Almost every home on the Pinellas beaches, and a great many in St. Petersburg, sits in a flood zone. If your house was built before current flood codes — which most were — there is a hard ceiling on what you are allowed to spend improving it before the entire building has to be brought up to today’s standards.
That ceiling catches people badly. The most common conversation we have goes like this: a homeowner comes to us wanting a $400,000 project, and the rules cap the work at somewhere around $200,000. That gap is not something any contractor can engineer around, and you should be careful with anyone who suggests otherwise.
This page explains how the rule actually works, what it means for your project, and what your real options are. We have been building in Pinellas County since 1986 and we work inside these rules every week.
The threshold: 49% or 50%, depending on where you live
If the cost of improving your home reaches a set percentage of what the structure is worth, the work is considered a “substantial improvement.” At that point the whole building has to comply with current flood requirements — not just the part you are renovating.
The percentage is not the same everywhere in Pinellas:
- 49% — St. Petersburg, unincorporated Pinellas County, and Redington Shores
- 50% — Treasure Island, Madeira Beach, St. Pete Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Beach, Gulfport and Seminole
Note where Redington Shores sits. It is stricter than the two Redington communities either side of it, which surprises people who assume the beach towns all work the same way. They do not, and the differences show up within a few blocks.
The 49% jurisdictions deliberately set a stricter line than the federal minimum, to leave themselves a margin. It is one percentage point, but on a $300,000 structure that is $3,000 of scope, and we have seen projects decided by less.
“Value of the structure” means the building only
This is the number everything hangs on, and it is not what most people assume. It is the value of the building alone. Your land does not count. Neither does the pool, the dock, the driveway or the landscaping — which on a waterfront lot is often most of what you paid for.
There are two accepted ways to establish it. The Pinellas County Property Appraiser publishes a figure for your parcel: look up your property on their site and open the FEMA/WLM Letter on your parcel page. Alternatively you can commission a depreciated-value appraisal from a state-licensed appraiser. St. Petersburg requires that appraisal to have been completed within the last twelve months.
What counts toward the total is broader than you think
This is where projects go wrong. The number is not just what you write on a contract.
Counts: materials and labor, structural work, demolition and debris disposal, and the contractor’s overhead and profit. Work you do yourself and materials someone donates also count — valued at normal commercial rates. Sweat equity does not lower the number.
Generally does not count: painting, replacing carpet over existing finished flooring, clearing storm debris, emergency tarping.
Your building department makes the final determination. Not your contractor, and not a calculator.
Do old permits still count against you?
This is the question we get asked most, and the honest answer is that it depends on where you are — and that you should get it in writing.
A cumulative look-back means the building department adds up several permits over a period of time and measures the total against one threshold, so a kitchen you did two years ago can eat into what you are allowed to do now.
In 2025 the Florida Legislature addressed cumulative periods at the state level. But two Pinellas codes still contain them today. Unincorporated Pinellas County still codifies a rolling one-year period at 49%, running from when the permit for the first improvement is finalized. Redington Shores still codifies a one-year cumulative period at 49% as well. Both appear in code current through 2026 supplements.
We are not going to tell you a rule printed in your building department’s own code has no force. What we will tell you is that if a previous permit has been counted against your allowance, it is a specific question worth putting to the building department in writing before you scope anything — and it is worth asking whether the 2025 state law changes their answer. Get the reply in an email you can keep.
What happens if you cross the line
The entire structure has to be brought into compliance with current flood requirements. In practice that usually means the finished floor has to sit above the base flood elevation by a required margin — and that margin varies more than people expect across a few miles of barrier island.
Some Pinellas jurisdictions write their own margin into local code:
- Madeira Beach — base flood elevation plus 4 feet. The strictest in the county.
- St. Petersburg — plus 2 feet for one- and two-family homes and townhouses
- Treasure Island — plus 2 feet
- Seminole — plus 1 foot, residential only
Others — including Gulfport, St. Pete Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Beach and unincorporated Pinellas in AE zones — do not write a local margin into their codes at all. That does not mean there is no requirement. It means the Florida Building Code and the ASCE 24 standard govern instead, and those produce a required elevation of their own once your flood zone, design flood elevation and building type are worked through. In Gulfport, in our experience, that generally lands at about a foot above base flood for a house — but it comes from the standard, not from a Gulfport ordinance, and it is not a number to design around without confirming.
Redington Shores is a special case and we are not going to publish a number for it. The town’s code contains two different figures — the elevation section calls for base flood elevation plus 3 feet for residential buildings, while the site-plan submittal section refers to plus 2 feet. Both are in the current code. If you are building in Redington Shores, get the town’s floodplain administrator to confirm the governing figure in writing before anyone draws anything. The difference is a foot of height and a meaningful amount of money.
Requirements change, and neighbouring cities genuinely differ. Confirm with your building department before you plan around any of these.
There is a further distinction that traps people. In an AE zone, the lowest floor has to be above the required elevation, and you can use conventional foundations. In a VE zone — coastal high hazard, where breaking waves are expected — it is the lowest horizontal structural member that must clear the elevation, not the floor. That effectively raises the house further. VE also requires deep pile or column foundations, breakaway walls below the flood elevation, no structural fill, and engineer certification of the foundation design.
And there is a trap between the two. Parts of an AE zone that sit seaward of the Limit of Moderate Wave Action can carry VE-grade requirements even though the flood map says AE. If your lot is near that line it is worth establishing early, because it changes the foundation and therefore the budget.
Remodeling a compliant home without losing its status
Not every conversation starts with a house that is out of compliance. Plenty of owners have a home that already meets flood requirements and want to do something substantial to it — and are afraid the work itself will cost them that standing.
It is a fair worry, and the ground level is usually where it turns. Enclosing space below flood level, finishing it out, or putting mechanical equipment in the wrong place are all ways a compliant house quietly stops being one.
On a Madeira Beach home that was already an elevated, FEMA-compliant house, we carried out a whole-home remodel and added a three-stop elevator, and the work was designed and permitted to maintain that status throughout — engineered flood vents in the new ground-level enclosure, flood-resistant materials below flood level, mechanical equipment elevated, and the ground floor kept as non-habitable parking and storage. Permitted and inspected by the City of Madeira Beach. See the project.
Local rules that change what is even possible
Beyond the elevation number, several Pinellas jurisdictions restrict how you are allowed to get the house up — and these can rule out the cheapest approach entirely:
- Madeira Beach does not permit fill or backfilled stem walls as a means of elevating, and caps enclosures below the flood elevation at 299 square feet.
- Treasure Island prohibits structural fill in V and Coastal A zones, and caps non-structural fill at 24 inches.
- Redington Shores does not permit stem walls in the coastal high hazard area or Coastal A.
- Redington Beach does not permit dry floodproofing or backfilled stem walls in Coastal A.
- Unincorporated Pinellas County limits enclosed storage below the flood elevation to 100 square feet with no dimension over 6 feet.
If your plan depends on bringing in fill or building a stem wall, find out early whether your jurisdiction allows it. We have seen this change a design after drawings were paid for.
Your realistic options
Stay under the threshold and phase the work. Often the right answer. Scope deliberately, leave real margin for what you find once walls are open, and do the rest as a separate project later. Projects that start at 40% have a habit of arriving at 52% once demolition uncovers something.
Convert the ground floor and build compliant space above. The existing lower level becomes non-habitable space — parking, storage, access — and new compliant living space is built above it. We do this work. It is worth knowing up front that it usually is not much cheaper than building new.
We have done exactly this. On a waterfront home in Madeira Beach we enclosed the ground level as parking, storage and access — framed, stuccoed, fitted with engineered flood vents and flood-resistant materials below flood level, and left unfinished inside rather than built out as living space — while the floors above were remodeled throughout. See the project.
Build new. Sometimes the honest answer for a structure that has reached the end of its useful life on a lot worth keeping.
Have the house lifted. A specialist trade with its own contractors. We do not lift houses — we will tell you plainly when that is the right route and who does it.
What a compliant elevated home looks like when it is finished
This is a house LanCo built on 3rd Street North in St. Petersburg. It is one of our own spec homes, designed and permitted from the ground up to current flood elevation requirements, so there is no client to speak around — we can show you the whole thing. The ground level is open, non-habitable space used for parking, storage and access. Every square foot of living area sits above the required elevation.
Above that ground level it is an ordinary house, and that is rather the point. Meeting the elevation requirement changes how a home is founded and how you approach the front door. It does not have to change how it lives.
What it costs
Very little honest cost data exists for this work in Pinellas, so here are our own numbers rather than someone’s marketing.
New elevated construction generally runs $500 or more per square foot, depending on the level of detail. On piers, without an enclosed garage level and without an elevator, it typically lands in the $400s per square foot.
Every property is different and these are ranges, not quotes. But they are real, and knowing them at the start of a conversation is better than discovering them at permitting.
A word on Elevate Florida
The state’s elevation grant programme closed to new applications in April 2025 and received over 12,000 of them. As of mid-2026, FEMA had approved just over fifty elevation projects nationally against a backlog in the low thousands. Florida’s own emergency management director described the pace as a slow drip.
If you applied, by all means keep waiting. But do not build a construction schedule around an approval date. We have seen people leave homes unrepaired for over a year waiting on an answer.
Work out your own number, and read further
We built a calculator that does the arithmetic for your jurisdiction and tells you plainly whether a project fits: the FEMA 49/50% threshold calculator. It takes about a minute.
There are two companion pages that go deeper than this one:
- The FEMA 50% rule in St. Petersburg (it is really 49%) — how the number is calculated, what counts toward it, and the cumulative look-back question
- I got a substantial damage letter. What now? — challenging a determination, the December 2026 deadline, and what to do about unpermitted repairs
Talk to someone who does this every week
We are a family-owned general contractor in St. Petersburg, licensed and insured in Florida under CBC1255870, and we have been building in Pinellas County since 1986 — through more than one storm cycle.
If you want to know where your project actually lands before you spend money on drawings, we will look at it with you. Get in touch or call (727) 533-9515.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the FEMA rule 49% or 50% in Pinellas County?
It depends on the jurisdiction. St. Petersburg, unincorporated Pinellas County and Redington Shores use 49%. Treasure Island, Madeira Beach, St. Pete Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Beach, Gulfport and Seminole use 50%. Always confirm with the building department that will issue your permit.
Does my land count toward the value of the structure?
No. The calculation uses the value of the building alone. Land, pools, docks, driveways and landscaping are all excluded, which is why the number is often far lower than owners expect on a waterfront property.
Can I lower the total by doing some of the work myself?
No. Owner-performed labour and donated materials are counted at normal commercial rates. Sweat equity does not reduce the figure.
Does a permit I pulled a few years ago still count against me?
It depends where you are, and it is worth asking directly. Florida addressed cumulative look-back periods at the state level in 2025, but unincorporated Pinellas County and Redington Shores both still have one-year cumulative periods written into their current codes. Ask your building department how they are applying it to your property, and ask for the answer in writing.
Which Pinellas jurisdiction has the strictest elevation requirement?
Madeira Beach, at base flood elevation plus 4 feet, and it also prohibits using fill or backfilled stem walls to get there. St. Petersburg and Treasure Island require plus 2 feet for one- and two-family homes. Several jurisdictions set no local margin at all and rely on the Florida Building Code and ASCE 24 instead.
Does LanCo Construction lift houses?
No. House lifting is a specialist trade with its own contractors. We handle flood and storm repairs, substantial damage rebuilds, converting a ground floor to compliant non-habitable space with new living space built above it, and new elevated construction from the ground up.