How long do roof deck permits take in San Francisco?

In San Francisco, of the 100 roof deck permits filed from October 2025 through September 2026 that have been issued, half were issued within 32 days, down from 55 days a year earlier. Of the 93 permits filed from October 2023 through September 2024 that have reached final sign-off, half did so within 250 days of being issued, down from 310 days the year before.

From the city’s permit records, by the quarter each permit was filed. Data as of 8 October 2026. How to cite this · How this is calculated

How long until a permit is issued, and until final sign-off?

This chart as an image (SVG), with its title, source and date, free to embed under CC BY 4.0.

At a glance

Stage	Permits filed	Permits counted	Median days	Counted a year earlier	Median a year earlier
Filed to permit issued	October 2025 through September 2026	100 issued	32	141 issued	55
Permit issued to final sign-off	October 2023 through September 2024	93 finished	250	106 finished	310

“Counted” is the permits the median was taken over: those filed in the window that have been issued, or that have reached final sign-off. The first stage covers the last four complete quarters, since most permits are issued within the year. The second covers the last four quarters that ended two or more years ago, so that most of their permits have had time to finish.

Every quarter since 2000

Quarter filed	Filed	Issued	Median days to issue	Slowest 10%	Reached final	Median days issue to final	Slowest 10%	Never finaled	Settled
2026-Q4	10	1			0			0	too recent
2026-Q3	60	25	0	36	4			0	too recent
2026-Q2	51	29	36	128	8	26	85	0	too recent
2026-Q1	20	14	74	153	2			0	too recent
2025-Q4	49	32	98	249	3			0	too recent
2025-Q3	47	42	40	216	20	183	308	0	too recent
2025-Q2	44	40	88	232	18	156	343	0	too recent
2025-Q1	34	30	98	224	14	244	405	0	too recent
2024-Q4	35	29	42	147	17	258	464	0	too recent
2024-Q3	45	38	28	214	25	266	439	0	yes
2024-Q2	42	32	24	323	22	186	385	0	yes
2024-Q1	32	26	23	460	18	266	656	0	yes
2023-Q4	50	41	38	513	28	263	558	2	yes
2023-Q3	44	35	84	425	25	293	672	9	yes
2023-Q2	58	43	57	613	27	377	621	12	yes
2023-Q1	39	33	43	373	22	380	710	5	yes
2022-Q4	55	47	159	830	32	270	773	7	yes
2022-Q3	50	40	224	554	28	364	624	12	yes
2022-Q2	69	52	228	656	32	481	871	18	yes
2022-Q1	65	52	234	893	35	332	903	12	yes
2021-Q4	55	40	87	682	25	352	807	17	yes
2021-Q3	61	50	229	916	25	335	918	18	yes
2021-Q2	55	42	126	1,023	29	355	803	14	yes
2021-Q1	74	61	337	864	45	630	1,007	12	yes
2020-Q4	65	52	148	425	42	373	919	12	yes
2020-Q3	59	50	179	1,160	29	345	846	17	yes
2020-Q2	9	6	221	302	4			3	yes
2020-Q1	47	32	146	883	24	474	1,031	9	yes
2019-Q4	78	64	79	664	44	316	1,079	17	yes
2019-Q3	82	65	113	859	44	483	1,194	16	yes
2019-Q2	69	53	84	1,038	34	384	1,212	18	yes
2019-Q1	73	62	84	766	42	486	979	13	yes
2018-Q4	61	52	126	744	40	412	1,276	8	yes
2018-Q3	80	67	38	857	53	418	996	13	yes
2018-Q2	66	53	141	577	37	345	1,075	10	yes
2018-Q1	74	62	81	872	39	297	982	17	yes
2017-Q4	83	63	94	728	51	267	861	10	yes
2017-Q3	67	58	83	474	47	315	937	8	yes
2017-Q2	64	57	96	650	44	272	1,136	11	yes
2017-Q1	51	40	96	556	29	385	1,053	10	yes
2016-Q4	78	70	156	706	51	384	1,077	14	yes
2016-Q3	76	61	67	655	41	364	881	16	yes
2016-Q2	79	67	66	660	50	338	883	12	yes
2016-Q1	61	49	119	624	42	396	1,109	9	yes
2015-Q4	83	68	186	614	52	430	1,017	9	yes
2015-Q3	79	75	184	825	56	436	1,645	13	yes
2015-Q2	85	73	176	646	52	412	1,224	14	yes
2015-Q1	86	76	140	679	58	434	1,185	13	yes
2014-Q4	83	71	163	643	56	462	1,682	11	yes
2014-Q3	82	74	44	572	58	310	1,172	12	yes
2014-Q2	87	80	200	597	61	421	1,003	13	yes
2014-Q1	66	64	105	416	52	452	1,262	8	yes
2013-Q4	74	67	141	559	47	326	1,089	15	yes
2013-Q3	85	79	41	556	68	352	1,003	5	yes
2013-Q2	65	57	41	496	46	260	862	7	yes
2013-Q1	53	49	53	399	41	332	994	7	yes
2012-Q4	44	37	170	484	31	360	699	2	yes
2012-Q3	65	60	37	441	44	282	1,331	10	yes
2012-Q2	38	34	114	426	27	320	967	3	yes
2012-Q1	48	43	106	401	34	388	1,199	6	yes
2011-Q4	40	38	100	623	30	304	690	6	yes
2011-Q3	40	38	30	466	32	318	946	5	yes
2011-Q2	53	53	17	334	40	278	707	7	yes
2011-Q1	38	34	48	243	30	227	815	1	yes
2010-Q4	36	32	65	403	26	280	776	5	yes
2010-Q3	43	41	21	287	33	236	492	4	yes
2010-Q2	55	50	138	476	36	324	644	11	yes
2010-Q1	40	38	112	308	31	296	986	2	yes
2009-Q4	42	35	86	407	29	349	564	3	yes
2009-Q3	42	38	12	363	24	218	414	5	yes
2009-Q2	56	53	36	580	45	301	752	2	yes
2009-Q1	30	24	47	199	21	199	623	1	yes
2008-Q4	59	52	152	510	40	244	498	8	yes
2008-Q3	48	43	38	402	28	244	755	8	yes
2008-Q2	80	65	55	419	48	262	759	8	yes
2008-Q1	44	41	13	476	26	238	494	4	yes
2007-Q4	54	47	137	439	30	304	745	5	yes
2007-Q3	43	42	5	291	26	196	490	6	yes
2007-Q2	37	32	0	296	23	179	535	2	yes
2007-Q1	33	31	29	426	17	238	2,231	8	yes
2006-Q4	43	40	0	275	27	237	473	5	yes
2006-Q3	36	32	48	348	25	212	481	2	yes
2006-Q2	38	35	4	380	23	224	463	5	yes
2006-Q1	31	31	50	419	20	272	443	3	yes
2005-Q4	35	33	59	702	19	323	486	2	yes
2005-Q3	42	36	0	487	20	164	298	4	yes
2005-Q2	30	28	67	473	18	222	1,157	4	yes
2005-Q1	17	16	100	545	12	114	398	1	yes
2004-Q4	17	13	0	232	11	133	379	1	yes
2004-Q3	36	30	0	600	19	167	369	2	yes
2004-Q2	27	25	0	417	19	232	610	0	yes
2004-Q1	24	24	78	699	10	298	560	1	yes
2003-Q4	33	31	59	804	19	197	366	9	yes
2003-Q3	38	36	0	390	17	155	606	4	yes
2003-Q2	25	20	66	476	11	260	513	5	yes
2003-Q1	15	13	171	437	7	181	877	5	yes
2002-Q4	20	17	0	248	8	143	369	2	yes
2002-Q3	33	28	14	330	17	157	399	3	yes
2002-Q2	23	21	113	385	12	369	497	3	yes
2002-Q1	14	13	131	415	8	216	637	0	yes
2001-Q4	23	23	79	516	15	132	738	1	yes
2001-Q3	26	24	48	386	14	176	422	1	yes
2001-Q2	19	16	66	230	12	262	510	2	yes
2001-Q1	24	20	13	137	12	114	359	0	yes
2000-Q4	28	25	17	223	10	240	837	2	yes
2000-Q3	15	15	23	298	5	347	425	0	yes
2000-Q2	26	24	51	290	16	200	396	0	yes
2000-Q1	24	23	16	286	11	272	635	0	yes

A blank median means fewer than 5 permits behind it: issued permits for the first stage, and for the second, finished permits whose final is dated after their issue (a permit never issued has no span). “Slowest 10%” is the 90th percentile: one permit in ten took at least this long. Download the table as CSV or JSON; both carry the source, license and data date.

What the numbers leave out

697 of the 5,264 roof deck permits filed since 2000 (13%) have no final sign-off 3 years after they were issued or, if never issued, filed. A median over finished permits understates the real wait: the permits that never finish are not in it. Inspection records are not yet included: “final sign-off” is the city’s own completion date on the permit.

Project types in San Francisco

Shown apart, with their own page here: bathroom remodel (104,357 filed, 75,687 finished; contractors); kitchen remodel (88,742 filed, 63,705 finished; contractors); stairs (42,896 filed, 29,067 finished; contractors); deck (24,218 filed, 16,266 finished; contractors); roof deck (5,264 filed, 3,106 finished; contractors); pergola or trellis (645 filed, 372 finished; contractors). Other types: 613,041 permits. All permits in San Francisco

Every neighborhood compared.

How this is calculated

Approved means the city issued the permit: the permit’s issue date. The first stage counts days from the filing date to the issue date, over permits issued on or after they were filed. Final sign-off means the city’s own status for the permit is “complete”, with its completion date; this site does not yet read inspection records, so the inspection date is not a separate stage. The second stage counts days from the issue date to the completion date, over permits that have reached it.

Permits are grouped by the quarter they were filed. A quarter’s median counts only its permits that have finished the stage, so recent quarters look faster than they will end up: their slow permits have not finished yet. Quarters that ended two or more years ago are marked settled; the rest are shaded in the chart. The headline’s first stage uses the last four complete quarters; its second uses the last four settled quarters.

The median is the middle permit: half took less, half more. The slowest 10% is the 90th percentile. A median needs at least 5 permits behind it, or it is left out. A project type is shown apart within a neighborhood only when it has 30 or more finished permits there; the rest are “other types”.

Never finaled means no final sign-off three years after the permit was issued (or filed, if never issued), and not expired, cancelled, withdrawn, revoked, disapproved, denied or suspended (the site’s “expired or cancelled” outcome). About a quarter of permits citywide end this way; often the work was done and nobody called for the final inspection. These permits are in the counts and not in the medians.

A permit’s neighborhood is the Analysis Neighborhood the city writes on the permit record (the official set of 41). Permits with none are counted citywide only; the page says how many. “Nearby” neighborhoods are the three nearest by the center of their permits. The site reloads the city’s data every night; permits filed since 1 January 2000 are included. The placement of a permit, its dates and its status are the city’s; the grouping and the words are this site’s. How to read these records.