General building work permit checklist — Mobile, Alabama
Assembled from Mobile’s own published permit rules. Every line below is quoted from a city document and linked to it. Nothing here is generated, estimated, or inferred from another jurisdiction.
Do you need a permit?
Mobile requires a permit for general building work.
Ordinance 28-052 lists work that does not need a building permit; items include playhouses and similar uses up to 120 square feet of floor area, retaining walls up to 4 feet tall (measured from footing base) that do not support a surcharge or impound Class I, II or III-A liquids, sidewalks and driveways under 30 inches above grade with no basement or story below and no role in an accessible route, finish work such as painting done outside a permitted construction project, swings and playground equipment at one- and two-family dwellings, and movable cases, counters and partitions up to 5 feet 9 inches tall.
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Sources
- building — permit rules, building — fee schedule ↗verified August 2026
Other permits Mobile publishes rules for
Listed because the city publishes a separate rule for each type — not because this project necessarily triggers one. Whether it does depends on your scope of work.
- Deck permit checklist
- Fence permit checklist
- Shed permit checklist
- Water heater permit checklist
- Re-roof permit checklist
- Retaining wall permit checklist
- Electrical work permit checklist
BuildSpec is a reference, not the authority having jurisdiction. Confirm requirements with Mobile before you build.