Des Moines building permits
VerifiedDepartment contacts, adopted codes, permit types, fees, and gotchas for Des Moines, Washington.
Last verified 2026-09-16 · Source · Embed this page’s badge · Version history
Building department
- Address
- 21630 11th Ave S, Des Moines, WA 98198
- Phone
- (206) 878-4595
- Website
- Official site
Codes adopted
The State Building Code is in effect in every county and city in Washington, and its minimum performance standards may not be diminished locally. A local amendment that affects single-family or multifamily residential buildings is not effective unless the State Building Code Council approves it; amendments to non-residential provisions carry no such approval requirement.
- DMMC 14.01.050 opens: “The following codes, standards, rules, and regulations, as amended, added to, or excepted in this Title, are adopted by reference pursuant to chapter 19.27 RCW and RCW 35.21.180 as presently constituted or as may be subsequently amended, added to, or excepted as though fully set forth in this Title:”
- (1) Chapter 51-11C WAC – International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), Commercial.
- (2) Chapter 51-11R WAC – International Energy Conservation Code (IECC), Residential.
- (3) Chapter 51-50 WAC – International Building Code (IBC).
- (4) Chapter 51-51 WAC – International Residential Code (IRC).
- (5) Chapter 51-52 WAC – International Mechanical Code.
- (6) Chapter 51-54A WAC – the International Fire Code (IFC), “including the Appendices B, C, E, F and I”, with Appendix B Section B105.2 replaced and Table B105.2 deleted.
- (7) Chapter 51-56 WAC – Uniform Plumbing Code.
- (8) “The Washington Cities Electrical Code as published and printed by the Washington Association of Building Officials”.
- (9) HCT stations and associated facilities — “the most current versions of all applicable sections of the building code, fire code, and National Fire Protection Standard No. 130 (NFPA 130)”.
- NO EDITION YEAR APPEARS FOR ANY OF THEM. Also adopted and amended elsewhere in the Title: the International Property Maintenance Code (DMMC 14.05.120, not opened for this entry).
Permit types & fees
Residential building permit
Permit to build, alter or add to a house or other residential structure in Des Moines, under the International Residential Code adopted by reference at DMMC 14.01.050.
See fee scheduleCommercial building permit
Permit for commercial, industrial and institutional construction in Des Moines under the International Building Code adopted by reference at DMMC 14.01.050.
See fee scheduleMechanical permit
Permit for heating, ventilation and air conditioning work in Des Moines under the International Mechanical Code adopted by reference at DMMC 14.01.050.
See fee schedulePlumbing permit
Permit for plumbing installations in Des Moines under the Uniform Plumbing Code adopted by reference at DMMC 14.01.050.
See fee scheduleElectrical permit
Permit for electrical work in Des Moines under the Washington Cities Electrical Code, adopted at DMMC 14.01.050 and amended in DMMC Chapter 14.15.
See fee scheduleLand filling, clearing and grading permit
Permit to fill, clear or grade land in Des Moines under DMMC Chapter 14.20, the Land Filling, Clearing and Grading Code.
See fee schedule
Des Moines's permit history isn't searchable here yet
This page covers what the permit requires. What we don't have for Des Moines 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 Des Moines lands. Privacy.
Tips & gotchas
- A BOND OR CASH IS REQUIRED BEFORE ANY BUILDING PERMIT ISSUES, AND NO AMOUNT IS PUBLISHED. DMMC 14.05.080 requires an assurance device “in such reasonable sum and with such securities as the Building Official may specify”, claimable by the City if the work is not satisfactorily completed. It is refundable security rather than a fee, but it is money you must produce, and the code gives you no figure to plan against.
- NO EDITION YEAR APPEARS ANYWHERE IN THE ADOPTION LIST, and Des Moines does not even use an “edition” phrase — it adopts the WAC chapters themselves (“Chapter 51-50 WAC – International Building Code (IBC)”). What binds you is the state rule as it stands when you apply. DMMC 14.01.050 requires a marked-up copy of each adopted code to be filed in the Building Official's office and open to public examination — that filed copy is how you establish what is actually in force.
- DO NOT READ THE FIVE-STOREY WOOD FRAME SECTIONS OUT OF THE CONTENTS LIST. DMMC 14.05.130 to .220 keep their full descriptive titles in the index, but all ten are “Repealed by Ord. 1800.” The local regime is gone.
- CONFLICTS ARE RESOLVED MOST-RESTRICTIVE-FIRST, SUBJECT TO THE STATUTORY HIERARCHY IN RCW 19.27.031 — not by a local ranking of the codes. Pullman and Walla Walla both publish their own ordering and disagree with each other about plumbing; neither ordering applies here.
- YOUR PERMIT HAS NO OUTSIDE DATE, BUT YOUR APPLICATION DOES. Permits die only on the 180-day commence or 180-day abandonment triggers, and the Building Official may grant “one or more extensions” of up to 180 days each with no published limit on the number. An APPLICATION, though, expires 180 days after filing if no permit issues, and submitted plans “may thereafter be returned to the applicant or destroyed”.
- SATURDAY IS A SHORT CONSTRUCTION DAY HERE. 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, but Saturday is grouped with Sunday and holidays at 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. University Place gives Saturday the full weekday window and Issaquah bars nonemergency weekend work altogether — three cities, three answers.
- THE FEE IS SET BY THE CITY MANAGER AND NO INSTRUMENT IS NAMED. DMMC 14.01.090 leaves it to “the City Manager or the City Manager's designee”, where Puyallup at least names an executive order. And the section opens “Except as otherwise provided in this Title” — the electrical chapter carries its own fee provision — so the manager's schedule may not be the whole answer.
- SPRINKLERING THROUGHOUT TO NFPA 13 OR 13R CAN CUT REQUIRED FIRE FLOW BY UP TO 50 PERCENT, floored at 1,500 gallons per minute (amended IFC B105.2). Worth pricing against the sprinkler cost early, because it bears on water supply and site infrastructure.