The sub is on the permit: reading Miami-Dade trade permits as timing signals
In Miami-Dade every trade on a job pulls its own permit, and each one names the subcontractor. How the shoring, concrete, electrical and mechanical permits sequence, what each tells a supplier or a competing sub, and how to read them the week they land.
A general contractor is named on a building permit once. The subs are named one at a time, as each pulls the permit for its trade. In Miami-Dade that sequence is public: every trade permit under a master building permit carries the licensed contractor who pulled it, and the county publishes it the same day. Read in order, the trade permits are a schedule of the job with a name on each line.
Why Miami-Dade is different
Florida licenses the trades at the state level and requires the licensed contractor for each trade to pull its own permit. Miami-Dade's permit system publishes those sub-permits as records of their own, each tied to the master building permit by number, each with the contractor who pulled it. Over the last 90 days Groundbreak matched about 2,700 trade permits to tracked Miami jobs. See the glossary on trade sub-permits.
Other cities publish trade permits too, but not in a way you can read as a sequence with names: the sub is often the GC's own license, or the trade is a line on the master permit, or the feed carries the type and not the contractor. Miami-Dade is the one Groundbreak market where the sub on each trade is on its own record, and the coverage page flags only Miami for it.
The sequence on a tower
A mid-rise or a tower in Miami-Dade pulls its permits in roughly this order. The gaps are weeks on a small building and months on a tall one.
- Master building permit. Names the general contractor and the architect. Issued before mobilization. The notice of commencement usually records within days of it (see the guide on notices of commencement).
- Demolition, if there is a building on the site.
- Shoring and dewatering. The excavation and the deep foundation. The shoring sub is named. This is the first trade on site, and the first signal that the frame is coming.
- Concrete. The slab, the columns, the decks. In Miami-Dade the concrete contractor pulls its own permit, which is unusual, and it is the timing signal formwork, rebar, pumping and the structure's suppliers read.
- Electrical, plumbing and mechanical. The rough-in trades, pulled as the frame rises. Each names the sub. Fire sprinkler and fire alarm sit with these.
- Roofing, elevator, glazing, low voltage. The envelope and the systems, pulled as the structure tops out.
- Interior trades and the finish. Drywall is usually under the GC; tenant finish-outs pull their own set later.
The point of the order is what has not happened yet. A job with a master permit and a shoring permit and nothing else has an open concrete contract, an open electrical contract and an open mechanical contract, and the shoring sub's permit date tells you roughly when each closes.
Reading it from each side
If you are a sub. The signal is the permit one step ahead of your trade. Electrical subs read the concrete permit: when it pulls, the GC is weeks from awarding the rough-in. Roofers read the mechanical permit. Elevator companies read the concrete permit on anything over four stories. Reading the permit for your own trade tells you who won, which is worth knowing too, but it is not a lead.
If you are a supplier. The signal is the permit for the trade you supply. Rebar, formwork, pumping and ready-mix read the shoring and concrete permits, and the name on the concrete permit is the customer. Conduit, wire and gear read the electrical permit. Each permit names the firm that will be buying, with the job already in hand.
If you are a competing GC or a developer. The trade permits under a competitor's master permit are its sub list, with dates. A company file on the Miami development database lists a GC's jobs and the subs that pulled permits on each, and a sub's file lists the GCs it has worked under.
If you are a lender or an insurer. The trade permits are progress. A job whose last permit was shoring eight months ago has stalled; a job pulling electrical and mechanical in the same month is on schedule.
What the permit carries, and what it does not
A Miami-Dade trade permit record carries the permit number, the master permit it sits under, the trade, the contractor's name and license, the address and folio, the issue date and in most cases a job value for that trade. It does not carry the contract between the sub and the GC, the schedule, or the phone: the phone, where there is one, is on the master permit, and Groundbreak shows it on the Pro plan.
Tenant improvements in an existing building pull the same trade permits, which is how a dental office fit-out or a restaurant on the ground floor of a finished tower shows up: a set of electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits with no new master building permit on a building that already stands.
Who this is for, and who it is not
If you work in Tampa Bay, Austin, Atlanta or any market other than Miami-Dade, this record does not exist for you in the same form. The master permit names the GC and the trades are not published with the sub named, so read the permit guide for your market instead.
If you already know the GCs you want and only need to confirm who they use, the county portal shows a master permit's sub-permits for free, one job at a time. The sequence becomes worth tracking as a feed when you supply or compete for a trade across many Miami jobs and the week a permit pulls changes what you do that week. For that reader, each project file on the Miami development database lists every permit under the master in date order with the trade named, and Radar sends the ones that fit your trade each morning. The most active contractors table is computed from the master permits and is free.
Questions
- Do Miami-Dade trade permits name the subcontractor?
- Yes. Each electrical, plumbing, mechanical, roofing, shoring and concrete permit under a master building permit is pulled by the licensed sub doing that trade, and the county publishes the permit with that contractor's name. Groundbreak matches each one to the tracked job.
- Which trade permit means the structure is about to start?
- Shoring and concrete. The shoring permit is pulled for the excavation and the deep foundation; the concrete sub's permit follows for the slab and the frame. Both come before the electrical and mechanical rough-in permits by weeks or months on a tower.
- Can I see which subs a general contractor uses?
- Yes, from the permits. Every trade permit under that GC's building permits names the sub, so a company file on Groundbreak lists the firm's jobs and the subs on each. The reverse works too: a sub's file lists the GCs it has pulled permits under.
- Is this the same in Tampa, Austin or Atlanta?
- No. Those cities publish trade permits without the same consistent sub naming, or fold the trades into the master permit. Miami-Dade is the one Groundbreak market where the sub on each trade is named on its own permit, and the only one where the coverage page says so.