Remodeling Contractor in Orlando, FL

Remodeling in Orlando

Orlando is our home base. Our showroom sits on Kingspointe Parkway in southwest Orlando, a few minutes from I-4 and Sand Lake Road, so most of our projects start with a homeowner who drove over to see cabinets, vanities and tile in person before we ever measured their house. The city is not one housing market. A College Park kitchen built around a 1940s floor plan needs different thinking than a 2015 Lake Nona kitchen with a builder-grade island, and we plan each one around what is actually inside the walls.

The first question we answer on almost every Orlando job is jurisdiction. An Orlando mailing address does not mean the City of Orlando issues your permit. Baldwin Park, College Park, Audubon Park, Thornton Park, Delaney Park, MetroWest and most of Lake Nona are inside city limits. Hunters Creek, Williamsburg, much of Conway and large parts of the Sand Lake corridor are unincorporated Orange County, which has its own building division, its own portal and its own inspectors. We check the parcel before we draw anything.

What people remodel here follows the age of the house. Older neighborhoods near downtown tend to need opened-up kitchens, updated plumbing and bathrooms that were sized for a different era. The 1980s and 1990s planned communities in the southwest usually want dated hall baths and oak cabinet kitchens brought current. Newer homes in Lake Nona and the southeast often get their first real remodel when the original builder finishes start to wear: shower pans, laminate counters and hollow vanities.

Homes in Orlando and what they need

Orlando's housing runs in rings. Close to downtown, College Park, Delaney Park, Thornton Park and Lake Eola Heights hold early and mid 20th century bungalows, frame cottages and masonry homes, often with older galvanized or cast iron drain lines, small baths and kitchens closed off from the living room. Audubon Park and Conway are largely postwar ranch homes in concrete block on slab. MetroWest, Hunters Creek and Williamsburg grew as planned communities from the 1980s on, with stucco over block, garden tubs and builder cabinets. Baldwin Park was rebuilt on the former Naval Training Center starting in the early 2000s, and Lake Nona is mostly 2000s and newer construction, so remodels there are about finishes and layout rather than old pipes.

Who issues building permits in Orlando?

Inside Orlando city limits, the City of Orlando Permitting Services division issues residential building permits. Outside city limits (Hunters Creek, Williamsburg, most of Conway, Dr. Phillips and other unincorporated pockets with Orlando addresses), the Orange County Division of Building Safety issues them. The Orange County Property Appraiser parcel record shows which applies.

Both offices enforce the Florida Building Code, but they run separate systems: the city takes applications through its digital permit process and the county through its own online portal, and each schedules its own inspections. Work that moves plumbing, adds circuits, changes walls or replaces windows generally needs a permit in either jurisdiction. A cosmetic refresh with the same layout often does not, but the building department makes that call, not the contractor. We pull the permit under our general contractor license, and plumbing work goes under our own plumbing license, so there is one company answering to the inspector.

Older city neighborhoods can add a step. Parts of Lake Eola Heights, Lake Cherokee and Lake Lawsona sit inside City of Orlando historic districts, where exterior changes such as replacement windows or new doors can need historic preservation review before a building permit is issued. Interior kitchens and baths are usually not affected, but we confirm the district status for any exterior scope before you choose products.

HOA and architectural review

Hunters Creek, MetroWest, Baldwin Park and Lake Nona typically have homeowner or community associations with architectural review. Interior remodels rarely need approval, but windows, exterior doors, additions and anything visible from the street usually do. We help prepare the submittal so it is approved before permitting.

What we plan around in Orlando

• City or county: confirm whether the parcel is inside Orlando city limits or unincorporated Orange County before planning, because the permit path, inspectors and timing differ.
• Pre-1960 homes near downtown can hide older drain lines and undersized electrical service, which can change scope once walls or floors open up.
• Historic districts such as Lake Eola Heights and Lake Cherokee can require review for exterior changes, including window replacement.
• Planned communities like Hunters Creek, MetroWest and Lake Nona usually require association approval for exterior work before the building permit.
• Most Orlando homes sit on a slab, so relocating a sink, toilet or shower drain means saw-cutting concrete; we price that up front instead of discovering it later.