New construction
A certified Special Inspector follows the structure as it rises: every inspection the plan calls for, every report the county files.
- Coverage
- Miami-Dade & Broward County, Florida
At a glance
The structure has to be inspected as it rises.
Florida requires a special inspector, hired by the owner, on every threshold building: more than three stories or fifty feet, or a large assembly space. The inspector checks the structure during construction, stage by stage, and reports to the building official. It is a role the law defines, and the project cannot close without it.
Owners and developers of threshold buildings · General contractors scheduling the structural inspections · Architects and engineers of record coordinating the inspection plan
When you need it
- 01A threshold building is about to start and the permit names a special inspector.
- 02The structural inspection plan calls for inspections at each stage: foundations, columns, slabs, steel and connections.
- 03The building department asks for the special inspector’s reports before the next stage, or before the certificate of occupancy.
What's included
- Review of the structural inspection plan prepared by the engineer of record
- Inspections of foundations, reinforcing steel, concrete placement, structural steel and connections at the stages the plan sets
- Shoring and reshoring review where the plan requires it
- Stage reports with photographs, filed as the building department requires
- Non-conformances recorded and followed until corrected
- The statement of compliance at completion
What you receive
- Stage inspection reports with photographic record
- Non-conformance log and its corrections
- Reports filed with the building department
- Statement of compliance at completion
Next step
Send the permit set and the structural inspection plan, and tell us the schedule. You receive a proposal for the inspections the plan calls for.
How the work runs
Plan
The structural inspection plan is reviewed and the inspection stages are set against the contractor’s schedule.
Inspect
Each stage is inspected on site before it is covered: reinforcing, formwork, concrete placement, steel erection and connections.
Report
Reports filed as the building department requires, with every non-conformance recorded until it is corrected.
Close
At completion, the statement that the structure was built as inspected, for the certificate of occupancy.
Questions & answers
Questions about threshold inspections
Who hires the special inspector?
The owner does, under Florida law, and the inspector answers to the building official, not to the contractor. That independence is the point of the role: the person who checks the structure is not the person who builds it.
How often is the building inspected?
As often as the structural inspection plan requires. The plan, prepared by the engineer of record, names the stages that have to be seen before they are covered: footings and mats, columns and walls, each floor’s reinforcing and placement, steel erection and connections. We set those stages against the contractor’s schedule and are on site for each.
What happens when something does not match the drawings?
It is recorded as a non-conformance, with photographs, and reported. The engineer of record decides the fix; we inspect the correction and close the item. Nothing is covered until it is closed.
What does the building department receive?
The stage reports as the work proceeds, in the form the department asks for, and at the end the signed and sealed statement that the structure was built in accordance with the approved plans, which the certificate of occupancy depends on.
Good to know
What a special inspector does, and what the law expects.
- A threshold building is more than three stories or fifty feet, or an assembly occupancy over 5,000 square feet and 500 people.
- The special inspector is hired by the owner, not by the contractor, and reports to the building official.
- The inspections follow the structural inspection plan of the engineer of record; the special inspector does not design the building and does not build it.
A county notice in your hand, a building that worries you or a new project — describe it and attach what you have. A phone photo of the letter is enough. You hear back from the engineer, usually within two hours, with questions or a free written proposal.