Do you need a permit for a driveway, patio or retaining wall in Florida?

Exempt means not reviewed and inspected, not that the work is outside the code: the Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023) still applies, and a project may not be split to get under $7,500.

HB 803 (chapter 2026-63, now in F.S. 553.79) took effect July 1, 2026. Local governments must exempt single-family homeowners and their contractors from a building permit for work valued under $7,500, after a written request with the contract; the exemption excludes any electrical, plumbing, structural, mechanical or gas work and any property in a flood hazard area, and bars splitting a project to get under the threshold.

For concrete and pavers the dividing line is structure. A slab, walkway or paver patio that holds nothing up and supports no structure is not structural work, so a modest one can be exempted on request. A retaining wall holds back soil and is structural; a slab that carries a shed, an outdoor kitchen or a pergola is that structure's foundation and is reviewed with it. A paver driveway on your lot is a grey area that each office decides: many permit driveways because they change drainage and lot coverage, so we ask before pricing rather than assume.

The strip between your property line and the street — the apron, the sidewalk crossing and the curb cut — is public right-of-way owned by the city or the county, not by you. Work there needs a right-of-way permit from the office that maintains the street, with the apron built to that office's standard for thickness, width and the sidewalk crossing, and it is separate from any building permit for the driveway on your lot. Widening a driveway at the street, adding a second curb cut or replacing a cracked apron all go through it; we file it with the driveway.

In most planned communities — Tuscawilla, Heathrow, Baldwin Park, Lake Nona, Celebration, the Windermere estate communities, Horizon West — the association's architectural review board approves driveway width, parking pads, materials, paver colours and patterns before the work starts, and that approval is separate from the permit. Historic districts in Longwood, Sanford, Winter Park, Winter Garden and Orlando review street-facing changes the same way, and Winter Park's tree rules govern any slab or driveway near a protected tree's roots. Some lots and jurisdictions also cap impervious surface — the share of the lot that can be covered by roof, slab and pavement — which can limit how wide a driveway or how large a patio can be.

Every slab and paver surface sheds water somewhere. We pitch driveways toward the street and patios away from the house, and add channel drains and downspout extensions where the grade leaves no other path, so runoff does not pool against the foundation or run onto a neighbour's lot. In a mapped flood hazard area the exemption never applies, so every job there is permitted; look the address up on the FEMA Flood Map Service Center. Concrete and paver work alone rarely approaches the substantial-improvement threshold — 50% or more of the building's market value (44 CFR 59.1) — but it counts toward it when done with a larger remodel.

The city if the property is inside city limits, the county if it is unincorporated — the mailing address does not settle it, and the right-of-way permit comes from whichever of them maintains your street.

The full list with ADU rules: who issues your permit in Seminole, Orange and Osceola County.

• Price per square foot and the measured area, with the base work, removal and hauling, reinforcement, finish and drains itemised.
• Permits and HOA submittals shown separately — the right-of-way permit for the apron, the building permit for a wall.
• The licence number on the proposal and the contract, as Florida requires on every bid and advertisement (F.S. 489.119); verify it on the DBPR licence search. Ours is CGC1539321.
• Notice of Commencement recorded and posted before the first inspection when a permitted contract is greater than $5,000 (F.S. 713.135).
• Deposit — a contractor who takes more than 10% up front must apply for the permit within 30 days and start within 90 days of its issue (F.S. 489.126).
• Curing time written into the schedule — when you can walk on the slab and when vehicles can use it.

1. Site visit: the existing surface, soil and base, where the water goes, the apron and right-of-way, access for equipment and the concrete truck.
2. Scope and per-square-foot estimate; HOA or design-review submittal where it applies.
3. Right-of-way permit for the apron and building permit for a retaining wall or a structure's slab, filed with the city or county for your address.
4. Excavation and compacted base, pitched away from the house; footing and drainage behind a retaining wall.
5. Forms, reinforcement and control joints for concrete, or bedding sand and edge restraint for pavers; the pour or the laying; inspections called where a permit applies.
6. Curing, joint sand, clean-up, the permit closed and a walkthrough.