Condo remodels don't fail on craft. They fail when someone misses an elevator reservation, submits the wrong Certificate of Insurance, or installs a floor that violates the neighbor's noise limits. We handle the alteration agreements, the freight elevators, and the IIC-50 sound compliance before demo ever starts.
If a condo remodel goes south, it almost never has to do with the actual carpentry or plumbing. It fails because someone didn't read the building's 30-page rulebook.
Contractors get kicked out because they missed a clause in the alteration agreement, submitted a Certificate of Insurance missing a "CG 20 37" endorsement, or laid tile over bare concrete—triggering a noise complaint from the neighbor below because the underlayment didn't meet the IIC-50 code.
A condo isn't just an apartment. It's a highly regulated shared environment. You share plumbing stacks and fire-rated walls. Your board acts as a second permit authority, often stricter than the City of Boca Raton. Your workday is a tiny window—usually 9am to 4pm—and "loud work" is often restricted to just a few hours. We don't fight these rules. We've built around them since 1999.
The rules don't change whether you're refreshing a bedroom or gutting a 4,000-square-foot oceanfront unit. The board process, the COI, and the freight-elevator logistics all apply. Below are the typical ranges we see in the Boca Raton market.
A complete gut of the interior kitchen, all baths, flooring, paint, electrical, plumbing within the existing stack, finish carpentry. The most logistics-intensive condo project type because every trade runs inside the same work-hour window. Almost every full gut requires sound-compliant floor reassembly and often a sub-panel upgrade.
Kitchen stays in its existing footprint because the plumbing stack is locked. New cabinets, stone, tile backsplash, appliances, sink and faucet, paint, lighting, and any electrical changes within the unit. Often runs alongside new flooring in the main living area. Board approval still required this is not a cosmetic project.
Primary-suite bath rebuilt to current waterproofing and ventilation standards sheet or liquid-applied membrane (Schluter Kerdi or Laticrete Hydro Ban) over cement backer, 24-hour flood test before tile, fan sized per HVI-2100. Same waterproofing discipline as our stand-alone bathroom remodels, layered with condo board and COI requirements.
Guest baths and powder rooms in Boca condos range from 57 to full hall-bath size. Smaller scope doesn't shorten the board-approval window the building rules are identical. We often pair a guest-bath remodel with a primary-bath gut to compress board and freight-elevator overhead onto one project.
A living room, bedroom, office, or den rebuilt without touching wet areas new flooring (with underlayment spec'd for IIC 50), paint, baseboards, lighting, often a custom closet build-out. Board approval is lighter than a wet-area project, but COI and elevator rules still apply in full. Often the first project a seasonal resident tackles in their first year of ownership.
Paint, flooring, updated lighting, cabinet refacing or replacement within existing layout, staging-grade finishes. Scoped to return more than it costs in a resale market, typically for owners listing for Q1 or Q4 season. Board approval still required but usually moves faster for strictly interior non-wet work; we assemble the package while the broker gets the listing ready.
Here is how a typical Boca condo remodel runs. Single-room refreshes take 16–20 weeks; a full oceanfront gut can run 32+ weeks. We order long-lead materials at permit issuance so shipping clocks run in parallel with the build.
We assemble your alteration agreement, COI, timeline, and engineer letters. Submitted complete on day one to prevent multi-month revision cycles with your HOA.
Condo boards typically meet monthly. Expect 2–6 weeks for approval. Once approved, we lock in your freight-elevator reservations and post your COI.
Boca Raton permits run 5–7 weeks. We run this clock concurrently with long-lead material orders (custom cabinets, imported stone) so your project isn't waiting on shipping.
Your unit is sealed with negative-pressure fans. Demo is executed strictly within your building's 10am–3pm loud-work window, followed by rough plumbing, HVAC, and firestopping.
We pass City rough inspections, execute 24-hour flood tests in wet areas, and build your floor assembly to strictly meet Florida's IIC-50 acoustic transmission code.
Cabinets, stone, and fixtures are installed. We handle final City inspections, the board closeout walk, and hand you a complete binder of permits, lien waivers, and commitments.
A condo logistics premium is real. Freight-elevator windows, strict work hours, COI churn, and board inspections mean condo labor runs roughly 20–40% higher per square foot than single-family homes. The ranges below are based on our last 36 months of Boca Raton market data. Your project is priced documented only after Jorge has walked your unit.
Project-total ranges labor (with condo logistics premium), material, permits, engineering, contingency. Quotes are fixed-price, written, valid 30 days. Florida sales tax and county surtax apply to taxable materials. Allowance lines for long-lead items (imported stone, specialty appliances, custom millwork) itemized and reconciled at final.
Hardwood and tile floors trigger the most neighbor complaints in Boca condos because contractors ignore acoustic code.
A bare concrete slab fails Florida's IIC-50 sound requirement. Lay tile directly on that slab, and the downstairs neighbor hears every step. Eventually, the board makes you tear up the new floor.
We engineer your floor to pass IIC-50 using acoustic underlayment and perimeter sealants. We submit the math to your board before ordering material.
Bare concrete slab rates a failing IIC 28–35 (below code).
Yields IIC 43–57. A 6mm or 12mm cork mat is often enough with the right finish.
Yields IIC 46–63. High-performance rubber or Pro-Flex is robust for hardwood or tile.
Pairs well with an acoustic mat to comfortably meet IIC 50. Installed floating or glue-down per board rules.
The noisiest finish without robust underlayment. Meets IIC 50 when paired with a specified uncoupling mat.
A 1/4" gap around all walls filled with acoustic sealant. Prevents side-path noise and is completely covered by baseboards.
Single-family homes fail on craft. Condos fail on paperwork. Every contractor who has been ejected from an oceanfront building failed one of these four gates. Here is how we guarantee your project never gets shut down.
Every condo remodel needs a signed alteration agreement before demo. We assemble your entire package—including scope drawings, insurance, and engineer letters—and track the board's meeting cadence. Incomplete packets add 2–4 weeks per revision cycle, so we submit everything flawlessly the first time.
The Certificate of Insurance your building requires names the association, the management company, and usually the board as additional insureds and typically requires endorsements for both ongoing and completed operations, plus a waiver of subrogation. Wrong names or missing endorsements is a common reason freight-elevator releases get delayed. Our agent typically issues a COI the same business day on request. We carry workers comp on our employees and verify each subcontractor's coverage or Florida Certificate of Election to be Exempt.
Before demo, we publish a rolling 4-week logistics plan: freight-elevator reservations (4872 hour lead), loud-work windows aligned to your building's rules (typically 10am3pm), parking staging, bagged-debris routing, and neighbor-notice flyers for the stack. The schedule lives on paper, not in someone's head.
Stack routing is typically locked your kitchen and baths stay in their existing footprint within inches. Electrical sub-panel capacity is a hard ceiling (1980s buildings: 60100 A; 2000s: 100200 A; new luxury: 200400 A). HVAC type (through-wall PTAC, closet air handler, chilled-water fan coil) constrains unit replacement and closet sizing. Every penetration of a fire-rated wall or floor-ceiling assembly gets a UL-listed firestop. We verify all four before scope commit.
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