Reading Permit Descriptions: A Working Glossary of Building-Department Abbreviations

The one-line description that decides what the record is worth

You have pulled the permit history for a quote and the portal hands you a line like R&R 40G WH, T/O EXST COMP, INST 200A MSP, ADD 12X14 PATIO CVR. That is four separate pieces of underwriting information - a water heater, a roof, a panel, and a structure - compressed into a string a permit technician typed in about twenty seconds. If you can read it, the record supports the roof age, the panel capacity, and the water heater age in one pass. If you cannot, it goes in the file as an unread permit and the questions come back anyway.

There is no statewide standard for these descriptions. Each department has house abbreviations, and within a department they drift with staff turnover and software migrations, so the same city can spell the same job three ways across a decade of records. What follows is the shorthand you will meet most often, trade by trade, with the places where meaning varies called out. Treat it as a reading aid, and when a term is genuinely ambiguous, say so in your note rather than guessing.

Roofing

The job itself shows up as REROOF, RE-ROOF, RRF, ROOF, or occasionally ROOFING with nothing else. R&R means remove and replace and is common across every trade, so R&R ROOF is a full replacement. T/O or TEAR OFF means the old covering came off, and 1 LAYER or 2 LAYERS tells you how many layers were removed; that matters because OL, O/L, or OVERLAY means the new roof went over the existing one, which many carriers treat differently and which building codes limit. EXST or EXIST is existing, and L4L or LIKE FOR LIKE means the same material went back on.

Materials are abbreviated hard. COMP is composition (asphalt) shingle, sometimes COMP SHGL or just SHINGLE. TILE, CONC TILE, and CLAY are self-explanatory, and a tile job often carries a note about underlayment only, meaning the tiles were lifted, the felt replaced, and the tiles relaid - not a new roof in the sense an underwriter means. Flat roofs read as BUR (built-up roofing, the tar-and-gravel type), MOD BIT (modified bitumen, a torch-down or peel-and-stick membrane), TPO or PVC (single-ply membranes), and COOL ROOF flags a reflective product required in many California climate zones. SQ is squares, and one square is one hundred square feet, so 24 SQ is roughly a 2,400 square foot roof area. SHTG, SHEATHING, PLYWD, or OSB means decking was replaced, which is a good sign the roofer found rot and dealt with it. RB is radiant barrier. If the description says PATIO, GAR, or SHED next to the roof terms, the house roof may not be part of the job.

Electrical

The record most underwriters ask about is the panel. It appears as MSP (main service panel), MAIN PANEL, PANEL, SVC UPG or SERVICE UPGRADE, PANEL UPG, PANEL C/O (change out), or MPU (main panel upgrade, which is the term the solar trade uses). The number is the amperage: 100A, 125A, 200A, 225A, and occasionally 400A. Two numbers, as in 100A TO 200A, give you before and after. METER MAIN or SES (service entrance section, used by some departments) describes the combined meter and panel enclosure. OH and UG are overhead and underground service drops, and a description mentioning the utility by name usually means the service conductors were touched, not just the panel.

SUB, SUBPANEL, or SUB PANEL is a secondary panel fed from the main, often for a garage, ADU, or workshop; it does not raise the service size. CKT is circuit and DED CKT is a dedicated circuit, commonly for a range, dryer, or spa. EV, EVSE, EV CHGR, or EV CHARGER is electric vehicle charging equipment, and in many California departments this is an over-the-counter or online permit with its own code. GEN is a standby generator and ATS is its transfer switch. REC or RECEPT is receptacle, LTG is lighting, and TEMP POWER is a construction pole, not a permanent service. Some technicians also type the reason for a panel job, so a description reading REPLACE ZINSCO or FPE PANEL is naming the brand being removed, which is exactly the information a carrier wants.

Plumbing and water heaters

WH is water heater, sometimes WTR HTR, and it is one of the highest-volume permits in any residential department. The number before G is capacity in gallons: 40G, 50G, and 75G are the usual tank sizes. TANKLESS, TWH, ON DEMAND, or a brand name signals a tankless unit, and HPWH is a heat pump water heater, which has become more common since utility rebates and the state's electrification push. C/O is change out, and a description like WH C/O L4L 50G means a fifty-gallon tank replaced with the same. SEISMIC STRAP, EXP TANK (expansion tank), TPR (temperature and pressure relief), and PRV (pressure reducing valve) are components a plumber or inspector noted, not separate jobs. GAS LINE or GL with a footage is a new or extended gas run.

REPIPE is a whole-house replacement of supply piping and usually names the material: PEX (cross-linked polyethylene), CU or COPPER, and GALV or GALVANIZED, the last one nearly always as the material being removed. A repipe of any size is worth a line in your note because galvanized supply is a leak-frequency issue on older houses. SEWER LATERAL, S/L, SEWER REPAIR, or CIPP (cured-in-place pipe, a trenchless liner) is the drain line from the house to the street, and in some jurisdictions that permit is issued by public works rather than building, so it can be missing from a building-only search. Fixture counts appear as 3 FIX or with codes: WC is water closet, LAV is lavatory sink, SHR is shower, and DW and GD are dishwasher and garbage disposal. A description that is only a fixture count is usually a bathroom or kitchen remodel filed as a plumbing permit.

Mechanical and HVAC

FAU is forced-air unit, the furnace and blower assembly, and it is the term most California counters use where other states would type FURNACE. HVAC C/O, FAU C/O, or AC C/O is a change out, and SAME LOCATION or L4L means nothing moved. COND or CONDENSER is the outdoor unit of a split system, COIL is the indoor evaporator coil, and SPLIT SYS versus PKG UNIT or PACKAGE UNIT distinguishes a two-piece system from a single rooftop or pad-mounted cabinet; ROOF MOUNT usually indicates the latter. HP is heat pump, and MINI SPLIT or DUCTLESS is a wall-head system, often listed with a head count like 3 ZONE.

Capacity is written as tonnage: 3T, 3 TON, or 36K (36,000 BTU per hour, which is three tons). SEER is efficiency and appears when the technician copied it from the equipment schedule. DUCTWORK, DUCTS, or DUCT REPL means the distribution system was replaced, and HERS is a required third-party test of duct leakage or refrigerant charge under the California energy code; a permit carrying HERS REQ'D that never finaled may have stalled at that test rather than at the installation. EXH FAN, BATH FAN, and RANGE HOOD are minor mechanical permits. Note that a gas furnace replacement in some departments is filed as a combination mechanical and plumbing permit, so the same job can appear twice with different numbers.

Structural work, additions and conversions

ADD, ADDN, or ADDITION with a square footage - 450 SF, 450 SQ FT - is new conditioned floor area, and the number is the figure an underwriter will want against the reported square footage. CONV is conversion, and GAR CONV or GARAGE CONV means a garage became living space, a change carriers care about because it usually removes a parking space and adds a bedroom or unit. ADU is an accessory dwelling unit, DET or ATT tells you whether it stands alone or is attached, and JADU is a junior ADU, a unit of no more than about five hundred square feet carved out of the existing house. NEW SFD or SFR is a new single-family dwelling, DU is dwelling unit, and a permit reading DU ADDED changes the occupancy question on the application.

PATIO CVR or PATIO COVER carries qualifiers worth reading: SOLID means a roofed structure, LATTICE or OPEN LATTICE means an open-slat one, and ALUMAWOOD is a brand of aluminum cover that has become a generic term on Southern California counters. A patio cover permit can also disguise a reroof of only that structure, so check whether the roof terms attach to the house or the cover. DECK, BALCONY, and PORCH are what they say, and BALCONY REPAIR and DECK REPAIR now appear as their own line items. RMDL or REMODEL with KIT, BA, or BR (kitchen, bath, bedroom) is interior work, and INT NON-STRUCT signals nothing load-bearing moved. HDR, BEAM, BEARING WALL, and FDN or FOUNDATION indicate structural scope. SEISMIC RETROFIT, BRACE & BOLT, or EBB describes foundation bolting and cripple-wall bracing under the state's Earthquake Brace and Bolt program, which is favorable information for an earthquake quote. FIRE DAMAGE REPAIR or FIRE REPAIR is a claim-history flag on its own.

Solar, batteries and energy

PV, SOLAR PV, or SOLAR is a photovoltaic system, and the size is written in kilowatts: 5.2 KW, 5.2 KWDC (direct current, the panel rating), or KWAC (the inverter rating, which is lower). Many descriptions also give a module count, as in 16 MODULES or 16 PANELS, and ROOF MOUNT or GROUND MOUNT locates the array. INV is inverter, and MICRO or MICROINVERTERS means one per panel. MPU inside a solar description means the installer also upgraded the main panel, and that is frequently the only record of the panel size on a property. SOLAR THERMAL or SWH is a solar water heater, which is a plumbing job rather than an electrical one.

ESS, BESS, or BATTERY is an energy storage system, and it is often followed by a capacity in kilowatt-hours (13.5 KWH) and sometimes a brand such as POWERWALL. A battery adds a fire-safety and location question for the file, so note where the description says it is installed - GARAGE, EXTERIOR WALL - if it says at all. EVSE appears here as often as under electrical because solar contractors bundle chargers. Terms such as NEM, PTO, and INTERCONNECT refer to the utility side, net energy metering and permission to operate, and while they occasionally get typed into permit descriptions they are not building-department milestones. SOLARAPP or SOLARAPP+ names the automated review platform a growing number of California departments use for standard rooftop systems, and permits issued through it can have very sparse descriptions.

Site, exterior and swimming pools

FENCE with a height (6' FENCE, 7 FT FENCE) is a fence over the height that triggers a permit in that jurisdiction; BLOCK WALL or CMU (concrete masonry unit) is a masonry fence, and RET WALL or RETAINING WALL carries a height that matters, since a retaining wall holding back several feet of soil is an engineered structure. POOL, SPA, and POOL & SPA are the main site permits, and GUNITE (a sprayed concrete shell) or FIBERGLASS gives the construction. POOL BARRIER, POOL FENCE, and ALARM describe the safety features that California's pool-safety rules require, and POOL EQUIP, POOL HTR, or POOL PUMP is the equipment pad, which usually has an electrical and a gas component. ABOVE GROUND is worth noting separately because some carriers rate it differently.

DEMO or DEMOLITION is removal, and it deserves a closer look than it usually gets: DEMO POOL or POOL FILL-IN means a pool was removed or filled, which answers a question you might otherwise get wrong from an old aerial photo, and DEMO SFD means the house on the parcel was torn down, so records before that date describe a different building. GRADING, DRIVEWAY, FLATWORK, and RE-STUCCO or SIDING are minor exterior items. SHED or ACCESSORY STRUCTURE with a square footage is an outbuilding, and one over about 120 square feet in most jurisdictions needed the permit you are looking at. SEPTIC, OWTS (onsite wastewater treatment system), and WELL are usually environmental health permits rather than building permits, and ENCROACHMENT is work in the public right-of-way, which lives with public works.

Status and plan-check shorthand

The status field tells you where the permit stopped, and the vocabulary is smaller but more consequential than the trade terms. OTC is over the counter, a permit issued at the window or online without plan review, which is normal for reroofs, water heaters, and HVAC change outs and tells you nothing bad. PC is plan check, and PC1, PC2, or CORR (corrections) mark rounds of review; APPLIED, SUBMITTED, or PENDING means the permit was never actually issued, and RTI is ready to issue, meaning review passed but nobody came back to pick up the permit. ISSUED is when work was authorized. INSP is inspection, and inspection histories use ROUGH, COVER, and FINAL for stages, with REINSPECT or CORRECTION NOTICE where something failed.

FNL, FINAL, FINALED, COMPLETE, or CLOSED are the end states, but they are not synonyms everywhere. In most systems FINALED means a final inspection was passed, while CLOSED can mean the file was closed administratively after sitting too long, so CLOSED with no final inspection date is not evidence the work was inspected. EXP or EXPIRED means the permit lapsed without a final, commonly after a set period without an inspection that varies by department, and VOID, CANCELLED, or WITHDRAWN mean it never reached work. CO or C OF O is a certificate of occupancy, for new buildings, ADUs, and changes of use rather than a reroof, and TCO is a temporary one. NOC usually means notice of completion, a document the owner records with the county recorder; it is not a final inspection, and a few departments use NOC for a notice of correction, so read the surrounding record. STOP WORK or NOV (notice of violation) is code enforcement and belongs in your note verbatim.

Department quirks, and what to write in the file

A few fields around the description cause more misreadings than the description itself. The valuation or job value field is the figure the applicant declared for the department's own purposes; contractors commonly enter a formula figure or a nominal one, and a low valuation on a large job is routine rather than suspicious. The applicant field distinguishes a licensed contractor, usually shown with a CSLB number, from an owner-builder, shown as OB, O/B, or OWNER-BUILDER; owner-builder permits on trade work such as a panel or a reroof deserve a second look because the quality question is open. Permit numbers often carry a trade prefix - B, E, P, M, or BLD, ELE, PLM, MEC - and a COMBO or COMBINATION permit rolls several trades into one number, while some systems file each trade as a child of a master permit, so one job can be one record or five depending on the software.

MISC, OTHER, and GENERAL are catch-all types and are where the interesting work hides, so read those descriptions rather than skipping them. Records migrated from an older system frequently arrive with truncated descriptions, a note like SEE ATTACHED or PER PLANS, or a blank description with only a type code, and in that case the permit type and the issue date are all you have. When a description is ambiguous - the same abbreviation can mean different things in two of the 539 California permitting authorities - your note should say what the record shows and what it does not, not what you inferred.

For the file, copy the description exactly as typed, capitals and all, then write your decoded reading beside it, the permit number, issue and final dates, status as displayed, and the source link and date searched. Decoding is your judgment and belongs on the page as yours. PermitProof returns records with their original descriptions and a source link beside each one, and groups them into categories such as roof, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and solar so you can find the roof line, but the reading of that line - and the underwriting weight you give it - stays with you.