Bathroom remodeling and repair in San Bruno

Where San Bruno draws the permit line in bathrooms

San Bruno's permit-exemption handout lets tiling, cabinets, counter tops and similar finish work go ahead without a building permit, and stopping a leak is exempt too. The line comes at hidden plumbing: replacing defective concealed drain, waste, vent or water piping counts as new work that needs a permit, and ordinary repairs exclude cutting away walls or structural members, or altering piping, wiring or mechanical systems.

Re-caulking, re-grouting and replacing a cracked tile are finish work; send photos of the shower corners and the base so we can judge how far the damage goes. When a remodel opens the wall to replace pipes or move fixtures, that part is contracted through our licensed partner Bay Builder Inc, and the permit goes through SB Permits, the City's online system.

Worth knowing about San Bruno

• About 80.4% of San Bruno's 16,433 housing units were built before 1980, and 29.3% went up in the 1950s alone.
• The older eastern half, east of I-280, is flat, with a street grid from its early 20th century roots; the newer western half is mostly single-family subdivisions on curving hillside streets.
• As of the 2009 General Plan, about 3,000 San Bruno homes had benefited from aircraft noise insulation, funded since 1983 for homes inside SFO's 65 CNEL contour.