Here is the conversation we have most often in the first meeting. Somebody wants a kitchen finished before the holidays, or an addition closed in before snow, and they have worked backwards from the build. They have not worked backwards from the permit.
In the Denver metro in 2026, that is the mistake that costs a season.
The honest picture
Review times vary enormously by jurisdiction, by project type and by how complete your submittal is. A simple like-for-like permit in a small municipality can move quickly. A structural addition in a busy jurisdiction, submitted incomplete, can stretch across months. Denver's own published expectations for residential review have moved out considerably, and volume plus complexity keeps pushing real-world timelines.
We will not print a specific number of days here and let you plan on it, because the number that matters is the one your jurisdiction quotes for your scope on the day you submit. What we can tell you is what reliably makes it longer.
What actually drives the clock
- Completeness of the first submittal. This is the big one and it is almost entirely under your control. An incomplete set does not sit in the queue — it comes back, and you rejoin the line at the end.
- Structural work. Removing a bearing wall, adding a second story, changing the roof structure — anything needing engineering adds a review layer and usually a stamped drawing.
- Zoning review. Additions, ADUs and anything altering the footprint trigger zoning as well as building review. Two queues, not one.
- Number of trades. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical can carry their own permits and their own inspections.
- Overlays. Historic districts, floodplain, wildland-urban interface and view-plane overlays each add a step, and some add a board that meets on a fixed calendar.
- HOA review running in parallel. Not a city process at all, but it gates you just as hard. Some architectural committees meet twice a month.
How to plan around it instead of into it
- Start the drawings before you finalise finishes. Cabinet colour does not gate the permit. Framing plans do. Get the set moving and choose tile while it is in review.
- Submit complete, even if it takes two more weeks to prepare. Two weeks spent making the set right is cheaper than a resubmittal cycle.
- Ask the jurisdiction for its current quoted review time on the day you submit — not the number from a blog, including this one.
- Run HOA approval in parallel, not after. Find out today which meetings your committee holds and what it wants to see.
- Build the wait into your own calendar. If you want to be finished by a date, count backwards through construction, then through inspections, then through review, then add contingency.
- Do not start work "while you wait." Working without a permit turns a delay into a correction notice, a possible double fee, and sometimes an order to open finished walls.
What we take off your plate
We prepare and file the permit, respond to plan-review comments, and schedule inspections. That last part matters more than it sounds — knowing which inspection has to pass before the next trade can start is what keeps a job from stalling at the rough-in.
We also tell you honestly at the first meeting whether your timeline is realistic. If you want an addition weathered-in before winter and we are already into the season, the responsible answer is sometimes to start the drawings now and build in spring, with the permit in hand on day one.
Our Denver-metro permit guide breaks down who issues permits in each jurisdiction we serve, and what each one wants to see.
Keep reading from the BH Builders blog
People budget for the build and forget the wait. Then they are living in a half-planned kitchen in November because the drawings went in three weeks late in July.DT · Owner, BH Builders
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