Roofing in Manalapan

A Manalapan roof is big, complicated and exposed. The estates along A1A carry many planes, chimneys, parapets, towers and flat sections over loggias and garages, and every intersection is flashing that the Atlantic on one side and the Intracoastal on the other are working on constantly.

The tile, whether clay barrel or a flat slate-look profile, barely notices the salt. Copper and stainless flashing, valley metal, drip edge and fasteners survive it.

Anything galvanized or plain steel does not, and it fails under roofing that looks flawless from the road. Our inspection on a Manalapan roof starts at the metal, the parapets and the flat sections, probing and photographing, before anyone talks about the surface.

The Town of Manalapan reviews and permits roofing, and on an estate street the roof is part of the house's architecture: profile, color blend and cap treatment are noticed, and a re-roof that reads as new and flat looks wrong for years. We prepare the town submittal with samples and photographs, salvage sound original tile for the hips and ridges where it shows most, blend new tile through the field, and set caps to match the original.

Copper flashings weather to the green the older estates already wear. The written schedule includes the review time, so the finish date is one the town's calendar allows.

Repair on an estate roof is mostly metal work and flat-section work. Rusted valley metal is cut out and relined in copper or stainless; chimney and parapet flashings are rebuilt in copper; drip edge is renewed along the eave; corroded hip and ridge fasteners are pulled and the caps re-bedded and screwed with stainless; the surrounding tile is lifted, saved and relaid.

Flat roofs over loggias and garages leak at seams, scuppers and the flashing where they meet the tile, and are repaired with the membrane's own system and stainless edge metal. Copper porch and tower roofs are re-soldered and re-flashed.

The stain inside is rarely under the entry point, so the roofer traces the water from the roof, photographs the source, and prices the repair in writing before starting. Half-measures on an estate roof in salt air come back within a couple of seasons, so we do not make them, and we say plainly when a section has reached the end of its life.

1. When a Manalapan roof is past repair, the replacement is a coastal specification: blended clay or slate-look tile over new self-adhered underlayment, valleys in copper or stainless, stainless fasteners and caps, copper at every chimney and parapet; or aluminum or copper standing seam on stainless clips with hemmed and sealed edges; and membrane on the flat sections with rebuilt drainage and stainless edge metal. The deck on an older estate is the biggest unknown, and the itemized scope carries a deck allowance based on what the roofer found; if the roof opens up worse, you see photographs and approve the extra first.
2. Tile and metal both sit at the top rung of what a full roof costs in Palm Beach County, and a Manalapan estate with copper throughout sits at the top of that rung.

Molsbee Roofing is a family business since 1975, licensed CCC1327429, based in Lake Worth Beach and working Palm Beach County, Jupiter to Boca Raton, and Manalapan is minutes from our yard across the Lantana bridge. We know what salt does to a fastener on this island, what the Town expects on a submittal, and how to stage work on a large estate so the household is disrupted as little as possible.

Every job is permitted and inspected. Every price is itemized and in writing before work starts.

Free roof inspections. Call 561-318-8624, phone answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Manalapan is a barrier strip in the county's coastal wind band where many lots run from the Atlantic to the Intracoastal, so no elevation is sheltered and the whole roof ages at the exposed rate. In Palm Beach County a shingle roof generally lasts 13 to 18 years, tile 15 to 20, metal 20 to 25, and a flat roof 15 to 20.

On this ground the covering is rarely what tells you first. The edge metal is.

Thinned or lifted drip edge beside a gap is the reason the next storm takes the next section, so on a roof past ten years here we look at the perimeter every spring rather than waiting for a leak. The other thing that sets timing is the Architectural Commission, which meets on the first Thursday of the month and has to approve a change of roofing or of tile colour, so a replacement is planned around a meeting date rather than a delivery date.