Roofing in Kendall, FL

What is on the roofs in Kendall

Kendall was built from east to west. In the 1950s the name spread to new subdivisions near what is now Pinecrest, Dadeland Mall opened in 1962, and in the 1970s, '80s and '90s growth shifted west, carrying the Kendall name with it. Many older houses here went through Hurricane Andrew, and a 1992 engineering survey of South Florida relayed to the National Hurricane Center found that wind had no trouble stripping concrete tiles glued to felt paper and shingles stapled the wrong way. When a single-family roof is replaced today, the county's hurricane-mitigation retrofit forms, issued under Florida statute, cover roof-deck attachment and a secondary water barrier, and roof-to-wall connections unless the owner qualifies for the posted exemption.^1,6,7,8

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• U.S. 1 is Kendall's eastern edge, and the Village of Pinecrest is on the other side. Pinecrest was counted inside the Kendall CDP until it incorporated in 1996, so older records can put Pinecrest homes "in Kendall." Before a contractor files anything, confirm which side of U.S. 1 your house is on: Kendall addresses are permitted by Miami-Dade County, while Pinecrest is a separate municipality with its own government.^2,6
• Much of what is now Kendall was bought from the State of Florida in 1883 by the Florida Land and Mortgage Company and named for Henry John Broughton Kendall, a company director who later came to manage its land. The land was not open to homesteading and development was slow; before the 1950s the area was mostly pine rockland mixed with fields and groves.^6,9
• Kendall marks the northern edge of the band where the National Hurricane Center rated Andrew's impact extreme, from the Kendall district south through Homestead and Florida City. Inside that band sits Devonaire, around SW 112th Street and 112th Avenue, which police singled out in 1992 as one of four especially hard-hit areas of South Dade.^10,11,12

Storms that hit here

• Andrew (1992). In the Miami Herald's first report after the storm, police named Devonaire, around SW 112th Street and 112th Avenue inside today's Kendall CDP, one of four especially hard-hit areas in South Dade. The same report described Kendall pool covers ripped up, nearly every tree stripped bare and shingles torn off roofs.^10,11,12

What this means for a re-roof in Kendall

How old the houses are. The median home in Kendall was built in 1978; 90.7% of its 32,492 homes predate 2000 and 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.^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. 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.^16,18

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.¹⁹