What To Know About Building Permits in California

A building permit is used to obtain approval from the local building department before starting any type of construction project. It is an important document that must be completed accurately and submitted in its entirety to the City or County planning department for review. The building permit will include a few different sets of drawings: architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural. In this blog post, we'll take a closer look at what goes into structural permit drawings in California.

A structural permit drawing typically consists of two components: plans and specifications. The plans provide a detailed overview of the layout of the proposed structure. This includes items such as walls, window openings, door openings, roof framing plans, foundation plans, beam sizes, column sizes, foundation sizes, construction details, and more. The specifications provide additional information about the construction materials that will be used for the project. This includes information about lumber sizes and types, concrete type and rebar sizes, fastener size and hardware requirements, sheathing materials and thicknesses, bolts/anchor size requirements, etc.

Structural engineers perform extensive calculations to design the structure of the building to meet local building codes and regulations. This is essentially what allows for efficient and effective building permit review – permitting authorities are able to double check the design done by a structural engineer, architect, electrician, and plumber and confirm that it is all up to code. This is why the building permit process is such a critical part of all successful construction projects. At the end of the day, getting a building permit helps ensure that everyone involved in the job is able to move forward with confidence knowing their project meet all safety standards.