Case study
Hurricane Ian destroyed the roof on this South Florida home. The owner did what most owners do in the weeks after a major storm. She hired a roofing contractor to rebuild the roof and add a deck.
The Problem
Hurricane Ian destroyed the roof on this South Florida home. The owner did what most owners do in the weeks after a major storm. She hired a roofing contractor to rebuild the roof and add a deck. He completed the work and left.
About six months later, the city followed up. They wanted to see the permit. There was no permit. The contractor had never pulled one.
The owner now had two problems. The first was administrative. Construction had been built on her property with no record of inspection or approval, and the city was not going to let that stand. The second was structural. When we walked the work, the roof framing did not meet current Florida building code. The rafters were undersized for the span. The fasteners holding the roof together were ordinary screws, not the engineered structural fasteners and hurricane-rated connectors that the code requires for a residential roof in this part of the state.
This is a familiar pattern after every major storm. Unlicensed and underqualified contractors move into the area, target homeowners in crisis, and complete work that looks finished but will not pass inspection. The owner finds out months later, when the city catches up or when the property goes up for sale or insurance review.
Most contractors will not take on a project in this condition. The work is already in place, the documentation does not exist, and the path through the county permitting office is long. The homeowner does not have the option to walk away. The unpermitted work follows the property until it is resolved.
The Solution
We took the project in three layers. Document what existed. Identify what had to change to bring it to code. Execute the structural work. None of it could happen out of order.
The plans had to come first, the permitting had to follow the plans, and the construction had to follow the permits.
On site, we measured and documented every element the previous contractor had installed. The roof framing, the rafter sizes and spacing, the fastener types, the deck framing, the connections to the existing structure. From this, we produced a complete set of as-built drawings.
This is the document the county needs before they will even consider an after-the-fact permit. Without it, there is nothing to review.
With the as-built plans in hand, we audited every assembly against current Florida building code. The findings:
Each issue was paired with a corrected specification. New rafter sizing, the correct engineered fasteners, custom brackets designed specifically for the geometry of this roof, and hurricane straps at every connection that needed one.
After-the-fact permitting is not one submission. The county reviews the package, returns a denial letter listing what is still unresolved, you respond with revisions, they review again, and the cycle continues until every item is closed. On a project like this, that takes months.
We ran the full process with the county. Every denial was answered with a documented revision. The permit moved through the queue and was eventually issued.
The roof geometry on this house did not match any standard off-the-shelf hurricane connector cleanly. We engineered custom brackets sized to the exact connection points and installed them at every location specified in the permit drawings. The brackets are visible in the as-built and engineering documents that went to the county.
Hurricane straps tie the roof framing to the wall framing. They are what keeps the roof attached to the building during high wind events. Florida code requires them at specific connection intervals and orientations. The original work had skipped them in several locations. We installed straps at every connection that the engineered plan identified.
The original framing did not handle the load paths correctly. We installed a new structural beam to carry the load to the locations where the structure could actually support it. This was a specification from the engineered repair plan, not a field decision.
The undersized rafters were addressed per the engineered plan. Where the existing rafters could be reinforced to meet specification, we reinforced them. Where they could not, they were replaced. The screws that had been used as structural fasteners were removed and replaced with the correct engineered hardware.
The deck staircase did not meet code. We rebuilt it to the corrected specifications.
With every structural correction completed and documented, the property went through final inspection. The work passed. The after-the-fact permit was closed out with the county. The property is now fully documented and code compliant.
Most Contractors Will Not Touch Unpermitted Work
When construction has already been built without a permit, most contractors decline the job. The reasons are practical. The project starts in the middle. Some of the existing work may not be salvageable. There is no documentation to build on. The county process is long and the inspector relationships are not always friendly to a project that started outside the system.
For the homeowner, walking away is not an option. Unpermitted work does not disappear. It shows up at sale, at insurance claim, at the next inspection. Left unresolved, it becomes a permanent encumbrance on the property.
These projects need engineering more than they need labor. The constraint is what is already built. The work is to start from that, identify what is fixable, specify what has to change, and produce a plan the county will accept. That is the part most contractors cannot offer. It is the part we lead with.
The Results
The engineering came first. Plans, then permit, then construction. Without the as-built drawings, the county had nothing to review and no path to issue a permit. That sequencing is what made the project possible at all, and it is the part most contractors are not equipped to lead.
The structural work was specified, not improvised. Custom brackets at the roof connections, hurricane straps where the original work had skipped them, a new structural beam, rafter and fastener remediation, and a rebuilt staircase. Every piece tied to a line on an engineered drawing and a line on a permit.
The unpermitted work is no longer an encumbrance. The denial-letter cycle resolved. Final inspection passed. The after-the-fact permit closed with the county. The property is fully documented and code-compliant, and it stays that way at the next sale, the next insurance review, and the next inspection.
More project records
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Project support
We take on the projects other contractors decline. If you have construction on your property that was built without a permit, or post-hurricane work that will not pass inspection, we can produce the as-built plans, run the after-the-fact permitting, and execute the structural corrections.
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