Building Inspection — Development Services Center
- Phone
- 608-266-4551
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The permit counter is by appointment only.
Wisconsin
Madison, WI permit fees and requirements
Madison prices a new building three times over — once for the building permit
once for the electrical permit and once for the plumbing permit — and all three are the building's square footage multiplied by a use-group rate: $.10, $.09 and $.09 a square foot for a house, $.18, $.11 and $.10 for an office block, $.12, $.06 and $.06 for a warehouse, each floored at $25.00. Work on an existing structure leaves the groups behind and is priced by what it is: $11.00 for each $1,000 of value, $25.00 for the first ten electrical openings and $1.00 each one after, $8.00 a plumbing fixture. Plan review and the zoning review fee are charged on top, from tables of their own.
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 Madison permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Madison building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-25 |
| Madison electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-25 |
| Madison plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-25 |
Local context
What is specific to Madison
Madison does not have one fee schedule. It has three, one in each of the codes the City enforces: MGO 29.09 for the building permit, MGO 18.09 for plumbing and MGO 19.11 for electric. All three chapters were repealed and recreated together by one set of ordinances in March 2021 — ORD-21-00024, ORD-21-00025 and ORD-21-00026, all effective 2021-03-27 — and they were written to match: identical use groups, an identical $25.00 minimum, the identical 50% shell reduction and the identical Group IV definition. The Building Inspection Division then publishes all three as a single table with four columns and a Total, which is why Madison looks like one schedule from the outside and is not one on the inside.
The group is a use group, not a building type, and it is the fact the whole schedule turns on. Group I is new construction and additions to all single or two family residential buildings and to all commercial space classified R-2, R-3 or R-4. Group II is A-1 through A-5, B, E, H-1 through H-5, I-1 through I-4, M and R-1 — the City's own examples are arenas, banks, churches, clinics, gyms, hotels, libraries, offices, retail and theatres. Group III is F-1, F-2, S-1, S-2, U and anything not in Groups I, II or IV. A hotel is Group II, an apartment building is Group I, a warehouse is Group III, and because that crossing does not follow from any occupancy label, this site asks for the group rather than guessing it.
Group IV is where work on an existing structure goes, and there the schedule stops measuring area and starts counting what you did: $11.00 for each $1,000 of value or fraction of it on the building side, $25.00 for the first ten electrical openings plus $1.00 each one after, and $8.00 a plumbing fixture. The City's own online-permits page says the same thing in plain words — electrical fees are calculated "by the number of openings", plumbing "by the number of new or replaced fixtures", and new buildings, additions and first-time shell buildouts "by square footage of the space".
On top of the permit sits plan review, from a different table in the same section: $100.00 for a new one- or two-family building, $25.00 to alter or remodel one, and $.04 per square foot with a $100.00 minimum for everything else — which is the row an apartment building takes. Then the zoning review fee, $0.03 a square foot with a $25.00 minimum under MGO 28.206, collected when the building permit is issued. And then the State, which is the part this site names rather than charges: the division also collects the DSPS State Seal fee and the plan review fee set by SPS 302.31(1)(g), Table 302.31-3, and sends plumbing plan examination to SPS 302.64, Table 302.64-1. Wisconsin's code server answered no request from this environment on 2026-09-25, so no figure from those tables appears in any total here.
Valuation
How valuation is determined here
Madison has two bases and the schedule says which one a job is on.
New construction and additions are measured in square footage, and both the ordinance and the City define the area. MGO 29.09(2)(b): "For the purpose of determining the fee on the basis of square foot, floor area measurements shall be taken from outside of building at each floor level, including basement." The fee page puts it as "the total square footage of the building including all floor levels, attached garages, porches, balconies and decks". One number feeds all three permits, so a reader who knows their floor area can price the building, electrical and plumbing permits without a valuation at all.
Alterations and repairs to existing structures are measured in valuation, and MGO 29.09(2)(c) defines what that means: "the actual cost for alterations and repairs to existing buildings, including all labor and material less the cost of real estate and installation of electrical, heating, and plumbing equipment and services". It is a construction cost with the land and the installed equipment taken out, not a contract sum. The fee is $11.00 for each $1,000 of it "or fraction thereof", so $12,400 is thirteen increments rather than twelve and a half.
Two things about the measurement are worth knowing before comparing. The same subsection caps the result — "In no case shall the fee exceed those as calculated for new buildings ... Groups I, II and III" — and that cap compares the alteration fee against a fee this calculation has not run, so it is not modelled and a very large alteration is overstated here. And every Madison table says "Round up all fees to the next highest dollar", which this engine does not do: each component is rounded once, to the cent, and the difference is always under a dollar. Plan review measures a third area for commercial alterations — "floor, roof and exterior wall area being altered or remodeled" — and because the schedule publishes no second measurement for a reader to give, it is read from the same square footage.
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 Madison's building, electrical and plumbing permit fees as enacted in MGO 29.09, 18.09 and 19.11, with the plan review and zoning review fees that ride alongside them. They are not a total project cost, and they exclude:
- The State's money. The division collects a State Seal fee as charged by DSPS and plan review fees as prescribed by SPS 302.31(1)(g) in Table 302.31-3 with every plan review, and plumbing plan examination is set by SPS 302.64, Table 302.64-1. `docs.legis.wisconsin.gov` returned no response from this environment on 2026-09-25, so no figure from those tables is transcribed anywhere on this site — they are named, not estimated. The City's fee page prints the first citation corrupted, as "SPS 3031(1)(g) in Table 3031-3"; the ordinance prints it correctly.
- The mechanical column. The HVAC permit on new work ($.09 / $.11 / $.06 a square foot) and the existing-building rows — replacement heating equipment at $25.00 up to 100,000 BTU, $50.00 from 100,001 to 165,000 and $75.00 above, an air-conditioning unit at $25.00, a ductless split or wall pack at $25.00 — are published and not modelled, because this site's third Madison page is plumbing.
- The alteration cap. MGO 29.09(2)(c) holds an alteration fee to what the same building would pay as new construction. That cap is a function of a fee this calculation has not run, so a large alteration is overstated here by up to the difference.
- The round-up to the whole dollar. Every Madison table rounds up; this site rounds to the cent.
- The rest of Group IV: accessory buildings and detached garages at $.06 a square foot (minimum $25.00), awnings $20.00, tents $50.00, in-ground pools $25.00, moving a structure at $0.125 a cubic foot between $250.00 and $450.00, razing an accessory building $20.00, a one-family dwelling $150.00, a two-family dwelling $250.00 and a commercial building by volume, solar panels $21.00, certificates of occupancy at $10.00 and $150.00 ($75.00 for a change of use), mobile-home occupancy $15.00, and the erosion control fee at $0.01 a square foot of lot area.
- The plan review rows this site does not price: structural review at $50.00 an element, fire escapes at $100.00, stadium seating at $0.05 a seat, the $100.00 miscellaneous and $100.00 revision rows, HVAC plan review at $.03 a square foot, Priority Review at double the plan review fee, and the Early Start permit at $50.00 plus $0.01 a square foot.
- The penalty for work without a permit — double the fees, plus $100.00 a day from the stop-work notice until a permit is obtained — and the extension fee of half the original inspection fee.
- Everything another authority charges: DSPS licence and examination fees, the State's own plan review for the work it retains, water and sewer connection charges from the Water Utility, excavation and street permits from Engineering, and the Fire Department's permits, all of which the City's own permit chart routes to a different phone number.
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.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
1 & 2 Family Residential — City of Madison
Read 2026-09-25. Defines the line the plan review table draws: "If a dwelling unit is in a building with more than two units, it is not a 1 & 2 family dwelling. Any building with three or more attached units follows the commercial building code." It also says who may apply — owner occupants of a one- or two-family home may take building permits for alterations, additions and new houses, while mechanical permits need a licensed professional — and footnotes Wis. Stat. s. 101.654(1)(b), which exempts an owner who resides or will reside in the dwelling from the dwelling contractor financial responsibility certification.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Building Inspection Fees — City of Madison
Read 2026-09-25, and again through the Internet Archive's 2022-01-23 snapshot to date its edits. Collapses MGO 29.09, 18.09 and 19.11 into one four-column table (Building / Electricity / Plumbing / HVAC / Total) with a $25.00 minimum in every column, adds the MGO 28.206 zoning review fee, and carries the State charges the ordinances also name. Every cell matches its ordinance except Group II plumbing, where the page prints $.11 and MGO 18.09 enacts $.10. Its State citation is corrupted — "SPS 3031(1)(g) in Table 3031-3" against the ordinance's "SPS 302.31(1)(g) in Table 302.31-3" — which is why the ordinances are cited for rates and the page for context.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Contact — Building Inspection, City of Madison
Read 2026-09-25. Phone 608-266-4551, fax 608-266-6377, binspection@cityofmadison.com, 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Suite 017, Madison, WI 53703, hours Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., by appointment only, mailing address P.O. Box 2984.
- OrdinanceCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-25 as a PDF, twice. File 63536, effective 2021-03-27. §18.09 enacts Group I $.09, Group II $.10 and Group III $.06 per sq. ft. with a $25.00 minimum, and Group IV at $8.00 per fixture with its fixture-counting note. Also carries §18.06 (plumber's licence, and the owner exception for an occupied single-family residence), §18.07(3)(b) (plan examination by SPS 302.64, Table 302.64-1), §18.07(1)(d) (the City as agent municipality) and §18.08 (application, signed by a licensed plumber registered with DSPS, filed within three working days).
- OrdinanceCityPrimary source
Read 2026-09-25 as a PDF, twice. File 63538, effective 2021-03-27. §19.11 enacts Group I $.09, Group II $.11 and Group III $.06 per sq. ft. with a $25.00 minimum, Group IV at $25.00 for the first ten openings plus $1.00 each additional with the schedule's own definition of an opening, and Electric Service Replacement at $50.00 per service panel. §19.08 requires a State licence and grants the residential property owner exception; §19.09 requires the permit, requires proof of employment and the licence holder's signature, and defines the minor repair work that needs none.
- OrdinanceCityPrimary source
Madison General Ordinances Ch. 29 "Building Code", §29.09 Fee Schedule (ORD-21-00024)
Read 2026-09-25 as a PDF in both pdftotext -layout and plain modes; the fee tables pair correctly only in -layout. File 63535, final action 2021-03-16, mayor approval 2021-03-22, published 2021-03-26, effective 2021-03-27. §29.09(1) sets who collects, §29.09(2)(b) how area is measured, §29.09(2)(c) what an alteration's value includes and the cap on it, §29.09(3) the penalty for unpermitted work, §29.09(3)(a) the inspection-fee table and §29.09(3)(b) the plan-review table. The fiscal note records that the 2021 increases were "intended to primarily impact large commercial type construction" and were the first in over a decade.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Online permits — City of Madison
Read 2026-09-25. Corroborates all three mechanisms in the division's own words: fees for building repair and replace are calculated "by the cost of construction" and the filer is told to "exclude plumbing, heating, electrical, as well as cabinetry, paint, countertops, flooring, and trim"; electrical fees are calculated "by the number of openings (outlets, switches, and fixtures) and/or the number of new or replaced service entrances"; plumbing fees are calculated "by the number of new or replaced fixtures"; and new buildings, additions and first-time buildouts of shell spaces are calculated "by square footage of the space" and must be entered by permit counter staff because they cannot be filed online.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
Permits — "Do I need a permit?" chart, City of Madison
Read 2026-09-25. The chart is what establishes that electrical and plumbing are their own permits in Madison — "Electrical Work, All — Yes" and "Plumbing - Yes", both routed to Building Inspection at 608-266-4551 ext 2 — and it separates the City's permits from the ones it hands to Fire, Engineering, Traffic Engineering, the Water Utility or the State of Wisconsin Department of Commerce.