Roofs we work on · Deck, Fastening & Uplift
What Is Holding the Roof Down Is Not What You Can See
The covering takes the sun and the rain. The fastening underneath is what keeps the roof on the building, and in the county with the highest design pressures in Florida that is where the job is won or lost.
Give us the mile marker, tell us what is on the roof now, and say whether the property is rented out. Those three shape the job.
Metal
Down here it is the normal answer, not the upsell
Load path
At these wind speeds the covering is not the real question
Out too
The old roof has to travel the whole chain to leave
Licensed
A licensed Florida general contractor
A quote that prices the visible layer only
Two quotes for the same roof can be a long way apart and both look thorough, because the gap sits underneath. Whether the deck is being re-fastened and to what schedule, what underlayment is specified by name, whether a secondary water barrier is included, and what allowance exists for replacing damaged deck — those four are where the money is and where a quote can be silent without appearing incomplete.
The questions that explain the price gap
- Is the deck being re-fastened, and to which schedule?
- Is the schedule the one calculated for this address?
- Is fastening tightened at perimeter and corner zones?
- What underlayment is specified, by product rather than category?
- What deck replacement is allowed for, and at what rate beyond it?
Why this matters more in Monroe County
Uplift resistance is a chain: the covering to the deck, the deck to the framing, the framing to the walls. The chain is only as good as its weakest link, and the covering is merely the first one. At the highest design pressures in Florida the links further down carry loads they do not carry elsewhere.
It is also why a wind mitigation inspection is interested in deck attachment rather than in what the roof looks like. The parts being assessed are the ones nobody can see, which is a fair indication of where the performance actually sits.
How we handle it
- 01Inspect and photograph the deck once the covering is off.
- 02Re-fasten to the schedule required here, not to a generic one.
- 03Specify underlayment by name so it can be compared.
- 04Fix the deck replacement rate before the quantity is known.
We put the deck replacement rate in the quote before anybody knows how much will be needed. Agreeing that number while the quantity is unknown to both sides is fair. Agreeing it once the roof is open and the quantity is obvious is not a negotiation, and it is where a low headline price frequently gets made back.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Nobody can tell you how much decking needs replacing before the covering comes off, and be wary of a fixed total for it. What can be settled in advance is the rate, so that quantity is the only thing left to discover.
FAQ
Common questions
- Why are two quotes so far apart?
- Usually deck re-fastening and its schedule, the underlayment specified by name, whether a secondary water barrier is included, and the deck replacement allowance. Put those four to both contractors and the gap tends to explain itself.
- What is re-nailing and do I need it?
- Re-fastening the deck to the framing to a current schedule while the covering is off. It is the cheapest moment it will ever be done, because the deck is exposed, and in this county it does a great deal for uplift resistance.
- How much deck will need replacing?
- Unknowable until the covering is off. Agree the rate in advance so that the quantity is the only variable, and treat a confident fixed total with suspicion.
Florida Keys specifics
Metal Is the Default
In most of Florida a roofer works up from shingle to metal and metal is the premium option. In the Keys that ordering is reversed, and shingle is the specification that ought to arrive with an explanation.
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The Load Path
Monroe County carries the highest design wind speeds in Florida. What decides how a roof performs is not principally the material on top — it is whether the whole assembly stays connected to the building.
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Tear-Off Has to Leave
Roofing is the heaviest trade in construction. A re-roof brings tons of material in and sends tons of tear-off out, and on an island chain the outbound leg is a genuine cost rather than a short trip.
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Roofs Over Rentals
A large share of Keys property is rented out. On an earning building a roofing job is scheduled around a booking calendar, and a leak is a refund and a review rather than an inconvenience.
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How We Work Here
We are Fort Lauderdale based and work Monroe County in scheduled blocks with crews lodged locally. On a chain where a lot of unfamiliar companies work, being plain about that matters.
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More roofs we work on
Metal Roofs
Metal leads this list because in Monroe County it is the ordinary choice rather than the expensive one. What separates a twenty-five year metal roof from a twelve year one is almost never the panel.
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Flat & Low Slope
A great deal of Keys building stock is concrete with a flat or very low slope roof. Those roofs fail at drainage and at edges rather than across the field, and coating is the answer offered far more often than it is the right one.
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Tile Roofs
Tile appears throughout the Keys and it asks more of a building here than it does further north. Fastening is the whole conversation, and the underlayment beneath decides when the roof needs doing.
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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.