I mean on a national level, not on a city by city basis.
In California, almost anything you want to do to your home requires a permit. Most city/county building departments now have this sort of information online for easy review. The building departments are also very helpful on the telephone and eager to answer these types of questions.
My advice is to either do some very basic research online with your particular building department or simply call them.
If you are in the gathering proposal stage of your project, your contractors should all have good information for you as well and help to answer specific questions about permits. Architects are also a very good resource for this information.
When in doubt, assume you need a permit until your building department says you do not need one. Even after they tell you you do not need one, be careful about adding to the scope of work you described to them, often times a basic project that wouldn’t require a permit grows into areas that do need permits.
I agree save time. Have a scope of work and call L and I. It’s that simple. -Josh
In most case depending on the project type there will some type of permit that needs to pulled. However, on a national, if the question on a general basis across the board; my suggestion to play it safe and use good judgment, and asked the local city whether a permit is required, and but all of this will depends on the project it self.