From Plans to Permit Approval

Yes. Elbaz Construction is a licensed Florida general contractor, licence CBC1265280, and pulls permits in its own name for the work it builds across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. We define the scope, coordinate the drawings and engineering the project needs, file the application, answer plan-review comments and call the inspections. The permit is issued by the government building department, not by us, and we cannot guarantee that any application will be approved.

In nearly every case, yes. A kitchen remodel normally involves electrical and plumbing work, and often cabinetry changes that move both — none of which is exempt anywhere in Florida, including under HB 803. If your address is in unincorporated Miami-Dade the county issues the permit; if it is inside one of the county’s 35 municipalities, that city’s building official does. The exact drawings required depend on how much of the layout is changing.

Almost always. Bathroom work touches plumbing and usually electrical, and where the shower or tub is being reconfigured it involves waterproofing that has to be inspected. A like-for-like cosmetic refresh with no plumbing or electrical change is the only realistic exception, and even that varies — West Palm Beach states that replacing flooring in an apartment or condo does require a permit, while in a house it does not.

Yes. West Palm Beach states it plainly: a permit is required for replacing windows and doors, the products must meet the wind loads experienced locally, and they must be installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s product approval documents. Miami-Dade lists windows and doors among the work homeowners need permits for. Fort Lauderdale specifically excludes window replacement from the HB 803 exemption. Product approval documentation is part of the submission, which is why we confirm approvals before anything is ordered.

Yes — roof replacement is permitted work throughout South Florida. In Miami-Dade, roofing is one of the categories a contractor can obtain through the county’s e-Permitting system when the permit requires no plan review. Roofing carries its own inspection sequence, and West Palm Beach publishes guidance on scheduling a preliminary inspection before starting work so the inspector can set expectations for what will be required.

An addition normally needs a full architectural set, plus structural engineering, plus mechanical, electrical and plumbing design — and it triggers zoning review as well as building review, because you are changing the footprint. The precise set is determined by the jurisdiction and the scope. We establish that at the scoping stage rather than after drawings are underway, because redrawing to a requirement nobody checked is the most avoidable cost in this process.

A full permit set: architectural drawings, structural engineering, mechanical, electrical and plumbing design, and site and civil documentation. In Miami-Dade, review is coordinated across building, electrical, roofing, mechanical, plumbing and structural disciplines as well as zoning, impact fees, public works, fire rescue, DERM and the Department of Health. It is the longest review of any residential project type.

No, and assuming it does is expensive. A single-trade replacement may need very little. A kitchen that keeps its layout needs less than one that moves the plumbing. Structural engineering is triggered by what you are doing to the structure — removing or altering load-bearing walls, forming new openings, changing the roof structure — not by the size of the budget. We scope which disciplines your project actually requires before commissioning any of them.

Applications are filed through the county’s Plan Status and Application Submittal Portal, which returns a confirmation number (a UP#) and an email confirmation. Plans are not reviewed until the required upfront fees are paid. Review is coordinated across multiple disciplines at the Permitting and Inspection Center, and the county states it may take between 24 hours and 10 business days depending on permit type and complexity. Corrections go back through the portal. Once issued, the permit card lists the required inspections, which must be requested one business day in advance.

For most Broward addresses, your city issues the permit through its own system — Broward County’s Building Code Division has jurisdiction over unincorporated Broward and the cities it contracts with. Where a municipal permit carries county-level approvals with it, those are handled through ePermits OneStop, a shared platform built by the county and its municipalities so approvals can be applied for online alongside the city permit rather than in person at Government Center West.

Palm Beach County’s Permit Center processes applications for the unincorporated area through ePZB, its electronic Planning, Zoning and Building portal, which handles plan-review tracking, permit status, inspection scheduling and fee estimation. County field inspectors work Monday to Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. If your property is inside one of the county’s 39 municipalities, that municipality permits it instead.

The City of West Palm Beach, not Palm Beach County. West Palm Beach is an incorporated municipality inside the county and runs its own Development Services Building Division from City Hall at 401 Clematis Street, with its own Civic Access portal, its own fee schedule and its own inspectors. Palm Beach County’s Permit Center at 2300 N. Jog Road handles the unincorporated area. Confusing the two is the most common jurisdiction mistake in the county.

It varies by jurisdiction, by how complete the drawings are, and by the review queue — and only some jurisdictions publish a figure at all. Miami-Dade states plan review may take between 24 hours and 10 business days. West Palm Beach states a code-compliant residential remodel permit can be issued in approximately three weeks and a commercial remodel in approximately five, and adds that if documents are not code-compliant the timeline then depends on how quickly comments are answered. No contractor controls a government review queue, and anyone promising a date is guessing.

Comments are the normal outcome of a first review, not a failure. The reviewer posts what needs to change, the design team revises the affected sheets, and the set is resubmitted — in Miami-Dade as a rework through the portal with a contact sheet. Each round takes time, which is why the quality of the initial submission matters more than anything else in the timeline. This loop is the single largest variable in any permit schedule.

We do, on the projects we build. The permit card issued with the permit lists which inspections the job requires. Miami-Dade requires requests one business day before the desired date and conducts some inspections virtually over Microsoft Teams. Palm Beach County’s field inspectors work 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. West Palm Beach publishes the primary inspector and a direct phone number in its Civic Access portal from 7:30 AM on the day. The inspector works for the jurisdiction, not for us.

We coordinate them. Architectural drawings, structural engineering and MEP design are produced by the licensed design professionals a project requires, and we manage that process — briefing the team on the real construction scope, checking the set against what the jurisdiction will look for, assembling the submission, and handling the comments that come back. If you already have drawings, we will review them against the scope and tell you honestly whether they are ready to file.