Driveway Permit in Unincorporated Miami-Dade: How It Works

If you live in Kendall, Westchester, Tamiami, The Hammocks or another unincorporated area, your driveway permit comes from Miami-Dade County, not a city. A lot of homeowners there assume a city handles it. On our three County driveway permits in 2026, approval took about 7 business days. No corrections came back and no inspections failed. That's our recent record, not a promise. Every permit is different.

Timing matters right now. Dry season is when most driveways in South Florida get poured, and nothing gets poured until the permit is issued. October is when applications should be going in.

Is my home in unincorporated Miami-Dade? How to check

Your mailing address might say "Miami," but that doesn't mean the City of Miami issues your permit. What decides it is your property's folio. If the folio puts your home in unincorporated Miami-Dade, the County is your building department.

Unincorporated areas include Kendall, Westchester, Tamiami, Fontainebleau, The Hammocks, Kendale Lakes, Country Club, Palm Springs North and Ives Estates. If you're in Hialeah, Miami Lakes, Miami Gardens or another incorporated city, that city's own building department issues the permit instead. The same goes for Broward cities like Sunrise.

If you're not sure which side of the line you're on, you don't have to figure it out yourself. Ask when we come out for your free estimate. The folio settles it, and we file with whichever office it points to.

What the County needs for a driveway permit

People ask us, "Do I need a permit for a driveway in Miami-Dade?" Our answer: we pull a permit on every job, and that includes every driveway we pour. Nothing gets poured until it's issued.

For a Miami-Dade County driveway permit, our application brings together:

• The property, identified by its folio
• Us as the licensed, insured contractor on the job
• A description of the work: what's being built and where
• The value of the contract, which decides whether a Notice of Commencement is needed (more on that below)

We prepare the application complete before it goes in. That's the part we control, so that's where we spend the time.

The work being permitted is the work we build. On a replacement, we demo the old slab, haul it away, then grade and compact a limerock or crushed-concrete base. Reinforcement is #3 or #4 rebar set on chairs, not lying in the dirt, or fiber mesh in the mix. The concrete is a 4,000+ PSI mix made for South Florida heat, and control joints are planned before the pour. You can see the finishes we offer, from plain broom to stamped and turf strips, on our driveways page.

The Notice of Commencement and the $5,000 rule

The Notice of Commencement is the piece most homeowners have never heard of until a contractor brings it up.

Florida law (s. 713.135 of the Florida Statutes) requires one for most improvements over $5,000. When the contract is over $5,000, a copy of the Notice of Commencement has to be filed with the building department before the first inspection. Without it, the first inspection can't go forward, and the job waits.

Almost every driveway clears $5,000. A typical full driveway replacement for us, including demolishing the old slab, runs about $15,000. Larger jobs run higher. Price always depends on size, finish, demo, drainage, base prep and site conditions. So for a driveway, plan on needing a Notice of Commencement. It's part of the permit paperwork we handle, and we make sure it's in place before the first inspection.

How our permit runner handles it (and which fees you pay)

You don't deal with the building department. Our in-house permit runner prepares the application, files it with the County and follows the review until the permit is issued. When inspections come up, we meet the inspectors on site.

The split is simple. We do the permit work, and you pay the County's fees. Those are the County's charges, separate from ours, so ask about them at your estimate.

If you have an HOA, we handle that paperwork in-house too. Every quote we give is a written, fixed price, so you know what our part costs before anything starts. You can read how a job runs from estimate to final inspection on our how we work page.

If you'd rather talk through your permiso para driveway in Miami-Dade in Spanish, that's fine. We serve customers in English and Spanish. Concrete Designs is a father-and-son company based in Hialeah, pouring concrete since 2004, and Manny does every estimate himself.

Our 2026 record: 7 business days, no corrections

Here's what our three County driveway permits looked like this year.

One was a full replacement that started with tearing out the old slab, about $15,000. The other two were 2,000 sq ft concrete driveways with artificial-turf strips, about $25,000 each. One of those was for a brand-new home.

All three were approved by Miami-Dade in about 7 business days. No corrections came back, and no inspections failed.

We're proud of that, but we won't promise it to you. Every permit is different, and so is every property. What we can control is sending in a complete application and following it through review.

On these jobs, the permit wasn't the long wait. Our schedule was. The customer with the other turf-strip driveway followed our videos for about a year, called us for two months, and then waited about five months for her spot on our schedule. If you want a dry-season pour, call early.

From approval to inspections: what to expect

Once the County issues the permit, the permit card gets posted on site. Then the work starts. On a replacement, we demo the old slab and haul it off, then grade and compact the base before any concrete shows up.

Inspections happen along the way. We handle them in-house and meet the inspector on site. Manny is there for every major install day.

After finishing, the concrete gets a curing compound. Here's the timeline we give everyone:

• Walk on it after 24 to 48 hours
• Drive a car on it after 5 to 7 days
• Full strength at 28 days

Decorative finishes get sealed. A permitted job isn't finished until it passes the final inspection, which closes the permit. We don't consider a driveway done until that happens.

Built right, a driveway here lasts decades. What shortens it is skipped base prep, rebar left on the ground, the wrong mix, poor drainage and tree roots. If you're in the Kendall area, our Kendall driveway page has more about the work we do there.

If you're in unincorporated Miami-Dade and want a new driveway this dry season, call our office at (786) 744-4899, Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, for a free driveway estimate, or send us a message. Our permit runner handles the County paperwork, and you only pay the County fees.