more per fixture at $8.00. Water heater replacement is a permit row of its own — the City's residential page names it as permitted work — at $50.00 in a house and $100.00 in multi-family and commercial.
The fire suppression row is the schedule's own clamp: '$2.50 per head ($70.00 minimum, increased per head, up to $200.00)', printed identically in all three property-class sections. Ten heads are $25.00 of rate charged at the $70.00 floor; thirty-two heads are $80.00; eighty heads would be $200.00 charged at the ceiling. It is the first per-unit row in this dataset that publishes both bounds, and the calculator carries them as the rule's own.
The external-work rows sit beside the sections rather than in them: water service, sanitary sewer and storm sewer connections at $50.00 each (the sewer connection has its own application), Palmer valve $75.00, back water valve $50.00, lawn sprinkler RPV $75.00 to $100.00, sewer cap $100.00, private well operation $125.00. And the commercial page carries a procedure, not a fee: sanitary sewer and interior drain-waste-vent installations must be tested and witnessed by the plumbing inspector per SPS 382.21, effective October 1, 2021.
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 the plumbing section of the City's 2026 fee schedule. It excludes:
- The external-work and connection rows — water service connection, sanitary sewer connection and storm sewer connection at $50.00 each; Palmer valve $75.00; back water valve $50.00; lawn sprinkler system RPV $75.00/$100.00; sewer cap $100.00; private well operation permit $125.00.
- The plumbing plan approval — $0.00 for a one- and two-family fixture list (filed, not priced) and $125.00 for the multi-family and commercial plumbing system plan, an application-stage charge on the same sheet.
- The SPS 382.21 witnessing requirement — a test-and-witness procedure for sanitary sewers and interior DWV, effective 2021-10-01, which is an inspection step rather than a fee.
- The reinspection rows — the schedule's $75.00 reinspection is electrical (§8-449); the plumbing section prints none of its own.
- Plan review percentages, technology fees and state surcharges — none exist, and Wisconsin levies nothing of its own on a local permit.
What you need before applying
- Wisconsin master plumbers do the work; owner-occupants may do their ownRequired
The residential page requires plumbing contractors to be master plumbers licensed with the State of Wisconsin to work within the city limits; rental-property work must be done by a licensed contractor. The owner of an existing single-family dwelling where they reside may do the work themselves but must still pull the permit. Permits are required for turf watering systems, sanitary sewers, storm sewers and water heater replacement, among the rest — and commercial installations of sanitary sewers and interior drain, waste and vent must be tested and witnessed by the plumbing inspector per SPS 382.21 (effective 2021-10-01).
Common questions
How much is a plumbing permit in Green Bay?
$7.00 per fixture in a one- or two-family dwelling and $8.00 in multi-family and commercial, charged from the first fixture with no allowance. Water heater replacement is $50.00 residentially and $100.00 above it. The fire suppression row is $2.50 per head with a $70.00 minimum and a $200.00 ceiling.
How does the fire sprinkler clamp work?
The schedule's own parenthetical: '$2.50 per head ($70.00 minimum, increased per head, up to $200.00)'. Ten heads are $25.00 of rate charged at $70.00; thirty-two heads are $80.00; eighty heads would be $200.00 charged at the ceiling. The floor and ceiling are printed on the row itself, so the calculator carries them as the rule's own bounds.
Who can pull a plumbing permit?
Plumbing contractors must be master plumbers licensed with the State of Wisconsin to work within the city limits, and rental-property work must be done by a licensed contractor. The owner of an existing single-family dwelling where they reside may do the work themselves but must still obtain the permit.
Does a water heater replacement need a permit?
Yes — the City's residential page names it: 'Permits are required for turf watering systems, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, and water heater replacement, etc.' The schedule prices the replacement at $50.00 in a one- or two-family dwelling and $100.00 in multi-family and commercial, as a row of its own beside the fixture count.
What are the connection fees?
The external-work rows — water service connection, sanitary sewer connection and storm sewer connection at $50.00 each, plus Palmer valve, back water valve, lawn sprinkler RPV, sewer cap and private well rows — sit beside the plumbing sections on the same schedule. They are connection and external-work permits with their own applications (the sewer connection's is its own form), so they are named on this page rather than charged with the fixture count.
Is there a plan review fee for plumbing?
Not as a percentage. The §8-47 plumbing plan row is printed at $0.00 for one- and two-family work — the fixture list is filed, not priced — and at $125.00 for the multi-family and commercial plumbing system plan, an application-stage charge rather than part of the permit fee. No technology fee and no state surcharge exists.
Source and verification
The documents behind every figure on this page, with the dates that make them checkable.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
City of Green Bay Fee Schedule (PDF) — Chapter 8, Buildings and construction
Read 2026-09-25 as a 309,782-byte PDF with three columns — "Code Section", "Description", "2026 Fee" — and ordinance sections keyed in the margin (8-47 plan approval, 8-360 building and plumbing permits, 8-369 private wells, 8-449 electrical reinspections, 8-451 electrical permits, 8-478 mechanical permits). Extracted three ways: -layout mispairs columns exactly as Boston's sheet did (water heater handed the lawn sprinkler amount, the commercial section offset by a row), -raw scrambles the same tail, and -table pairs every row cleanly — that transcription is the one this site uses. The fee column is headed "2026 Fee"; the permit-guides page dates it to January 1, 2026.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Residential Permits — contractor rules trade by trade
Read 2026-09-25 for the owner-occupant rules the schedule does not carry: the owner of an existing single-family dwelling where they reside may pull each trade's permit for that dwelling; rental work is licensed-contractor-only; a contractor needs the State's Dwelling Contractor Certification and Qualifier Certification, which the City must verify before issuing; electrical services and all other wiring must be done by a Green Bay-licensed electrical contractor; a DIY electrician must meet an inspector with a floor plan and answer basic wiring questions; plumbing contractors must be Wisconsin master plumbers; and water heater replacement is named on the plumbing page as permitted work.
Verification
Last verified against the official source in Sep 2026.