Choosing the door is the enjoyable part. Getting it legally into the wall is the part nobody warns you about — and it is where custom entry door projects most often lose weeks. The good news is that a door permit is not a mystery. South Florida building departments ask for a short, predictable list of documents, and almost every delay traces back to one of them being missing, expired, or inconsistent with the others. Here is what goes in the packet, who assembles it, and what the inspector is actually looking at when your door is finally standing in its opening.
Who Pulls the Permit — and Where It Goes
Two things surprise homeowners. First, in nearly every case the permit is pulled by the licensed contractor performing the installation, not by you. Florida does allow an owner-builder permit if you own and occupy the home, but it shifts liability for the work onto you, and it does not make the documentation any lighter — Miami-Dade requires an additional owner-builder form on top of the standard application. For most homeowners, a licensed contractor is both the easier and the safer path.
Second, “the county” often is not your permitting authority. If your address falls inside a municipality, you apply to that city’s building department, and every city runs its own checklist on top of the state and county requirements. Confirming the correct office before anything is assembled saves an embarrassing amount of time.
The Packet, Piece by Piece
For a straightforward replacement in an existing opening, the submittal is short:
- A completed building permit application, filed under the right work category. In Miami-Dade, replacement of an exterior door made of something other than glass — or less than 50 percent glass — is Category 104. Glass doors are filed under the window and glass door categories, 82 and 83.
- An elevation of each exterior wall where a door is being replaced, showing the doors in their approximate locations and clearly identifying which ones are in scope. Most jurisdictions want a floor plan as well.
- A door schedule tying each opening to its size, its model, and its product approval, so the plan reviewer can match door to document without guessing.
- The current product approval for each door — a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or a Florida Product Approval. It has to be current, and it has to be issued under the code edition in effect. An expired or superseded approval is the single most common reason a door permit comes back rejected.
- The design pressures for each door, positive and negative, taken from the approval’s design pressure rating.
- A recorded Notice of Commencement, if your contract exceeds $5,000. Florida law requires it to be on file with the permitting authority before the first inspection. This one stalls projects quietly, because nothing appears to be wrong until an inspector cannot be scheduled.
Broward adds a step worth planning for: a site-specific document, signed and sealed by a Florida professional engineer or architect, identifying each retrofit opening and the design pressure it requires.
The Number That Has to Match
Plan review comes down to one comparison: the design pressure your opening requires, against the pressure your door is approved for. The required figure comes from wind load calculations — in Miami-Dade, based on a 175 mph three-second gust at Exposure C, per ASCE 7-22 and the Florida Building Code. The approved figure comes off the product approval itself.
Both of the approvals we build to — FL#28370 for the pivot line and FL#16326 for the classical outswing line — are rated +65/−65 PSF, which covers the great majority of residential entry openings. But “usually enough” is not a submittal. The comparison has to be run for your specific opening, and it has to appear in the paperwork. If the pressure numbers are unfamiliar, our companion piece on what HVHZ approval actually requires explains where they come from, and both approvals are posted on our Florida Product Approvals page.
Same Opening, or a Bigger One?
This is the fork in the road that changes your entire timeline. If the new door goes into the existing frame or the existing rough opening, you are on the simple replacement path — and in some jurisdictions, an expedited homeowner review track.
If you are widening or heightening the opening to accommodate a taller door — a common change of heart once someone falls for an oversized pivot door — you are no longer doing a replacement. You now need a permit covering structural alteration: new opening details, either a standard detail published by the county or custom drawings signed and sealed by an architect or engineer, plus exterior lighting and circuit information for a new door opening. It is entirely doable. It is not a two-week process. Decide this early, before the door goes into production.
Condos and High-Rises: the Threshold Building Rule
If your home is in a building taller than three stories or over 50 feet in height, a requirement that took effect this year applies to you. Following a binding interpretation of the Florida Building Code ratified by the Florida Building Commission in January 2026, window and door installations in threshold buildings now require a threshold inspection by a State of Florida certified Special Inspector, in addition to a special inspection plan issued by the engineer of record.
The submittal grows accordingly: building data establishing that the building qualifies, the locations of the units involved, wind calculations for every opening in the scope, buck calculations where the buck is 1½ inches thick or greater, a Threshold Building Affidavit, and a Special Inspector form — the last two signed and sealed by a professional engineer or registered architect who holds threshold inspector certification.
If you own a unit in a coastal tower, this is the most significant change to your permitting path in years. Ask about it before you sign a contract, and expect your association’s own approval process to run alongside it.
The Two Inspections
Most door permits carry two inspections. The buck inspection looks at the substrate and the anchoring before the opening is closed up — the connection between the door frame and the structure, which is what actually resists the wind load. Broward waives it where the buck complies with the applicable code section; elsewhere, expect it. The final inspection looks at the completed installation.
At both visits, the inspector is checking one thing: was it installed as tested? A product approval belongs to the entire assembly — panel, frame, hardware, anchoring, glazing. Change the fasteners, substitute the hinges, or alter the anchoring pattern, and the approval no longer describes what is in the wall. That is a failed inspection no matter how good the door is.
Where Door Permits Actually Get Stuck
- The product approval expired, or was issued under a superseded code edition.
- The door is larger than the maximum size the approval was tested to.
- The schedule, the elevation, and the approval disagree about a size or model.
- Design pressures are cited generically instead of opening by opening.
- The Notice of Commencement was not recorded before the first inspection.
- Something changed in the field and no revision was filed.
- The application went to the county when the address sits inside a city.
What Comes From Us, and What Comes From Your Team
We supply two things, and they are the two things your contractor needs in order to file: the CAD drawings for your door, and the NOA certificate for the approved assembly. Between them, the plan reviewer gets the sizes, the configuration, and the design pressure ratings tied to a current approval — which is the heart of the submittal. Your contractor, engineer, or permit expediter handles the rest: the application itself, any site-specific engineering, the Notice of Commencement, and inspection scheduling.
One scheduling note that saves real time: permitting can run in parallel with the nine-to-twelve-week production window, or it can run after it. Starting the permit early is the difference between those two outcomes, and it costs nothing. Our post on the custom ordering timeline lays out where it fits. Architects and builders working at the specification stage should start with our guide to specifying FL-approved impact doors.
The Bottom Line
A door permit is a document-matching exercise. The building department wants to see that a specific, currently approved, correctly rated assembly is going into a specific opening, installed exactly as it was tested. When the paperwork says that clearly and consistently, review is routine. When it does not, you wait.
Requirements vary by jurisdiction and change over time, so confirm the current checklist with your local building department before you submit. If you would like your CAD drawings and approval certificates assembled and ready to hand to your contractor, tell us about your opening or request a quote and we will take it from there. Our FAQ covers certifications, permits, and warranties in short form.
