Guides · 2026-10-24 · By David Linda, Founder

Reading Denver and Boulder permit records: what 347,000 permits say about a contractor

A license tells you a contractor is allowed to do the work. A permit tells you they actually did it, at a real address, and that an inspector looked. In Colorado, only a handful of cities publish their permit records as open data. Boulder, Denver and Boulder County are the ones we use, and together they make up the Colorado permit history on HomeProFax.

This guide explains what's in those records, what we found when we analyzed them, and how to use permit history when you're choosing a contractor.

Boulder: 39 years of permits in one file

The City of Boulder publishes its construction permits as open data. Our October 20, 2026 pull holds 337,482 permits issued from 1987 through October 19, 2026. Each record has the permit type, the work type, the issue date, an estimated project cost, the contractor's company name and the contractor's trade. Since 2021 alone, Boulder has issued 46,578 permits.

Most common Boulder permit types (all years)	Permits
Mechanical	72,434
Electrical	66,429
Roofing replacement	28,542
Plumbing	28,254
Building, single-family detached	27,185
Right-of-way	22,496
Fire	16,561
Building, non-residential	15,537

The biggest single work type is "Mechanical HVAC/Solar" (52,115 permits). That fits what we see in matched profiles: the Colorado contractors with the most permits on HomeProFax are heating, plumbing and electrical companies in Boulder County, led by Save Home Heat Co (7,595 permits), Precision Plumbing Heating Cooling & Electrical in Louisville (4,342) and Cooper Heating & Cooling in Broomfield (2,614).

The contractor-trade field is useful too. 2,349 Boulder permits list an owner/contractor, meaning the homeowner pulled the permit, and 940 of those were issued since 2021. That's a small share of the total, which is the point. If a contractor asks you to pull the permit yourself, that's unusual, and you should ask why.

Denver: the demolition log

The City and County of Denver publishes several permit datasets. The demolition permit log is the cleanest. It holds 9,812 permits from 2015 to October 2026, with the permit class, valuation, contractor name and, importantly, a final date when the permit was closed out.

7,155 are full wrecking permits, and most of the rest are alterations.
Of the permits issued before 2024, 89% (7,286 of 8,162) have a final date. Only 88 in the whole log are marked cancelled.
502 different contractors pulled wrecking permits. One firm pulled 2,548 of them, about 36%.
The median valuation on a wrecking permit is $6,500.

The final-date field is the lesson that applies everywhere. An open permit that never got a final inspection can follow a house. When you check a contractor's past permits, look for ones that closed. When you hire, keep the permit number and don't make your last payment until the final inspection passes.

We also match Denver's residential and commercial construction permits to profiles. On the Denver permit rows we display, the median value is $12,000 for residential permits and $38,000 for commercial ones. In Boulder, the median on the matched rows we display is $4,500, because so many Boulder permits are small mechanical and electrical jobs.

How HomeProFax connects a permit to a contractor

Permit records carry a company name as the applicant typed it, which is messy. "Boulder Roofing LLC" and "BOULDER ROOFING" are the same business, and two different businesses can share a name. For Boulder, we match permits through the City of Boulder's licensed-contractor register, which ties the permit's contractor to a licensed business. Denver's permits carry no contractor address, so we match by name only when the profile is in the Denver metro, the name is unique among our profiles nationwide, and no state licensee with the same name conflicts. Ambiguous matches are held back rather than guessed. Boulder County publishes building permits for its unincorporated areas (CC BY 4.0) with the contractor's company name but no address, so we use the same rule as Denver.

The result: 61,481 Colorado permits matched to 1,404 contractor profiles. That's deep for the companies that work in Boulder and Denver, and it's why a Boulder-area HVAC company may show thousands of permits while an equally good roofer in Pueblo shows none. Profiles show up to 100 recent permits, and the total count is listed separately.

Reading a contractor's permit history

Does the work type match the job? A company with 500 electrical permits and no roofing permits is an electrician, whatever the truck says.
Are the permits recent? Ten permits in 2012 and none since is a different business from one with ten last year.
Are they in your area? Permits near you mean the contractor knows your building department and its inspectors.
Did they close? Where the data has a final date, look for it.
Is the permit in the contractor's name? A permit should list the licensed contractor, not you, unless you're truly doing the work yourself.

An example: one Boulder company's 7,595 permits

Here's what a deep permit history looks like. Save Home Heat Co, a Boulder heating company, has 7,595 permits in the city's open data, the most of any Colorado contractor we've matched. They break down cleanly: 6,645 mechanical permits (5,897 of them listed as "Mechanical HVAC/Solar"), 922 electrical permits and a handful of others. The first is from 1987, and the company has pulled roughly 300 to 500 permits every year since 2021 (310 so far in 2026).

That tells a homeowner three useful things before any sales call. The company does what it says it does, which is heating and related electrical work. It's been doing it in Boulder for decades. And it's still active this year. You won't find a history like that for most contractors, but you can ask any contractor the same three questions: what kind of permits do you pull, since when, and how many this year?

What a permit record can't tell you

Permits are evidence of work, not a quality rating. A permit doesn't tell you whether the customer was happy, whether the job came in on budget or whether the contractor honors its warranty. It also can't show work that should have been permitted and wasn't. Use permits alongside the license record, any board discipline and what other homeowners say. A HomeProFax report puts those side by side.

What "no permits on file" means

Most of the time, it means we don't have permit data for that city. Colorado Springs, Aurora, Lakewood and most other Colorado cities don't publish their permits as open data, so their contractors' profiles won't show permits even when they've done plenty of work. In our data, only 7 Colorado Springs-based profiles have any matched permits. The report says when a source isn't covered rather than treating silence as a bad sign. If permit history matters for your job and we don't have it, ask the contractor for addresses of recent permitted jobs, and check them with your building department.

The shortcut

You can download open data and search it yourself, but it's slow. Ask the contractor for their verified HomeProFax report. It lists the permits we've matched to the business, with dates, types and sources, next to the license record and any discipline flags. Browse Boulder contractors, Boulder plumbers and Denver contractors, or read contractor permit history for the national picture.

Sources: City of Boulder Open Data (construction permits), pulled October 20, 2026; HomeProFax matched-permit data as of October 26, 2026. Permit data: City and County of Denver Open Data Catalog, licensed under CC BY 3.0. HomeProFax matched permits to licensed contractors by name; data modified from the original. Not endorsed by the City and County of Denver. Boulder County permit data: Boulder County (Land Use / Accela), licensed under CC BY 4.0; matched to contractors and modified by HomeProFax; not endorsed by Boulder County.

Common questions

Does Boulder publish building permits?

Yes. Boulder publishes its construction permits as open data. Our October 2026 copy holds 337,482 permits from 1987 through October 19, 2026, including contractor names and estimated costs.

How can I tell if a Denver permit was finished?

Denver’s open permit data includes a final date when a permit is closed. In the demolition log, 89% of permits issued before 2024 have one. You can also ask the contractor for the permit number and check its inspections with the city.

Why does a contractor have no permits on HomeProFax?

Usually because their city doesn’t publish permit data. Most Colorado cities outside Boulder and Denver don’t, so no permits on file often means no coverage, not no work.

Should I pull the permit myself if the contractor asks?

Be careful. In Boulder only a small share of permits list an owner/contractor. A permit in your name makes you responsible for the work, and the request can mean the contractor isn’t licensed in your city.

What’s the easiest way to see a contractor’s permit history?

Ask for their verified HomeProFax report, which lists matched permits with dates, types and sources.

Sources

Official pages we checked for this guide. Rules change, so confirm with the agency before you rely on them.

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