Do I need a permit for water heater replacement in Brunswick County?

It depends. Whether water heater replacement needs a permit in Brunswick County comes down to the details of your project.

A water heater changeout generally requires a plumbing permit and must be performed by a licensed contractor. A few North Carolina jurisdictions allow a narrow exception for reconnecting an existing electric water heater in the same location at the same or lower capacity, but most require a permit, so confirm with your local department. Switching fuel type, relocating the unit, or altering gas or venting is not covered by any exemption and requires a permit. Brunswick County's own permitting office is the Brunswick County Code Administration office, reachable on 910-253-2021 at https://www.brunswickcountync.gov/181/Code-Administration. Its online permit portal is https://bcpp.brunswickcountync.gov/. It issues permits for the unincorporated county. If your city does not run its own building department, this is the office that will handle the job, and that is more common in North Carolina than most states. Plumbing work is an express exception to the $40,000 exemption, so this generally needs a permit even on a modest job. Brunswick County needs no permit to replace a water heater in a one- or two-family home when the energy use or thermal input is not greater than the old unit, there is no change in fuel, energy source, location, or venting and piping routing or size, and a licensed plumbing contractor installs it to the current NC State Building Code. A change in fuel, size or location, or a homeowner install, falls outside that exemption and needs a plumbing permit.