Water heater permits in Detroit: who pulls what, and who to call

Two utilities draw the line, and both draw it in the same place: at the meter for gas, at the curb stop for water. Everything inside the house is yours.

Gas. DTE inspects the service pipe from where it enters the building to the meter. Everything past the meter is yours: customers are responsible for any repairs to house pipes leading from gas meters to gas appliances and to the gas appliances themselves, and if a technician sees something potentially hazardous on them, DTE will disconnect service at the meter until repairs are completed (DTE). Federal law has DTE make that inspection every 39 months; DTE books them through an outside vendor on 888‑206‑1796 (same sheet).

Water. DWSD maintains the mains and service lines up to the curbstop; the property owner is responsible for the water service line from the curbstop to inside the home or business and the internal plumbing inside the house (DWSD). A water heater is internal plumbing, so it is yours — and 313‑267‑8000 is DWSD’s line for a water or sewer emergency in the street, not for a tank in your basement.

• A licensed contractor. The state’s rule for plumbing: to obtain plumbing permits, an applicant shall be a licensed plumbing contractor or a homeowner installing his/her own plumbing, and the contractor must record their current license number on the application (the state · the city).
• Or you, for your own house — on the plumbing side. That homeowner exception is in the sentence above, in the state’s own words, and the city repeats it.
• On the mechanical side, ask the city first. The state says a homeowner must secure a permit for work they are doing at their own residence, and that an owner of a single family dwelling who occupies it may do the work without a license (the state). That is the homeowner’s obligation, not a statement about who the City of Detroit will issue a mechanical permit to. Ask the building department before you plan on pulling it yourself (the city’s mechanical page).
• Both trades register with the city. The schedule lists a plumbing contractor registration at $22 and a mechanical contractor registration at $23 (the fee schedule).
• Check the license before you sign. The state permits plumbing and mechanical work separately (plumbing · mechanical), and a gas water heater touches both. You can check any license yourself at the state license lookup.

For plumbing, the city publishes the number and the interval: call 313‑224‑3118 to schedule, and the Plumbing Division will inspect the property within 48 hours after the request is made. For a hazardous or emergency installation, every effort will be made to provide inspections the same day if called before 9:00 am (the city’s plumbing inspection team).

That is the city’s own inspection after the work is done, not a promise about when a contractor arrives.

• A shutoff valve on the pipe feeding it. The state plumbing code’s list of required shutoffs ends with the water supply pipe to a gravity or pressurized water tank, and the water supply pipe to every water heater (the state plumbing code (PDF)). That is the first valve to close when a heater leaks — the order to close them in.
• A relief valve with somewhere safe to send the water. The code says a relief valve must not discharge so as to be a hazard, a cause of damage or a nuisance; that its discharge pipe must terminate atmospherically not more than 4 inches from the floor with an unthreaded end; that it must discharge to the floor, to the pan under the heater, or to a waste receptor; and that it must not be directly connected to the drainage system (the state plumbing code (PDF)).
• Codes the city enforces. Detroit works to the state’s adopted plumbing code and, for a water heater, its mechanical code, which says in terms that it governs the installation, alteration, and repair of water heaters and boilers (the plumbing rules (PDF) · the mechanical rules (PDF)).