Renovation Dependencies: Which Jobs Must Happen Before Others?

A renovation’s sequence is decided by two things: what a later trade can no longer reach, and what an inspector has to see before the work is covered. The second kind cannot be renegotiated afterwards. Washington law forbids concealing electrical work until the inspector has approved it, and the jurisdiction that permits the project publishes the inspections it expects at each stage. Plan the sequence backward from those hold points and the trades stop paying for one another’s work.

This page is for the owner running a renovation who is trying to keep the trades in the right order. It decides who waits for whom, and where the inspections fall in the schedule. It does not decide which work matters most — that is a risk question with its own ordering — and it does not settle which permits a particular address needs, which is the district’s own answer.

Two kinds of dependency

Reachability. Work that goes behind a wall has to be complete, tested and inspected before the wall closes. Plumbing, ducting, wiring, blocking for a cabinet, the pan under a tub: once the drywall is on, the only way back in is demolition. These dependencies are physical and the same everywhere.

The inspector’s hold point. The other dependency is administrative, and it is written down. Work is not allowed to disappear behind a finish until the authority that permitted it has seen it. That makes the inspector a participant in the schedule rather than a formality at the end of it, and the dependency owners most often discover late.

The hold point, in the state’s own words

Washington states the electrical rule outright: “No electrical wiring or equipment subject to this chapter may be concealed until it has been approved by the inspector making the inspection.” The Department of Labor & Industries puts the same rule to homeowners as a question and an answer: nothing can be covered or concealed until it has been approved, and all electrical work has to be open for visual inspection. The department also sets the clock — the inspection is to be requested no later than three business days after the installation is complete, one business day after any part of it has been energized, or before the installation is covered, whichever comes first.

One line in the state’s electrical rules shows how a hold point creates further dependencies. The section requires that “the installation of all structural elements and mechanical systems (e.g., framing, plumbing, ducting, etc.) must be complete in the area(s) where electrical inspection is requested.” In plain terms, an electrician cannot pass a rough-in in a room where the plumber or the heating contractor has not finished, because the inspector wants to see the whole assembly at once. Scheduling three trades in parallel through one inspection is what turns a sequence problem into a delay.

Each jurisdiction publishes its own order

The general rule is stated locally. In unincorporated King County, “construction or work must remain visible and available for inspection until the inspection has been completed and approved,” and the permit holder is the party responsible for requesting the inspections.

The City of Spokane publishes the sequence itself, as a typical inspection order: foundation, excavation or slab; underground plumbing and interior drainage; radon; rough plumbing; rough heating, ventilation and air conditioning; rough electrical; framing; insulation; final plumbing; final heating and ventilation; final electrical; final structural. Its general guidance explains why each stop falls where it does — the first inspection happens after excavation but before the footing is poured; underground plumbing and radon systems “must also be inspected before covering”; rough-ins are approved before the framing inspection is called; and the final stage “covers all finished work.”

Two details in that guidance change a plan. An interior alteration or remodel of an existing building “generally begins at the framing inspection stage,” so a kitchen or bathroom gut does not carry the excavation and foundation steps that a new building does. And the City warns that each trade pulls its own permit and answers its own inspector: separate permits, with separate inspectors, are required for electrical, heating, air conditioning, structural, plumbing, boiler and elevator work.

King County’s list of typical inspections lands in a different order and names items Spokane does not — an underfloor inspection, a shear wall inspection, and a lowest-floor elevation inspection for projects in flood hazard areas, with plumbing and gas piping inspected by the local health department rather than the building department. That divergence is the point: the sequence to schedule is the one your jurisdiction issues. Checking the permit for an address is where that question is settled.

What the hold points cost when they are missed

A missed hold point is not a paperwork problem. Spokane County defines its results in terms of movement: “correction required” means the corrections must be completed and re-inspected before the project can move to the next step, and the same county publishes a reinspection fee when the work called for is not complete. The City of Spokane publishes a re-inspection fee for work that is not ready, for corrections left uncorrected, and for a site the inspector cannot access.

The deeper cost is the one the sequence was meant to prevent: an inspection requested over incomplete framing is a wasted visit, and a wall closed before the rough-in was seen has to be opened again. Both are schedule money, and both are avoidable.

The dependencies the code does not list

Permit inspections cover concealed work, not every dependency. The rest come from how materials and trades actually meet.

The wall has one order. A building-science guide produced for the Department of Energy uses a tub on an exterior wall to show what an out-of-order sequence costs. Its own sequence runs cavity insulation, horizontal blocking, thin board sheathing, cement board, then the tub, then the tile — and it warns that on exterior walls or the shaft walls behind fireplaces the ordinary sequence of trades leaves the air barrier out. Its recommendation is to put the barrier — thin board sheathing or drywall — into the framer’s scope so it is installed before the tub is set. A barrier fitted after the fixture is a barrier that is not there.

Water layers go on in one order. A manufacturer’s water-resistive barrier guide states when the barrier is best installed: after the roof sheathing, after the step and kickout flashings, and before the windows and doors. The residential building code, as a home builders’ technical note restates it, requires the barrier behind the exterior veneer, continuous and integrated with the flashing so water that gets past the cladding can drain out. The consequence for a schedule is concrete: flashing cannot be retrofitted cleanly behind a window that was set first, and cladding cannot be the first thing on a wall.

A finish waits for a dry substrate. Coating instructions carry their own hold points. One exterior paint’s technical data sheet sets the maximum substrate moisture it will tolerate — 12 percent for concrete and masonry, 15 percent for wood — measured with an electronic moisture meter, and its specification section adds the rule that the initial coating is not to be applied “until moisture content of surface is within limitations recommended by paint manufacturer.” The same document keeps the finish out of dusty conditions: do not apply finish “in areas where dust or contaminants are being generated.” Sanding, cutting and demolition therefore precede the final coat, not follow it. What governs the weather window for that coat is a separate question.

Ground work has its own clock. Washington’s dig law requires notice to the one-number locator service not less than two full business days and not more than ten full business days before excavation, with the excavation area marked in white before the notice is given. The marks are to be maintained for 45 days, after which a new locate is required, and since 1 January 2026 an excavator may not begin until a positive response has come back from every operator with underground facilities in the area. That sequence sits in front of any footing, drain or utility trench — and where the water is going is the drainage guide’s subject.

The plan, written as hold points

Write the schedule as a list of stops rather than a list of trades, and name who requests each one.

Where this stops

This page orders work; it does not inspect it. Structural, electrical, gas, plumbing and mechanical judgement belongs to the licensed trades and to the jurisdiction’s inspectors, and nothing here replaces what a plan reviewer requires at a specific address. What an owner can do is ask: request the inspection list for the address, put each hold point in the schedule with a name beside it, and make every bidder write the sequence down.

Comparing quotes as scopes is where that happens, because a bid that names what a trade needs from the others — and in what order — is a bid that can be checked. Verifying the contractor’s registration is the other half of that check. The whole-project view, from scope through permits, budget and hiring, is the renovation-planning guide, and building the budget is a subject with mechanics of its own.

Next step

Ask the permitting office for the inspection list that applies to your address, and copy the sequence into the schedule as appointments with a named requester. Then give every bidder the same two questions: what do you need from another trade before you start, and what has to happen before your work is covered. A renovation runs out of order only when nobody wrote the order down.