Roofing in Highland Beach

The town runs its own Building Department on South Ocean Boulevard, permits go through the MyGovernmentOnline customer portal and every contractor registers there before filing. The desk is particular about paperwork: it takes the January 2024 edition of the universal county and municipal permit application and returns an older one.

The larger requirement is the uplift test. Roofing permits for foam adhesive-set concrete or clay tile systems are subject to field uplift testing, on new work and on re-roofs alike, and at the building official's discretion a signed and sealed test report may stand in for direct observation.

The town also writes the working calendar into code: the heavy work happens Monday to Friday, since Saturdays allow no dumpsters, concrete trucks or noise across the lot line and Sundays are off. A tear-off here is staged on weekdays, and the quote should say so.

An adhesive-set tile roof holds the tile down with foam rather than with nails or screws through the tile. Done properly it performs well on this coast, and the only way to know it was done properly is to pull tiles from the finished roof and measure the force it takes.

That is the field uplift test. Highland Beach asks for that proof, and on a strip of barrier island with the ocean on one side and the Intracoastal on the other that is a defensible position.

In practice the test, the testing agency and the report are lines on the estimate and dates in the schedule, and a quote for a Bel Lido or Byrd Beach tile roof that does not mention them has not priced the job the town will permit. Ask any roofer quoting tile here how the test is handled and who pays for it; the answer tells you whether they have worked in this town before.

1. Our named work in town is a repair on South Ocean Boulevard this year; there is no job count on this page because we do not round up. Beyond that, our work is next door on either side: repairs and re-roofs in Delray Beach and a good deal of work across Boca Raton, including tile on the north side, which is the same island and the same salt.
2. What that work has taught us is that a coastal tile roof ends at its metal, not at its tile. The valley metal, the wall flashings and the pipe collars go first, quietly, while the roof still looks sound from A1A, and a leak that shows in one condominium unit usually started somewhere else along the run.
3. So we ask for the valleys and flashings to be photographed rather than described, and we survey the whole roof, not the unit that called.

The season runs June through November, and Highland Beach is a mandatory evacuation zone, so many owners are away when a storm arrives. Before the season, have the valleys, the wall flashings and the edge metal on a Bel Lido or Highland Beach Isles tile roof looked at; on this strip the metal fails before the covering, and a thinned valley beside a small gap is what the next blow exploits.

In a condominium, ask the board when the roof was last surveyed and whether the association's engineer has a report; that review and the town permit run in parallel. The quarter-roof rule considers how much of a roof system or section is repaired, replaced or recovered in any 12-month period.

Above a quarter, the roof covering across that entire system or section generally must be replaced or recovered to meet current code requirements. If that system or section was built, repaired or replaced in compliance with the 2007 Florida Building Code or a later edition, only the portion being worked on must meet applicable current code requirements.

We check which applies before we price. After a storm, send us photographs from the ground and we go up; the inspection is free and the findings reach you wherever you are.

Each of these has its own Highland Beach page, with what changes here: tile roof replacement, metal roof replacement, shingle roof replacement, flat roof repair and replacement, roof leak repair, roof inspection and roof replacement cost. For a house in Bel Lido or Byrd Beach the tile and metal pages carry the uplift test and the coastal fastening; for a building on South Ocean Boulevard the flat roof page covers low-slope membranes and working with a board.

On every job the installation carries our lifetime workmanship warranty and the materials carry the manufacturers' product warranties, both in writing; we are a GAF Certified Contractor and an Owens Corning Preferred Contractor. Price moves with roof area, the system, the uplift testing on tile, the deck repairs the tear-off turns up and the weekday-only staging the town requires.

Start with the page that fits, or call and we will point you at it.

A field test on a finished adhesive-set concrete or clay tile roof that measures the force needed to pull tiles free, proving the foam bond holds. The town applies it to roofing permits for those systems on new work and re-roofs alike, and at the building official's discretion a signed and sealed test report from the testing agency can stand in for direct observation.

No neighbouring town asks for it. We price the test and the report and schedule them as part of the job, so the number you sign is the number the town will permit.

The association, in almost every case, and where a developer has turned control over to the association it is the association that counts as the owner on the permitting side too. So the decision, the permit and the money are the board's, and the unit owner's job is to report the leak and give access.

We deal with boards and managers regularly along South Ocean Boulevard, we survey the whole run rather than the unit that called, and we put the findings in a photographed report the board can take to its engineer.

The January 2024 edition of the universal county-wide and municipal building permit application, submitted through the MyGovernmentOnline customer portal with the product approvals attached. An older edition comes back for resubmission, which costs time for nothing.

We file the current form, register the job on the portal, and where the roof is adhesive-set tile we include the uplift testing arrangement with the application so the town sees it up front.

In spring, before the season, and again after any serious blow, and for a house on Bel Lido or in Camino Cove whose owner is away, before you leave for the summer. On this strip the metal fails before the covering, so the look concentrates on the valleys, the wall flashings, the collars and the edge, with photographs of each; on tile we lift pieces at the suspect spots to see the underlayment, and our crews wear protective, safe footwear on tile.

It costs nothing. The findings and any proposed scope come to you in writing, and after a repair or re-roof we provide a roof certification letter for your insurer when you ask.

Highland Beach is a three-mile barrier strip between Delray Beach and Boca Raton, mostly condominium buildings along A1A with single-family pockets like Bel Lido and Byrd Beach behind them. 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.

Two local things shift that timing. On an adhesive-set concrete or clay tile roof the town requires field uplift testing on the permit, so a replacement here is planned with a testing agency in the schedule rather than added at the end, and that is a reason to decide early rather than in August.

On a condominium the roof is the association's, and a low-slope roof rarely fails all at once, so boards are usually choosing between a staged repair programme and a full replacement. Either way the finding that decides it is the state of the metal, not the state of the covering, and that means opening the roof at a few points and photographing what is underneath.