The city inspected this house. What did they actually check?
Every house in Plano has a permit history, and most buyers never look at it. It is worth looking at — but not for the reason people assume. A finaled permit is not a certificate of quality. On some work in Plano it is barely evidence at all, and on other work it is the only evidence that will ever exist. This is a reference to 26 kinds of permit record: what the city inspects, what it does not, and what a gap in the file means.
A permit proves less than you think, and more than nothing
Every page here leads with what a missing record actually means, because that is the useful question. Of the 26 kinds of work covered, 2 leave no record to find and 13 leave one that proves very little. The rest are worth chasing.
Nobody publishes what a Plano inspection actually covers
The City of Plano’s own customer guide says a list of required inspections “will be provided with the permit when issued.” That is the whole problem in one sentence: the document that defines what was inspected is handed to the permit holder and published nowhere. A buyer looking at a house four owners later has no way to know what any line in its permit history means.
Some of what that document contains is genuinely reassuring. Some of it is thinner than any buyer would guess — a residential air-conditioning changeout gets one final inspection, a water heater gets one, and a re-roof final can be waived entirely by a homeowner certifying their own roofer performed it. And some work needs no permit at all, so a blank record is the expected result rather than a finding.
This site reconstructs that picture from the city’s own published material and says plainly which is which.
Structure and site, systems and trades
Structure, Envelope & Site
Roofing, foundations, additions, fences, pools and everything in the yard — 15 permit records. This is where the exemptions live, and where a missing permit most often means nothing at all.
Electrical, Plumbing & Mechanical
Trade work behind walls and under slabs — 11 permit records. Here the inspection record is often the only evidence that will ever exist, because the work was buried the same week it was done.
Three things worth understanding first
Permits and property records
How the city's permit system works, what a permit history proves, and where the public records are.
Where the work was done
Inspections cluster around the moment something is about to be covered up. Which part of the house the work touched predicts how much of a record there is.
Roof, Structure & Envelope
8 permit typesWork on the shell of the house, where the city's hold points cluster around the moment something is about to be covered up.
Re-Roofing Foundation Repair New Residential Construction Room Additions Structural Alterations Window Replacement Siding and Cladding Demolition
Electrical, Plumbing & Mechanical
8 permit typesTrade work behind walls and under slabs, where the inspection record is often the only evidence that will ever exist.
Electrical Panel Upgrades General Electrical Work Water Heater Replacement Sewer Line Replacement Gas Line Work HVAC Changeouts General Plumbing Work Irrigation and Backflow
Site, Yard & Accessory Structures
7 permit typesThe work most often done without a permit, and the part of the record where a gap usually means the least.
Fences Patio Covers Sheds and Accessory Buildings Swimming Pools Driveways and Approaches Retaining Walls Tree Removal
Solar, Generators & EV Charging
3 permit typesNewer work with heavier process, where the paper trail is recent enough to still be there.