What we do · Utilities
Getting Services to the Site
Water, sewer, electric, gas and telecommunications, and whether the capacity you need exists at the boundary.
The survey, the geotechnical report and what you intend to build. That is enough to tell you what the site work involves.
Retention
In Florida it takes real acreage, before the building
Self-perform
Dewatering and deep foundations in house
Yield
The site work decides how much you can build
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Capacity is assumed to exist
A developer assumes water, sewer and power are available because there are services in the road. Available and adequate are different things, and an extension or an upgrade to reach the required capacity can cost more than the on-site utility work and take considerably longer.
What to confirm early
- Actual available capacity at the point of connection.
- Whether an extension or upgrade is required, and who pays.
- Impact and connection fees, which can be substantial.
- Utility company lead times, which are frequently long.
- Easements needed for any off-site work.
How we handle it
- 01Confirm capacity with each utility before design is fixed.
- 02Install on-site distribution to the approved design.
- 03Coordinate connections and utility company scheduling.
- 04Secure any easements needed for off-site extensions.
- 05Test, certify and hand over each system.
Write to each utility during due diligence and ask for available capacity in writing. It is free, it takes weeks rather than months, and an inadequate sewer connection discovered after closing is a very expensive surprise.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Utility company lead times are outside our control and they are frequently long. We will program them as real activities and flag where a connection date is the binding constraint on occupancy.
FAQ
Common questions
- Are services in the road enough?
- Available and adequate are different. Confirm actual capacity in writing during due diligence.
- Who pays for an extension?
- Usually the developer. Establish it before closing.
- Are connection fees significant?
- They can be substantial and they are frequently left out of early budgets.
- Can utility lead times be accelerated?
- Rarely. They are programmed as real activities and flagged when they gate occupancy.
The risks
The Geotechnical Report
A few thousand dollars of borings routinely prevents hundreds of thousands in change orders, and it is still the thing owners economize on.
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The Water Table
Florida's water table is close to the surface, and on coastal sites it moves with the tide.
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Unsuitable Material
Organic soils, uncontrolled fill and material that will not support the works. It has to come out, and something has to go back in.
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Permitting
Horizontal work touches more agencies than the building does, and the approvals frequently run in sequence.
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What the Survey Missed
A topographic survey shows the surface. What is underneath is the source of most site work surprises.
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More what we do
Clearing & Demolition
The first package on any site, and the one that reveals what the survey did not show.
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Mass Grading & Earthwork
Shaping the site to the design grades, where the cost is decided by whether the earthwork balances.
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Stormwater
Florida requires stormwater to be managed on site, and doing so consumes a genuine share of the land.
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.