Plumbing work in San Antonio, measured from the city's own permit record
San Antonio issues more plumbing permits than any other trade we track. Here is how many, how steady the volume is, and which permit types make it up.
Counts and timing from the city's permit data · No cost figures — permit valuation does not support them
San Antonio conditions
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database · City of San Antonio Permits Open Data · U.S. Drought Monitor · confirmed Oct 6, 2026
How much plumbing work is happening in San Antonio?
The City of San Antonio issued about 1,909 plumbing permits a month over the 13 months from September 2025 to September 2026 — 24,812 in total. Activity rose about 3.7% between the first and second halves of the window — 11,182 permits to 11,599 — which clears the ±2.3% counting-noise threshold for a monthly total this size.
The busiest months in the window were October 2025 (2,174), September 2025 (2,103), July 2026 (2,098). Every permit in this count is identified by the city's own permit-type field, across 8 San Antonio permit types. This is a measure of activity and timing only — the city's permit record does not support a cost figure, and none is published here.
LIVESan Antonio plumbing permits, month by month
| Month | Permits issued | Share of window |
|---|---|---|
| 2,103 | 8.5% | |
| 2,174 | 8.8% | |
| 1,724 | 6.9% | |
| 1,579 | 6.4% | |
| 1,812 | 7.3% | |
| 1,790 | 7.2% | |
| 2,031 | 8.2% | |
| 1,947 | 7.8% | |
| 1,890 | 7.6% | |
| 1,950 | 7.9% | |
| 2,098 | 8.5% | |
| 1,983 | 8.0% | |
| 1,731 | 7.0% | |
| Total | 24,812 | 100.0% |
Busiest month in the window: October 2025 at 2,174 permits — 14% above the monthly average of 1,909. Quietest: December 2025 at 1,579.
LIVEHow this count is put together
Plumbing is not one permit type in San Antonio — the city issues several, and a count that read only “Plumbing General Permit” would miss most of the work. Each permit is identified by the city's own permit-type field across every plumbing type the mapping covers, and counted once however many rows the city's file gives it.
Some of these permits carry more than one type — one job can be filed as both a general and a gas permit — so the rows below add up to 2,038 more than the 24,812 permits counted. Each row counts permits; the shares are of records.
| City permit type | Permits | Share of records |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing General Permit | 10,327 | 38.5% |
| Plumbing Irrigation Permit | 7,050 | 26.3% |
| LSR Plumbing Permit | 3,133 | 11.7% |
| Plumbing Gas Permit | 2,884 | 10.7% |
| Plumbing Sewer Permit | 2,734 | 10.2% |
| Plumbing Backflow Permit | 465 | 1.7% |
| Plumbing Completion Permit | 148 | 0.6% |
| Plumbing Medical Gas Permit | 109 | 0.4% |
| All permit records | 26,850 | 100.0% |
- Classification mechanism: the city's own permit-type field. No description-text matching is used for this category in San Antonio, so the count does not depend on how a clerk worded a job.
- Mapping version trades-v2. 9 permit types are mapped to this category; 8 issued at least one permit in this window.
- Trend threshold: ±2.3%. A permit count is a count of events, so its month-to-month wobble is Poisson — the standard deviation of a monthly count averaging 1,909 is about 44, or 2.3%. A half-over-half change smaller than that is not reported as a trend.
- Not published from this feed: any cost, price or typical-spend figure. San Antonio's DECLARED VALUATION field is 0.00% populated on every residential and trade permit type, and declared valuation is an applicant's fee-basis statement to the city rather than a paid invoice.
What else bears on a San Antonio plumbing decision
Drought is the local condition most directly tied to buried supply and drain lines
Central Texas clay soils shrink as they dry and swell as they rewet. That movement is a documented contributor to stress on buried supply and drain lines, so a long dry stretch is worth knowing about. This is the U.S. Drought Monitor reading for the San Antonio area — a county-level measurement, not a reading at any address.
Drought category, Bexar County
D2 — Severe Drought (45% of county)
LIVEWhat we looked for and did not publish
These readings would belong on this page. Each is missing a specific input, named here rather than left as a gap a reader has to notice.
- Pipe-era reading — what supply material your neighbourhood's housing stock is likely to have. Parcel-level year-built data. The Bexar Appraisal District records request has not returned, so no parcel data exists for San Antonio.
- Percentile against comparable homes. A signal that varies within the metro. Every San Antonio feed we hold is metro- or county-level; nothing varies by ZIP, so a percentile would be fabricated.
- Typical repipe or water-heater replacement cost. A cost source that is not permit valuation. Blocked, not merely unbuilt — see docs/audits/round-6-permit-measurement.md.
San Antonio plumbing permit questions
How many plumbing permits does San Antonio issue?
About 1,909 permits a month on average across the 13 months from September 2025 to September 2026, 24,812 in total. That is more than any other trade category we track in San Antonio.
What counts as a plumbing permit in San Antonio?
The mapping covers 9 San Antonio plumbing permit types, 8 of which issued at least one permit in this window: Plumbing General Permit, Plumbing Irrigation Permit, LSR Plumbing Permit, Plumbing Gas Permit, Plumbing Sewer Permit, Plumbing Backflow Permit, Plumbing Completion Permit, Plumbing Medical Gas Permit. The city separates them by work type rather than issuing one general plumbing permit, so a count that reads only one type understates the activity substantially.
Is plumbing activity in San Antonio going up?
Activity rose about 3.7% between the first and second halves of the window — 11,182 permits to 11,599 — which clears the ±2.3% counting-noise threshold for a monthly total this size. A change smaller than the counting noise on a monthly total of this size (±2.3%) would not be distinguishable from ordinary month-to-month variation, so it would not be reported as a trend.
What does a San Antonio plumbing permit cost?
We do not publish that, and this data cannot support it. San Antonio's DECLARED VALUATION field is 0.00% populated on every residential and trade permit type, and declared valuation is in any case an applicant's fee-basis statement to the city rather than a paid invoice. A cost figure needs a different source.
Does San Antonio plumbing activity follow a season?
The busiest months in the window were October 2025 (2,174), September 2025 (2,103), July 2026 (2,098). Plumbing runs far steadier through the year than mechanical work does, which concentrates sharply in summer.
Sources for this page
| Source | What this page uses it for |
|---|---|
| City of San Antonio Permits Open Data | Every residential trade permit issued in the window, read by permit number, permit type and issue date. Each permit is counted once: the city's file lists a permit on several rows when it covers more than one type or stage, and counting rows instead overstated the two busiest trades here by about 7%. |
| U.S. Drought Monitor | Weekly drought category for Bexar County. |
| Texas Home Intelligence — permit methodology | How permit types are mapped to trade categories, and why no cost figure is published from permit data. |
Also see Plumbing in Austin • All San Antonio services