Commercial roofing in Palm Beach Shores, FL

Seventy point six percent of Palm Beach Shores housing units were built before 1980, against 33.5 percent countywide. Many commercial and multi-unit roofs here are likely past their original design life, and their decks may need inspection before any new covering goes on.

• New low-slope roofs need at least a 2 percent slope under the Florida Building Code, so flat drainage problems are a design question, not just a patch question.
• Drainage must clear the roof within 48 hours of rain. Ask each bidder how they will check slope on your specific deck.
• Wherever a parapet could hold water, a backup overflow drain or scupper must be installed.
• Recovering over an old roof is barred if the deck is water soaked or the existing covering is two or more layers deep.

Water covers 43.8 percent of the town's total area, and Hurricane Matthew brought tropical-storm-force winds to coastal Palm Beach County. Ask bidders how they will address edge metal and wind uplift, because those are the points that fail first on exposed flat roofs.

Put every bid on the same scope: the same deck inspection, the same membrane or covering, the same edge metal, and the same drain work. A bid that leaves out drainage or edges is not cheaper, only incomplete.

Florida law requires a roofing contractor to be certified or registered as a roofing contractor, and a general contractor who does roofing must hold that status too. Ask for the license number and check it with the state before signing, since no roof work should start on a bid from an unlicensed firm.

Before work starts, the permit must be active and the Notice of Commencement recorded and posted, or the owner may end up paying twice for the work. Permits also lapse if work does not begin within 6 months of issuance.