The general contractor must pull the building permit. If you are building your own house, acting as general contractor, you will pull your building permit.

Plumbing, mechanical and electrical permits must also be pulled by the contractors doing the work. If you are doing the plumbing, mechanical, or electrical work on your own house, you will pull those respective permits yourself.

If you are not registered as a contractor, you can only get a permit to work on your own house. If you are being paid to do work for someone else, you must be registered as a contractor in Summit County.

If you are a homeowner wishing to act as your own general contractor, you will be asked to complete a homeowner/builder code review before receiving your building permit. This review is actually more of a short course on residential building codes and procedures intended to help prevent unnecessary and costly mistakes during construction.

If you will be doing your own plumbing or wiring, you will also need to take a homeowner plumbing and/or electrical code review before obtaining those respective permits.

There is no mechanical review, although if the mechanical permit includes gas piping, such as for installing a gas fireplace, you will be asked to answer some gas piping questions from the plumbing review. All of the reviews are open book and unlimited time, and can be taken anytime during normal business hours. You will be given a copy of the appropriate codebook for use during the review.

Please understand that as a homeowner/builder, you are obligated to fulfill the same responsibilities as a professional contractor, including knowledge of and complying with all requirements of the codes.