Roof depot florida: The Florida Guide
By Dale Prescott, Roofing contractor, Central Florida. Reviewed by Hal Winstead, Editor, licensed roofing contractor.
The first real gust of an August storm took the south side of a barrel tile roof in Winter Park in 2003, before the rain reached us. We found the last tile three houses down, sitting in a birdbath. The roof had felt solid a week earlier when I walked it. The nails had rusted thin under the overlaps, and no amount of looking from the ground could have told us that. The internet works the same way. It looks solid until you pull on it. So start with a list like the roofing companies in Florida and then go beyond the first page of names.
I’m Dale Prescott. Twenty-two years running tile and shingle crews between Orlando and the coast. I’ve torn off more storm-damaged roofs than I care to count, and most of them did not fail some dramatic death. They failed quietly, at one fastener at a time, until a storm found the weak spot.
Roof depot Florida is a search term, not a shortcut
When you type roof depot Florida into a search bar, you get a wall of companies. Some have nice websites. Some have big trucks. That’s not a bad place to start, but it’s not the place to stop.
Before anybody sets foot on your roof, go check the state roll. The DBPR licence prefixes CCC and RC put every contractor in one of two boxes. CCC means certified and can work anywhere in Florida. RC means registered and can only work in the local jurisdiction that issued their license. Active matters more than anything else. I don’t care how good the sales pitch is; if the number is not active, that’s a no from me.
Certified doesn’t automatically mean careful. Registered doesn’t automatically mean rough. It means you have the paperwork to find out who they are and where they can legally work.
Pull the permit. Then pull the shingles.
A roof replacement in Florida requires a permit pulled from the local building department, and an inspection. That’s not extra government homework. It’s a second set of eyes on the nail pattern before the shingles cover it up.
If a contractor offers to skip the permit, walk away. I’ve had this conversation more times than I like. One homeowner in Lake Mary told me she didn’t want the county knowing she was getting a new roof because she was afraid her taxes would go up. I told her the permit protects her, and she hired somebody else. I don’t know if it ever bit her. But the county records outlast roofs, and an unpermitted roof can complicate an insurance claim and a future sale.
No permit means no inspection. No inspection means nobody saw the roof deck before it disappeared.
What I would actually do: Ask for the permit number before the first shingle comes off. Call the local building department and confirm it’s active. If the roofer says permits are for new construction, that’s the whole answer you need.
The 25% rule changed in 2022. Some roofers still quote the old one.
Plenty of roofers learned the old 25% rule and never unlearned it. Here’s the short version. The old rule said no more than 25% of a roof could be repaired or replaced in a 12-month period without bringing the entire roof up to current code. That caused alot of full roof replacements when somebody just needed a corner fixed.
Then SB 4-D (2022) changed the math for newer roofs. If your roof was built, repaired, or replaced under the 2007 Florida Building Code or any later edition, only the portion being worked on has to meet current code. A full replacement is no longer automatically triggered just because you pass that 25% line.
The catch is older roofs. The 2007 edition took effect on March 1, 2009, so roofs completed before that generally don’t qualify for the newer rule. That means my first question to a roofer is always: when was this roof installed? Some of them can’t answer it, and that tells you something.
Wind mitigation pays if you actually send it in
Here is the piece that costs a little but saves people money every year. A wind mitigation inspection documents roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, roof geometry, secondary water resistance and opening protection. Those are the features that decide how well your roof handles wind. Florida insurers must offer premium discounts for qualifying features, and the form everybody uses is form OIR-B1-1802.
The inspection is seperate from a home inspection. It’s an insurance pricing document. The person writing the report is looking for things like how many nails are in your roof deck and how the walls connect to the roof. You can’t see those things from the driveway.
The trick is that a report only helps if the insurance company sees it. People pay for the inspection and then never send the paperwork anywhere. They assume the agent will ask. Sometimes the agent doesn’t ask. Coverage varies by policy too, so read your declarations page and see what your policy actually says before you assume.
What I would actually do: Get a wind mitigation inspection done after a new roof is on, and hand the report directly to my agent or insurance company. I wouldn’t trust a roofer to “send it in” for me. I’d keep the copy and send it myself.
Questions I get asked
What does roof depot Florida show me that Google doesn’t?
It’s a starting point, not a final answer. Google shows you names. The DBPR roll shows you wether the license is active. Search the contractor’s name or license number before you let them give you a bid.
Is a certified roofer always better than a registered one?
Not by itself. A certified contractor holds a CCC license and can work anywhere in Florida. A registered contractor holds an RC license and can only work in the jurisdiction that licensed them. Both can do good work or sloppy work. The license tells you where they can work, not how they work.
If I replace my roof, do I really need a permit?
Yes. A full roof replacement in Florida requires a permit from your local building department and an inspection. If a contractor tells you to skip it, ask yourself what they don’t want inspected. The permit is the record that protects you later.
Does the 25% rule force a full roof replacement after a repair?
Not automatically anymore. SB 4-D (2022) changed the rule for roofs built, repaired, or replaced under the 2007 Florida Building Code or any later edition. For those roofs, only the part being worked on has to meet current code. Older roofs can still hit the old trigger.
Will a wind mitigation inspection lower my insurance bill?
It can, if the report shows features your insurer can credit. Florida insurers must offer premium discounts for qualifying features, and the standard form is form OIR-B1-1802. But the discount depends on your policy, so read your declarations page and ask directly.
Can you give me a price over the phone?
No. I price roofs by the square, but square is only the begining. Pitch, access, layers, deck condition, skylights, all of it matters. Anybody who quotes a full replacement price without seeing the roof is guessing, and I of been wrong about this before.