Second story additions in The Beaches

Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Jacksonville Beach kept their independence when the rest of Duval County consolidated in 1968 — which means the Beaches are three separate cities with three separate building departments, each issuing its own permits a few blocks apart. For a homeowner adding a second story, that detail matters more than any brochure: the same project is reviewed by the City of Atlantic Beach Building Division, the Neptune Beach Building Department, or Jacksonville Beach's Building Inspection Division depending on which side of a street you live on, and Brackish Builders works in all three.

Building up is the natural move at the Beaches — east of Third Street the lots are small, the walk-to-ocean locations are irreplaceable, and a second story is often the only way to add bedrooms or capture a view without leaving Old Atlantic Beach or Selva Marina. It is also where construction gets genuinely coastal: the Beaches sit in Florida's wind-borne debris region, so a second story is engineered to a 130 mph ultimate wind speed with impact-rated windows and doors, hurricane uplift connections running from the new roof to the foundation, and materials chosen for salt air.

There is one more check that comes before any drawing: flood zones. Parts of all three Beach cities lie in mapped AE and VE zones, where the federal 50 percent rule applies — if an improvement's cost reaches half the structure's market value, the whole house must be brought up to current floodplain standards. Oceanfront lots can also fall seaward of the state's Coastal Construction Control Line, which adds an FDEP permit. Brackish runs the substantial-improvement math and the CCCL check up front, designs to the answer, and then builds with the new level weatherproofed above your existing roof so your family stays home through it all.

Neighborhoods we serve in The Beaches

ZIP codes served: 32233 · 32266 · 32250