Shingle roof replacement in West Palm Beach

Molsbee Roofing. Family-run since 1975, based in Lake Worth Beach and working Palm Beach County from Jupiter to Boca Raton, licensed CCC1327429. We install architectural shingle in 33401, 33405 and 33407, most often on the post-war houses in Southland Park, Broadmoor and Ellamar that were built with it. A roofer walks the roof first, checks the deck and whether your address sits in a historic district, photographs what he finds and writes the specification down. Free roof inspections. Call 561-318-8624, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Possibly not, and the city decides rather than us. Those neighbourhoods carry historic designations, and in a designated district the material and colour of a roof visible from the street can be subject to review. Many of those houses were built with barrel tile and are expected to keep it. We check your specific address before you commit to a material, and where a review is required we prepare it and wait for the answer before a permit is pulled. It is a short conversation at the inspection and it saves an expensive reversal later.

It is common on older West Palm Beach houses and it is manageable, but it changes the job. Shingle needs a continuous surface to nail into, and plank sheathing has gaps and a century of old nail holes. The usual answer is new sheathing laid over the planks, properly fastened, before any membrane or shingle goes down. That is an added line on the price and it is not optional, because shingle nailed into gaps and split boards will not hold its wind rating no matter what the bundle says.

Less than tile and less than metal, and how it was installed matters far more than the brand on the bundle. Sun ages the mat, and wind finds any shingle that was nailed high, nailed short or driven through. A shingle roof over a re-nailed solid deck with full self-adhered membrane and a correct high-wind pattern lasts a long time and fails gracefully at the end. One laid over plank sheathing with edge-only underlayment does not, and no written warranty changes that.

It is the lowest-priced full roof we install, yes, and on a compact Southland Park or Ellamar house the difference is meaningful. What narrows the gap on an older West Palm Beach property is everything under the shingle: new sheathing over planks, replacing decking that has gone soft, and rebuilding flashing at chimneys and walls that were last done a very long time ago. We price those separately so you can see exactly where the money goes rather than comparing two totals that cover different work.