Off-Grid Building Resources

Start here: how to check your county

Rankings and state tables only narrow the map. Phone calls and written answers decide whether a parcel works. This is the order I recommend, and it still works when a link on this page dies.

1. Pick your lens. Decide what matters most: light rules, easy water, the most sun, low taxes, or low fire risk. You won’t get all five.
2. Narrow to two or three states, using official desks first and, if you want a first pass, the unofficial indexes at the bottom of this page.
3. Find the state water desk. Learn the home-well limit and whether the area is in a managed basin or capped watershed. Start with the water and wells list.
4. Pull the well logs for the area and ask two or three local drillers what they hit.
5. Call county planning: Is a house allowed on this exact parcel? Is there a minimum house size? Can you live in an RV during construction, and for how long? Do you have to connect to utilities if they’re nearby?
6. Call the county building department: Is there a residential code here? Which edition? What permits will the house need?
7. Call the county health or septic office: Do you need a site evaluation first? Are composting toilets and greywater systems allowed, and with what permits? Check soils on the Web Soil Survey before you call.
8. Run the numbers: PVWatts for the worst month, DSIRE and the county assessor for incentives, wildfire and flood maps for hazards, and an insurance quote before closing.
9. Write everything down: who you talked to, the date, and what they said. The book’s Who to Call appendix is for that list.

Free county lookup sites can speed up steps 5 through 7. They are third-party summaries: a head start, not a permit. I keep them in a clearly labeled unofficial box further down, because those indexes disagree with each other.

Oregon official desks

Oregon is this book’s home ground, so it comes first. The state has a statewide building code and statewide land-use law. There are not unzoned, no-code counties here in the sense some other states have. Rural land is generally farm or forest zoned, and dwelling approval often comes before the building permit.

• Oregon Building Codes Division The state building-code agency. Start here for adopted codes and how Oregon handles permits.
• Local Building Department Directory Who actually issues the permit in each city and county.
• Oregon Residential Specialty Code adoption Effective and mandatory dates for the current ORSC, including any phase-in.
• Adopted codes online The code editions Oregon has adopted, free to read.
• DEQ residential septic State rules for onsite wastewater systems. Your county or a DEQ agent still issues the permit.
• DEQ onsite staff and county agents Who to call in each Oregon county for septic and onsite questions.
• Oregon Water Resources Department Water rights, wells, and the domestic-use exemption framework. Confirm current rules before you drill or buy.
• OWRD well-report query Neighboring well logs: depth, yield, and what drillers hit. Not a permit.

Permits & codes

There is no official national map of counties with no building codes. Start with the county planning, building, and environmental health offices for the parcel. The rare official county lists, and a phone book of county portals, are below. Independent rule indexes are in the unofficial box later on this page.

• ICC code-adoption resources Where International Codes have been adopted. Adoption is still local or state-by-state; this is not a no-code county list. (The older iccsafe.org/products-and-solutions/i-codes/code-adoption path now redirects here.)
• ICC Digital Codes Free to view; Premium paid Model codes and many state codes, free to read. A paid Premium tier is optional. Your local amendments still apply.
• Tennessee Fire Marshal: Residential Jurisdictions & Inspectors The rare official opt-out / non-code list for one- and two-family dwellings. A city inside an opt-out county can still enforce a code, and opt-out resolutions can expire. Confirm on this page before you quote a county.
• Missouri Open Data: County Building Codes Official table of which Missouri counties have adopted residential or commercial codes. Widely cited as last updated in 2021; treat it as a lead, not current gospel.
• Missouri DNR: energy codes by jurisdiction Companion to the open-data table. DNR warns that lists may not be current.
• Frugal Off Grid county directory A phone book of county zoning, permit, and GIS links, not a score. It sits on a store site; spot-check any county URL before you rely on it.

Water & wells

The Western States Water Council directory is the best single map of official western water-rights and well portals. Oregon’s water desk and well-log search are in the Oregon section above. Confirm every number with the state office; exemption rules moved in more than one western state in 2025–2026.

• Water Systems Council: State Well Codes The best national directory of who regulates private wells. Updated periodically; confirm with the state agency. Some linked PDFs may be stale.
• Western States Water Council: State Data Portals Official water-rights, well, and water-quality portals for the western states, including California, Arizona, and the rest of the list below.
• USGS Water Data for the Nation Groundwater, stream, and well data. The older waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis path now redirects here. Neighboring logs, not a permit.
• Idaho IDWR: well construction and drilling A drilling permit is required; wells are constructed by licensed drillers. Check current domestic-exemption rules.
• Colorado Division of Water Resources: well permitting A permit is typically required before drilling. Under 35 acres, household-use-only limits are common; confirm for the parcel.
• New Mexico Office of the State Engineer Domestic wells generally need an OSE permit. Confirm current household and irrigation limits.
• Utah Division of Water Rights The water right is separate from the well start card. Rainwater has statutory limits.
• Wyoming State Engineer’s Office Domestic-well permitting and completion filings. Confirm before you drill.
• Montana DNRC Water Resources State water desk, including exempt-well notices. Confirm 2026 changes on this site and with the county.
• Washington Department of Ecology: wells Permit-exempt wells exist but are constrained in some watersheds. Check legal water availability for the parcel.
• Nevada Division of Water Resources Domestic-well exceptions exist; some basins are closed or have special rules.
• Arizona Department of Water Resources Well notices and tighter rules inside Active Management Areas. Also listed on the WSWC portals page. This .gov page blocked an automated check (HTTP 403) on Nov 14, 2026. It is a documented official URL; open it in a browser to confirm.
• California: well-permitting agencies directory California wells are permitted locally, not by a single state well desk. This California Water Commission directory is widely cited; also use the WSWC portals page for water-rights tools. This .gov page blocked an automated check (HTTP 403) on Nov 14, 2026. It is a documented official URL; open it in a browser to confirm.

Septic

Your county environmental health department, or the state agent that covers that county, is the permit desk. Oregon contacts are in the Oregon section above.

• EPA: septic systems National explainer and links. Not a county directory.
• University of Minnesota Onsite Sewage Treatment Program Widely respected extension guidance for owners, not a permit.
• NOWRA National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association. A professional body, not a permit desk.

Solar & incentives

• DSIRE Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency. First stop for state and utility rebates and net-metering policy. Run by the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center.
• DSIRE program database Searchable list of individual incentive programs.
• PVWatts Site-level PV production estimate, including the worst month. Use this nlr.gov host; the older pvwatts.nrel.gov address no longer resolves.
• NSRDB Viewer National Solar Radiation Database map, on the current nlr.gov host.
• System Advisor Model (SAM) A detailed PV, storage, and finance model, for readers who want more than a first estimate.
• REopt PV plus storage sizing and resilience screening, also on nlr.gov.
• IRS: Residential Clean Energy Credit The official federal credit rules. See the cutoff in the box above. The same page has still had leftover older phase-out wording; the placed-in-service date is the controlling sentence.
• DOE Homeowner’s Guide to Solar A general federal explainer. Use DSIRE and the IRS page for current incentives.

Hazards & soils

• FEMA Flood Map Service Center Official flood-zone maps by address.
• FEMA National Risk Index County and census-tract risk for 18 natural hazards. FEMA retired the standalone NRI map application; as of early 2026, the December 2025 v1.20 data is reached through the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT). Both of these .gov pages blocked an automated check (HTTP 403) on Nov 14, 2026. They are documented official URLs; open them in a browser to confirm.
• USDA Web Soil Survey Official soils maps, useful before a septic site evaluation or a foundation conversation.
• EPA Superfund site search Contaminated sites near a location.
• Wildfire Risk to Communities U.S. Forest Service project for community-scale wildfire risk. The Forest Service says the data are not calibrated to individual homes; still use it, then talk to an insurer.
• National Weather Service Local forecasts and warnings.
• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information Climate normals and historical weather. The older ncdc.noaa.gov address now redirects here.

Books

Titles and authors only. There are no store links and no affiliate codes on this page. I’ll add more titles here as I stand behind them; I’m not padding this list with beginner paperbacks.

• The Encyclopedia of Country Living, Carla Emery — a long-lived homestead reference. Later editions added web links, which is also a reminder that printed URLs rot.
• Living the Good Life, Helen and Scott Nearing — philosophy and history, not current code.
• The Oregon Residential Specialty Code, and your county’s land-use ordinance, if you’re building in Oregon. Read them on the official BCD pages in the Oregon section above.
• University of Minnesota Onsite Sewage Treatment Program materials, linked in the Septic section above.

Forums

• Permies A large homestead and permaculture forum. Threads are not code, and they are not a substitute for the county building or health desk.

I check this page at least quarterly, and after any major federal or Oregon rule change. If a printed link in the book is dead, use this page.

No affiliate links. We don’t earn from these.