Roofing in Hollywood, FL

What is on the roofs in Hollywood

Joseph Young told the Miami Herald in 1921 that Hollywood would use one style of architecture built of fireproof material, which he called semi-Spanish. The result is the Mediterranean Revival house with low-pitched gable and hip roofs covered in barrel tile and little or no overhang, plus Mission and Pueblo homes with flat roofs behind parapets, drained by scuppers or canales. Most of the city came later: 12,171 single-family homes by 1960 and more than 27,500 by 1975, which is why 1950s ranch houses sit even inside Hollywood Lakes.^5,6

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• Hollywood has four local historic districts: the Historic Hollywood Business District, Harrison/Tyler, the Beach district, and the Hollywood Lakes Multiple Resource District, the city's oldest neighborhood, east of U.S. 1 between Washington and Johnson streets. Work there needs a Certificate of Appropriateness, applied for through Accela.⁷
• The design guidelines the Historic Preservation Board uses when issuing certificates tell owners to keep clay tile and ornamental metal roofs, and to avoid tearing off repairable roofing for a uniform look, removing sound clay tile, switching to roll roofing that changes the building's appearance, or setting mechanical equipment on the roof.⁵
• In 1995 the city designated its first historic districts: 45 buildings in the downtown business district, 224 on Harrison and Tyler streets, and 632 acres in Hollywood Lakes, where homes were built along the twin dredged lakes flanking Hollywood Boulevard.⁵
• Construction in Hollywood Hills began before the 1926 storm and stopped by February 1927. Westward growth took off in the 1950s, when Hollywood Boulevard was extended to U.S. 27; the population went from 22,978 in 1955 to more than 121,400 in 1975.⁶

Storms that hit here

• 1926 Miami hurricane (1926). The September 18, 1926 storm tore roofs off buildings, flattened houses and killed 37 people in Hollywood. The population fell from about 18,000 to about 2,500 as residents left.^6,8
• Katrina (2005). Katrina came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane near the Miami-Dade/Broward county line, a few miles south of Hollywood, and dropped 3.78 inches of rain on the city. Three of Florida's direct deaths were from trees falling in Broward County.⁹

What this means for a re-roof in Hollywood

How old the houses are. The median home in Hollywood was built in 1969; 89.8% of its 72,843 homes predate 2000 and 3.4% were built in 2010 or later. So most houses here went up before Florida’s first statewide building code took effect on March 1, 2002.^4,10,11,12

Pre-2002 wood-deck houses. When the old covering comes off, the deck gets re-nailed to current code and a secondary water barrier goes on; in the wind-borne debris region, insured homes of $300,000+ may also need roof-to-wall connections (capped at 15% of the re-roof cost).^10,11,12

Repair or replace. Replacing 25% or more of a roof section in 12 months generally means redoing the section to current code — unless that roof was built or replaced under the 2007 code or later.^11,12,13,14

Product approval. In the HVHZ every roofing component needs a current product approval — a Miami-Dade NOA or a Florida approval listed for HVHZ use. Ask for the numbers and look them up yourself.^13,15

Roof age and insurance. An insurer can’t refuse a policy just because the roof is under 15 years old. If it is 15 or older, you can get an inspection first; at least 5 years of remaining life means age alone isn’t grounds to refuse.¹⁶