How long do bathroom remodel permits take in San Francisco?

In San Francisco, of the 3,506 bathroom remodel permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 0 days, down from 1 day a year earlier. Of the 2,805 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 169 days of being issued, down from 176 days the year before.

From the city’s permit records, by the quarter each permit was filed. Data as of 8 October 2026. How to cite this · How this is calculated

How long until a permit is issued, and until final sign-off?

This chart as an image (SVG), with its title, source and date, free to embed under CC BY 4.0.

At a glance

Stage	Permits filed	Permits counted	Median days	Counted a year earlier	Median a year earlier
Filed to permit issued	October 2025 through September 2026	3,506 issued	0	3,655 issued	1
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	2,805 finished	169	2,900 finished	176

“Counted” is the permits the median was taken over: those filed in the window that have been issued, or that have reached final sign-off. The first stage covers the last four complete quarters, since most permits are issued within the year. The second covers the last four quarters that ended two or more years ago, so that most of their permits have had time to finish.

Every quarter since 2000

Quarter filed	Filed	Issued	Median days to issue	Slowest 10%	Reached final	Median days issue to final	Slowest 10%	Never finaled	Settled
2026-Q4	52	10	0	1	0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	1,015	755	0	22	83	41	78	0	too recent
2026-Q2	1,088	972	1	50	324	76	129	0	too recent
2026-Q1	946	863	0	59	458	94	182	0	too recent
2025-Q4	996	916	1	106	552	130	266	0	too recent
2025-Q3	1,025	976	0	93	636	140	302	0	too recent
2025-Q2	1,011	966	1	86	676	152	342	0	too recent
2025-Q1	918	876	1	88	635	140	358	0	too recent
2024-Q4	881	837	0	107	621	157	364	0	too recent
2024-Q3	913	866	1	68	674	176	399	0	yes
2024-Q2	1,072	1,036	1	75	829	191	524	0	yes
2024-Q1	822	783	0	59	668	159	489	0	yes
2023-Q4	833	789	1	114	634	154	493	6	yes
2023-Q3	924	872	1	65	705	176	529	153	yes
2023-Q2	946	901	1	96	744	166	557	116	yes
2023-Q1	862	801	0	64	650	169	538	129	yes
2022-Q4	1,079	993	3	182	801	198	537	152	yes
2022-Q3	1,026	958	0	109	797	175	537	123	yes
2022-Q2	1,106	1,043	1	106	854	195	672	160	yes
2022-Q1	1,205	1,143	1	79	957	192	575	154	yes
2021-Q4	1,211	1,140	2	101	940	204	610	147	yes
2021-Q3	1,199	1,154	0	98	944	198	626	164	yes
2021-Q2	1,370	1,299	0	117	1,031	194	656	221	yes
2021-Q1	1,407	1,317	0	198	1,030	204	679	249	yes
2020-Q4	1,474	1,347	26	202	1,030	201	659	297	yes
2020-Q3	1,267	1,177	3	170	866	190	656	260	yes
2020-Q2	414	382	7	112	306	154	490	55	yes
2020-Q1	1,013	925	0	259	721	214	667	167	yes
2019-Q4	1,393	1,280	5	362	1,007	247	749	229	yes
2019-Q3	1,325	1,258	2	152	1,001	195	719	209	yes
2019-Q2	1,337	1,237	1	122	984	182	702	238	yes
2019-Q1	1,223	1,157	1	110	979	177	621	142	yes
2018-Q4	1,242	1,160	2	161	951	196	769	175	yes
2018-Q3	1,234	1,169	1	133	945	178	636	170	yes
2018-Q2	1,327	1,240	2	144	1,031	183	607	166	yes
2018-Q1	1,336	1,248	1	189	973	180	613	225	yes
2017-Q4	1,227	1,172	3	239	932	206	658	177	yes
2017-Q3	1,296	1,239	1	204	994	182	659	186	yes
2017-Q2	1,384	1,290	1	252	1,029	185	614	202	yes
2017-Q1	1,111	1,055	1	158	864	164	579	137	yes
2016-Q4	1,178	1,102	2	215	871	177	636	157	yes
2016-Q3	1,326	1,251	3	213	1,004	188	595	193	yes
2016-Q2	1,285	1,207	1	154	969	182	612	173	yes
2016-Q1	1,310	1,222	0	156	1,005	170	632	166	yes
2015-Q4	1,167	1,121	1	152	880	192	668	175	yes
2015-Q3	1,335	1,277	1	198	1,022	197	661	198	yes
2015-Q2	1,404	1,330	1	168	1,084	186	612	178	yes
2015-Q1	1,315	1,256	1	103	1,029	175	586	170	yes
2014-Q4	1,253	1,196	1	164	947	184	708	184	yes
2014-Q3	1,317	1,261	1	83	956	184	600	234	yes
2014-Q2	1,330	1,290	1	114	1,037	169	623	177	yes
2014-Q1	1,193	1,150	0	62	923	145	504	170	yes
2013-Q4	1,256	1,214	1	135	975	176	609	171	yes
2013-Q3	1,268	1,217	0	53	978	173	533	175	yes
2013-Q2	1,259	1,224	0	67	1,002	152	542	152	yes
2013-Q1	1,060	1,038	0	41	852	138	527	127	yes
2012-Q4	966	932	0	55	748	159	537	130	yes
2012-Q3	1,044	1,006	0	37	851	155	458	122	yes
2012-Q2	1,005	968	0	45	818	134	409	108	yes
2012-Q1	879	862	0	50	729	140	427	88	yes
2011-Q4	815	791	0	68	670	145	458	78	yes
2011-Q3	983	950	0	37	805	139	380	76	yes
2011-Q2	920	893	0	49	760	139	441	67	yes
2011-Q1	821	794	0	34	695	135	408	54	yes
2010-Q4	804	775	0	73	665	155	473	65	yes
2010-Q3	841	810	1	70	693	158	442	60	yes
2010-Q2	946	923	0	58	785	155	432	70	yes
2010-Q1	772	748	0	38	621	147	448	71	yes
2009-Q4	798	764	0	65	618	146	482	81	yes
2009-Q3	821	797	0	33	673	150	400	66	yes
2009-Q2	786	752	1	37	626	140	428	64	yes
2009-Q1	695	668	0	55	559	153	390	57	yes
2008-Q4	761	728	0	45	572	149	388	50	yes
2008-Q3	1,087	1,048	0	23	790	150	417	96	yes
2008-Q2	1,097	1,068	0	45	786	151	382	86	yes
2008-Q1	1,023	982	0	38	713	146	368	109	yes
2007-Q4	1,161	1,110	0	92	761	163	424	139	yes
2007-Q3	1,216	1,177	0	6	797	149	360	151	yes
2007-Q2	1,077	1,066	0	1	751	154	376	117	yes
2007-Q1	1,055	1,035	0	2	731	150	370	86	yes
2006-Q4	888	870	0	1	578	153	390	80	yes
2006-Q3	961	946	0	0	624	165	401	83	yes
2006-Q2	964	955	0	27	665	160	408	85	yes
2006-Q1	866	860	0	1	618	154	375	56	yes
2005-Q4	825	814	0	24	544	181	411	89	yes
2005-Q3	876	863	0	11	592	156	378	89	yes
2005-Q2	842	828	0	1	577	155	361	80	yes
2005-Q1	626	618	0	0	425	166	375	65	yes
2004-Q4	639	623	0	0	428	150	386	65	yes
2004-Q3	723	711	0	10	507	148	357	71	yes
2004-Q2	753	741	0	27	496	127	368	83	yes
2004-Q1	612	603	0	0	421	148	363	75	yes
2003-Q4	615	603	0	24	439	133	359	43	yes
2003-Q3	642	630	0	34	426	152	328	69	yes
2003-Q2	680	668	0	37	474	136	361	70	yes
2003-Q1	545	538	0	53	379	130	365	58	yes
2002-Q4	560	548	0	93	378	144	358	61	yes
2002-Q3	592	572	0	55	378	162	390	59	yes
2002-Q2	607	592	0	41	394	153	346	54	yes
2002-Q1	488	476	0	94	336	137	359	21	yes
2001-Q4	465	460	0	58	310	133	310	10	yes
2001-Q3	476	465	0	62	285	150	388	7	yes
2001-Q2	515	498	0	103	331	152	368	2	yes
2001-Q1	501	487	0	44	330	139	352	5	yes
2000-Q4	473	459	0	86	288	152	383	3	yes
2000-Q3	483	470	0	60	282	157	427	2	yes
2000-Q2	513	493	0	58	305	155	377	3	yes
2000-Q1	488	464	0	59	270	175	470	7	yes

A blank median means fewer than 5 permits behind it: issued permits for the first stage, and for the second, finished permits whose final is dated after their issue (a permit never issued has no span). “Slowest 10%” is the 90th percentile: one permit in ten took at least this long. Download the table as CSV or JSON; both carry the source, license and data date.

What the numbers leave out

11,095 of the 104,357 bathroom remodel permits filed since 2000 (11%) have no final sign-off 3 years after they were issued or, if never issued, filed. A median over finished permits understates the real wait: the permits that never finish are not in it. Inspection records are not yet included: “final sign-off” is the city’s own completion date on the permit.

Project types in San Francisco

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (104,357 filed, 75,687 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (88,742 filed, 63,705 finished; contractors); stairs (42,896 filed, 29,067 finished; contractors); deck (24,218 filed, 16,266 finished; contractors); roof deck (5,264 filed, 3,106 finished; contractors); pergola or trellis (645 filed, 372 finished; contractors). Other types: 613,041 permits. All permits in San Francisco

Every neighborhood compared.

How this is calculated

Approved means the city issued the permit: the permit’s issue date. The first stage counts days from the filing date to the issue date, over permits issued on or after they were filed. Final sign-off means the city’s own status for the permit is “complete”, with its completion date; this site does not yet read inspection records, so the inspection date is not a separate stage. The second stage counts days from the issue date to the completion date, over permits that have reached it.

Permits are grouped by the quarter they were filed. A quarter’s median counts only its permits that have finished the stage, so recent quarters look faster than they will end up: their slow permits have not finished yet. Quarters that ended two or more years ago are marked settled; the rest are shaded in the chart. The headline’s first stage uses the last four complete quarters; its second uses the last four settled quarters.

The median is the middle permit: half took less, half more. The slowest 10% is the 90th percentile. A median needs at least 5 permits behind it, or it is left out. A project type is shown apart within a neighborhood only when it has 30 or more finished permits there; the rest are “other types”.

Never finaled means no final sign-off three years after the permit was issued (or filed, if never issued), and not expired, cancelled, withdrawn, revoked, disapproved, denied or suspended (the site’s “expired or cancelled” outcome). About a quarter of permits citywide end this way; often the work was done and nobody called for the final inspection. These permits are in the counts and not in the medians.

A permit’s neighborhood is the Analysis Neighborhood the city writes on the permit record (the official set of 41). Permits with none are counted citywide only; the page says how many. “Nearby” neighborhoods are the three nearest by the center of their permits. The site reloads the city’s data every night; permits filed since 1 January 2000 are included. The placement of a permit, its dates and its status are the city’s; the grouping and the words are this site’s. How to read these records.