Do you need a permit to repipe a house in Columbus?

Yes. A repipe replaces the water distribution piping in a house, which is plumbing work under the Ohio Plumbing Code, and it needs a plumbing permit and inspections. Inside the City of Columbus, Building and Zoning Services issues the permit. Most nearby suburbs issue their own, with Franklin County Public Health reviewing the plan and inspecting the plumbing, and Worthington runs its own process. Slate Repiping Columbus offers and manages permitted repipes across Columbus and nearby Franklin County communities, carried out by licensed and insured plumbing contractors.

Who issues the permit, by address

Start with the jurisdiction, not the mailing address. Several Columbus ZIP codes straddle suburban lines, so a “Columbus” address can sit in Upper Arlington, Whitehall or a township. The Franklin County Auditor’s parcel record shows which jurisdiction a property is in.

The split comes from state law. The Ohio Plumbing Code is enforced by certified municipal, county or township building departments, or by the state’s Division of Industrial Compliance, and Ohio Revised Code 3703.01 keeps a health district from inspecting plumbing in a city certified to do it itself. Franklin County Public Health enforces the code in the townships, villages and building departments that leave plumbing with the county, which is why so many suburbs route their plumbing through it.

Who can pull a repiping permit

Inside Columbus, the plumbing permit application asks for the contractor’s City of Columbus registration number or a property owner’s homeowner affidavit. Anyone acting as a plumbing contractor in Ohio must be licensed by the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, and the City also licenses journeyperson plumbers and registers contractors. A homeowner permit is available only for an existing single-family home the owner occupies. It is not available for new construction, work by anyone else needs a licensed contractor’s permit, and the owner may not hire an unlicensed contractor.

In the county’s contract cities, Franklin County Public Health allows homeowners to install plumbing only in a residence they occupy, and plumbing contractors working in Franklin County register with the county each year.

For a double or small apartment building, the homeowner route does not apply even if the owner lives in one unit, because the building is not a single-family home.

What a repiping permit costs

The fee depends on the office, and in the suburbs on the fixture count.

These are agency fees, separate from the contractor’s price. The repipe cost guide shows how they sit inside a typical Columbus-area range of $4,000 to $15,000 or more for a whole-house repipe.

Plan review in county cities since February 2026

Since February 9, 2026, residential and commercial plumbing permit applications in the building departments served by Franklin County Public Health have to include the county’s plan review approval notice, and the fixture count on the approval has to match the permit. In practice that adds a step at the front of the job: the fixtures are counted at the walk-through, the plan goes to the county, and the permit is applied for once the approval comes back.

A mismatch between the two counts holds up the permit, so the fixture list in the scope matters. It is also one reason a repipe in Upper Arlington or Bexley can take longer to start than one in the City of Columbus. The guide to how long a repipe takes covers the rest of the schedule.

What the inspections look at

The inspection happens while the new piping is still exposed. The inspector looks at the pipe and fittings, their support, the shutoff valves, protection where pipe passes through framing, and the connections to the water heater and fixtures. The new system is also pressure tested and checked for leaks before walls close. The Ohio Plumbing Code is built on the 2021 International Plumbing Code, which lists PEX, CPVC and copper for water distribution, so the inspection is about how the pipe is installed rather than which of those materials was chosen. The PEX vs copper guide covers that choice.

Inside Columbus, the $275 permit covers two inspection trips. If the work is not ready or a correction is needed, each extra trip is $225.

Penalties for skipping the permit

Inside Columbus, Building and Zoning Services charges penalty fees for working without a permit: $200, $750 or $1,750, depending on the level. The fee is not the only cost. Unpermitted work may have to be opened for an inspector to see it, which means cutting walls that were already patched. It can also come up at sale, when a buyer’s inspector asks what was replaced and when; the guide to buying a house with old pipes covers that side.

Work that needs a different license

The buried service line from the street is not part of a repipe and is not covered by a repiping permit. Inside Columbus, work on the City’s water service pipe, including service lines and taps, requires a City of Columbus water contractor license or a combined water and sewer contractor license, and service pipe two inches and smaller runs in Type K soft copper from the main through the curb stop. Building and Zoning Services inspects the service line from the meter to the house’s distribution piping under a separate water service installation permit. The water line replacement and lead service line replacement pages explain how that work is handled.

Historic districts are another common question. German Village, Victorian Village, Italian Village and other Columbus historic districts have architectural review for exterior changes, but no evidence suggests that review applies to an interior plumbing permit. The German Village page covers what does apply there.

To get the permit question answered for a specific house, call Slate Repiping Columbus, or start with the repiping assessment.