Roofing in North Palm Beach

The waterfront streets of Old Port Village, Juno Isles, Hidden Key and Captains Key take salt air off the lagoon every day, and on those roofs the tile or the metal panel is rarely what fails. It is the hidden metal: valley flashing, drip edge, hip and ridge fasteners under tile; clips, screws and cut edges under standing seam.

A roof can look new from the seawall while its fasteners rust to lace. Inland toward Prosperity Farms Road, in North Palm Beach Village and Palm Beach Lake Worth Estates, heat does the slower work on shingle and on the felt under tile.

Our inspection asks which climate the house lives in, then probes the metal, checks the valleys and lifts roofing at a few laps to see the layer that keeps the water out.

Repair is most of what we do here. On the canals it is metal work: rusted valley flashing relined in stainless or copper, drip edge renewed along the eave, corroded caps re-bedded and screwed with stainless, the tile lifted, saved and relaid so the fix disappears; on metal roofs, rusted screws replaced with stainless and open edges hemmed and sealed.

Inland it is split pipe boots, cracked tile, curled shingle, clogged valleys and the flashing where a patio roof meets the house. The stain inside is rarely under the entry point, so the roofer traces the water from the roof and the attic, photographs the source and prices the repair in writing before starting.

After a storm a secured tarp comes first and the permanent repair follows once the deck is dry.

North Palm Beach searches for commercial roofing more than any other roofing service, and the village's stock explains it: plazas, offices, restaurants and marinas along US-1 and Northlake Boulevard, the country club buildings, and the condominium and townhome associations along the water, nearly all under flat or low-slope roofs in TPO, modified bitumen or older built-up systems that hold water and fail at seams, drains and edge metal, faster in salt air. Owners, managers and boards receive a written survey with photographs, a scope and price by phase, and a staging plan that keeps tenants open and residents dry.

Older three-story-plus buildings facing the state's milestone inspections receive a roof condition report for the board file. Repair, coating or replacement is decided by the survey.

1. When a North Palm Beach roof is past repair, the choice on a house is usually tile or standing-seam metal, both specified for the water. A tile re-roof strips to the deck, replaces soft plywood and salt-eaten fascia, lays new self-adhered underlayment with valleys in stainless or copper, and sets the tile to the county's wind-code attachment with stainless fasteners and caps.
2. A metal re-roof uses aluminum or coastal-rated coated steel on stainless concealed clips, hemmed and sealed edges, and matching metal at every flashing. Shingle remains the lower-cost rung on the inland streets.
3. Where a community has architectural rules the submittal goes first; then the Village of North Palm Beach permit and inspections at dry-in and final. Financing options are explained at the inspection if you ask.

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 North Palm Beach is a straight run up US-1 for us. We know what lagoon salt does to a fastener, what a board needs in its file, and we are still here next season when the roof needs looking at again.

Every job is permitted through the Village of North Palm Beach and inspected. Every price is itemized and in writing before work starts; full replacements we have priced across the county since spring have landed in the county's typical range, and yours is quoted from a measurement.

Free roof inspections for homeowners, associations and business owners. Call 561-318-8624, phone answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

North Palm Beach is a village built in a single decade: MacArthur bought the land in 1954 and the National Association of Home Builders gave it their planned-community award for 1956, so a large part of the housing stock is the same age and on its second or third covering. 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.

Here the covering is often not the thing that decides it. The deck is.

Board decking that has carried three roofs and been nailed into every time reaches a point where a fourth covering is being fastened into wood that will not hold it, and that shows up as a deck repair allowance rather than as a leak. So on a fifties house, plan a replacement off the last one's date and off what a roofer finds when the covering is opened, not off how the shingles look from the pavement.

The Village permits replacements and major repairs itself and wants the roof materials named on the drawings, which is one more reason to decide in the spring rather than in a hurry.