San Clemente, CA Building Safety: Plumbing Permits (2026)

Section 15.20.010 of the San Clemente Municipal Code adopts California Code of Regulations Title 24, Part 5, the California Plumbing Code, 2025 Edition, based on the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code published by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, including Appendices A, B, C, D and I. The provisions constitute the city's plumbing code, and a copy is on file for public examination at the Building Division. The current edition took effect through Ordinance No. 1796, § 14, on November 4, 2025.

Section 15.20.020 amends several plumbing-code sections for San Clemente specifically. Administration and fees for plumbing permits are governed by the same Division II, Chapter 1 administrative and fee provisions the city applies to the Building and Residential codes, rather than the state plumbing code's own generic fee section. On materials, ferrous water pipe and fittings are prohibited underground unless a soils analysis shows the soil will not damage the piping, copper tube for water piping must be at least Type K, with narrower exceptions for Type L underground outside the building footprint and Type M above ground, and copper water piping under a concrete floor slab must be Type K, installed without joints where possible and bedded in at least three inches of sand. No building supply pipe may be smaller than one inch in diameter without engineering approval, and every main building must have at least two three-quarter-inch hose bibs, one accessible to the front yard and one to the back yard. Buried gas piping must use approved PE pipe and fittings, or ferrous piping backed by a soils analysis, and cast iron drainage and waste piping is barred underground absent the same soils analysis.