Completed work
From an empty pad
to a finished room.
Completed Elbaz Construction projects across South Florida, shown across the whole arc - site and structure, then the finished interiors that follow. Different properties, photographed on completion or during construction; each caption says which.
All photographs are of real Elbaz Construction work in South Florida. None was taken in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea and none is presented as a Town-permitted project. Where a frame shows a building under construction it is captioned as such.
Building here
Two things exist,
then you apply.
Almost every municipality in South Florida asks for a Notice of Commencement. What differs is when. Most want it recorded before the permit issues; some want it posted before the first inspection. The Town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea publishes a stricter position: EPD approval from Broward County, and a recorded Notice of Commencement with two certified copies, are required prior to Building Department submittal.
Read that as a scheduling statement rather than an administrative one. It means the earliest date your application can be filed is not the date your drawings are finished - it is the date the last of those two approvals lands. Anyone who plans backwards from a drawing deadline in this Town plans the wrong thing.
- Prior to submittal, not issuance
The Town’s own wording. It moves two lead times to the front of the programme, where they can run in parallel with design.
- Two certified copies
Not one. Recording is a step with a document count attached, and the exemption is for work valued under $2,500.
- Signed and sealed, electronically
The Town states that all plans must be electronically signed and sealed by the registered architect or engineer.
Constraint and consequence
What must exist first,
and what that does
to the programme.
None of the below is a statement about your address. It is what the Town publishes about its own sequence, and what each item does to the order in which work is worth doing.
Start the EPD question at week one
County environmental approval is not a downstream item here - it gates the submittal itself. Raising it early is the only way to stop it becoming the critical path.
Record the notice before you file
A recorded Notice of Commencement with two certified copies has to exist already. Recording is a county process with its own timing, so it is started rather than remembered.
Design can run in parallel
The one advantage of a front-loaded sequence: while those two approvals are moving, the drawings are being finished. Nothing is waiting on nothing.
Electronic sealing is not a formality
The Town states that all plans must be electronically signed and sealed by the registered architect or engineer. That is a workflow decision for your design team, made before they start rather than after.
The permit function is contracted
Building permit and inspection services are provided by CAP Government, Inc., with staff at Town Hall Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Same building, different employer, and worth knowing whose process you are in.
The exemption threshold is stated
The Notice of Commencement requirement carries an exemption where the value of work is under $2,500. Small jobs are genuinely smaller here.
certified copies of a recorded Notice of Commencement the Town requires - and it requires them before submittal, not before issuance
| Element | Documents before issuance | Lauderdale-by-the-Sea |
|---|---|---|
| When the county environmental question is asked | During or after review | Before the application is accepted at all |
| When the notice is recorded | Before the permit issues | Before the submittal is made |
| What sets the earliest filing date | The drawings | The later of the two approvals |
| Where the risk sits | Late in the programme, after money is committed | Early, while the design can still change |
| What runs in parallel | Little - steps are sequential | Design, EPD and recording, deliberately |
| Who handles the permit process | City staff | CAP Government, Inc., at Town Hall |
Both end with the same permit. The difference is which weeks are spent waiting, and whether the waiting overlaps the drawing.
Stills from the two completed units on this page. They illustrate the stages; they are not photographs of the stage named beside them.
How we run it
Eight stages,
front-loaded on purpose.
The sequence we follow on a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea property. It is built backwards from the Town’s rule that two approvals must exist before we may submit at all.
- 01
Establish the earliest possible filing date
Before anything else, we work out when EPD approval and a recorded notice could realistically both be in hand. In this Town that date, not the drawing, is what the programme hangs from.
- 02
Records and survey together
What is already permitted on the address, what is open, and what a survey finds. On an older Lauderdale-by-the-Sea property this is also where a previous owner’s unpermitted work surfaces.
- 03
Open the county environmental question
Raised at the start rather than treated as a downstream approval, because here it gates the submittal. If it is going to be complicated, we would rather know in week one than in month three.
- 04
Start the recording
A Notice of Commencement recorded, with the two certified copies the Town requires, unless the value of work falls under the stated exemption. It is started as a task rather than remembered as a step.
- 05
Design to a sealable standard
Drawings developed to the point where the registered architect or engineer can electronically sign and seal them, because the Town requires that of all plans rather than of some.
- 06
Submit once, complete
Applications and plans are received, reviewed and approved electronically. The submittal goes in with both prerequisites already satisfied, which is the only way it can go in.
- 07
Construction
Built to the approved design. Where something genuinely has to change, we say what the change costs in process as well as in money - and in a Town with a front-loaded sequence, that matters more than usual.
- 08
Inspections and closeout
Booked and attended through CAP’s process, then the permit is closed out rather than left open against the property.
Approvals
What the Town asks for,
and in what order.
The Town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea runs an electronic building department: applications and plans are received, reviewed and approved electronically, and all plans must be electronically signed and sealed by the registered architect or engineer. Building permit and inspection services are provided by CAP Government, Inc., with staff in Town Hall Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
What makes the Town distinctive is not the technology but the ordering. Two things have to be true before a submittal is accepted, and both of them involve other organisations - Broward County’s Environmental Protection Division, and the county recording process. Neither is inside the Town’s control, and neither is inside yours, which is exactly why they belong at the front.
Simplified sketch, for explanation only. It is not a permit drawing and not a plan of either project shown on this page.
From first call to closeout
- Broward County EPD approval
Required prior to Building Department submittal. A county approval that gates a town application is the single most important scheduling fact here.
- Recorded Notice of Commencement
With two certified copies, also prior to submittal, unless the value of the work is under the stated $2,500 exemption.
- Electronic signing and sealing
All plans, by the registered architect or engineer. A design team that cannot do this has to solve it before drawings are due, not after.
- Electronic submittal and review
Applications and plans are received, reviewed and approved electronically rather than over a counter.
- CAP Government, Inc.
The Town’s contracted building permit and inspection service, based at Town Hall. (954) 640-4215, building@lbts-fl.gov.
- Resolution 2026-25
The Town adopted an updated Building Permit and Inspection Fee Schedule incorporating HB 803. We name it; we do not summarise a document we have not opened.
- HB 803 exemptions
Including the exemption for qualifying single-family residential work under $7,500 that the state legislation created.
- Counter hours
Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at Town Hall - a five-day week, unlike several of its Broward neighbours.
The critical path is not the drawing
In most municipalities the design is what everything waits on. Here the submittal waits on two approvals that other organisations control - so the honest programme starts them first and draws alongside them.
None of the above is a statement about your property. The Town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, through its contracted building department, determines what any specific address and scope requires, and requirements change. Broward County determines what its Environmental Protection Division requires. We confirm what your project actually needs before anything is filed, and we do not publish fees, review durations or any assurance of approval.
Cost and time
What moves the number,
and what moves the date.
No figures here. In a town where two external approvals gate the submittal, the interesting variable is usually the calendar rather than the rate.
What moves the cost
- How early the prerequisites were started
Not a line in a quote, and the biggest single influence on what a project here actually costs to run.
- Whether the design team can seal electronically
The Town requires it of all plans. Discovering a workflow problem at submittal is an expensive way to learn it.
- The condition of what is there
On an older coastal property, what a previous owner did - permitted or not - is found during survey and demolition and has to be resolved rather than covered.
- Structural alteration
Openings, spans and load paths need engineering, and engineering needs to be in the drawing before it can be in the submittal.
- Exposure
A block from the ocean is harder on materials than a mile inland. Specification follows the site, and it costs what it costs.
- Scope added after submittal
Worse here than in most places, because a change that reopens the county question reopens a prerequisite rather than a review comment.
What moves the schedule
- EPD approval
Outside the Town’s control and outside ours. Started first for exactly that reason.
- Recording the notice
A county process with its own timing, and two certified copies to come back before anything can be filed.
- Getting plans sealed
Electronic signing and sealing is required of all plans, so it is part of the drawing programme rather than a step after it.
- Electronic review
Comments answered by revising and resubmitting. A clean first submittal is the only part of this anyone controls.
- Product and material lead times
Ordering after approval is a date; ordering before it is a risk.
- Inspections
Booked through CAP’s process and sequenced through construction, with closeout at the end.
Owner’s guide
Six things worth knowing
before you draw anything.
Not rules - the Town writes those, and its contracted department applies them. These are the things that most often change how a project here is planned.
Ask "when can we file?" before "when will it be drawn?"
In this Town those are different questions with different answers, and only one of them is under your design team’s control.
Treat EPD as week one, not month three
A county approval that gates a town submittal has to be started at the beginning. Everything else can run alongside it.
Recording takes time and produces paper
Two certified copies, back in your hands, before you file. It is a lead time with a document at the end, not a signature.
Check your architect can seal electronically
The Town requires it of all plans. It is a five-minute question that occasionally has a surprising answer.
Under $2,500 is genuinely different
The Notice of Commencement requirement carries that exemption. Small jobs really are a shorter road here.
Know whose process you are in
The Town’s building permit and inspection services are provided by CAP Government, Inc. Same Town Hall, different organisation, and their process is the one you are following.
What it is like
Living with a project
that starts before it starts.
The honest version, including the parts that feel slow at the beginning and are the reason the middle is not.
- The first month looks like paperwork
Because it is. Two approvals are moving while the drawings are being finished, and neither is visible from the street.
- We will ask for decisions early
A design that has to be sealed and submitted as a complete package needs its selections settled sooner than one that can evolve during review.
- Nothing is filed on a hope
The submittal goes in when both prerequisites are actually in hand. Filing early to look busy would simply return the application.
- One point of contact
The same person from the first visit to the walkthrough. Design, permitting and construction sit in one company, so a reviewer’s comment does not wait on a hand-off between two firms.
- The site itself is ordinary
Protection, containment, deliveries, dust and noise are managed as on any job, and any association hours are respected without being asked.
- Closeout is not optional
Permits are closed out. An open permit stays with the property and reappears when it is sold, when it is someone else’s leverage.
Questions
Ask the
awkward ones.
Six categories. Pick one and the answers change.
The Town states that Broward County Environmental Protection Division approval and a recorded Notice of Commencement with two certified copies must be complete prior to Building Department submittal. The Notice of Commencement requirement carries an exemption where the value of the work is under $2,500.
No, and the difference is the whole point. Most municipalities want the notice recorded before the permit issues, and some before the first inspection. Here it has to exist before the application is accepted, which moves it from the middle of the programme to the front.
You would be filing something the Town has said it requires those things before. Rather than test that, we simply do not - the sequence is published and it is not ambiguous.
Yes, and it should. That is the one genuine advantage of a front-loaded sequence: two lead times you do not control run alongside the one you do.
Building permit and inspection services are provided by CAP Government, Inc., with staff in Town Hall, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You can reach them on (954) 640-4215 or at building@lbts-fl.gov.
The code is the code. What differs is the process around it - how submittals are made, how comments come back, how inspections are booked. We work to that process rather than to a generic one.
Electronically. The Town states that applications and plans are received, reviewed and approved electronically, and that all plans must be electronically signed and sealed by the registered architect or engineer.
The Town adopted an updated Building Permit and Inspection Fee Schedule under that resolution, incorporating HB 803 - including the state exemption for qualifying single-family residential work under $7,500. We name it rather than summarise it, because we have not opened the resolution itself.
Assume the question is live and check. What is unusual in this Town is not which work needs a permit but what has to exist before the application can be made, and that applies to the application rather than to the scope.
We do not publish a number, because the Town does not, and because two of the steps belong to other organisations. What we can tell you is the order, and that we start the parts we do not control first.
It has a route, and here it has a cost worth understanding: a change that reopens the county environmental question reopens a prerequisite rather than a review comment. We will tell you that before you decide, not after.
The Notice of Commencement requirement has a stated exemption under $2,500, and HB 803 created a separate exemption for qualifying single-family residential work under $7,500. Whether yours qualifies is for the Town to determine, and we confirm it rather than assume it.
Because the same square footage can carry very different amounts of coordination depending on what the county needs. A rate would be a guess. You get an itemised figure in writing after a survey, and it says what happens if something is found once work starts.
Yes. Salt and exposure are real, and a specification that ignores them is cheaper on paper and dearer in five years. We say what we are specifying and why.
Yes - across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, 104 municipalities. The filing routes genuinely differ between them, which is the reason we check rather than assume.
Why Elbaz
What we will actually
put our name to.
- Licensed, bonded and insured
Elbaz Construction is a licensed Florida general contractor, CBC1265280. Permits are pulled in the company’s name.
- We start what we do not control first
County approval and recording are begun at the beginning, because they decide the earliest date anything can be filed.
- We plan to the Town’s order, not ours
The published sequence is the sequence. A programme that assumes otherwise is a programme that slips.
- Design and construction in one contract
The people who draw it are the people who build it, so a reviewer’s comment comes back to the team that can answer it.
- We say what we do not know
What the county will require for a specific address is the county’s to determine. Any contractor telling you before checking is telling you something nobody has.
- Permits closed out
Every permit we pull is closed out at the end of the job rather than left open against the property.
No awards, no rankings and no numbers we cannot show you. Everything above is either public record or visible in the work on this page.
Reviews
I highly recommend them for home improvement. They renovated my master bathroom and a few upgrades for other guest bathrooms. They are very professional, courteous and transparent. They are great at communicating and finding ways to streamline the work. Sean has impeccable project management and customer relationship management skills. Very pleased with the work!
Omri B
Genuine Google reviews of Elbaz Construction, shown as written. None of these reviewers is identified as a Lauderdale-by-the-Sea client and none is presented as one - they are shown because they are real, not because of where they are.
Redid my whole bathroom and kitchen. Great service - Great quality - very quick - very professional !! Highly recommended!
Adir Davidov
They are amazing! Very professional. Met my exact requests with so much patience and knowledge. They renovated my whole house and the whole process was such a breeze. I highly recommend them!
Lee Morali
We hired them to renovate our investment property and they provided exceptional quality service for an affordable price!
Shir Partush
Amazing experience with the entire company! They did a great job in my house for some work that needed to be completed, and I am extremely happy with the result. Super professional & great service. I highly recommend Elbaz Construction.
Mia Zafrani
After I've been Looking for a good company to renovate my house , I found those guys! These people are super professional super honest super Fast !! Don't hesitate to Rent their service! They are number one!!
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104 municipalities across three counties — and we hold the licence to build in all of them. Not sure about your address? Ask us.
Keep reading
Related guides
- Renovation vs Remodel
Where repair ends and remodelling begins, and why that line decides whether the front-loaded sequence applies to you at all.
- How Much Does It Cost to Remodel a House?
What actually moves a renovation number, and why in some towns the calendar moves it more than the finishes do.
- How Much Will My Home Be Worth After a Remodel?
The relationship between what you spend, what you change and what it is worth after.
- A Guide to Choosing a General Contractor
What to ask, what to check and what a licence number actually tells you.
Related services
- Broward County
- Planning & Permitting
- HOA & Historic District Approval
- Residential Permit Expediting
- Zoning & Variance Assistance
- Full-Service Home Renovation
- Kitchen Remodeling
- Bathroom Remodeling
- Roofing
- Windows & Doors
- Design-Build New Homes
- Home Remodeling in Pompano Beach
- Home Remodeling in Fort Lauderdale
- Home Remodeling in Oakland Park
Start here
Tell us about the property
The address, roughly when the building was built, what you want to change, and whether any of it touches the ground, drainage or the exterior. The address is what lets us judge the county side rather than guess it.
We check what is already permitted on the property, then survey it - and at the same time we start the two approvals that decide the earliest date anything can be filed.
A promised filing date before the prerequisites are moving, a review duration, or an assurance of approval. The Town publishes none of those and neither will we.
Thanks — that came through.
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.
Start the approvals,
then finish the drawings.
In Lauderdale-by-the-Sea the submittal waits on two things other organisations control. The sooner they start, the sooner everything else means something. Begin with a survey and a conversation about the sequence.
