BATHROOM REMODELING IN SAN CLEMENTE, CA

Before you call Building Services, sort the remodel by what it changes:

• Surface work only: paint, a new mirror, towel bars. Even then, check with Building Services instead of assuming no permit is needed.
• Like-for-like swaps: a toilet, faucet or showerhead replaced in the same spot. Ask whether the city wants a permit for the swap.
• Plumbing that moves or gets rebuilt: a relocated toilet or vanity drain, a new shower valve, or a tub turned into a walk-in shower. Plan on a permit and inspections.
• New wiring or ventilation: an added outlet, new lighting, a heated floor, or an exhaust fan that is new or rerouted. Plan on a permit for that work as well.

• City of San Clemente: Building Services (opens in a new tab)
• City of San Clemente: Forms, Handouts & Checklists (opens in a new tab)
• City of San Clemente: Minimum Residential Plan Submittal Requirements (BI-24, PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• City of San Clemente: Building Permit Application (PDF) (opens in a new tab)

We have gone by the titles of these city pages and documents, not their contents. The dates of the city's BI handouts were not shown, so they may predate the 2025 codes. Confirm with Building Services which permit your bathroom needs, and which version of each handout is current, before demolition starts.

A bathroom is where California's water-conservation law shows up most directly. Civil Code Section 1101.4, added by SB 407 in 2009, says that for building alterations or improvements to a single-family home built on or before January 1, 1994, replacing noncompliant plumbing fixtures with water-conserving ones is a condition of final permit approval. Section 1101.3 defines what counts as noncompliant:

• A toilet that uses more than 1.6 gallons per flush.
• A showerhead with a flow capacity of more than 2.5 gallons per minute.
• An interior faucet that emits more than 2.2 gallons per minute.

Two other state codes apply as well. The 2025 Energy Code (Title 24, Part 6), in effect for permit applications from January 1, 2026, has residential lighting rules in Section 150.0(k): new installed lighting is to be high efficacy, and at least one installed luminaire in each bathroom is controlled by an occupancy or vacancy sensor that turns it off automatically. The 2025 California Electrical Code calls for ground-fault (GFCI) protection on bathroom receptacles, and bathroom receptacles are supplied by a 20-amp branch circuit.

An exhaust fan, a relocated shower valve or a new circuit can each bring their own permit and inspection. What applies to your bathroom is decided by the city at plan check and inspection, so confirm with the city.

HCD's summary of the 2025 CALGreen code calls for bathroom exhaust fans that are ENERGY STAR compliant and ducted to terminate outside the building. Unless the fan is part of a whole-house ventilation system, it is to have a humidity control adjustable between a relative humidity of 50 percent or less and a maximum of 80 percent. By that summary, CALGreen reaches alterations that add conditioned area, volume or size, so ask the plan checker whether the rule applies to a fan replaced inside an existing bathroom.

The fan duct is mechanical work, and San Clemente's Municipal Code has a chapter headed Mechanical Code (15.16). Lighting built into the fan has its own rule: the Energy Commission's 2025 Single-Family Residential Compliance Manual says it must be controlled independently from the fan.

Smoke alarms come up at final. The city posts Smoke Alarm Requirements as handout BI-34, and Health and Safety Code Section 13113.7 covers homes where a building permit is issued for alterations or repairs exceeding a dollar threshold set in the statute. In those cases, the work is not signed off until all smoke alarms required for the home are devices approved and listed by the State Fire Marshal.

Ask Building Services which inspections your permit includes and at what stage of the work, so nothing the inspector needs to see, such as a new shower valve or drain, is covered by tile first.

• California Department of Housing and Community Development: 2025 CALGreen Residential Mandatory Measures, form HCD SHL 625, Rev. 11/25 (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• California Energy Commission: 2025 Single-Family Residential Compliance Manual, Chapter 6 (Residential Lighting) (opens in a new tab)
• San Clemente Municipal Code Chapter 15.16, Mechanical Code (Municode) (opens in a new tab)
• City of San Clemente: Smoke Alarm Requirements (BI-34, PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• California Legislature: Health and Safety Code Section 13113.7 (smoke alarms) (opens in a new tab)
• City of San Clemente: Inspections (opens in a new tab)

We have gone by the titles of the city's handout, Inspections page and code chapter, not their contents. What applies to your fan, alarms and shower is decided at plan check and inspection, so confirm with the city.

If someone in the home uses a walker or wheelchair, or you plan to stay in the house for the long run, build for it while the walls and floor are open. Common choices are a shower with a low curb or none, a built-in bench, a hand shower on a slide bar, lever handles, a comfort-height toilet and solid backing in the walls where grab bars can go now or later.

A shower with no curb changes how the floor is framed and how the drain is set, so decide on it before the plans are drawn, and include it in the scope you take to Building Services.

Remodeling a bathroom inside the existing house adds no floor area. Work that does add floor area is a different question inside the Coastal Zone, which the city's Coastal Planning page says generally extends inland to Interstate 5. Public Resources Code Section 30610 exempts improvements to existing single-family residences, but the Coastal Commission's regulation, Title 14, Section 13250, lists exceptions. They include an improvement that adds 10 percent or more to the internal floor area of a home between the sea and the first public road paralleling the sea, and an improvement where the house or the improvement is within 50 feet of the edge of a coastal bluff.

A 2024 Coastal Commission staff report named the Commission as the coastal permit issuing authority in San Clemente, and on October 4, 2026 the city's Coastal Planning page listed Coastal Commission certification of its Local Coastal Program as “Estimated January to December 2026.” Ask the city who issues the permit for your address today.

If your home is in a homeowners association that requires approval for physical changes, Civil Code Section 4765 sets the ground rules for that review: the association's decision is to be in writing, and a disapproval has to explain why and describe how to ask for reconsideration. HOA approval and a city permit are separate. One does not replace the other.

On San Clemente's HOA Confirmation Form, the owner or agent declares whether the property is subject to an association's CC&Rs and whether the association's approval has been obtained. A new exhaust fan cap or a replaced bathroom window can be visible from outside, so ask the association about those as well.

• City of San Clemente: Coastal Planning (opens in a new tab)
• California Legislature: Public Resources Code Section 30610, developments that need no permit (official text) (opens in a new tab)
• California Code of Regulations: Title 14, Section 13250, Improvements to Existing Single-Family Residences (Cornell LII copy) (opens in a new tab)
• California Coastal Commission: Staff Report, Application 5-24-0199, San Clemente (hearing October 9, 2024, PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• City of San Clemente: HOA Confirmation Form (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• City of San Clemente: Planning Services (opens in a new tab)

If your bathroom project adds floor area, changes the outside of the house or is near the edge of a coastal bluff, ask Planning Services about your address before the design is final.