Roof types · Shingle Roofing
Where the 25 percent Question Comes Up Most
Common on newer residential construction, and the system where the repair-versus-replace argument arises most often.
What you have noticed, the roof type and roughly its age. We will tell you honestly whether it is a repair or a replacement.
Repair
Partial repair is more often permitted than homeowners think
Tile
A tile roof is a different repair problem from shingle
Documented
Photographs and reports your insurer can actually use
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Homeowners are told the whole roof must go
A homeowner with wind damage to one slope is frequently told the entire roof must be replaced because more than a quarter of it is affected. Florida amended that rule in 2022, and for roofs built to a sufficiently recent code edition a partial repair may be permitted — which is worth confirming with your building department before accepting a full replacement.
The practical difficulty is that a homeowner receiving three quotes may get three different answers, because each contractor is applying their own reading of the rule rather than the building department's. That is the reason to ask the department directly rather than treating it as a matter of opinion between bidders.
What determines the answer
- When the roof was built, and to which code edition.
- The extent of damage as a share of the roof.
- What your building department actually applies.
- Whether matching shingles are available.
- What your insurance policy covers, which is separate.
What wind damage actually looks like
Wind damage on shingles is not always missing tabs. It includes creased shingles where the seal has broken and the tab has folded back and returned, and lifted shingles where the adhesive strip has released even though nothing has moved out of place.
Both are real damage and both are easy to miss from the ground, which is one of the reasons a documented roof-level assessment matters more on a shingle roof than the visible evidence suggests.
How we handle it
- 01Assess the extent honestly rather than to the convenient answer.
- 02Raise the partial repair question rather than assuming full replacement.
- 03Document the damage for your insurer.
- 04Refer the rule question to your building department.
- 05Match materials where a repair is appropriate.
Ask your building department directly whether a partial repair is permitted on your roof. It is a phone call, the rule changed in 2022, and a great many homeowners are still being told the older position.
Said plainly
Where we stop
This is general information rather than code advice, and the rule has conditions. Your building department and design professional determine what applies to your roof.
FAQ
Common questions
- Does damage over 25% mean a full replacement?
- Not automatically since the rule changed in 2022. Ask your building department about your specific roof.
- What determines it?
- Largely when the roof was built and to which code edition. Confirm locally.
- Is insurance the same question?
- No. What your policy covers is separate from what the code requires.
- Is this code advice?
- No. Your building department determines what applies.
Local specifics
The Repair Rule
Florida amended its roof repair provisions in 2022. For roofs built to a sufficiently recent code edition, repairing part of a roof may no longer require replacing all of it.
Read more →
The Post-Storm Market
Major storms bring genuine capacity into a region and they also bring operators who leave once the work dries up.
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Insurance Documentation
What a homeowner can demonstrate matters as much as what happened, and the documentation is created at the assessment rather than afterwards.
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Gulf Exposure
The Gulf coast has its own exposure profile, and roofs here weather differently from those on the Atlantic side of the state.
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How We Work Here
We are based on the other coast, licensed in the state of Florida, and we work here on scheduled projects.
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More roof types
Concrete & Clay Tile
The dominant roof across much of Southwest Florida, and the one most often misjudged from the ground.
Read more →
Metal Roofing
Increasingly common on the Gulf coast, and it fails at the fasteners, the penetrations and the terminations rather than in the panel.
Read more →
Flat & Low-Slope
Membrane roofs on additions, porches and flat sections. They fail at penetrations and where water sits.
Read more →
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.