Explained
What Is Actually Up There
A roof is a stack of layers, and almost nobody has seen the stack. Once you know which layer keeps water out, most roofing advice becomes easy to judge — including ours.
Photographs and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, you will get that answer.
Four places account for most South Florida roof leaks. None of them is the middle of the roof.
67
Florida counties we are licensed to build in
HVHZ
Miami-Dade and Broward product approval, done properly
GC
A general contractor, so the structure below is our problem too
25%
The code rule that decides repair vs. replace
The most common in South Florida
Concrete and clay tile
The tile is not the waterproofing. It sheds most of the water and takes the wind load; the underlayment beneath it is what actually keeps the house dry.
Fails like this: the underlayment ages and cracks under decades of heat while the tile above it looks perfect from the street. Leaks appear in several places at once, which is the giveaway.
Watch for: slipped or cracked tile at the ridge and eave, and any roof over twenty years old that has never been re-underlaid.
The trap: paying to replace broken tiles when the layer underneath is the one that has failed.
Long life, detail-dependent
Standing seam metal
Panels almost never fail in the middle. Seams, fasteners and penetrations do — and metal moves measurably every day as it heats and cools.
Fails like this: sealant at end laps hardens, the joint opens a fraction, and wind-driven rain finds it. On exposed-fastener roofs, screws back out and washers perish.
Watch for: rust bleeding from fastener heads, and leaks that only appear in wind-driven rain.
The trap: coating the whole roof to hide an open seam. It buys a few years and complicates every future repair.
Shortest life here
Asphalt shingle
Ultraviolet exposure hardens the asphalt and the sealant strip that bonds each course lets go. From that point, wind has something to get under.
Fails like this: in a predictable order — edges and corners, then rakes and ridges, then the field. That is useful, because it gives warning to anyone looking in the right places.
Watch for: granules in the gutters, curled corners, and lifted tabs along the rakes.
The trap: two repairs a year apart on a fifteen-year-old roof, instead of an honest conversation about remaining life.
TPO, PVC, modified bitumen
Low-slope membrane
Built with a deliberate slope so water reaches the drains. When water stands 48 hours after rain, either the slope was never right or the deck has moved.
Fails like this: ponding water ages the membrane, adds weight, and eventually finds a seam. Once insulation is saturated, nothing laid over the top will last.
Watch for: silt rings and vegetation marking where water sits, and interior leaks in the middle of a room rather than near a wall.
The trap: a silver coating rolled over a wet roof. It seals the water in and makes the eventual replacement more expensive.
Worth remembering
The thing all four have in common
In every one of these systems, the layer you can see is not the layer that keeps water out. The covering sheds most of the water and takes the wind; a membrane or underlayment underneath does the waterproofing. That is why "the tiles look fine" is not evidence of anything, and why a proper assessment involves lifting something rather than looking at it from the driveway.
FAQ
Common questions
- Which roof lasts longest in South Florida?
- Metal and tile both outlast asphalt shingle by a wide margin here. But the covering rarely fails first — the underlayment, sealants and boots do, and those have similar lives across all three systems.
- Which is best in a hurricane?
- Attachment matters far more than material. A properly attached, current-code roof of any of these systems performs well; a badly attached one fails regardless of what it is made of.
- Why is my tile roof leaking when no tiles are broken?
- Because the tile is not the waterproofing. The underlayment beneath it is, and that is what has failed.
- Is a flat roof really flat?
- No. It is built with a deliberate slope, usually from tapered insulation, so water reaches the drains. Water standing 48 hours after rain means the slope, the drain or the deck is not doing its job.
- Can I change roof types?
- Sometimes. Weight is the constraint — going from shingle to tile adds substantial dead load and is a structural question, not a roofing one. That is a good reason to ask a general contractor rather than only a roofer.
By the work
Roof Leak Repair
roof leak repair south florida
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Tile Roof Repair
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Metal Roof Repair
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Shingle Roof Repair
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Flat & Low-Slope Roofing
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Storm & Hurricane Damage
hurricane roof damage south florida
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Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.