As if you needed another, here's one more reason to pick up the pace on your planned home improvements this spring: a potential run on building permits.

What is shaping up to be a busy home improvement season could find you in long lines at the building permit counter and any delay could cost you.

As winter wanes and spring ensues, it could get more difficult to find the best contractors still willing to negotiate. As fast-moving home owners snatch up supplies, material costs could rise.

The line that forms at the permits office will only compound matters, especially if the wait makes you consider circumventing the permits process for the sake of speed.

The vicious circle could become a noose around your project.

The housing market slowdown, particularly in the new home building industry left a market bulging with material inventories and that depressed their prices in 2006. By year's end, just when fewer home owners typically sign up for home improvements, the home improvement industry was swelling with refugees from the new home building camp.

Smart home owners have caught on and are snatching up contractors and supplies at the best prices and a spring rush on fix-ups could leave you behind the eight ball.

"Foundations for Future Growth in the Remodeling Industry" the latest landmark remodeling industry forecast from Harvard University's Joint Center For Housing Studies says spending on home improvements is expected to increase at a sustainable 3.7 percent inflation-adjusted annual rate over the next decade, the report says.

Along with flat and falling prices that are forcing some to stay in their homes longer and fix up to shore up values strained by the market, other reasons abound for performing home improvements, according to the study. Aging homes in disrepair from deferred maintenance, home owners with equity to burn, more home owners than ever, and more younger and minority home owners fixing up their first homes, all add to the potential for a spring building boom.

For whatever reason, the job -- large or small, do-it-yourself or contracted work -- will typically require a building permit.

Building permits trigger inspections of the plans and the work to make sure it all adheres to building codes. Building codes are a minimum set of standards for the design, materials and building techniques created specifically to protect the health and safety of anyone occupying buildings. Codes typically are set locally based on local building conditions.

Beyond the benefits of code-complying work, a compelling reason to obtain a permit is the potential cost of not obtaining one should the illegal work be discovered.

Most building permit offices don't police home improvement jobs by conducting random, unannounced inspections or stings, but don't let that be a reason to circumvent the law.

Along with fires, floods, earthquakes and other disasters that prompt a building inspector to come calling, there are a host of other events that could unmask your illegal work.

• A home buyer's home inspector could uncover home improvement work -- good or bad -- and request the home's permit record to determine the quality of the work.

• An appraiser may seek permit records to learn if significant renovations should affect the value of a home.

• Sellers in many markets are legally required, by law, to disclose any known conditions that could affect the value or salability of a home for sale. If the buyer thinks he or she can prove you knew about the illegal work, but failed to disclose it, you could pay for more than the cost of a permit.

If, after close of escrow, the buyer discovers major work completed without a permit and the local building department decides not to approve the work, a chunk of the home's value could become a legal issue. Any difference in value based on illegal work can become a point of litigation.

• During a building official's scheduled inspection of a perfectly legitimate home improvement, he or she could also turn up older, illegal work.

However the illegal work is found, the consequences could be dire -- and a real pain in the wallet.

• You could have to pay for the cost of any inspections required to make a further determination. You also could be forced to dismantle some of the work, say, excavate dirt along the foundation, tear down sheet rock or take other steps so the inspector can look at framing, insulation, wiring, plumbing or other systems.

• You'll likely have to make the work legal before selling. Again, that could mean tearing out work.

• If the illegal handiwork is yours, the building department could levy punitive permit fees, fines or both.

• Before you can get a legal permit, you'll have to hire an architect, engineer or other professional to help draw up plans for permit approval.

• Even if work completed without a permit complies with current building codes, building departments often issue only a statement of compliance -- not a permit. Because the statement applies only to the visible work, a lender or buyer may not be satisfied and balk unless you obtain a permit.

The message is clear: get it right -- and legal -- the first time.