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Posts tagged: Florida Building Code

Digital Building Permits

How Permit Source can help contractors with e permits

Effective October 1, 2017, the Sixth Edition of the South Florida Building Code requires building permit applications to be able to be submitted electronically. It does not define what specific method is used to submit permit applications, or associated documents. The drawings and other documents required as part of the permit application may still be submitted in person in a non-electronic form, at the discretion of the building official. This leaves it up to each municipality to decide what process they use to accept digital permit applications, and if, and how they will accept, and process the required documents in an electronic format.

As usual, this open ended directive created by the Florida Building Code has caused problems for contractors in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County. There is no consistency on digital permit submissions by the tri-county municipal Building Departments. There are even a few municipal Building Departments that no longer allow walk-in building permit submissions. Digital permit submissions currently include everything from simple email submissions to third party software like ProjectDox to uploaded permit documents for electronic plan review. ProjectDox is not the only software you will run into, and for every third party digital building permit submission software there is a learning curve required.

Even if you are pretty savvy when it comes to using computers, and experienced at learning how to use new software, there all sorts of other pit falls you will run into. Such as, file naming, electronically sealed documents, and even the printing of the approved documents. If you name the files wrong, or upload them into the wrong directory, it will cause a delay in your approval. If you upload sealed documents without verification, or do not follow Florida Statues, your digital documents will be denied. If you print the approved documents the wrong size, you could fail your inspection.

Then there are the emails. If you think you get way too much email now, it is only going to get worse as more and more Building Departments convert to digital permitting. There are now many Cities that send out system generated emails for every step of the submission and review process, and some that will automatically email you the approved permit documents. In addition, system generated emails are sent by many Cities for inspection scheduling and status. I highly recommend that Contractors who decide to do their own digital building permit processing setup a dedicated email just for digital permitting.

If all the above isn’t enough to make you pull your hair out, a high percentage of Building Department websites require logins with password access. Now you have to keep a record of your login information for dozens of municipal websites.

In summation, digital building permits in South Florida are nothing new. Miami-Dade County has been issuing digitally reviewed building permits for almost ten years. Tamarac, Pompano Beach and Boca Raton have been processing building permits digitally for almost five years. We have been processing building permits in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County for 15 years and are experienced in digital building permit processing. If you have questions, or would like us to take over the headache of dealing with your building permit processing needs, give us a call. We can offer free advice, or manage the process for you.

Active October 1, 2017, the Sixth Edition of the South Florida Building Code requires building permit applications to be able to be submitted electronically. It does not define what specific method is used to submit permit applications, or associated documents. The drawings and other documents required as part of the permit application may still be submitted in person in a non-electronic form, at the discretion of the building official. This leaves it up to each municipality to decide what process they use to accept digital permit applications, and if, and how they will accept, and process the required documents in an electronic format.

As usual, this open ended directive created by the Florida Building Code has caused problems for contractors in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County. There is no consistency on digital permit submissions by the tri-county municipal Building Departments. There are even a few municipal Building Departments that no longer allow walk-in building permit submissions. Digital permit submissions currently include everything from simple email submissions to third party software like ProjectDox to uploaded permit documents for electronic plan review. ProjectDox is not the only software you will run into, and for every third party digital building permit submission software there is a learning curve required.

Even if you are pretty savvy when it comes to using computers, and experienced at learning how to use new software, there all sorts of other pit falls you will run into. Such as, file naming, electronically sealed documents, and even the printing of the approved documents. If you name the files wrong, or upload them into the wrong directory, it will cause a delay in your approval. If you upload sealed documents without verification, or do not follow Florida Statues, your digital documents will be denied. If you print the approved documents the wrong size, you could fail your inspection.

Then there are the emails. If you think you get way too much email now, it is only going to get worse as more and more Building Departments convert to digital permitting. There are now many Cities that send out system generated emails for every step of the submission and review process, and some that will automatically email you the approved permit documents. In addition, system generated emails are sent by many Cities for inspection scheduling and status. I highly recommend that Contractors who decide to do their own digital building permit processing setup a dedicated email just for digital permitting.

If all the above isn’t enough to make you pull your hair out, a high percentage of Building Department websites require logins with password access. Now you have to keep a record of your login information for dozens of municipal websites.

In summation, digital building permits in South Florida are nothing new. Miami-Dade County has been issuing digitally reviewed building permits for almost ten years. Tamarac, Pompano Beach and Boca Raton have been processing building permits digitally for almost five years. We have been processing building permits in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County for 15 years and are experienced in digital building permit processing. If you have questions, or would like us to take over the headache of dealing with your building permit processing needs, give us a call.  We can offer free advice, or manage the process for you.

Manufacturers and Contractors Beware!

Permt_Source_Welcome_ to_South_FloridaWe constantly get calls from manufacturers and out-of-state building contractors interested in expanding into the South Florida area to sell building products and materials, or in the case of contractors, wanting to offer construction services. The conversation always involves the question of what the building permitting process is like in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. The simple answer is that it can be very complex depending on what you want to have permitted.

Over the past ten years we have had at at least a dozen Clients, the majority being building contractors, that set-up offices in the area without doing their due diligence on the viability of  their contracting business, and the impact that the building permit process would have on the success of their business. They have all since closed their doors. Some purchased the rights to sell a construction product in the State not realizing that the product had State of Florida product approval, but was not approved for use in the high velocity hurricane zone (HVHZ) area of South Florida.

I highly recommend that manufacturers of building products, and building contractors do their home work on the permitting process in Florida, and especially the South Florida area. Review the Florida Building Code and become familiar with those sections referring the the high velocity hurricane zone. I would also recommend that you become familiar with the local Codes and Ordinances of the Counties and Cities you want to target for sales. They can be very different. Even some experienced and seasoned local contractors refuse to do work in some Cities and Counties because of the tedious, time consuming and aggravating  process of getting a building permit issued.

Feel free to call us if you have questions about the building permitting process in South Florida. Specifically, Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. We may not have all the answers, put we can point you in the right direction.

New 2010 Florida Building Code

2010_Florida_Buiilding _Code_Wind_Bebri_RegionsThe new 2010 Florida Building Code will be implemented on March 15, 2010, and it includes significant changes to areas of South Florida. Specifically, the High Velocity Hurricane Zone Areas have been increased to include a much larger land mass and now covers areas that were not in the 2007 Florida Building Code. How will these changes affect contractors, manufacturers and permitting in South Florida? Until the changes are fully implemented nobody really knows for sure.

Tom Johnston, president of the International Hurricane Protection Association has the opinion that, “this adoption of ASCE 7-10 places an unnecessary burden on manufactures to update their product approvals to reflect a new code version when very little material differences have occurred. In addition, a net result of slightly less stringent design pressures is not a step in the right direction. All of this occurring during these difficult economic times makes this code modification even more of an ill conceived decision.”

According to the Home Builders Assocition, for central and south Florida the WBDR is increased and now will include all of the following; Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe, Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Indian River, Brevard, Volusia, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Polk, Charlotte, Lee, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Okeechobee, and Highlands. The result of these changes will mean there will be new areas with requirements for opening protection in accordance with Chapter 16 of the code.

There are also changes to the Energy Code which will affect Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, but it seems, that the largest impact of the new Code from a cost and procedural stand point, will affect Central Florida more so than South Florida. By no means does that diminish the increased costs for building permitting. Procedural changes that building departments will institute will require contractors to produce additional paperwork and forms, and then there is  the increased costs incurred by manufactures that will be pasted on to consumers. Let’s not forget the additional costs that the local architects and engineers will need to pass on the their Clients.

To summarize, it is a good thing that the HVHZ areas have been increased. Yes! The Wind Born Debri Regions in the 2007 and earlier Codes never made any sense, but have the other changes made buildings any safer? Or, have the changes just added more costs to the consumer, created more bureaucratic procedures and paperwork, and made the process of designing, building and permitting a construction project more of a nightmare that it already is, in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties? Only time will tell!

Hurricane Season – High Velocity Hurricane Zones

Florida_Wind_Borne_Debris_RegionsWe are now well into the the 2010 hurricane season. Nothing major has occurred affecting  South Florida, but it only takes that one storm. After living through an evening in August of 1992 with Andrew pounding on the doors, and the boarded-up windows of the home I was staying in west Miami-Dade, I am fully aware of the destruction that one storm can do.  A long, and what seemed to be a never ending evening in darkness hearing what sounds like the thunder of a train going by for hours is something you never forget.

Back then, the South Florida Building Code was about as thick as a paperback romance novel. Hurricane Andrew put and end to that real fast! Now, almost twenty years later, the Florida Building Code fills a cabinet shelf with volumes and volumes of 3″ loose leaf binders. Like any government generated rules and regulations some is genuine and serves the purpose it was created for, but other portions are created with political motivations. That leads me to the following observations. As you can see by the map to the above left, the yellow areas are considered, high velocity hurricane zones. The yellow areas encompass all of Miami-Dade County and Broward County, and a portion of Palm Beach County. Within the yellow areas there are degrees of wind velocity. They range from 120 mph -150 mph, but what is 30 mph between friends. If you look closely, the highest wind velocities are at the tip of Florida, concentrated on the eastern coast.

I am not a scientist, an engineer or a meteorologist but I am a thinker. Hurricanes have hit Florida from the Gulf as will as the Atlantic. Wilma in  2005, which I had the pleasure of experiencing, hit Florida on the Gulf side and went northwest through Florida. They also just don’t hit the tip of Florida as the wind borne debris map seems to indicate. When you look at the below satellite photos of Andrew and Wilma, and then compare it the the high velocity hurricane zones you are probably scratching your head.

Hurricane Andrew Satellite Picture Timed

Hurricane Andrew Satellite Picture Timed

Hurricane Wilma 2005

Hurricane Wilma 2005

So! My point is, get prepared and be prepared no matter where you live in Florida. Hurricanes are not going to follow maps created by bureaucrats. Also! It’s a little late now, but in the future, if you are doing any construction, build it to withstand 150 mph winds. You can always build to exceed Code!