Who permits the work
Alexandria is an independent city with its own permit office, and Old Town's Board of Architectural Review must approve exterior changes in the historic district — materials and windows included. That review runs on its own calendar, so for anything visible from the street it goes first, not last.
For a rooftop array that generally means two permits rather than one: a building permit for anything fastened to the roof
structure, and a separate electrical permit for everything downstream of it, pulled by the licensed electrician on the job. We
sequence both and pull the building permit under our licence — you file nothing yourself.
What Alexandria homes are actually built like
Old Town is 18th- and 19th-century masonry and frame rowhouses; outside it, Alexandria is largely mid-century and newer. The rowhouses are party-wall construction, which changes how structural work, plumbing stacks and ventilation all get handled.
For solar that matters in two specific places: the age and condition of the roof covering, which decides whether the array
goes on now or after a replacement, and the capacity of the electrical service, which a licensed electrician confirms before
anything is designed.
What we will not tell you about your Alexandria project
No production figure, no payback year, no incentive percentage and no equipment warranty term. Those depend on your roof,
your bills, your tax position and programmes that change — and a number published before anyone has measured your roof is
a guess. Your specialist puts the real ones in writing after the free assessment, and tells you to confirm anything
tax-related with your own tax adviser.
Permit authority and code requirements are summarized for general guidance and can change; we confirm the current requirements for your specific parcel before work begins. Nothing on this page is tax advice.