My unit is on the ground floor. Do I still need the city's flooring permit?

No. Pompano Beach's flooring checklist says ground-floor condo units don't need a flooring permit. The permit applies when the unit sits above another dwelling or a public or service area. Your association can still set its own approval rules, so ask the manager before ordering wood. On a slab at grade, get a moisture test too.

Which numbers does the city look for on the acoustic report?

Two ratings of 50 or more: STC for airborne sound and IIC for impact sound such as footsteps. Both must cover the wood and the underlayment you're installing. The city also checks that the report matches your building: a drop ceiling below or none, and a 6-inch or 8-inch concrete slab.

Will any rubber or cork pad get an engineered floor to IIC 50?

No. One underlayment maker's own list shows a product at IIC 48 under engineered hardwood on a 6-inch slab, below the city's line. In an Intertek lab test, a 5 mm rubber mat under hardwood on the same slab thickness reached IIC 55. The pad, the slab and the ceiling all move the number.

What would the permit cost on a $15,000 condo floor?

At the city's base rate of 2.75% of value for building permits without zoning review, a $15,000 job works out to $412.50. Small jobs pay the $65 minimum instead. Ask the installer to list the permit fee as its own line on the quote so you can check it against the schedule.

Is a Notice of Commencement needed for an upper-floor wood floor?

Yes, when the contract price is over $2,500. The city's flooring checklist asks for a recorded copy of the notice, either filed with the permit application or kept on the job site for the first inspection. Broward County records it, and the checklist points to the county's page for the form.

Condo Hardwood Flooring in Pompano Beach, FL

Typical cost: Fixr's national guide puts engineered wood at $8 to $14 a square foot installed, and HomeAdvisor adds $1 to $3 a square foot for soundproofing mats.
Install time: Fixr gives a two-person crew one to three days for areas under 1,500 square feet. Upstairs, the city also inspects the underlayment before the floor is finished.
Sound target: the acoustic report must show IIC 50 and STC 50 for the wood plus the underlayment you're actually using.
Permit fee: Pompano Beach charges 2.75% of the job's value for building permits without zoning review, with a $65 minimum.

Pompano Wood Flooring introduces unit owners and boards to an installer for engineered wood over sound mats in upper-floor units, glued down or floating, on rubber or cork. Tell us the floor you're on, the rooms and any rules the association has sent you, and ask for a price on a build-up that has a test report behind it.

Condo Hardwood Flooring Build-Ups That Meet the Sound Rule

The sound report rates the wood, the underlayment and the slab together, so the build-up matters more than the species. These are the build-ups installers put forward for upper-floor units.

Engineered oak planks being glued onto a dark rubber sound mat bonded to a condo concrete slab

Glue-down engineered over an acoustic mat

The mat is bonded to the slab first, then the planks are glued to the mat. Amorim's cork data sheet says that when the finished floor is adhered, the underlayment must be glued to the subfloor too, and it recommends a perimeter isolation strip so the wood never touches the walls. The city's mid-job inspection looks at exactly these two layers, the mat and the adhesive.

Field result (Amorim, 13 mm cork, 8-inch slab, no ceiling): FIIC 56 under hardwood.
What the inspector checks: the underlayment is installed as its maker requires, and the adhesive is the right one.

Click-together engineered planks laid over a gray foam-and-film underlayment in a bright condo living room

Floating engineered over a combination underlayment

Click-lock planks float over a pad that combines a moisture film with a sound layer, with nothing glued. Amorim says a floating floor doesn't need its underlayment glued down. HomeGuide puts underlayment for floating engineered floors at $0.50 to $1.00 a square foot. The thinnest pads are the risky ones here: one maker's own report list shows an underlayment at IIC 48 under engineered hardwood on a 6-inch slab, two points short of what the city asks for.

A black rubber sheet and a tan cork roll of sound underlayment on a bare concrete slab beside oak planks

Rubber and cork sound underlayment

Rubber and cork mats both have published test results under wood floors. Ask for the report for the exact product and thickness, not a product family.

5 mm rubber, 6-inch slab (Intertek lab): IIC 55, a gain of 25 points over the bare slab.
6 mm cork, 6-inch slab (USFloors sheet): STC 54, IIC 59 with a wood finish. The sheet doesn't say whether a ceiling was in place.
Price (HomeAdvisor): soundproofing mats $1 to $3 a square foot; basic floor underlayment $0.20 to $0.50.

Ground-floor condo living room with a new engineered oak floor running to a sliding glass door and patio

Ground-floor condo units

A ground-floor unit needs no city flooring permit and no acoustic report. The wood still sits on a slab at grade, so the job starts with a slab moisture test instead. The association's own approval rules still apply, so get the manager's answer in writing.

Installer kneeling on a bare concrete slab and checking it with a moisture meter before a wood floor goes down

Why Pompano Beach homeowners call Pompano Wood Flooring

One local flooring contractor calls back, not a bidding list
Asking costs nothing and commits you to nothing
Ask for the slab moisture readings in writing
Florida doesn't license flooring: ask for the business tax receipt and insurance certificates

Pompano Beach Condo Flooring Permit: What Goes In

Pompano Beach requires a flooring permit only when new floors go into a condo unit, or similar dwelling, that sits above another dwelling unit or a public or service area. Single-family homes, ground-floor condo units and commercial spaces don't need one to replace floors. For an upper unit, the city's checklist asks for:

Application
A Broward County Uniform Permit Application, started with an application number in the city's Click2Gov portal. Review runs through the ePlan system.
Association letter
A letter from the condo association approving the work.
Floor plan
A plan of the unit showing where the new floor goes.
Acoustic report
STC 50 or more and IIC 50 or more for the flooring type and underlayment, matched to your building's slab (6-inch or 8-inch) and ceiling (drop ceiling or none).
Notice of Commencement
Required when the contract price is over $2,500.
Fee
2.75% of the job's value up to $250,000 for building permits without zoning review; $65 minimum.

Two inspections follow: "Sound Barrier In-Progress", where the inspector checks the underlayment and adhesive before the wood covers them, and a building final. The checklist doesn't say who has to pull the permit under today's licensing rules, so ask the installer who will file it and confirm with the city's Building Inspections Division at 954-786-4669.

The numbers come from the Florida Building Code, 8th edition (2023), Section 1207. Floor/ceiling assemblies between dwelling units, or between a unit and a public area such as a hall or stairway, need STC 50 by the ASTM E90 lab test and IIC 50 by ASTM E492. If the floor is field-tested in place instead, the code accepts NNIC 45 (ASTM E336) and AIIC 45 (ASTM E1007).

Condo Wood Floors in Pompano Beach's Larger Buildings

The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 survey counts about 18,400 of the city's 61,070 homes, 30.2%, in buildings of 50 or more units. Upper-floor units in those buildings fall under the permit rule, which is why the permit and the sound report come up so often on wood floor jobs here.

Slab thickness and the ceiling below are the two site facts the city asks the report to match, and its checklist names both because they vary. Ask the association or the building's engineer for the slab depth before choosing an underlayment. A rating tested on an 8-inch slab with a drop ceiling won't carry over to a 6-inch slab with no ceiling. The concrete under a condo floor still needs the RH range makers set for the wood.

See commercial wood flooring for lobbies, halls and clubrooms.