Modesto building permits
VerifiedDepartment contacts, adopted codes, permit types, fees, and gotchas for Modesto, California.
Last verified 2026-09-18 · Source · Embed this page’s badge · Version history
Building department
- Address
- 1010 10th Street, Suite 3100, Modesto, CA 95354
- Phone
- 209-577-5232
- Office hours
- Monday through Friday. Phone: 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Office: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. THE TWO DIFFER - the phone line opens an hour before the counter and closes half an hour after it.
- Website
- Official site
Codes adopted
California publishes its building standards as Title 24, adopted by state agencies and republished on a three-year cycle. A city or county may change those standards only after its governing body makes an express finding that the change is reasonably necessary because of local climatic, geological, or topographical conditions, and no change becomes operative until the finding and the change have been filed with the California Building Standards Commission.
2025 California Building Standards Code (Cal. Code Regs., Title 24) - published July 1, 2025 by the California Building Standards Commission, effective January 1, 2026. Show full textShow less
2025 California Building Standards Code (Cal. Code Regs., Title 24) - published July 1, 2025 by the California Building Standards Commission, effective January 1, 2026. This is the statewide edition in force; it is not a city-specific adoption. Health & Safety Code s 18938(b): building standards adopted into the California Building Standards Code "shall apply to all occupancies throughout the state and shall become effective 180 days after publication."
- THE CITY'S OWN ADOPTING ORDINANCE WAS NOT READ FOR THIS RECORD, so no city ordinance number or local effective date is asserted here.
Permit types & fees
Modesto's permit history isn't searchable here yet
This page covers what the permit requires. What we don't have for Modesto yet is the record of permits actually issued — the history you'd search by street address. That is a gap in our coverage, not a statement about any particular property.
Your email, and the place — never an address. We only use it to tell you when Modesto lands. Privacy.
Tips & gotchas
- THE PHONE LINE AND THE COUNTER KEEP DIFFERENT HOURS. Modesto publishes phone hours of 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and office hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., so there is an hour at the start of the day and half an hour at the end when a question can be answered by phone but nothing can be done at the counter.
- THE STREET ADDRESS AND THE MAILING ADDRESS ARE DIFFERENT. Deliveries and visits go to 1010 10th Street, Suite 3100, Modesto, CA 95354; post goes to P.O. Box 642, Modesto, CA 95353. Sending a submittal to the street address by post, or to the PO box by courier, is an easy way to lose a week.
- California's code changes on a fixed statewide cycle rather than per city. The 2025 California Building Standards Code took effect January 1, 2026; the previous 2022 edition took effect January 1, 2023.
- Between October 1, 2025 and June 1, 2031 California cities generally may not adopt new residential amendments to the state code (H&SC s 17958(b)), so a residential requirement a city published before that window may no longer be amendable - check the current state code rather than an older local bulletin.