Permits, licensing and digging rules for foundation work in Bowling Green

The city permit

Inside Bowling Green city limits, building permits come from the City of Bowling Green's Neighborhood & Community Services, Building Division. The city's permits page says a permit is required "to construct, enlarge, alter, repair or demolish a structure," and its guidance for homeowners says alterations that change the structural form of a building require a building permit. Foundation repair is not named by itself on those pages, but structural repair falls under the general rule, so we check with the Building Division on every structural job and post the permit before starting.

The same homeowner page lists jobs that may not need a permit, such as fences up to seven feet, replacing shingles, painting and small excavation or paving under 350 square feet. It also gives advice worth repeating: never allow work to begin unless the permit is posted on site.

Site work

A separate Site Work Permit covers excavation, grading and paving. Clearing more than 350 square feet calls for grade, slope and elevation plans, and disturbing more than an acre calls for stormwater plans. Most residential foundation jobs stay well under those thresholds, but large drainage regrades can approach them.

Contacts

Licensing in Kentucky

Kentucky does not issue a statewide general contractor licence. The state's Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction licenses electrical, plumbing and HVAC work statewide, and Louisville and Lexington license or register contractors locally. Around Bowling Green, that means no state licence card exists for foundation contractors. The documents to ask any company for are its certificate of insurance, a written contract and, where the work is structural, the permit. Our crews carry general liability and workers' compensation insurance.

If a sump pump or dehumidifier needs a new circuit, that wiring is electrical work, which the state does license, and it is done and inspected that way.

Before anyone digs: Kentucky 811

Kentucky's one-call law, KRS 367.4911, requires excavators to notify the one-call center "not less than two (2) full working days nor more than ten (10) full working days" before starting work. Pier holes, drain trenches and sump discharge lines all count. The locate marks gas, power, water and communication lines so a shovel or an auger does not find them first. That notice window is why a pier job cannot usually start the day after you sign.

Homeowner associations

Some subdivisions have covenants about exterior work, drainage changes and equipment in yards. If yours does, let us know and we will plan around the rules.

During the job

Once the permit is issued, it goes up where an inspector can see it. Depending on the scope, the Building Division may want to see the work at stages, for example before backfilling around piers. We schedule those visits and keep you posted. When the job is done, you keep copies of the permit, the locate ticket number and our record of each pier's depth and pressure, which are exactly the papers a future buyer's inspector will ask about.

Codes, fees and procedures change. The Building Division and your local building office have the final word on any specific project.

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Keep reading: Repair cost guide · Push piers · French drains · Free inspection