Do You Need a Permit to Demolish a Building in California?
Yes. Every California city and county building department requires a demolition permit before a building comes down. Before that permit issues, the local air district has to have your asbestos notification on file. Three different air districts cover the areas we work in, and each one runs its own paperwork.
California stacks three approvals on one teardown. The building department issues the permit. The air district signs off on the asbestos side before that. The utilities cut and cap the services feeding the building.
The order is what trips people up. Most delays on a residential demolition come from filing the paperwork out of sequence. The rules also change by address, so this post covers the Central Valley, Sacramento and the Bay Area separately.
Who issues a demolition permit in California?
Your local city or county building department issues the demolition permit. The California Building Code sets the rule, and the City of Turlock states it plainly. No regulated building or structure may be demolished without a separate permit for each building. That permit comes from the building official.
Read that as one permit per structure. A house and a detached garage on the same lot are two buildings under that wording.
In the Central Valley, Turlock’s Building and Safety Division sits at 156 S. Broadway, Suite 130. The city bases most permit fees on the use and square footage of the building, not the stated valuation. Turlock’s project submittal checklist also lists the Valley district’s Demolition/Renovation Clearance among the documents a submittal may need.
Modesto runs the same job through its Building Safety Division at 1010 10th Street, Suite 3100. Permit applications and inspection requests there go through the city’s eTRAKiT online portal.
Sacramento uses a different name. The city calls it a wrecking permit. Design Review approval is required on all wrecking permits before the sewer disconnect and permit issuance.
Sacramento also reviews structures 50 years old or older for historic eligibility. That review is a Demolition/Relocation Investigation and Report, and it comes before demolition is approved. The city defines demolition by size too. Removing an aggregate of 50 or more linear feet of exterior wall counts. So does more than half the footprint.
San Francisco splits the question in two. Demolishing an entire building to the foundation takes a demolition permit, Form 6. Demolishing part of a building takes a building permit instead.
Removing a residential unit in San Francisco goes further. That project runs through Conditional Use Authorization at the Planning Commission, unless it qualifies for an exemption.
San Jose is specific about its list. It requires a job number from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District with every demolition permit application. It also requires a PCBs Screening Assessment Form on all demolitions, and single-family homes are exempt from that form.
What does the air district require before demolition?
A written notice, filed before the work starts. The federal asbestos NESHAP requires written notice to the delegated agency 10 working days before a regulated demolition begins. Before that, the facility must be thoroughly inspected for asbestos, including nonfriable materials. California air districts add rules on top.
The federal definition of a regulated facility leaves out residential buildings with four or fewer dwelling units. So the federal rule alone does not cover most single-family teardowns. That gap is where the California districts write their own rules.
| Air district | Notice period | Single-family rule | What the building department wants from the district |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Joaquin Valley APCD (Central Valley) | No later than ten working days before asbestos removal or demolition begins | A single-family dwelling or a building of four or fewer units may be exempt, depending on past and future use. The district decides. | A Demolition Permit Release form signed by the district, returned to the building department before the permit is issued |
| Sac Metro AQMD (Sacramento County) | At least ten working days before demolition or planned renovation | Rule 902 exempts four or fewer dwelling units, unless the replacement use is commercial or industrial, eminent domain or public works, a fire training burn, or five or more units | Sacramento does not issue a commercial wrecking permit until the air district’s date is on the Asbestos Form |
| Bay Area AQMD (Bay Area) | At least 10 business days before every demolition, regardless of asbestos content. 72 hours is allowed for four or fewer dwelling units with an additional fee. | For four or fewer units, an owner or operator can sample and test suspect materials instead of hiring a certified consultant | The district’s job number, one of the requirements to get a demolition permit from a city or county |
Notice follows the demolition itself. In the Valley district, a regulated demolition needs a notification even when no asbestos is present. Contra Costa County tells applicants the same thing about the Bay Area district, even if the project has no asbestos.
The Bay Area rule reaches further. Any demolition of a load-bearing structural member needs a demolition job number. That holds regardless of asbestos content, size or age.
California Health and Safety Code section 19827.5 ties the two agencies together. Building officials must have proof of compliance with the asbestos notification rules before they issue a demolition permit. Proof of exemption works too.
In the Valley, that proof is the Demolition Permit Release form. The applicant gets the district’s signature and returns the form to the building department before the demolition permit is issued. The form has a category called a single residence. That covers a single-family dwelling, or a single-structure apartment complex of four or fewer total units.
Valley notifications go to the district’s Northern Region asbestos program office at 4800 Enterprise Way in Modesto. That is the demolition side. Renovation work runs on quantity instead. The Valley district’s trigger is 160 square feet of building materials or 260 linear feet of pipe insulation.
Sac Metro Rule 902 lists the same threshold quantities. They are 260 lineal feet on pipes and 160 square feet on other facility components. A third sits at 35 cubic feet, where the area could not be measured.
Who is allowed to do the asbestos work and the demolition?
Licensed people, and the state names each one. Cal/OSHA registration is required before asbestos-related work involving 100 square feet or more of asbestos-containing material. The CSLB’s C-21 Building Moving/Demolition classification covers a contractor who demolishes and moves or removes structures, including their foundations. The survey is a separate trade.
Business and Professions Code 7058.5 sets the asbestos bar. A contractor may not do asbestos-related work involving 100 square feet or more of asbestos containing materials. The exception is holding the C-22 Asbestos Abatement classification, or having the license qualifier pass an asbestos certification examination.
CSLB adds a registration step. Asbestos abatement contractors must be certified by the CSLB. They also register with the Asbestos Contractor Registration Unit of DOSH.
The survey belongs to somebody else entirely. Asbestos inspections must be performed by a person who is certified by Cal-OSHA. That person also has to pass an EPA-approved building inspector course. We do the asbestos removal, and a certified consultant does the survey.
The Bay Area district carves out one exception. It covers residential buildings of four or fewer dwelling units. There, an owner or operator can sample and test suspected asbestos-containing materials rather than hire a certified consultant.
Cal/OSHA’s demolition rules add a second survey list. Pipe covering insulation and steel beam and column fire protection must be surveyed for asbestos. So must heating, ventilating and air-conditioning duct work. Structural hazards noted in the engineering survey get shored or braced before demolition starts.
What about the utilities, debris and other clearances?
Gas, electric, water and debris each run on their own clock. PG&E cuts and caps the gas service at or outside the property line when a home is scheduled for demolition. An electric disconnect through PG&E’s Your Projects portal takes about 30 business days to schedule. Debris has its own rule.
San Jose puts a number on the gas side. It tells applicants to contact PG&E at least 30 days before the scheduled demolition to coordinate gas service removal.
Water taps are a line item in Sacramento. Killing a three-quarter inch to two inch water tap costs $274 each on the city’s wrecking permit fee list.
Debris carries a statewide floor. CALGreen requires permitted demolition projects to recycle or salvage at least 65 percent of nonhazardous construction and demolition debris. The rule sits in sections 4.408 and 5.408.
San Francisco writes that number into the permit itself. A Demolition Debris Recovery Plan must show a minimum of 65 percent diversion from landfill. San Francisco issues no demolition permit without an approved plan.
A San Francisco demolition application carries two more items. One is the Bay Area district’s J number. The other is an asbestos survey supported by the preparer’s Cal/OSHA certification.
PCBs screening is the other Bay Area form. It applies to buildings constructed or remodeled from January 1, 1950 to December 31, 1980. Wood-framed and single-family residential buildings are exempt. Those forms show up most on commercial demolition work.
How long does the whole permit process take?
Plan on weeks, not days. The air district notice alone runs 10 working days in the Valley and 10 business days in the Bay Area. A PG&E electric disconnect takes about 30 business days to schedule. Sacramento’s historic review adds a 45-day period on top of that.
The fastest path is the Bay Area’s fast-track fee. It covers renovation or demolition at a single-family dwelling, or a building with four or fewer units. The fee allows a start within 72 hours of Air District application approval.
Sacramento sits at the slow end. The Demolition/Relocation Investigation and Report has a 45-day review period. It begins on the date the application is deemed complete. The application fee is $468 plus an 8 percent technology fee.
San Francisco can run longer still. A Conditional Use Authorization goes to the Planning Commission, which puts a hearing on the schedule. The city’s tenant protections ordinance for residential demolitions took effect February 7, 2026. It requires demolished units to be replaced.
That sets the working order. File the air district notification and the release form first. Put the utility disconnect requests in at the same time. The building department signs last, because it wants the district paperwork in hand.
The split between you and the contractor is simple. We pull the demolition permit and file the air district notification. You bring the consultant’s survey report.
What we handle on a permitted teardown
We are a family company, in business since 1967. Our licenses are CSLB #247684 and CAL OSHA #507. Cal/OSHA registration applies to asbestos work of 100 square feet or more. In the Valley, the air district gets 10 working days’ notice before demolition.
On a permitted teardown we pull the permit and file the notification as part of the job. The agency decides on approval, and the timeline above is what we plan around.
The one thing you bring is the survey report. A Cal/OSHA-certified consultant does that survey, and we price the abatement and the demolition from it.
Two of our guides go deeper on the pieces around the permit. Asbestos testing before demolition covers who can test and what the report has to show. House demolition cost in California covers what a teardown runs and what moves the number.
Send us the address and what is standing on it. We will tell you which building department and which air district your job falls under. Estimates are free, and the phone number is (209) 652-9206. Ask for a free estimate.