Shell Contractor Florida
What a shell contractor package covers in Florida, who carries the engineering behind it, and how Foundation Masters delivers a shell with the engineering in house and a licensed contractor performing the construction.
The Short Answer
A shell contractor builds the structure and the envelope of a building and stops before the finishes. In Florida a shell package normally runs from the foundation and slab through the masonry or framed structure, the tie beams and columns, the roof structure, and the sheathing and weather barrier, and is handed over weather tight and inspected so the finish trades can start.
Two things separate one shell contractor from another: where the shell starts underground, and who carries the engineering. Foundation Masters is a Florida engineering company operating under Certificate of Authorization CA# 30969. We self perform the deep foundation work and deliver shell packages design build, with a licensed Florida contractor performing the construction.
What a shell contractor package covers in Florida
There is no statewide definition of a shell. Every shell contract draws its own line, which is why two quotes for the same house can differ by six figures. This is the scope most Florida shell packages are built around.
| Element | Normally in the shell | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | Yes | Footings, stem walls, pile caps and grade beams. Deep foundations where the soil report calls for them. |
| Slab | Yes | Monolithic slab or slab on fill, with vapor barrier and reinforcement to the structural drawings. |
| Structure | Yes | Concrete masonry walls with filled cells, or framed walls, with tie beams and columns. |
| Roof structure | Yes | Trusses or rafters set and decked, with uplift connections at every bearing point. |
| Dry in | Yes | Sheathing, underlayment and weather barrier, so the building is weather tight. |
| Windows and exterior doors | Sometimes | In some shell contracts, excluded from others. In a wind borne debris region the opening protection rating matters as much as the opening. |
| Roof covering | Sometimes | Tile, metal or shingle is frequently carried as a separate trade. |
| Rough in | Sometimes | Under slab plumbing is often in the shell. Final connections are not. |
| Interior finishes | No | Drywall, flooring, cabinets, trim and paint sit outside every shell package. |
Get the four Sometimes rows written into the contract before anyone signs. They are where shell disputes come from.
Where shell contractor scopes are thin: everything under the slab
The shell is the part everyone looks at. The part that decides whether it stays straight is underneath it. Florida builds sit on sand, on organics, on fill of unknown origin, over a high water table, and in much of the state over limestone with voids in it. A shell quote written against a shallow footing detail does not survive a soil report that calls for piles, and that change order lands after the slab date is already on the schedule.
Foundation Masters self performs the deep foundation rather than subcontracting it. Driven steel pipe piles from the FM-PP30 at 20 tons allowable working load up to the FM-PP100 at 50 tons, the FM-PP65 at 32.5 tons for the 8 inch minimum diameter the code requires on steel pipe, plus helical piers, micropiles, drilled shafts and sheet pile where the site needs earth retention. The firm that designs the foundation is the firm that installs it.
Who carries the engineering on your shell
Read the shell pages of the firms competing for this work and you will see the same phrase on all of them: built to the engineered drawings. Almost none of them say who produced those drawings. On most shell jobs the engineering sits with one firm and the construction with another, and when something does not line up in the field, the two of them are looking at each other.
Foundation Masters performs the geotechnical and the structural engineering in house under Certificate of Authorization CA# 30969, and the structural drawings are sealed by a Florida licensed professional engineer. The soil investigation, the foundation design, the pile capacities and the inspection reporting all come from one firm that carries responsibility for them.
How the design build shell contractor structure works
Foundation Masters is an engineering company, not a general contractor, and the page says that plainly because anyone can check it. On a design build shell the work is divided like this:
| Scope | Who performs it | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Geotechnical investigation and structural engineering | Foundation Masters | Florida Certificate of Authorization CA# 30969, drawings sealed by a Florida licensed professional engineer |
| Deep foundation design and installation | Foundation Masters | Self performed with our own crews and equipment |
| Superstructure, masonry, framing and dry in | Licensed Florida contractor on the design build team | State contractor license held by the building contractor |
| Special inspection reporting where required | Foundation Masters | Under the structural inspection plan prepared by the engineer of record |
The point of the structure is single accountability on the part of the job that fails most often. You are not coordinating a geotechnical firm, a structural engineer, a pile subcontractor and a builder who have never worked together.
The code behind a Florida shell
Three pieces of the code shape a shell package more than anything else on the drawings. Each one has its own page here, read against the 2023 code text rather than quoted from memory.
Minimum pipe pile diameter is 8 inches nominal outside diameter under Section 1810.3.5.3.4, with no exception written for small diameter driven pipe. Allowable stress on the steel is 0.35 Fy under Table 1810.3.2.6, not the 0.5 Fy that gets assumed, unless the conditions in Section 1810.3.2.8 are met. Threshold building inspection comes from Florida Statutes 553.79(5)(a) and not from Chapter 17 of the building code, which is reserved in Florida.
Read it yourself: Chapter 18 of the 2023 Florida Building Code is published at UpCodes, and Florida Statutes 553.79 at the Florida Senate.
One more applies by geography. If the project sits in Miami-Dade or Broward it is inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, which the code defines as exactly those two counties. What that changes about a shell package is covered on the shell contractor Miami page.
Shell Contractor Questions
What is included in a shell contract in Florida?
A Florida shell contract normally runs from the foundation and slab through the structure, the tie beams and columns, the roof structure, and the sheathing and weather barrier, and ends when the building is weather tight and inspected. Windows, exterior doors and the roof covering are in some shell contracts and excluded from others, so the scope has to be written down rather than assumed.
Is a shell contractor the same as a general contractor?
No. A general contractor delivers a finished building. A shell contractor delivers the structure and the envelope and hands the building to the finish trades. Shell work is licensed contracting work in Florida, and the firms doing it hold state contractor licenses such as a certified general or certified building contractor license.
Who is responsible for the engineering on a shell?
That depends on how the job is set up. Most shell contractors build to drawings somebody else produced, which means the engineering and the construction sit with two separate firms. On a Foundation Masters shell the geotechnical and structural engineering is performed in house under Certificate of Authorization CA# 30969 and the structural drawings are sealed by a Florida licensed professional engineer.
Does a shell package include the deep foundation?
Only if the scope says so. A shell quote written against a shallow footing detail does not cover piles, and on a lot with weak soil, organics or a high water table the foundation is the part most likely to change after the soil report comes back. Foundation Masters self performs driven steel pipe piles, helical piers, micropiles and drilled shafts, so the foundation is priced and installed by the same firm that designed it.
What is a threshold building and does it change the shell work?
A threshold building in Florida is defined by statute, and when a project qualifies, Florida Statutes 553.79(5)(a) requires a special inspector to perform the structural inspections under a structural inspection plan prepared by the engineer or architect of record. That plan has to exist before the structural work it covers is inspected, which means it affects the shell schedule, not just the paperwork.
What does dried in mean on a shell job?
Dried in, or dry in, means the building is weather tight. The structure is up, the roof is decked, and the sheathing, underlayment and weather barrier are on, so water stays out and the finish trades can work inside. It is the normal handover point for a shell contract.
Working With a Shell Contractor
Send the plans, the soil report if you have one, and the lot address. We will tell you what the shell scope should say and what the foundation under it needs before anyone prices it.
(813) 614-1718