Roofing in Cutler Bay, FL

What is on the roofs in Cutler Bay

Most of Cutler Bay is postwar subdivisions. David Blumberg platted Cutler Ridge Section One in 1954 and added sections through 1958; Bel Aire grew by 23 sections between 1957 and 1978; Saga Bay was platted in 1972; Lennar started Lakes by the Bay in 1983. Andrew's worst damage in 1992 ran from Kendall south through Homestead, which takes in all of these neighborhoods, so many of these houses carry roofs from the rebuild or later.^7,8

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• Residents voted to incorporate in January 2005, approved the Town Charter on November 8, 2005, and Cutler Bay became a municipality the next day, then the youngest in Florida.⁷
• After Andrew, forensic engineers studied seven South Dade subdivisions for the Miami-Dade Building Department, including Lakes by the Bay and Saga Bay. Their findings on code violations and construction defects became a basis for revising the South Florida Building Code.⁹
• The Town's re-roof checklist asks for the permit application, two copies of the contractor's roofing package and two of the NOA, plus an up-front review fee. Owner-builder re-roof permits are allowed only for shingle and peel-and-stick roofs.³
• If an old roofing permit on your house was never closed, the Town has a Roofing Inspector Report form: an independent inspector with no ties to you or the original roofer certifies the roof's condition and lists any deficiencies to correct.¹⁰
• Cutler Bay sits on low ground beside Biscayne Bay, and the Town lists storm surge, flash flooding and canal overflow as its flood sources. It applies a 44% rule: if a building is damaged or improved by more than 44% of its market value, it must meet current floodplain requirements, which matters after a major storm repair.¹¹
• The Cutler Ridge, an old limestone formation, runs through Town at about 14 feet above sea level. Hurricane plans treat land east of the ridge as exposed to storm surge, while land west of it is generally protected.¹²

Storms that hit here

• Andrew (1992). On August 24, 1992, Andrew's impact was extreme from Kendall south through Homestead, and the National Hurricane Center's damage photos include Lakes by the Bay. Photos in that set also show Naranja Lakes and Homestead.⁸
• Katrina (2005). Less than three months before incorporation, Katrina crossed Miami-Dade as a Category 1 and soaked the south end of the county: a South Florida Water Management District gauge at Cutler Ridge recorded 11.13 inches of rain.¹³

What this means for a re-roof in Cutler Bay

How old the houses are. The median home in Cutler Bay was built in 1984; 66.8% of its 15,074 homes predate 2000 and 7.3% 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.^6,14,15,16

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).^14,15,16

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.^15,16,17,18

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.^17,19

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.²⁰