Window and Door Permits in Henry County GA

Window and Door Permits in Henry County, GA

Window and door permits in Henry County are issued by two separate offices, and both enforce the same state codes. This page gives each office with its address, phone number and published fees, and sets out exactly what those codes say about windows and doors.

City of McDonough

Unincorporated Henry County

Published fees

The code chain

Window and door permits in Henry County: two offices

Which office covers an address depends on one thing: whether the house sits inside a city limit. Inside McDonough it is the city. Outside any city, anywhere in the county, it is Henry County. Neither office handles work that belongs to the other, and their published fees are not the same.

Permit decision for window work in McDonough GA: city office inside the limits, county office everywhere else — Both numbers are published by the offices themselves. Our own diagram, drawn from their pages in October 2026.

The two permit offices, side by side

	City of McDonough	Henry County (unincorporated)
Office	Building and Inspection Division	Building and Plan Review
Address	136 Keys Ferry Street, 3rd floor, McDonough GA 30253	140 Henry Parkway, McDonough GA 30253
Permits phone	678-782-6224	770-288-6051
Other contact	Inspection requests: 678-782-6217	BPR@henrycountyga.gov
Hours	Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm	Published on the county's own page
Minimum permit fee	$75.00, stated on the residential application	$82.50 on the fee schedule, $75.00 on the portal
Administrative fee	Not separately stated	$27.50 on all residential permits
Plan review	Not separately stated	$55.00 single family
Re-inspection	Not separately stated	$27.50 for a second trip

Swipe the table sideways to see every column →

Read from each office's own published pages and documents in October 2026. Where a figure is not published, this table says so rather than filling the gap.

What the code actually says

Four facts, each one readable in a published document. We are setting them out and stopping there, because that is where the documents stop.

Both offices enforce the Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes set by the Department of Community Affairs, currently the 2024 International Residential Code with Georgia amendments and the 2015 energy code with Georgia supplements.
The residential code requires a permit before any owner, agent or contractor constructs, enlarges, alters, repairs, moves or demolishes a building or structure. The City of McDonough's own FAQ repeats that wording almost word for word.
The same code carries a list of work exempt from a permit. Windows and doors are not on it. The only window-adjacent item on that list is an awning projecting no more than 54 inches.
Georgia does not amend that section. A full-text search of the state's residential code amendment package returns nothing against it.
Neither the city nor the county publishes a window-specific or door-specific rule that adds to, or subtracts from, any of the above.

We cross-checked the exempt list against another Georgia city that publishes its own version of it, and windows and doors do not appear there either. That is as far as the published documents go, and it is as far as this page goes with them.

The energy figures a permitted window job in Henry County GA has to meet, with the Zone 3 maximums — Henry County’s own energy affidavit puts the county in Climate Zone 3, which is where these figures come from. Our own diagram.

What a permit actually involves on a window job

Who pulls it

Normally the contractor. Henry County publishes a permit agent form for exactly this, and the same form points homeowners at the state license verification service. If you are being asked to pull the permit yourself on work somebody else is doing, ask why.

Energy compliance comes with it

Henry County uses a residential energy code compliance affidavit that confirms the county sits in Climate Zone 3. That is the same zone whose window figures, a 0.35 U-factor and a 0.27 solar heat gain coefficient, your new units have to meet. The numbers are printed on the NFRC label on the glass, so they are easy to check at delivery. Energy efficient windows explains what both figures mean.

Bedroom openings get looked at

If an inspection happens, the escape opening in a sleeping room is one of the few window details an inspector can check in seconds. Insert replacement units are slightly smaller than what came out, which is exactly how a bedroom window drops below the minimum. Bedroom window egress requirements has the four numbers.

The rule that is not a permit

A permit is the public rule. Your subdivision may have a private one. Several McDonough-area declarations require architectural approval before anything that materially changes the outside of the house, and that wording is broad enough to reach windows and doors even where neither word appears in the document. The HOA window approval guide covers what the local documents actually say.

One more local rule worth knowing about, and worth not over-applying: McDonough's downtown code carries its own window and door standards, but they apply only inside specific downtown districts and date from 2012. Unless your house is in one of them, they do not touch your job.

Still unsure which office covers your address? Send it over and we will work it out before anything is booked.

Window permits in Henry County GA: frequently asked questions

The Henry County courthouse on the square in McDonough, Georgia

Both permit offices sit within a few minutes of the square. Photo of the Henry County courthouse.

What do the codes say about permits for window work in Henry County?

Both the City of McDonough and unincorporated Henry County enforce the Georgia State Minimum Standard Codes. Those codes require a permit to construct, enlarge, alter, repair, move or demolish a building or structure, and their list of work exempt from a permit does not name windows or doors. Neither office publishes a separate window-specific rule of its own.

Who issues the permit, the city or the county?

Inside the McDonough city limits it is the City of McDonough Building and Inspection Division, 136 Keys Ferry Street, third floor, at 678-782-6224. Everywhere else in the county it is Henry County Building and Plan Review, 140 Henry Parkway, at 770-288-6051. They are separate offices with separate fee schedules, and an address a mile apart can answer to different ones.

What does a window permit cost in Henry County?

The county's fee schedule states a minimum permit fee of $82.50 on all permits, plus a $27.50 administrative fee on residential permits, while the county's own online portal still shows a $75.00 minimum. The City of McDonough's residential permit application states a minimum permit fee of $75.00. Both county figures are published by the county itself.

What is on the exempt-work list?

The list in the code both offices enforce covers things like one-story detached accessory structures under a floor area, fences under a height, retaining walls under a height, and awnings projecting no more than 54 inches. Windows and doors are not named anywhere on it, in either direction. Georgia does not amend that section of the code.

What happens if the work is done without a permit?

The City of McDonough's residential permit application states plainly that penalty fees will be assessed on any work performed prior to obtaining permits. Beyond the fee, unpermitted work on the building envelope is the kind of thing that surfaces during a sale or an insurance claim, long after the installer has gone.

How do I check that a contractor is licensed in Georgia?

Use the Georgia Secretary of State's online license verification, which Henry County names on its own permit agent form. Search the business or the individual and confirm the license is current before any money changes hands. Georgia licenses contractors at the state level, not through the county.