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Licensed general contracting, remodeling and ground-up construction across Fort Lauderdale - permits filed through LauderBuild, and, on a canal parcel, the separate approvals a dock or a seawall brings with it.
Miami-Dade · Broward & Palm Beach Counties
ScrollFort Lauderdale · Broward County
Fort Lauderdale is built around water. Roughly three hundred miles of navigable canals run behind its houses, and whether a parcel touches one changes the work more than any other single fact about it.
The residential stock is genuinely mixed - post-war single-storey houses on finger canals, larger contemporary rebuilds on the same lots, the historic sections around Sailboat Bend and Himmarshee, and downtown mid- and high-rise. The one thing a canal address adds is a second frontage. It has its own condition, its own maintenance history and its own set of approvals, and it belongs in a budget from the first conversation rather than the last.
Permitting runs through the City's Development Services Department. Its Building Services division is responsible for all permitting in the city, issues the permits and performs the inspections. Applications are digital: the city states that all new submissions can be submitted online through LauderBuild, its Accela Citizen Access portal, with plan review handled in the LauderBuild Plan Room, where each reviewer's notes are visible and revisions go back the same way.
One live caveat worth knowing before you plan around a date: the department has published permitting processing, payment and fee changes to comply with Florida House Bill 803, taking effect on 1 July 2026. We confirm the current process for the specific address rather than quoting a rule that may have moved.
What a Fort Lauderdale address changes
The city processes permit applications digitally. New submissions go in online through LauderBuild, and plan review runs in the LauderBuild Plan Room, where you can read each city reviewer's comments and send revisions back without a trip to a counter.
Dock and seawall work also requires Broward County approval alongside the city permit. Two authorities, two clocks. Sequencing them properly is most of the difference between a waterfront job that runs and one that waits.
Depending on scope and location, work in or over the water can involve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, and Florida DEP where sovereignty submerged lands are affected. Not every project - but it has to be established early, not discovered.
The High-Velocity Hurricane Zone covers Miami-Dade and Broward, so roofing, windows, doors and shutters need product approval accepted for HVHZ use. It narrows what may be specified and it is not a preference.
The city runs a floodplain management programme - NFIP participation, elevation certificates and Community Rating System participation among them. On a low waterfront parcel the required floor level drives fill, driveway gradients and how the house meets the ground.
Fort Lauderdale has designated historic districts and a Historic Preservation Board, and work on a designated property can require a Certificate of Appropriateness. Whether yours is affected is a matter of record, and it is checked at the address rather than assumed.
At the water’s edge · 01
A new concrete seawall cap and composite dock decking. On a waterfront parcel this is the first thing that has to be right and the last thing that is cheap to change.
What the photographs show
The build above is on a canal lot, photographed at the stage where the structure is up, the stucco is on and the impact glazing is in and still carrying its protective film. The frame it opens on is the water's edge: a new concrete seawall cap and composite dock decking, with the lot behind it still at rough grade.
That order is deliberate, because it is the order the work happens in. The shoreline sets the elevation the house has to sit at, the exposure the envelope has to be rated for, and the list of agencies whose approval the programme depends on. A design that arrives before those answers gets drawn twice.
On the water, the programme is set by the shoreline long before it is set by the building.
Nothing here is stated about the property beyond what is visible in the photographs. The image set carries no address, no client, no contract value and no dates, so this page claims none of them - including which municipality the house stands in.
| Site | A canal parcel at rough grade, with a new seawall cap and dock |
|---|---|
| Structure | Two storeys, upper volume stepped back over the entrance |
| Envelope | Stucco finish with impact-rated glazing to large openings |
| Interior stage | Drywall hung and taped; double-height volume with upper gallery |
| Water frontage | Concrete seawall cap and composite dock decking, newly built |
| Not documented | Municipality, address, client, contract value, dates and area |
Described only from what is visible in the photography, plus the general requirements that govern work of this kind in Broward County. One frame in the original set was set aside because a neighbour's boat carried another company's name; the version used here is cropped so that it does not.
Detail
The seawall
A seawall holds the ground your house sits on. Its condition decides whether a renovation is a renovation or a marine project with a kitchen attached, and its top elevation is regulated rather than chosen. It is also the item most often left out of a first budget, which is why we ask about it before we ask about finishes.
The deck
On a canal lot the terrace is not a garden feature, it is the route to the water. Deck, coping and seawall have to fall together, and that is a setting-out problem solved on paper.
The envelope
In Broward the wall and every opening in it are approved as a system for high-velocity wind. Substituting a product on site changes what was permitted, which is a paperwork problem long before it is a physical one.
The widest opening
The best view usually faces the worst exposure. That trade-off is priced at design stage or discovered at glazing stage.
Outdoor rooms
Covered terraces, outdoor kitchens and their services are permitted work with structure, drainage and power behind them.
Ground level
The finished floor follows the flood requirement, and everything outside it - driveway, deck, drainage - then has to meet the ground it leaves.
Common questions
What owners here actually ask before starting work, and the answers we can give without guessing at your address.
With the City's Development Services Department. Its Building Services division is responsible for all permitting in the city, issues permits and performs inspections. The city states that all new submissions can be submitted online through LauderBuild, its Accela Citizen Access portal.
The city's digital plan-review system. Drawings and supporting documents are uploaded, progress is tracked online, the notes each city reviewer records are visible, revisions go back the same way, and approved stamped plans are released once fees are paid.
Waterfront structures are their own scope. Dock and seawall work requires Broward County approval in addition to the city permit, so a waterfront project is running at least two approval tracks from the start.
It depends on the scope and the location. Larger marine and shoreline work can involve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act, and Florida DEP where sovereignty submerged lands are affected. We establish which apply to your parcel before design, not after.
Yes. The HVHZ covers Miami-Dade and Broward counties, so roofing, windows, doors and shutters have to carry product approval accepted for HVHZ use. Palm Beach County, by contrast, sits outside it.
The flood zone and base flood elevation set the finished floor level, which then drives fill, stem walls, driveway gradients and how the building meets the ground. The city runs a floodplain management programme, participates in the NFIP and the Community Rating System, and holds elevation certificate records.
Fort Lauderdale has designated historic districts and a Historic Preservation Board, and work affecting a designated property can require a Certificate of Appropriateness. That review sits ahead of the building permit, so it belongs at the front of the programme.
A route the city offers through LauderBuild for simpler scopes. The city notes that Walk-Thru applications may be created at any time, but are only processed the next business day, Monday to Friday between 8:00 am and 9:30 am. Useful, but not the same as instant.
The Development Services Department has published permitting processing, payment and fee changes to comply with Florida House Bill 803, taking effect on 1 July 2026. We confirm the current position at the time of filing rather than quoting a figure that may have moved.
No. We are a Florida certified building contractor, licence CBC1265280, working across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. Fort Lauderdale simply has more waterfront parcels than most, so more of the work here starts at the seawall.
Your details are with the Elbaz Construction team and we will come back to you, usually the same or next working day. If it is urgent, call (754) 236-0675.
Living on the canal · 02
How the work runs here
Parcel, zoning, flood zone, designation status and - if there is water - what the shoreline record says. All of it exists before we do.
What you want, tested against the envelope, the flood requirement and the HVHZ product rules, before anything is drawn in detail.
Architecture and structure developed together, with wind pressures and floor level treated as inputs rather than as revisions.
Licensed professionals register and keep documentation current with the City through LauderBuild. Nothing should stall at this step, and it does when it is left late.
The permit application is filed digitally through the city's portal, with the submittal package assembled to the city's published requirements.
Reviewer comments are read, answered and resubmitted online. This is where a well-prepared package earns its money.
Broward County for dock and seawall scope, and where the work reaches far enough, state and federal authorisations. Run alongside the building permit, not after it.
Site set-up, protection of the shoreline and the neighbours, then the sequence the permit assumed.
Inspections of permitted work are scheduled and managed online. Each one is a checkpoint against what was approved, not a formality.
Final inspections, close-out and the records handed over, so the next owner inherits paperwork rather than a mystery.
Which approvals a project needs, and which agencies are involved, depends on the parcel, the scope and the shoreline. We confirm them for your address. The city has published permitting processing, payment and fee changes to comply with Florida House Bill 803 taking effect 1 July 2026 - confirm current requirements before filing. We do not publish review durations.
Before you buy, or before you build
Age, cap condition, tie-backs, whether it has been raised, and whether water has ever come over or around it. A wall at the end of its life is a five- or six-figure item that has nothing to do with the house, and the city's tidal barrier provisions can require a minimum top elevation when a wall is rebuilt or is in significant disrepair. Confirm the current requirement for the address before you plan the work.
A dock that exists is not necessarily a dock that was permitted. Ask for the permit history, because a rebuild inherits whatever the record says - and dock work needs Broward County approval as well as the city's.
The zone and the base flood elevation set the finished floor. An existing elevation certificate is the cheapest document you will ever obtain, and the city maintains a floodplain programme rather than leaving it to the insurer.
City, county, and - depending on scope and location - state and federal agencies. The answer is specific to the parcel and the work, and it decides the programme far more than the construction does.
Historic designation and district boundaries are a matter of public record. If the property is affected, the review sits ahead of the building permit rather than beside it.
Setbacks, height, coverage and any overlay, measured from both frontages. On a canal lot the buildable area is frequently smaller than the plat suggests.
Which of these apply, and what each requires, is set by the parcel, its flood zone, its designation status and the agencies with jurisdiction over the shoreline. We verify them for the specific address rather than working from a general rule, and we do not publish review durations or fee figures.
Budget
Seawall condition, dock scope, marine access and the extra approvals. Two identical houses on two different frontages are not two identical projects.
Floor area, storeys, spans and how many corners the plan has. Complexity costs more per square foot than area does.
In the HVHZ, glazing, doors and roofing are specified as approved systems. Wide openings facing the water are the most expensive square metres on the drawing.
Fill, stem walls, driveway gradients, drainage and how the building meets the ground once the floor level is fixed.
Joinery, stone, tile, brassware and appliances - the most visible line and the most adjustable one.
Drawings, engineering, permit fees and agency approvals. Small against the build, and the thing that most often sets the start date.
The bars show the relative weight these factors typically carry against one another on residential work in this market. They are not prices, not percentages of a budget and not a quotation, and the order changes with the parcel.
Google reviews
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Keep reading
Wind & envelope
What the high-velocity provisions actually ask of a building, and why product approval is not optional here.
Cost guide
Useful context for what a renovation budget is really made of, waterfront or not.
Outdoors
Terraces, decks and outdoor kitchens - the part of a canal-front house people actually live in.
Your details are with the Elbaz Construction team and we will come back to you, usually the same or next working day. If it is urgent, call (754) 236-0675.
Next step
We will tell you which agencies your shoreline answers to, what the flood requirement does to the floor level, and what the approvals path looks like - before anyone draws anything.
