What decides a Miami Gardens timeline
The number of reviewers is the schedule.
A single-trade job and a whole-house remodel are not the same project with different budgets. In Miami Gardens they are different numbers of reviewers, and the City says so directly.
The City's own description of the process is unusually candid: “Most construction requires review by three to seven different reviewers (Structural, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Zoning, Building, DERM, Fire, and Public Works).” Nine disciplines exist; your scope decides how many of them you meet. Reduce the disciplines and you reduce the surface area for a correction — which is the only lever on review time that an owner actually controls.
Structural, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Zoning, Building, DERM, Fire and Public Works. The City lists them rather than leaving you to guess who is looking.
Not all nine, and rarely one. The scope decides, and the scope is decided at design.
“A Permit and Licensing Clerk will check your application for accuracy and completeness” before it reaches any reviewer at all.
The City states that a completed application produces a permit or a notice that corrections are required within fifteen working days.
- Licensed & insuredState-licensed GC, bonded and insured
- Design-buildDrawings, permitting and construction in-house
- Nine disciplinesThe City names every reviewer it uses
- 104 municipalitiesMiami Gardens is one of them
- CBC1265280Verifiable with the Florida DBPR
What we build
Kitchens, bathrooms, additions and accessory units.
The work that brings a Miami Gardens homeowner to a permit counter is usually one of four things, and each wakes a different set of reviewers.
A kitchen is three trades.
An addition is most of the nine.
That is not a warning, it is a planning fact. A scope that stays inside one trade is explicitly faster by the City's own account; a scope that moves walls, services and footprint meets Structural, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Zoning, Building and often DERM. Knowing which you are doing before design is fixed is the difference between one review cycle and three.
- Kitchen and bathroom remodelling, where the trades are known up front
- Home additions, where zoning and footprint join the review
- Accessory and in-law units, where the whole set applies
- Whole-home renovation, where every discipline is live at once
Single-trade work
The City is explicit: “If you are doing work that only requires one trade (i.e. electric only or plumbing only), your permit turnaround time will be shorter.”
Multi-trade work
Three to seven reviewers, each able to return a comment. They are answered together, as one coordinated resubmittal, rather than one at a time.
An accessory living space, completed
A completed accessory living space with kitchen, living area and stairs, on a South Florida project by Elbaz Construction. An accessory unit is the scope that reliably wakes the largest number of reviewers.
Not sure which scope you are actually planning?
Tell us what you want the house to do and we will tell you which disciplines that wakes, before anything is drawn.
The work itself
Finished rooms, and the drawings behind them.
Three frames from South Florida projects by Elbaz Construction. The third is the part a Miami Gardens reviewer actually reads.
A compact bathroom with vanity, toilet and open shelf. A bathroom is plumbing, electrical and mechanical before it is a finish.
Every photograph on this page is of a South Florida project by Elbaz Construction. None is presented as being in Miami Gardens, and no pictured property is said to have been permitted by the City.
How we work
One contractor, from the first sketch to the last inspection.
What design-build changes in Miami Gardens
- Drawings
- Produced in-house, to the disciplines the scope actually wakes
- Permitting
- Filed and tracked by the people who drew the set
- Corrections
- Answered as one coordinated response, not trade by trade
- Construction
- Built by the team that negotiated the comments
- Closeout
- Inspections run against the set that was approved
Scope before drawings
We establish which of the nine disciplines your project wakes before the design is fixed, because that is what sets the review load.
Completeness before submission
The City checks accuracy and completeness before a reviewer sees the file. We run that check ourselves first, against the same criteria.
One coordinated correction
Comments can arrive from several reviewers at once. They are reconciled against each other before anything is resubmitted.
Build to the approved set
What was approved is what gets built, and the inspections are run against that same set rather than a later revision nobody filed.
Want the scope worked out before the drawings start?
That conversation is free and it is the one that saves the most time.
Three ways a Miami Gardens project runs
Pick the one that matches the disciplines you are willing to wake.
None of these is better than the others. Each is right for a different brief, and the difference between them is measured in reviewers.
A
Single trade
Electrical only, or plumbing only. The City states this is explicitly faster, and it is the one case where that difference is published.
- One review discipline
- The shortest turnaround the City publishes
- The smallest correction surface
- Only right if the brief genuinely is one trade
B
Room remodel
A kitchen or bathroom: plumbing, electrical and mechanical, with building over the top and zoning where anything changes outside.
- Three to five reviewers, typically
- The footprint stays where it is
- Services move inside the existing envelope
- Rough-in inspections before anything is covered
C
Addition or accessory unit
Structural, zoning and building join the trades, with DERM and Public Works where the site or the services are touched.
- Most of the nine disciplines at once
- Setbacks and coverage become live questions
- New foundations and new load paths
- Right for more floor area, not better floor area
Things that add a reviewer
- Moving a wall that carries load, which brings Structural in
- Changing the footprint, which brings Zoning in
- New or relocated drainage, which can bring DERM in
- Work in the right of way or a new driveway apron, which brings Public Works in
- A new or altered means of egress, which brings Fire in
- A new electrical service or panel, which brings Electrical in on its own
- Gas, which brings Mechanical in
- An accessory unit, which tends to bring all of them in at once
Which disciplines a specific project wakes is determined by the City, not by this page. The list above is how scope decisions map onto reviewers in general, and we confirm the position for your address before design is finished.
The sequence
From an idea to an issued Miami Gardens permit.
The City publishes the middle of this sequence. The ends are ours, and they are where the time is actually won.
Scope, and the disciplines it wakes
Establish what the brief needs and which of the nine review disciplines that engages. Everything downstream is sized by this decision.
Drawings and written specification
Produced to the disciplines identified, with the specification written rather than assumed and allowances stated as allowances.
Completeness check
We check the package against the City’s own criteria, then a Permit and Licensing Clerk checks it for accuracy and completeness.
Multi-discipline review
Three to seven reviewers. A permit or a notice that corrections are required, within fifteen working days of a complete application.
Corrections and second review
The City states that once corrections are made the plans must be resubmitted for a second review. We answer every discipline at once.
Build and inspect
Construction against the approved set, with inspections run in the order the trades actually finish.
Timings other than the City’s published fifteen working days are not stated, because the City does not publish them and they are not ours to promise.
What we do, step by step
Ten things that happen on a Miami Gardens project.
Written plainly, because the value of a design-build contractor is mostly in the parts a homeowner never sees.
First conversation
The brief, the property, the budget shape
QC · FreeWhat you want the house to do, and what is actually in the way.
A scope direction and an honest view of the disciplines involved
Site visit
Measure, photograph, look at what is there
QC · FreeExisting conditions establish what is possible before anything is drawn.
A record of the property as it actually is
Scope and disciplines
Which of the nine reviewers this wakes
QC · FreeThe single most useful planning decision on a Miami Gardens project.
A written scope, and the review load that comes with it
Concept drawings
Layout, and the decisions that drive cost
QC · Agreed up frontEnough to decide with, before anything is engineered.
Drawings you can react to
Specification
Written, not assumed
QC · Agreed up frontWe price against a drawn scope and a written specification, with allowances stated as allowances.
A specification that a price can stand on
Permit set
Drawn to the disciplines identified in step 03
QC · Agreed up frontStructural, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and zoning content as the scope requires.
A set built for the reviewers who will read it
Completeness check
Ours, before the City’s
QC · IncludedThe City checks accuracy and completeness before review begins. So do we.
A package that clears the clerk first time
Submission and tracking
Filed and followed
QC · IncludedSubmitted through the Building and Planning Division at City Hall or the City’s portal, and tracked from there.
A file whose status is known, not guessed
Corrections
Answered as one set
QC · IncludedComments from several reviewers reconciled against each other, then resubmitted for the second review the City describes.
One coherent response instead of several partial ones
Build and close out
Construction, inspection, certificate
QC · The contractBuilt to the approved set by the people who drew it.
A finished project and a closed permit
Nothing here is a review-time promise. The only duration on this page is the City’s own published fifteen working days.
What the City publishes
The Miami Gardens permit process, in the City’s own words.
Everything in this section is the City of Miami Gardens' own published material, read on 20 August 2026.
The paperwork sequence, in order
- SubmissionYour contractor or design professional submits the application package.
- Completeness“A Permit and Licensing Clerk will check your application for accuracy and completeness.”
- DistributionThe package goes to the disciplines the scope requires.
- Reviewers“Most construction requires review by three to seven different reviewers.”
- StructuralOne of the nine named disciplines.
- Electrical, Mechanical, PlumbingThree more of the nine.
- Zoning and BuildingTwo more.
- DERMThe county environmental layer, named by the City among its reviewers.
- Fire and Public WorksThe remaining two.
- DecisionA permit, or “notice that corrections are required”.
- Turnaround“Within 15 working days” for a completed application.
- Second review“Once the corrections have been made, the plans must be resubmitted for a second review.”
Four things worth knowing before you file in Miami Gardens
A person checks accuracy and completeness before any reviewer opens the file. A package that fails there has not been reviewed and rejected — it has not been reviewed at all.
The City says so directly. If the brief genuinely is one trade, keeping it that way is the cheapest schedule decision available.
The county environmental reviewer is named among the nine, so a drainage or site question is not a separate adventure — it is part of the same review.
It is published, and it applies to a COMPLETED application. Completeness is the half you control.
We do not publish a review duration of our own. The City publishes fifteen working days for a completed application and this page quotes that figure and no other — the shorter numbers that circulate on third-party permitting sites are not the City’s and are not reproduced here. We also will not tell you which reviewers your project will draw until the scope is settled, because that is what the scope determines. Requirements change: confirm the current position with the Building and Planning Division, or ask us to. We do it on every file.
What moves the number
What actually drives a Miami Gardens budget.
We do not publish prices, because a price without a drawn scope is a guess dressed as a number. What can be published honestly is what moves it.
How many disciplines the scope wakes
Three reviewers and seven reviewers are different projects on paper long before they are different projects on site.
Whether load-bearing structure moves
A wall that carries brings Structural into the review, and brings an engineer with it.
Whether the footprint changes
Zoning joins the review, and setbacks and coverage stop being background facts.
How far the services move
Plumbing and electrical are cheap to extend and expensive to relocate.
The condition of what is already there
What is behind the wall decides more of the price than what goes on it.
Specification level
Allowances are stated as allowances so the price does not quietly become somebody else’s decision later.
Site access
Where material can be delivered and stored changes labour more than most owners expect.
Drainage and site work
This is where DERM can join the list of reviewers.
Work in the right of way
A new apron or anything in the public way brings Public Works in.
How complete the first submission is
The one variable entirely within your control, and the one the City checks before any reviewer opens the file.
Every driver above changes either the drawings, the review or the build — and most change two of the three.
What a realistic programme looks like
- Scope and concept, agreed before anything is engineered
- Permit set drawn to the disciplines the scope actually wakes
- Completeness check, ours and then the City’s
- Review, and a correction cycle answered as one coordinated response
- Construction against the approved set, inspected as the trades finish
Seven questions worth asking any contractor here
- Which of the nine Miami Gardens reviewers will my scope wake?
- Are you drawing the permit set, or subcontracting it?
- What is in the specification, and what is an allowance?
- Who answers the correction comments, and how quickly?
- What happens if a reviewer disagrees with the engineer?
- Who is on site when an inspector arrives?
- What is your licence number, and can I verify it?
Useful to have ready
- The property address
- Any survey you hold, and how old it is
- Any permits pulled on the property, and roughly when
- What you want the house to do, rather than a solution
- Whether the footprint needs to change
- A budget range you are comfortable saying out loud
We price against a drawn scope
We price against a drawn scope and a written specification, with allowances stated as allowances. That is what makes a proposal comparable to anyone else’s.
The same thing, drawn
How scope turns into review load.
This is a general mapping, not a prediction about your address. The City decides which disciplines review a specific application.
Drawn from the City’s own statement that most construction is reviewed by three to seven of nine named disciplines. The band widths are indicative and are not a City publication.
The nine disciplines
- Structural. Load paths, beams, foundations
- Electrical. Service, panel, circuits
- Mechanical. HVAC and gas
- Plumbing. Supply, waste, venting
- Zoning and Building. Use, setbacks, coverage, and the code itself
- DERM, Fire, Public Works. Environmental, life safety, and the right of way
It is a project whose scope was decided deliberately. Sometimes the right answer is to wake all nine, and know it in advance.
Decisions worth making early
The choices that change a Miami Gardens project most.
Keeping a scope single-trade, or letting it grow
| Factor | Single trade | Multi-trade |
|---|---|---|
| Reviewers | One discipline | Three to seven of nine |
| City statement | Turnaround “will be shorter” | Permit or corrections within 15 working days of a complete application |
| Correction surface | One reviewer can comment | Several can, and they may not agree with each other |
| Design cost | Lower | Higher, and it should be |
| What it suits | A genuinely single-trade brief | Anything that moves walls, services or footprint |
| Risk | Discovering the brief was never single-trade | Under-drawing for the number of reviewers involved |
| Our advice | Keep it single-trade only if it truly is | Draw for every discipline the scope wakes |
Building out, or building better inside the footprint
| Factor | Extend the footprint | Work inside it |
|---|---|---|
| Zoning | Joins the review | Usually not engaged |
| Structural | New foundations and load paths | Only where an opening changes |
| Site and drainage | Can bring DERM or Public Works in | Rarely engaged |
| Best when | The house genuinely needs more floor area | The house needs the floor area it has to work better |
Eight things that cost Miami Gardens projects time
- Filing an incomplete packageThe clerk checks accuracy and completeness before review starts. An incomplete file has not entered review at all.
- Answering reviewers one at a timeSeveral disciplines can comment. Partial answers produce partial progress and another cycle.
- Assuming a scope is single-tradeA kitchen that moves a wall is not an electrical job, and finding that out at review is expensive.
- Designing before the disciplines are knownThe review load should shape the drawings, not be discovered by them.
- Treating DERM as somebody else’s problemThe City names it among its own reviewers, so it is part of this review rather than a separate one.
- Using a third-party review time to planThe City publishes fifteen working days for a completed application. Other figures in circulation are not the City’s.
- Skipping the written specificationAn allowance that is not stated as an allowance becomes an argument later.
- Changing the set after approvalWhat was approved is what is inspected. A later change is a revision, not an adjustment.
What a good Miami Gardens submission looks like
Complete on the first pass
Drawn for its reviewers
Answered as one voice
Tick these off as you go — nothing is stored or sent, the list is here purely so you can use it while you compare contractors.
More of the work
Rooms, decks and the details in between.
Kitchens
Full remodels including layout changes, relocated services and appliance runs that need their own attention at rough-in.
Bathrooms
Plumbing, electrical and mechanical in the smallest room in the house, where the waterproofing detail matters most.
Additions
Where zoning joins the review and the footprint becomes a live question rather than a given.
Accessory units
A small building with its own services, which is why it wakes most of the nine disciplines at once.
Questions we are actually asked
Miami Gardens, answered.
The City publishes it: "Most construction requires review by three to seven different reviewers (Structural, Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, Zoning, Building, DERM, Fire, and Public Works)." Nine disciplines exist and your scope decides how many of them you meet.
The City states that a completed application produces a permit or a "notice that corrections are required" within "15 working days". That is the City\u2019s own figure and the only duration on this page. Shorter numbers circulating on third-party permitting sites are not the City\u2019s and we do not repeat them.
A person checks them. "A Permit and Licensing Clerk will check your application for accuracy and completeness." A package that fails there has not been reviewed and rejected \u2014 it has not entered review at all, which is why we run the same check ourselves first.
The City says so explicitly: "If you are doing work that only requires one trade (i.e. electric only or plumbing only), your permit turnaround time will be shorter." The caveat is that the brief has to genuinely be one trade \u2014 a kitchen that moves a wall is not an electrical job.
"Once the corrections have been made, the plans must be resubmitted for a second review." Because several disciplines can comment at once, we reconcile every comment against the others and resubmit as one coordinated response rather than answering reviewers individually.
Because the City names it among its own reviewers. That is useful: a drainage or site question is handled inside the same review rather than as a separate process you have to chase.
In person at the Building and Planning Division at City Hall, 18605 NW 27th Ave, and the City has been expanding online submission through its permitting portal.
Almost certainly, and usually more than one trade\u2019s worth. Moving plumbing, altering circuits or changing ventilation each engage a discipline. The useful question is not whether you need a permit but which reviewers your scope wakes.
You can, and the question is whether they are drawn for the disciplines that will read them. A set that satisfies a homeowner and a set that satisfies a structural reviewer are different documents.
The people who drew the set are the people who answer the correction comments and the people on site when the inspector arrives. Nothing is lost in a handover, because there is no handover.
Against a drawn scope and a written specification, with allowances stated as allowances. We do not give a number before there is a scope for it to stand on.
Elbaz Construction is a Certified Building Contractor, licence CBC1265280, licensed, bonded and insured, and verifiable with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
Yes. We file in 104 municipalities across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, and Miami Gardens is one of them. Filing widely is how we know that a city which publishes its reviewer count is unusually easy to plan against.
Expect most of the nine disciplines. An accessory unit is a small building with its own services, so structural, zoning, building and all three trades are typically involved, and site work can add more.
The address, any survey you hold, roughly what permits have been pulled before, and what you want the house to do. A solution is less useful to us than the problem.
No. Everything attributed to the City on this page is its own published wording, read on 20 August 2026, and requirements change. We do not publish review-time promises or approval odds, because neither is ours to give.
Why Elbaz
One contractor, nine possible reviewers, one coordinated response.
- Design-build, genuinelyDrawings, permitting and construction under one contract. The person who decided the scope is the person on site.
- We size the review before we drawWhich of the nine disciplines a scope wakes is the first question, not a discovery made during review.
- We check completeness firstThe City checks accuracy and completeness before review. We run the same check before filing.
- We answer reviewers togetherComments from several disciplines are reconciled against each other, then resubmitted once.
- CBC1265280Certified Building Contractor, licensed, bonded and insured, verifiable with the Florida DBPR.
- 104 municipalities, three countiesMiami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach. Every one files differently.
- We price against a drawn scopeAnd a written specification, with allowances stated as allowances.
- We quote the City, not ourselvesEvery process fact on this page is the City of Miami Gardens\u2019 own published wording.
What homeowners say
Reviews, unedited.
Published on Google, quoted here word for word. We do not shorten, merge or rewrite a review.
Read all 343 reviews on Google
Great experience! The team was professional, efficient, and delivered high-quality work on time. They communicated clearly throughout the project and exceeded our expectations. Highly recommend for any construction needs!
Asher has a lot of experience . We replaced our windows to energy efficient windows. He got down to business right away and did high quality work. His team is very professional! Thanks again
Asher was the best choice I have made. We love the outcome of the ADU. They showed up on time and did a great job, were friendly. No issues at all during the whole process. Very organized team. I would recommend them to everyone I know!
Asher was knowledgeable and gave us cool ideas that we didn't even know before. Nice beautiful color and design. We appreciate the price !
Related reading and services
Service Areas
Proudly serving homeowners across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach
- Aventura
- Bal Harbour
- Bay Harbor Islands
- Biscayne Park
- Coral Gables
- Cutler Bay
- Doral
- El Portal
- Florida City
- Golden Beach
- Hialeah
- Hialeah Gardens
- Homestead
- Indian Creek
- Key Biscayne
- Medley
- Miami
- Miami Beach
- Miami Gardens
- Miami Lakes
- Miami Shores
- Miami Springs
- North Bay Village
- North Miami
- North Miami Beach
- Opa-locka
- Palmetto Bay
- Pinecrest
- South Miami
- Sunny Isles Beach
- Surfside
- Sweetwater
- Virginia Gardens
- West Miami
- Coconut Creek
- Cooper City
- Coral Springs
- Dania Beach
- Davie
- Deerfield Beach
- Fort Lauderdale
- Hallandale Beach
- Hillsboro Beach
- Hollywood
- Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
- Lauderdale Lakes
- Lauderhill
- Lazy Lake
- Lighthouse Point
- Margate
- Miramar
- North Lauderdale
- Oakland Park
- Parkland
- Pembroke Park
- Pembroke Pines
- Plantation
- Pompano Beach
- Sea Ranch Lakes
- Southwest Ranches
- Sunrise
- Tamarac
- Weston
- West Park
- Wilton Manors
- Atlantis
- Belle Glade
- Boca Raton
- Boynton Beach
- Briny Breezes
- Cloud Lake
- Delray Beach
- Glen Ridge
- Golf
- Greenacres
- Gulf Stream
- Haverhill
- Highland Beach
- Hypoluxo
- Juno Beach
- Jupiter
- Jupiter Inlet Colony
- Lake Clarke Shores
- Lake Park
- Lake Worth Beach
- Lantana
- Loxahatchee Groves
- Manalapan
- Mangonia Park
- North Palm Beach
- Ocean Ridge
- Pahokee
- Palm Beach
- Palm Beach Gardens
- Palm Beach Shores
- Palm Springs
- Riviera Beach
- Royal Palm Beach
- South Bay
- South Palm Beach
- Tequesta
- Wellington
- Westlake
- West Palm Beach
104 municipalities across three counties — and we hold the licence to build in all of them. Not sure about your address? Ask us.
Start here
Tell us the address. We will tell you who reviews it.
Most of what determines a Miami Gardens project is knowable before anything is drawn — what the brief actually requires, which of the nine disciplines that wakes, and how complete the package needs to be to clear the clerk first time.
What happens after you send this
- A call back within one business day
- A site visit to see what is actually there
- A written scope, and the review load that comes with it
- A price against that scope, with allowances stated
Useful to have ready
- The property address
- Any survey you hold
- Any permits pulled on the property
- Whether the footprint needs to change
- What you want the house to do
Licensed, bonded and insured
Certified Building Contractor CBC1265280
Design-build: drawings, permitting and construction in-house
104 municipalities across three counties
Thanks — that came through.
Your details are with the Elbaz Construction team. We will call you back to arrange the site visit and the scope conversation. If it is urgent, call us on (754) 236-0675.
