Do You Need a Permit to Build a Shed in Texas?

By visiting here and reading this post, I already know you’re a wise and thorough person who does his/her homework. You’re doing your planning and research to get a shed. Good for you. From the outset, the most important and obvious question to ask is this: Do you need a permit to build a shed in Texas? We’ll answer this question and a few others in this post.

First things first, what is a building permit? It’s official permission from your local authorities to have something built on your property. Of course, we can debate whether or not it’s right or fair that we need anyone’s permission to build anything on our property. It’s our property, isn’t it? Anyway, as of now, that’s the way it is and those are the rules we have to follow.

There is a whole set of rules for builds within your residence or attached to it. Adding extra rooms, remodeling a kitchen or building a deck, for example, are considering residential construction. Sheds, on the other hand, have a more-lenient set of regulations. Or at least is Texas, they do. Sheds are typically built in backyards or other open spaces on a property….some distance away from the main structure.

Do You Need a Permit to Build a Shed in Texas?

Here’s the short answer to the question; it depends. If your proposed shed meets any of the criteria below, you will need a permit:

• its area is 200 square feet or more
• you will use the shed for work, business or as a living space
• its overall height (from ground to peak) is 15 feet or more

The above-mentioned criteria applies to Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Houston and Austin.

Of course, there are several other municipalities which surround these cities which may have their own rules. Your local building department is the definitive authority on these rules. You could certainly contact them for firm answers, advice and zoning regulations.

But we’ll save you a little time by highlighting the rules that specifically apply here in Texas.

For most of the sheds we build, permits are not needed.