Roofing in Margate, FL

What is on the roofs in Margate

Margate was founded in the 1950s, when much of it was still Everglades or farmland; it became a town in 1955 as people moved in and a city in 1961. So every house here dates from the mid-1950s on, and the city describes itself by its tree-lined streets and canals. The city's roof packet covers both flat and tile work: it asks for low-slope and steep-slope areas separately and includes tile attachment calculations.^2,5,6

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• During hurricane season, Margate tells roofing contractors they may not load tile on more roofs than they can finish unloading in 48 hours, must notify the Building Department if they have more than three roofs loaded, and must stack-wire unloaded tile to the ground or store it in the garage.²
• Margate's roofing checklist requires a signed contract as proof of cost, a Broward County asbestos certificate, an owner's roof-to-wall mitigation affidavit, the HVHZ owner's notification for roofing considerations and highlighted Notices of Acceptance; incomplete packages are turned away.²
• A homeowner can act as the contractor on a re-roof, but must show proof of living at the job address and sign a notarized owner-builder affidavit.²
• The name Margate joins the first three letters of founder Jack Marqusee's surname with 'gate', because the town was billed as the gateway to western Broward County. It became a town in 1955 and a city in 1961.⁵

Storms that hit Broward County

No storm record specific to Margate was found in the sources we use, so these are the county-level impacts.

• Katrina (2005). On August 25, 2005, Katrina made its first U.S. landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near the Miami-Dade/Broward county line. Fort Lauderdale's airport recorded a 71-knot gust, and three of Florida's deaths were caused by trees falling in Broward.⁷
• Wilma (2005). Wilma crossed the peninsula on October 24, 2005, after landfall near Cape Romano. The National Hurricane Center concluded parts of Broward likely had Category 2 conditions with gusts near 100 knots; the Pompano Beach airport sensor quit at 72 knots sustained. Its report lists extensive roof damage across South Florida.⁸
• Irma (2017). Irma landed in the Keys and at Marco Island on September 10, 2017, but its wind field covered Broward: Deerfield Beach measured a 97-knot gust, most inland stations in the Miami-Dade and Broward metro area reported sustained winds just below hurricane force, and coastal Broward saw 2 to 4 feet of inundation.⁹

What this means for a re-roof in Margate

How old the houses are. The median home in Margate was built in 1978; 91% of its 26,356 homes predate 2000 and 3.7% 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