Roofing in Lake Park

Lake Park was planned in the twenties as Kelsey City, with industry west of the railroad and Old Dixie Highway, homes east to the Intracoastal and shops along US-1, and the streets still follow that plan. Around 100 buildings survive from the land boom through 1950, Kelsey City Hall on Park Avenue among them, built in 1927.

Their roofs are low-pitched red tile on the Spanish Eclectic houses, red tile with flat sections behind parapets on the Mission houses, and low gables on the Craftsman bungalows. Beyond that old core the median house was built in 1977, and its roof may be an original or a later replacement.

The east side looks across the lagoon at Singer Island, which puts those streets in the higher wind band.

We have no finished Lake Park job to show you yet, and we will not invent one. Next door, our work includes repairs on Smith Drive and along US Highway 1 in North Palm Beach, and a re-roof on West 7th Street in Riviera Beach.

For the old Kelsey City houses, our experience comes from the historic districts of West Palm Beach, where we work on twenties tile roofs laid over plank decking. Those roofs teach one thing clearly: the tile is rarely the hard part.

The plank deck, the parapet flashings and the underlayment are where the time and the care go, so that is what we look at first here.

1. Tell us the address and what you are seeing, and we will check whether the house sits in the historic core near Park Avenue or among the later ranches. That one fact shapes most of what follows.
2. On a Kelsey-era house, ask for the Historic Preservation Board's view before you settle on price or material. Pricing tile back where tile is makes a sound starting point until the board says otherwise.
3. Set money aside for the deck under an old tile roof, because plank decking cannot be judged until the tiles come off. Your written price names that allowance, so it arrives as a line rather than a surprise.
4. On a late-seventies ranch the job is usually a plain re-roof, and the Town's own checklist sets which stages it takes by affidavit and which need an inspector on the roof. Near the water, the new roof is fastened to the coastal wind standard.

Lake Park has its own pages for roof leak repair, roof replacement cost and commercial roofing. The leak page covers tracing water on tile and parapet roofs, the cost page explains what sets the price of a new roof here, and the commercial page covers shop and office roofs along Park Avenue and US-1.

Start with the page that matches your roof, or call and a roofer will come and look.

Ask to see the problem, not only to hear about it. An honest roofer photographs the damage, shows you where it sits on your roof and explains why it calls for a repair or a new roof.

Check the state licence and the Google reviews, and confirm the company is registered with CAP, since every Lake Park permit applicant must be. The written price should name the removal, the deck allowance and the flashings.

We are a GAF Certified Contractor and an Owens Corning Preferred Contractor; our lifetime workmanship warranty and the manufacturers' product warranties come in writing, and after a repair or re-roof we provide a roof certification letter if your insurer asks for one.

The Town issues the permit through its Community Development Department, while the building official and the inspectors work for CAP, an outside firm the Town contracts. Every applicant registers with CAP before filing, and permit fees are not refundable, so the application has to be complete the first time.

For a standard re-roof the Town accepts the roofer's affidavit for the roof metal, the sheathing and the tin tags. We register, file and book the inspections, and tell you which stages still need an inspector on the roof.

Usually, and on a house with historic standing it is the place to start. Lake Park has a Historic Preservation Board, and on a Kelsey-era house we ask for its view before we price any change of material or colour.

Where tile stays, we match the profile and colour as closely as current production allows and show you samples before anything is ordered. Parapet caps and the flat sections behind the parapet belong to the same job, so they are priced with the tile rather than after it.

There is no honest single figure, because Lake Park has two very different kinds of roof. A red-tile roof on a Kelsey-era house carries tile, parapet and plank-deck work that a shingle roof on a ranch does not.

We give you a price after a free roof inspection, in writing and line by line, and you can pay over time with financing on approved credit. Our Lake Park roof replacement cost page walks through what moves the number here, from the material to the permit.

The tile sheds water; the underlayment beneath it keeps the house dry. On a Kelsey-era house we take the roof to the deck, photograph the plank boards and price any soft ones as a line you approve before they are replaced.

We lay a self-adhered underlayment over the deck, the secondary water barrier method we specify among those the code allows, then new valley metal and parapet flashing run up under the cap. Where the existing roof is sound clay barrel tile, we can detach it and reset the same tile over the new underlayment, which keeps the look the Historic Preservation Board cares about.

Our crews wear protective, safe footwear on tile roofs, and the tile is fastened to the wind band for the lot: 170 mph within a mile of the Intracoastal, 160 mph west of it.

Lake Park began as Kelsey City in the 1920s, and a hundred of its buildings from the land boom through 1950 survive: Spanish Eclectic houses with low-pitched red tile, Mission houses with parapet flats, Craftsman bungalows. 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 those the tile and the parapet flashing are the job, and the town's Historic Preservation Board has a say before the permit. The rest of the town is 1977-median ranches on their second or third roof.

The town faces the Intracoastal and Singer Island, so the streets near the water sit in the higher wind band with salt. Lake Park contracts its building official to an outside firm and accepts tin-tag and sheathing affidavits, so on a plain ranch the permit is a short one.