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CGC #1537131

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BEACHFRONTCommercial Services

FAQ

Answers, Before You Have to Ask

Search the questions Florida owners, boards, and managers actually ask us. When an answer only scratches the surface, it links to the full guide.

  • Yes. Beachfront holds CGC #1537131, CCC #1333921, and CCC #1333373, is bonded, and carries full insurance. We're also certified applicators for the systems we install.

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  • Absolutely. We scope concrete restoration, waterproofing, and roofing to milestone/SIRS findings and sequence the work sensibly for occupied buildings.

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  • Yes. Because we install manufacturer-certified systems with certified application, your warranties are genuine and enforceable. For electrostatic painting, we offer 3-, 5-, and 10-year warranties on the coating.

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  • Yes. From condo towers, shopping centers, and industrial parks to single-family homes.

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  • Request a free estimate online or call 561-557-8534. We'll inspect the property and provide a clear, itemized scope.

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  • We take on work across Florida, and coastal properties are our specialty: salt air, sun, humidity, and storm exposure shape how we specify every job. The map on our Areas We Serve page shows the counties and cities we work in today. If your building is somewhere else in Florida, we still want to hear about it.

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  • Painting (including electrostatic), roofing, waterproofing & sealants, concrete restoration, and pressure cleaning.

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  • It depends on how the repair quantity was established, not on the building. Florida restoration engineers publish figures from 15 percent to a full doubling of the estimate, and those numbers describe different amounts of information behind the quantity.

    If the estimate came from a visual walk (someone looked at and measured the visible spalls), treat the total as a floor; the engineers who advise on this say plan for up to double. If it came from a sounding survey that mapped hollow, delaminated areas with a hammer or chain drag and measured them by element type, about 25 percent is the most commonly recommended cushion. If sounding was paired with corrosion testing and a few exploratory openings, 15 to 20 percent is defensible.

    Apply the factor to the unit-priced repair lines only. Fixed costs such as engineering, permit, mobilization, and access are lump sums that do not move with quantity, and protection scope such as sealant and deck coating is counted, not factored.

  • Usually, yes. Under a unit-price contract, an adjustment to the quantity of a repair type that is already on the price list is often captured through a change order: the engineer marks the additional area, the contractor performs it at the unit price already in the contract, and the change order adds the measured quantity to the contract sum. That is how the engineer tracks the cost of the project. It does not change the scope or nature of the project, and no new price is negotiated. If the crew finds less than the estimate, the same mechanism runs the other way and the contract sum comes down.

    The change order to read closely is a scope change order: a repair type that was not on the unit-price list, a scope the owner added, or a condition that changes the repair method. It needs its own price and written approval, normally with the engineer's sign-off, before the work proceeds. Keeping the two kinds straight is easier if every repair type in the bid carries a named unit of measure and the lump-sum lines (engineering, permit, mobilization, access) are identified separately.

  • Because the quantity of concrete that needs repair cannot be measured until the concrete is opened. Corroding reinforcing steel delaminates the concrete around it before anything visibly falls, so no inspection from the surface can see the full extent of the damage.

    The trade handles that by pricing each repair type per unit (square foot, linear foot, or cubic foot) against an estimated quantity, and billing for the measured quantity actually repaired. The unit prices in the bid are firm. The quantity, and therefore the total, is a forecast. Florida's community-association press notes that an ordinary fixed-price contract does not work for this scope for exactly this reason.

  • Yes, if the labels are protected. Aluminum window, slider, and storefront frames can be refinished in place with the glass, gaskets, and hardware masked. The detail to insist on is the product labeling: impact-rated units carry permanent labels on the frame or etching in the glass, and wind mitigation inspectors rely on them to verify the rating. Window specialists who work with those inspections note that if the labels are painted over or removed, the inspector cannot verify the rating.

    Before any refinishing starts, photograph every label and etching with the opening in the shot, keep those photos with the product approval paperwork, and make sure each label is masked during the work.

    Refinishing fixes appearance and protects the aluminum. It does not fix a unit that leaks, sticks, or whistles; rollers, weatherstripping, glazing seals, and sill flashing are separate repairs and should be diagnosed first.

  • Yes. If a section of railing is removed and replaced, every railing on the building has to come up to current code. New guards are built to the current Florida Building Code: at least 42 inches high, openings that will not pass a 4-inch sphere, and designed for a 200-pound concentrated load and 50 pounds per linear foot. Life Safety Code language requires replacements to meet the requirements for new installations. On an older building, replacing one failed section can turn into a railing upgrade across the whole building.

    Electrostatic painting is different: it does not have to bring the railing up to current code, because the existing railing stays in place under its original approval. Before planning a partial replacement, price it as the building-wide upgrade it brings, against repairing the anchorage and refinishing.

    The same logic applies to windows and doors. In Miami-Dade and Broward, replacing a window or exterior door requires a permit even for a same-size swap, with a product approval covering the design pressures at the address; refinishing the existing frame does not replace the unit.

  • Check three things, in this order. Paint only fixes the last one.

    1. The anchorage. Look where each post enters the concrete. Cracks radiating from the post pocket, concrete that sounds hollow when tapped, rust stain or white powder at the base, rusting or mismatched fasteners, or a post that moves under a firm push all mean the anchorage needs repair first. Water that collects inside hollow posts and corrosion of embedded metal are common causes, and painting over the damage hides the evidence an inspector needs to see. Where the railing is a life-safety guard, the repair is scoped by an engineer.
    2. The metal. Scrape the worst spots, usually post bases, bottom rails, and welds. Corrosion that cleans back to sound metal can be prepped and refinished. Metal that is visibly thinned, dents under a screwdriver, or is perforated needs that piece replaced. Coatings protect metal; they do not restore lost section. On aluminum this is the exception: the coating fails long before the metal does.
    3. The finish. Fading, chalking, peeling, or a color that no longer matches is what refinishing fixes.

    On most buildings the answer is to repair the posts that failed and refinish the whole run. Replacing even one section brings every railing on the building up to current code, so keep replacement for metal that has truly failed.

  • No. Florida's stormwater rules regulate the wash water itself, not just the detergent in it. By the time rinse water leaves a wall or a slab it carries the algae, paint chalk, and grime that was the point of the wash, so it stays an illicit discharge no matter what was on the soap jug. Biodegradable products matter for a different reason: they support the standard practice of directing rinse water to landscaping or another pervious area, where it soaks into the ground on site instead of reaching an inlet.

  • Soft washing is the correct method for stucco. Stucco is porous and cementitious, so high pressure can etch the texture, open hairline cracks, and force water behind the wall, and many stucco and coating warranties prohibit high-pressure washing. Soft washing uses low pressure (generally under 500 PSI) plus a sodium-hypochlorite solution that kills algae and mildew at the root, cleaning thoroughly without damaging the finish.

  • Enforcement can reach both. Code language in Miami-Dade County makes it unlawful to "cause, permit, allow or suffer" a prohibited discharge, wording broad enough to reach the party who hired the work, not only the operator holding the wand, and the investigation starts at the drain, which is on the property. How much of the loss lands on the property owner often comes down to the contractor's insurance: most general liability policies exclude pollution, so a contractor without separate pollution liability coverage may be uninsured for exactly this event. Asking for the pollution liability certificate before the work starts is the practical protection.

  • No. An existing roof is evaluated under the code that governed its construction. A new code edition does not reach back and require upgrades to a roof that is simply sitting there.

    New requirements apply when work happens: a reroof, a recover, or a repair large enough to trigger current-code compliance. In Florida the main trigger is the 25 percent rule: repair, replace, or recover more than a quarter of a roof section within 12 months and the entire section must be brought to the current code. One important exception: if the roof was built, repaired, or replaced under the 2007 Florida Building Code or any later edition, only the portion being worked on must meet current code, not the whole section.

  • No. The 9th Edition Florida Building Code, effective December 31, 2026, keeps ASCE 7-22, the same wind load standard the 8th Edition already uses. Design wind speeds and the wind map do not change when the code turns over.

    The real changes are narrower: stricter corrosion-resistance tiers for fasteners near saltwater, more flexible rules for recovering an existing roof instead of tearing it off, expanded flashing requirements, and modernized tile installation protocols. A contractor who presses urgency about "new wind speeds" under the new code is describing a sales pitch, not the code.

  • Plan on a 7-to-15-year replacement cycle, with coastal and sun-exposed elevations at the short end of that range. Inspect the joints annually: press the bead for hardness, checking for pull-away at the joint faces, and looking for staining below joint lines. Replace them when they're done, not only when you happen to be repainting; the sealant clock and the 8-to-12-year coastal coating clock are different clocks.

  • Forecasters tell the season's story with caveats. A building's story is simpler: it ages on rain, salt, and sun, which arrive every year on schedule, quiet season or loud one. Walking the roof and envelope to document current condition, fixing small failures while they're still small, and booking dry-season capital work ahead of the calendar all pay for themselves through the insurance file and the maintenance math, in any season.

  • Because documentation is worth the most before anything happens. Timestamped photos of an undamaged roof and envelope support your stated remaining useful life at renewal, and if you ever do file a claim (with a filing window that is generally one year in Florida), they're what let you settle from evidence instead of argument.

  • Take the savings, and treat the trend the way analysts describe it: contingent. Rates that fell on quiet-season loss models can rise again on loud-season ones. A documented, well-maintained building is positioned for whichever direction the market moves next, and it's the version of your building you want on file before it re-prices.

  • The edition in effect on the date the permit application was submitted, and it governs the permitted work for the life of the permit, including any extensions. Florida law (F.S. 553.73) states that for a permit application submitted before a new Florida Building Code edition's effective date, the code in effect in the permitting jurisdiction on the application date governs.

    In practical terms: a project whose permit application is filed before the 9th Edition's December 31, 2026 effective date is reviewed under the 8th Edition, even if construction happens in 2027. A project that files on or after that date is reviewed under the 9th. The construction date does not matter; the application date does.

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