Broward County · City

Roofing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale is Broward County's seat on the New River, a waterfront city with about 100 marinas and Port Everglades by Wikipedia's count. Its median home was built in 1973, and 65.1 percent of its housing went up before 1980, decades before Florida adopted one building code for the whole state.

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Updated October 2026

Drone view of a two-story home with a brown shingle roof, a red debris container in the driveway and a neighboring home with a dark blue-gray roof

At a glance

Fort Lauderdale homes at a glance

People (2020 Census): 182,760
Median year homes were built: 1973
Share of homes built before 1980: 65.1%
Share of homes in buildings with 10+ units: 43.6%
Owner-occupied share of occupied homes: 54.1%
Seasonal, recreational or occasional-use homes (share of all units): 12.5%

Census figures; each one is listed in the sources at the end of this page.

Your roof

Old decks and tall buildings: what Fort Lauderdale's housing means for roofs

Only 13 percent of Fort Lauderdale's homes were built in 2010 or later. Most roofs in the city therefore sit on framing and sheathing put up before March 1, 2002, the day Florida's first statewide building code replaced the local codes that Hurricane Andrew had shown to be inadequate. When one of those roofs comes off, the deck underneath is judged against today's rules, not the ones it was built under; the Fort Lauderdale roof replacement page walks through what that means.

The city builds up as much as out. Buildings with 10 or more units hold 43.6 percent of its housing units, more than the 34 percent in single-family detached houses, and owners occupy 54.1 percent of occupied homes, below Broward's 63.6 percent. Many Fort Lauderdale roofs are therefore decided by condo boards and building managers, a group the commercial roofing page for Fort Lauderdale is written for.

Part-time ownership is common too. Of all housing units, 12.5 percent are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, against 7.2 percent countywide, and 19.6 percent of residents are 65 or older. A slow leak in an empty condo or a winter home can run for weeks before anyone sees a stain, which is why the Fort Lauderdale roof inspection page spends time on when to book.

Local rules

Permits, historic properties and hurricane-zone code in Fort Lauderdale

Roof permits here come from the city itself, through Permitting Services in its Development Services department (city permitting page). Broward is one of the two counties in the Florida Building Code's High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so every roof in the city is built and repaired under the code's HVHZ sections, 1512 through 1525.

Those sections reach small jobs. Most of Florida leaves ordinary minor repairs to the building official's discretion (FBC-B 105.2.2), but under Section 1512.3 any application, repair or maintenance of a roofing component in the zone is permitted work. The form is the HVHZ Uniform Roofing Permit Application, with the product approvals for the materials attached.

The city also runs a Historic Preservation program. If your house is a designated historic property or stands in a historic district, ask preservation staff whether a new roof material or color needs their review before the permit goes in. Disagreements over how the code applies can go to Broward's Board of Rules and Appeals, which hears appeals of building officials' decisions and issues formal code interpretations.

The city has a Historic Preservation program.
Census building-permit data list 262 new single-family homes and 1,052 units in 5+ unit buildings permitted here in 2025.

Weather

Rain and wind Fort Lauderdale roofs have already taken

The rain record here is extreme. On April 12, 2023, a gauge at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport measured 25.91 inches in one day, 11.74 of them in three hours, and NWS Miami called the flooding historic and catastrophic; a federal major disaster declaration for Broward, DR-4709, followed. Ordinary years are wet as well, with a 1991-2020 normal of 64.25 inches at the Fort Lauderdale Beach station.

Wind arrives with the hurricanes. During Irma in 2017, the National Hurricane Center logged a 97-knot gust at Deerfield Beach, and Tropical Storm Eta's flooding in 2020 put water inside some buildings in Fort Lauderdale. Storms like these test a 1970s roof where FEMA and the code say roofs give way: hips and ridges, and the flashing at walls, slope changes and vents.

Permits

Roof permits for Fort Lauderdale

Building permits

City of Fort Lauderdale - Development Services - Permitting Services

Official building page

Office names and links only. Fees, forms and timing change; check the official page.

Services

Roofing services in Fort Lauderdale

Questions

Fort Lauderdale roofing questions

Do I need a permit to repair my roof in Fort Lauderdale?

Yes, for nearly any roofing work. Fort Lauderdale is in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, where Section 1512.3 of the Florida Building Code requires a permit for the application, repair or maintenance of any roofing component, not only for a full replacement. The paperwork is the HVHZ Uniform Roofing Permit Application, with product approval numbers and an owners notification attached, and the city's Permitting Services, part of Development Services, issues it. Expect inspections during the work as well as at the end.

Source: 2023 Florida Building Code, Building, Sections 1512.3 and 1512.4 (UpCodes transcription); City of Fort Lauderdale Permitting Services; both read October 5, 2026.

How old are most roofs in Fort Lauderdale?

No public source tracks roof ages by city, but house ages give a strong hint. The median Fort Lauderdale home was built in 1973, 65.1 percent of homes predate 1980, and 13 percent date from 2010 or later, so the house's age says little about the roof's; what matters is when the last full re-roof happened. For insurance, Florida counts a roof's age from the last date its entire surface was built or replaced (Fla. Stat. 627.7011(5)(d)), and the 4-point form asks for the date of the last roofing permit. The city's permit records answer that for your address.

Source: ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates via Census Reporter, read October 5, 2026; Fla. Stat. 627.7011, read October 4, 2026.

Why do Fort Lauderdale roofs follow different code sections than most of Florida?

Because the Florida Building Code puts Broward and Miami-Dade, and only those two counties, in its High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. Inside the zone the residential code's roof chapter steps aside: R901.1 sends buildings to Chapter 44 and to the Building code's Sections 1512 through 1525. Day to day, that means permits for repairs, a Florida product approval or Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance number on the application for each product, and inspections while the roof goes on. On the state's wind mitigation form, Fort Lauderdale homes, median build year 1973, get their own HVHZ wind-region box rather than Regions 1 to 3.

Source: 2023 Florida Building Code, Residential R901.1 and Building Chapter 15; Florida OIR form OIR-B1-1802 (Rev. 04/26); read October 4-5, 2026.

Related: Roof replacement

How much rain can fall on a Fort Lauderdale roof in a day?

More than most gutters and roof drains are ever asked to carry. NOAA's Atlas 14 puts a 10-year, 24-hour rain at the city's Census point at 9.41 inches and a 100-year one at 16.5 inches. April 12, 2023 went past both: the airport gauge recorded 25.91 inches in one day, with 11.74 inches falling in three hours. A roof that sheds a normal summer storm can still back up at valleys, gutters and low-slope drains on a day like that, which is why drainage is sized for the burst rather than the yearly average.

Source: NOAA Atlas 14 Volume 9 at the Fort Lauderdale Census point; NWS Miami April 12, 2023 StoryMap; both read October 5, 2026.

Related: Gutters

When is the driest time to re-roof in Fort Lauderdale?

November through April. At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 43.80 of the 60.95 inches in the 1991-2020 normal year fall from May through October, and June is the wettest month at 9.55 inches. Hurricane season sits on top of the wet months, June 1 to November 30, with its statistical peak on September 10. In any month, NWS Miami's lightning guidance says nobody should be working on a rooftop when thunder can be heard, so a summer tear-off gets planned around the thunderstorms.

Source: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020; NOAA National Hurricane Center climatology; NWS Miami lightning safety; all read October 5, 2026.

Related: Roof replacement

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