Plans and permits for pergola companies.
You build the pergola. We draw it, seal it, and permit it. Permit Solutions Services is the plans-and-permits back office for pergola companies in Miami-Dade and Broward. You send one intake form per job with the property survey and a few photos. We verify the zoning, our Florida-licensed structural engineer produces the signed and sealed plans with HVHZ wind-load calculations for that specific address, and we file the permit with the municipality, answer the plan reviewer, schedule the inspections, and close the file. Submittal-ready in 2 to 5 business days. Flat per-job pricing with the engineering inside it. Your customer stays your customer — we never sell them a pergola.
Send one upcoming job and your standard framing detail. We come back with the permit path, the timeline for that municipality, and a flat number — one business day.
Four situations, and none of them should cost you the job.
Six deliverables. One flat number.
Zoning verification before anything gets drawn
Zoning district, setback rule that applies at your footprint, rear-yard coverage already consumed by existing accessory structures, and whether the placement your customer wants is legal at all. We would rather tell you to move the pergola eight feet than draw something a reviewer will reject.
Signed and sealed structural plans
Post sizes, footing details, beam connections, rafter spacing, hurricane strap and fastener details, and HVHZ wind-load calculations run for the specific property — exposure category, mean roof height, risk category. Sealed by a Florida-licensed Professional Engineer.
The site plan, drawn on the survey
The pergola drawn to scale on the property's boundary survey with dimensioned setbacks to every lot line and to the house. This is the sheet reviewers reject most often when a homeowner or installer prepares the package themselves.
The permit application, filed
Application assembled and filed with the correct municipality under the correct contractor registration, with product approvals and any required affidavits attached. Submittal-ready in 2 to 5 business days from a complete intake form.
Plan-review comment responses
Reviewer comments come back to us, not to you or your customer. We interpret them, coordinate any drawing revision with the engineer, and re-submit — target 3 to 7 business days per cycle. You find out a comment existed when we tell you it is resolved.
Inspections and close-out
Inspections scheduled at the right phase so your crew is not standing around, and the permit driven to final. You get the closed permit document for your file and your customer's.
We do not accelerate the plan reviewer's queue — nobody can. We compress the parts that are inside our control: a clean first submittal, fast correction responses, and inspections scheduled around your build calendar instead of against it.
From your form to a closed permit.
The intake form is one sheet per job covering parties, site and placement, overall size, framing material, member sizes, roof and cover type, foundation and anchorage, attachment to the building, and any electrical or gas add-ons — plus a sketch box. Fill it out once carefully and the rest of the process stops needing you.
The decisions your customer makes at the kitchen table decide the filing.
Pergolas look like the simplest structure on a property, which is exactly why so many get built without a permit and cited later. Miami-Dade governs them under Code Section 33-20 — the same section as utility sheds — and a handful of ordinary design choices change which rules apply. These are the ones worth knowing before you quote.
| Design choice | What it changes on the permit |
|---|---|
| Footprint at or under 100 sq ft | Section 33-20(l)(5) small-structure setbacks apply: 55 ft front, 5 ft rear, 5 ft interior side, 10 ft from the house, 10 ft side street — provided height also stays at or under 10 ft. |
| Footprint over 100 sq ft | The small table stops applying. Full accessory-building setbacks under Section 33-50 take over — in RU-1, roughly 7.5 ft rear and side, 75 ft front. A 12×10 is a different permit than a 10×10. |
| Open slats vs. a solid or watertight cover | Changes the wind load the engineer designs to, introduces drainage the reviewer will ask about, and can change how the structure counts toward lot coverage. Tell us which one on the form — it is not a finish detail. |
| Freestanding vs. attached to the house | Attachment means the connection to the existing structure gets engineered and inspected, and the existing wall or tie beam has to be able to take it. Freestanding keeps the load path entirely in your own footings. |
| Anywhere in the front yard | Realistically not permittable. The front setback is 55 ft under the small table and 75 ft under the general accessory rule, and typical Miami-Dade lots are 75 to 100 ft deep. Worth knowing before you quote it. |
| Tight to a neighbor's line | Rear and interior side can come down to 2 ft, but only with a notarized affidavit consenting from the abutting owner. We prepare it; your customer collects the signature. |
| Fans, lights, an outdoor kitchen, or a gas line | Each one adds a trade sub-permit. Flag them on the intake form and we bundle them into the original filing instead of chasing a separate permit after the fact. |
| Already built | Becomes an after-the-fact filing — as-built drawings, engineering analysis of the standing structure, retroactive application, double fee if a violation has already been cited. Different process, different money, still fixable. |
Rear-yard coverage is the other quiet one: a pergola counts against the percentage of rear yard your customer's zoning district allows for accessory buildings — 30% in RU-1, but 5% in EU-1 and 2% in EU-2, where a modest pergola plus an existing shed can blow the limit. Full detail in our Miami-Dade pergola permit guide and the 100 square foot threshold breakdown.
Your standard detail gets reused. The paperwork gets shorter.
Most pergola companies build to a handful of repeatable configurations — the same post spacing, the same member sizes, the same connection detail, in three or four sizes. Tell us yours once. We keep it on file and reuse it across your jobs, so the intake form stops being a form and becomes an address, a size, and a note that says "same as the last one."
The drawings still have to be property-specific — site plan, setbacks, and wind-load inputs change at every address, and a reviewer will catch a recycled sheet. But the engineering conversation happens once instead of every job, and turnaround shortens as we learn how you build.
Every pergola your company built without a permit is still your phone call.
Unpermitted pergolas surface years later — during a four-point inspection, a refinance, a sale, or after a neighbor complaint. The homeowner calls the company that built it. That call is either a liability or a job, depending on whether you have an answer ready.
We run those as after-the-fact permits: as-built drawings of the standing structure, engineering analysis against current HVHZ requirements, retroactive application, inspection, and whatever corrective work the inspector calls for — usually hurricane straps, footing size, or fastener spacing. Typical timeline is 8 to 14 weeks, and a double permit fee applies once a Notice of Violation has been issued, which is a good argument for getting ahead of it. See how we handle after-the-fact permits and a real pergola legalization in Coral Gables.
We coordinate the file. The permit sits under the right license.
Permit Solutions Services is the case-management firm — zoning verification, engineering coordination, application preparation, municipal liaison, plan-review response, inspection scheduling, and close-out. The permit itself is filed under the license of the contractor performing the work: yours, where your company holds the appropriate Florida license, with us handling the municipal contractor registration in jurisdictions where you are not yet registered. Where a scope falls outside your license, we handle the contractor arrangements and registrations so the filing is correct rather than convenient.
Structural engineering is performed by licensed Florida Professional Engineers. Municipal permit fees are passed through at cost; our coordination fee is separate and disclosed before you engage.
Pergola plans and permits: common questions
Who pulls the permit — my company, the homeowner, or you?
The permit is pulled under the license of the contractor performing the work. If your company holds the appropriate Florida license, it is filed under your license and we handle the municipal contractor registration in any jurisdiction where you are not already registered. Where a scope falls outside your license, Permit Solutions handles the contractor arrangements and registrations so the filing is correct. Permit Solutions is the case-management firm — we coordinate the file, the engineering, and the municipality; the field work stays with the licensed contractor performing it.
Do you provide the engineering, or do I need to bring my own engineer?
We provide it. Our structural engineer is a Florida-licensed Professional Engineer who produces the signed and sealed plans and the HVHZ wind-load calculations for each property. You do not need your own PE relationship, and the engineering fee is inside our per-job fee rather than a separate invoice you have to mark up or explain.
What do you actually need from me to start a job?
Three things: the completed Pergola Project Intake Form, the property's boundary survey, and a few photos of the area where the pergola is going. The survey is the one item we cannot work around — no survey means no site plan, which means no permit. If the homeowner cannot find theirs, we can order one.
We build the same pergola every time. Do we pay for new plans on every job?
The drawings still have to be property-specific — the site plan, the setbacks, and the wind-load inputs change with every address, and a reviewer will catch a recycled sheet. What does carry over is your standard detail. Tell us your framing once and we reuse the member sizes, post spacing, and connection details across your jobs, so after the first couple of projects most of the intake form fills itself in and turnaround shortens.
Can you legalize a pergola we installed years ago without a permit?
Yes, and it is one of the most common calls we get from installers. It runs as an after-the-fact permit: as-built drawings of what is standing, engineering analysis against current HVHZ requirements, retroactive application, inspection, and any corrective work the inspector identifies — most often hurricane straps, footing size, or fastener spacing. Typical timeline is 8 to 14 weeks. A double permit fee applies if a Notice of Violation has already been issued.
How does pricing work?
Flat per-job pricing, quoted before we start. Engineering, drawings, affidavits, notary, courier, and the filing itself are inside that number — the municipal permit fee is the pass-through, billed at cost. Companies sending consistent volume get a standing per-job rate so you can price a pergola job for your customer without waiting on us for a quote.
Do you only work in Miami-Dade?
Miami-Dade and Broward, including unincorporated areas and every major incorporated municipality. The code sections cited on this page are Miami-Dade County Code Section 33-20; Broward municipalities run their own accessory-structure setback and coverage rules, and we verify the applicable rule per job before anything gets drawn.
Can you tell my customer whether the pergola they want is even legal on their lot?
That is the zoning verification step, and it happens before the engineer draws anything. Zoning district, applicable setback table, rear-yard coverage already consumed by existing sheds or structures, and any HOA architectural review requirement. You get a plain answer — buildable as drawn, buildable if it moves, or not buildable at this size — early enough to change the sale instead of losing it.
Send us your next pergola and your standard framing detail.
We come back within one business day with the intake form, the permit path for that municipality, a realistic timeline, and a flat per-job number. No volume minimum, and nothing is owed until you accept in writing.