Roofing in Marco Island, FL

What is on the roofs in Marco Island

Most of Marco Island was built after the Mackle brothers' Deltona Corporation bought much of the island for $7 million in the 1960s and turned it into a retirement and tourist destination; the S.S. Jolley Bridge opened in 1969. The island reincorporated as a city in 1997. It is a barrier island where nearly half the city's area is water, so homes face salt air and surge as well as wind.⁶

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• Marco Island tracks the 50% rule cumulatively: the value of work on a non-compliant structure in a flood zone is kept on record for five years, measured against market value from a private appraisal or the Collier County Property Appraiser. A roof job counts toward that total.^7,8
• The city lists re-roofs as over-the-counter permits, and owner-builders on a one- or two-family home must still hire a licensed roofing subcontractor for the roof.²
• After Ian, the city posted a notice (October 26, 2022) on waived building permit fees for Hurricane Ian damage repairs.⁹
• Marco Island is at the coastal end of Collier County's design wind range, next to the 170-mph line on the 8th-edition Risk Category II map. The county range runs from 150 mph inland to 170 mph.^3,4

Storms that hit here

• Irma (2017). Irma made its final landfall near Marco Island on September 10, 2017, as a Category 3. A spotter on the island measured 112-mph sustained winds and a 129-mph gust, and Marco Island police recorded a 130-mph gust; there was heavy tree and power-pole damage across the island.¹⁰
• Wilma (2005). Wilma came ashore at Cape Romano, just past the island's southern tip, on October 24, 2005, and a 135-mph gust was recorded on Marco Island.¹¹
• Ian (2022). Ian's surge reached 4 to 6 ft above ground from Marco Island to Everglades City on September 28, 2022, with a high-water mark of 4.7 ft above ground surveyed on Marco.¹²

What this means for a re-roof in Marco Island

How old the houses are. The median home in Marco Island was built in 1987; 82.4% of its 18,500 homes predate 2000 and 5.7% 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.^5,13,14,15

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).^13,14,15

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.^14,15,16,17

Product approval. This area is outside the HVHZ, so roofing products need Florida Product Approval (an FL number you can look up at floridabuilding.org); a Miami-Dade NOA is not required.^{16,18,19,20,21}

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.²²