What gets built
A warehouse or industrial building here is a clear-span steel shell on a slab, sized by what moves through it: a forklift aisle, a rack line, and a trailer at a dock or a grade-level door.
A metal warehouse with a concrete dock apron outside a Central Texas town. Illustrative photograph, not a project record.
An independent local metal building contractor who works your county prices it and puts it up. Inside Austin it goes through the city's commercial plan review.
Outside the cities, three of the six counties run a fire code permit through the fire marshal and two list no fire code at all.
Inside Luling
City permit for all construction, storage buildings named
Luling requires a permit for all construction and installation projects in the city, residential and commercial, including new buildings, additions, foundations, driveways and storage buildings, with plan review and inspections by a contract engineering firm.
Source City of Luling permits and inspections, 509 E. Crockett St. (mailing), 2510 E. Pierce St. (physical), read 2026-09-20.
Unincorporated Caldwell County
County site construction permit for commercial work; no county building code
The Caldwell County Development Ordinance, adopted March 24, 2020 and amended February 14, 2023, requires a construction permit with engineer-certified drawings before land clearing or construction for any subdivision or site construction, with commercial site plans approved by the County Engineer.
Source Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, and the subdivision and development fee schedule, read 2026-09-20.
Caldwell County, read at the county's and the city's own pages. Every county answers this on its own sheet. The whole record is on that county's sheet.
Start with the span, because it sets the frame, the foundation and the price. Texas draws its line at the same dimension: Occupations Code 1001.056(a)(2)(F) exempts plans from engineering licensing only for a building of no more than one story, not more than 5,000 square feet of total floor area, and no clear span between supports greater than 24 feet on the narrow side. A warehouse usually misses at least one of those three limits. Where such a building does span further, Section 1001.056(b) requires only the trusses, beams or other roof supporting members to be engineered or pre-engineered, and that is what a pre-engineered package is built around.
Dock height is the next call, and it is a dirt decision. A dock-height floor sits high enough that a trailer bed meets the slab, so the approach gets cut down to it; a grade-level door with a ramp moves less dirt and gives up the trailer. Decide before the pad is graded.
SourceTexas Legislature Online, Occupations Code Chapter 1001, engineers, read 2026-09-20.
Three of the six, and the office is the county fire marshal, not a building department. Local Government Code 233.061 lets the commissioners court of a county with a population over 250,000, or a county adjacent to one, adopt a fire code, and 233.062 limits it in the unincorporated area to a commercial establishment, a public building, or a multifamily dwelling of four or more units. Caldwell County's fire code, effective August 13, 2026, names warehouses in its commercial establishment list. In a county that has adopted one, Section 233.063 requires a county building permit before a covered building is constructed or substantially improved, the court issues or denies it within 30 days, and under 233.064 occupancy waits on a certificate of compliance.
No record on this site sets a square footage at which sprinklers start, so that answer comes from the office reviewing the plans: Williamson County's fire marshal runs a fire protection plan review, Caldwell takes separate fire code permits as the Fire Code Official determines, and Travis County Code Chapter 201 makes the Fire Marshal the county fire code official.
Read the absences as absences. Bastrop County lists no fire marshal, no fire code and no fire code permit, and the Lee County pages name none either. That is what those two publish, not a finding that nothing reaches the building. The rest of what Caldwell asks for is on Caldwell County, and which office permits the building itself is settled on building a metal building in the Austin area.
What each county's own pages say about a fire code permit outside city limits, read September 20, 2026.
On a phone this table scrolls sideways.
| County | Fire code permit before construction | Office named in the record |
|---|---|---|
| Travis | Yes. Plan review and a Fire Marshal building permit before construction of a commercial establishment. | Travis County Fire Marshal's Office, Austin, (512) 854-4621 |
| Williamson | Yes. The 2018 International Fire Code and the county fire code since November 2020, permit required before construction starts. | Williamson County Fire Marshal's Office, Georgetown, (512) 943-3831 |
| Bastrop | None listed. The county lists no fire marshal, no fire code and no fire code permit. | Bastrop County Development Services, Bastrop, (512) 581-7176 |
| Caldwell | Yes, from August 13, 2026, on the 2024 International Fire Code. The fee is $480 up to 5,000 square feet. | Caldwell County Fire Marshal's Office, Lockhart. No county page read gives a phone number. |
| Lee | None listed. The Development Services page does not mention a fire code or a fire marshal. | Lee County Development Services, Giddings, (979) 542-3178 |
| Burnet | Not covered on the county page read, which sets out building and septic permits only. | Burnet County Development Services, Burnet, (512) 756-5445 |
SourcesTexas Legislature Online, Local Government Code Chapter 233, county regulation of housing and other structures, read 2026-09-20; Travis County Fire Marshal, permits and plan reviews, and Travis County Code Chapter 201, read 2026-09-20; Williamson County Fire Marshal, construction permits, and the Williamson County Fire Code, second edition, read 2026-09-20; Caldwell County Fire Code adopted August 13, 2026, and the order adopting it, read 2026-09-20; Bastrop County Development Services, and the Development Services application fees, read 2026-09-20; Lee County Development Services Department, read 2026-09-20; Burnet County, on-site sewage facilities and development permits, read 2026-09-20.
A full commercial plan review, on a clock that runs on square footage. Inside Austin a building permit is required to erect, construct, enlarge or alter any building or structure within the city's zoning jurisdiction, and commercial projects are reviewed under the 2024 International Building Code with local amendments, in force since July 10, 2025. From July 15, 2026 the Development Services Department targets seven business days for new construction up to 10,000 square feet, 10 business days from 10,001 to 25,000, and 20 business days over 25,000. A fee is charged for each update submission from the second update on.
SourcesCity of Austin Development Services, commercial plan review, read 2026-09-20; City of Austin Development Services, building technical codes, read 2026-09-20.
One acre, and a shell plus its truck apron, fire lane and parking gets there fast. TCEQ regulates construction under general permit TXR150000 by acreage: a large construction activity disturbs five or more acres, or is part of a larger common plan that will; a small one disturbs at least one but less than five; and construction under one acre not part of such a plan is not regulated by the permit. At five acres the primary operator prepares and implements a stormwater pollution prevention plan, submits a signed Notice of Intent and the fee through STEERS, and posts the large construction site notice until final stabilization. The tiers and the grading are on pad grading and site prep.
SourcesTexas Commission on Environmental Quality, stormwater general permit for construction activities (TXR150000), read 2026-09-20; Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, stormwater discharges from large construction activities, steps, read 2026-09-20.
The line is the estimated construction cost, not the use. TDLR says a project under $50,000 in total estimated cost is not submitted for registration or plan review, yet the Texas Accessibility Standards still apply to it, and that a project of $50,000 or more submits a full set of construction documents under Administrative Rule 68.50.
Which buildings the law reaches is the separate question. Government Code 469.003 lists, among the privately funded categories, a building that is a public accommodation under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, constructed, renovated or modified on or after January 1, 1992, and a building that is a commercial facility under that Act on or after September 1, 1993. A bare shell and a building with a counter open to customers are different questions there.
SourcesTexas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Architectural Barriers frequently asked questions, read 2026-09-20; Texas Legislature Online, Government Code Chapter 469, elimination of architectural barriers, read 2026-09-20.
Where it meets a state highway, yes, and it is separate from the building permit. The property owner or the owner's authorized representative contacts the local TxDOT district office and submits Form 1058, Permit to Construct Access Driveway Facilities on Highway Right of Way, whenever a new access driveway is built or an existing one is modified. Nothing starts in the state right of way until two conditions are met: the applicant holds the executed permit, and TxDOT has had its 24 hours of notice. An inspector reviews the finished work. For a warehouse that is the difference between a trailer turning in cleanly and one backing across a shoulder. The state road against county road split is on TxDOT and county driveway access.
SourceTexas Department of Transportation, Access Management Manual, chapter 2 section 4, permits, and the Use of Right of Way by Others Manual, access driveways, read 2026-09-20.
The State Energy Conservation Office says the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code took effect November 1, 2016 for commercial, industrial and residential buildings taller than three stories under its rule 34 TAC 19.53, and that it has elected to keep the 2015 edition rather than adopt a later one. Industrial buildings are named there. Inside Austin the edition is newer: the city's codes adopted July 10, 2025 include the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code. Decide how much of the shell is conditioned before the package is ordered: the insulation and the doors go with it.
SourcesTexas Comptroller of Public Accounts, State Energy Conservation Office, commercial and multi-family construction, read 2026-09-20; City of Austin Development Services, building technical codes, read 2026-09-20.
An independent local metal building contractor who works your county puts the building up. What one company covers varies: some erect a package the owner already bought, some take the slab, steel and shell together, some bring the sitework in too. Ask which you are buying before you compare two numbers. Only the contractor who walks the lot can price it, because the span, the dock, the doors, the insulation and the dirt that has to move are separate lines.
It turns on the city line. Inside Austin, Development Services runs a commercial plan review under the locally amended 2024 International Building Code. Outside the cities, Travis, Williamson and Caldwell counties each require a fire marshal permit before construction of a commercial establishment, while the Bastrop and Lee County pages list no fire code at all.
Twenty-four feet is the dimension in the statute. Occupations Code 1001.056(a)(2)(F) exempts plans from engineering licensing only for a one-story building of not more than 5,000 square feet with no clear span greater than 24 feet on the narrow side. Where a building spans further, Section 1001.056(b) requires the trusses, beams or other roof supporting members to be engineered or pre-engineered.
It turns on the estimated construction cost. TDLR says a project under $50,000 in total estimated cost is not submitted for registration or plan review, though the Texas Accessibility Standards still apply to it, and that a project of $50,000 or more submits a full set of construction documents under Administrative Rule 68.50. Which buildings the law reaches is listed in Government Code 469.003.
Yes, separately from the building permit. The owner or the owner's authorized representative contacts the local TxDOT district office and submits Form 1058, Permit to Construct Access Driveway Facilities on Highway Right of Way. The executed permit and 24 hours of notice to the district are what open the state right of way to work.
Free estimate, six questions
The county tells a contractor which permit office your lot answers to. The building and the timing tell them what to look at first. Pricing it is free, and you owe nothing either way.
Your request goes to an independent local metal building contractor serving Central Texas, not a national lead list. Pricing it is free, and you owe nothing either way.
Last reviewed 2026-09-20.
