Roofs we work on · Shingle Roofs
The Specification That Should Come With a Reason
Shingle exists throughout the Keys and it works when it is chosen and installed deliberately. In the county with Florida's highest design wind speeds, it is the specification that ought to be explained rather than assumed.
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
Getting quoted what the contractor sells at home
A great many crews working here are based somewhere else, and they specify what their supply chain carries and their estimators know. On the mainland that is shingle, so shingle is what gets proposed. The product is legitimate and correctly rated product exists. The issue is that the choice was made in Homestead or Fort Lauderdale rather than on your roof, and nobody in the conversation raised metal at all.
If shingle is the answer, these have to be right
- A product rated for the pressures calculated at this address.
- The fastening schedule for this location, not a standard one.
- Tightened fastening at perimeters and corners, where uplift starts.
- Proper sealing of the tab strip, which is what resists lifting.
- Starter courses and edge metal, done properly rather than quickly.
Why the sealing strip matters more here
Shingles resist uplift largely by bonding to each other along an adhesive strip that seals in the heat after installation. Once that bond is broken or was never properly made, individual tabs can lift, and a lifted tab is where a wind failure begins.
At the design pressures in this county that margin matters more than it does further north. It is also why installation quality, and the tightened fastening at perimeters and corners, does more for a shingle roof here than the grade of the shingle does.
How we handle it
- 01Price metal alongside shingle so the comparison is real.
- 02Specify the fastening schedule required here, in writing.
- 03Tighten fastening in the perimeter and corner zones.
- 04Be straightforward about the expected life in this climate.
We will quote shingle and we will put metal beside it, because a comparison you can actually see is more useful than a recommendation you have to trust. Sometimes shingle wins on budget, on how long you intend to hold the property, or on matching the rest of a building. Those are real reasons. "It is what we normally fit" is not one.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Shingle in this county has a shorter realistic life than the manufacturer figure suggests. Sun, heat, salt and uplift all work against it. We would rather tell you that at the quote than have you compare a warranty against reality in eleven years.
FAQ
Common questions
- Should I just fit shingle because it is cheaper?
- It is cheaper on day one and it is a reasonable choice for some buildings and some timescales. Ask for metal to be priced beside it so you are making the comparison on numbers rather than on what the contractor prefers.
- How long will shingle last here?
- Less than the manufacturer figure, generally. Sun, heat, salt and uplift are all working on it continuously. We would rather set that expectation at the quote than at year eleven.
- Is shingle acceptable at Keys wind speeds?
- Correctly rated and correctly fastened product exists and is used here. The requirement is that the rating and the fastening schedule are the ones calculated for this address, not the ones the crew uses at home.
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.
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.