General building work permit checklist — St. Paul, Minnesota
Assembled from St. Paul’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?
St. Paul requires a permit for general building work.
Saint Paul waives the building permit for a short list of residential work. Detached single-story accessory buildings, meaning garden sheds, storage sheds, playhouses and the like, are on it at 200 square feet of floor area or less. So are decks and platforms that stay 30 inches or under above grade, are not the landing outside an exterior door, and are not tied into a structure carrying frost footings. Retaining walls count when they hold back under 4 feet of earth. Pool kits accessory to a dwelling qualify at 24 inches or less of water depth and no more than 5,000 gallons, set completely above ground. Also waived: residential walkways and driveways; surface finish work such as paint, wallpaper, tile, carpet, cabinetry and countertops; and light earth moving for a garden or landscaping that leaves drainage patterns alone. Zoning rules apply regardless. A deck more than 24 inches above grade still has to meet setbacks, and a new or widened driveway still goes through zoning review.
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Sources
- building — fee schedule ↗verified August 2026
Other permits St. Paul 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 St. Paul before you build.