Maricopa County Building Inspections for New Homes: The IRC R109 Sequence and How to Schedule

A new home on unincorporated Maricopa County land gets checked at set points while it is built, and each point has to pass before a crew seals its work behind concrete, drywall, or stucco. The county runs this on the older 2018 code it adopted, and the required inspection points come straight from Section R109 of that code. This page lays out the order, how you schedule each one through the county Permit Center, and the one scheduling rule that trips up rural builders.

The inspection sequence

The inspections follow the build from the ground up, and the county sets them where the work is still visible. The list comes from the 2018 International Residential Code (IRC) the county adopted, which fixes the required inspection points in Section R109. The typical order for a new house:

1. Foundation. After the footing trench is dug and steel is set, before any concrete is poured.
2. Under-slab. When the plumbing, electrical, and mechanical lines under the floor are in, before the slab covers them.
3. Framing. When walls, fire blocking, and the rough plumbing, electrical, and mechanical are all in place, before anything is covered.
4. Plumbing, mechanical, and electrical rough-in. Verified at or alongside the framing stage while the lines are still open.
5. Insulation and lath or gypsum board. Before drywall, plaster, or stucco goes on.
6. Final. When the house is finished and all fixtures are set, before anyone moves in.

The order is not optional, because an inspector cannot approve what is already hidden. The 2018 IRC states the rule plainly:

Work shall not be done beyond the point indicated in each successive inspection without first obtaining the approval of the building official.

The Maricopa County Planning and Development Department is the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) for land outside any city, so its inspectors, not a city and not the state, set and enforce this sequence on a rural lot.

How scheduling and the assigned inspector work

You schedule inspections yourself, and you cannot start until your permit is live. The county requires an issued or reissued permit before you can request any inspection. You then schedule two ways: sign in to your Permit Center account and request the inspection there, or call the county Call Center at 602-506-3301. The same Permit Center account you used to pull the permit handles the inspections.

One county practice catches first-time rural builders. You do not get your inspector's direct line in advance. The county tells you to reach the assigned inspector only on inspection day:

For information about your specific inspection, contact assigned inspector listed online at the Permit Center ONLY on the date of your scheduled inspection.

So you book the date through the portal, and the system assigns the inspector and posts their contact for that day. There is no calling ahead the week before to negotiate a window.

When this comes into play

This process runs across the entire construction phase of a rural build:

• Pour days. You cannot pour a footing or slab until the foundation or under-slab inspection passes, so the inspection calendar drives the concrete schedule.
• Close-in. Framing plus the plumbing, electrical, and mechanical rough-in all get inspected before insulation and drywall. A failed framing inspection stops the whole cover-up, and on a remote parcel a re-inspection trip can cost you more calendar time than it would in town.
• Move-in. The final inspection is the gate to the certificate of occupancy , the document that legally lets you occupy the home. The final inspection is the last sign-off before that paper issues.

Here is a concrete example. Suppose you build a 2,600 square foot custom home on a five-acre parcel near Rio Verde Foothills. Your framer finishes and the drywall crew hangs board before the framing inspection is called. The county inspector cannot see the wiring, plumbing rough-in, or fire blocking, so the framing fails. The crew cuts out new drywall to expose the framing, re-inspects, then re-patches, which can add a week and real labor cost on a site that is a long drive from the supply house.

What this means for you

Treat the inspection calendar as the spine of your build schedule, not an afterthought. Each phase has to pass before the next trade can cover its work, so a missed or failed inspection delays everything downstream, and the delay bites harder on a remote lot. Keep your Permit Center login handy, confirm the permit is issued before you book, and request the inspection type that matches the stage. Do not chase your inspector the day before, because the county only posts that contact on the scheduled day. Do not move furniture or family in before the final passes and the certificate of occupancy issues, since occupying without it is a code violation.

This entry closes the unincorporated Maricopa County module loop. The codes your work is inspected against are listed in Maricopa County Adopted Building Codes , and the permit that authorizes the build is covered in Maricopa County Residential Building Permit Requirements . A rural lot's water and wastewater approvals are separate, in Maricopa County Septic and Well Requirements . For the bigger picture, see what inspections are required when building a house in Arizona and what you need to build on rural land in Rio Verde .

Source

The inspection scheduling, the issued-permit requirement, and the assigned-inspector rule are published by Maricopa County: Construction Permit Information on maricopa.gov , with the department overview at Planning and Development . The inspection points themselves come from the 2018 IRC the county adopted, listed at Adopted Regulations .

This page is general information, not a code interpretation. Inspection steps and scheduling change, so confirm the current process with Maricopa County Planning and Development before you schedule.