Roofing in Plantation, FL

What is on the roofs in Plantation

Plantation was laid out from a master plan: Frederick C. Peters bought 10,000 acres in 1939 and in 1945 hired architect Russell Pancoast, whose plan set minimum lot sizes and barred neighboring homes from looking alike. The first houses went up on East Acre Drive in 1947 and there were about 450 occupied homes by 1958. The big western build-out came later, with the 5,400-acre Jacaranda project in 1970 and the annexation of Plantation Acres and Melaleuca Isles in 1973, so roofs here sit on everything from late-1940s and 1950s houses to homes from the city's 1970s–90s growth years.^4,5

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• Plantation incorporated on April 30, 1953, with fewer than 500 residents. Peters' early plan sold 'long acres', one-acre lots with two-thirds of the land meant for gardens and fruit trees.⁴
• City code Sec. 27-310(f): carports, garages and pool houses must have the same roof color, type (cement tile, shingle, etc.) and style (gable, hip, mansard) as the main house. Keep that in mind if you change roof material on the house but not on a detached structure.⁶
• Sec. 27-291 bars two single-family houses with the same elevation, or the same color package, from sitting side by side or directly across the street.⁷
• For multi-family buildings, the same section requires pitched roofs of metal or slate and does not allow asphalt or cedar shingles. Multi-family buildings that face a single-family district across a street or water must have hip or gable roofs.⁷
• Gulfstream Land and Development bought 5,400 acres in 1970 to build Jacaranda, and the Jacaranda Golf Course and Country Club opened in 1971.⁵

Storms that hit here

• Wilma (2005). The city's own timeline records that Wilma hit Plantation on October 24, 2005, causing significant damage. The Fashion Mall sat vacant from 2007 after Wilma damage and was sold at auction for $37.7 million.⁵
• Irma (2017). The city timeline says Irma caused considerable damage in Plantation in September 2017. The National Hurricane Center's report lists 8.10 inches of rain at a gauge 2 miles southeast of Plantation.^5,8

What this means for a re-roof in Plantation

How old the houses are. The median home in Plantation was built in 1984; 85.6% of its 40,014 homes predate 2000 and 7.5% 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.^3,9,10,11

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).^9,10,11

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.^10,11,12,13

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.^12,14

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.¹⁵