Roofing in North Miami Beach, FL

What is on the roofs in North Miami Beach

North Miami Beach was platted as Fulford-by-the-Sea, with lots selling from 1922, but the 1926 hurricane stopped the boom and the city says it did not flourish again until after World War II. The real build-out came in the 1950s, after State Road 826 (North Miami Beach Boulevard) opened in 1951 and housing development took off. The city's 2023 roof packet sets separate paperwork for low-slope, asphalt shingle, concrete or clay tile, metal and wood roofs, so what you file depends on which roof your house has.^6,7

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• Every roofing application in the city must include a Rooftop Equipment Affidavit. If a new curb or stand is proposed for an A/C unit or other rooftop equipment, it needs two sets of engineer-sealed plans, and the Planning Division may require screening around it.⁷
• When a re-roof goes down to the plywood, the city's sheathing affidavit quotes Florida Building Code section 2322.2.8, and the contractor certifies the deck was re-nailed to it: 8d ring-shank nails at 6 inches on center at panel edges and intermediate supports, with 10d nails at 4 inches over gable ends and sub-fascia where applicable.⁷
• Flat roofs have an extra step: a Certificate of Compliance roofing affidavit, required before final inspection, in which the contractor swears that the parts of the roof the inspector could not see were built to the approved plans and product approval.⁷
• The owner notification in the city's packet warns that removing an old roof can reveal ponding, which may need a structural engineer's review, and that overflow scuppers may have to be added where parapets block drainage.⁷
• In 1917 developer Lafe Allen planned Fulford-by-the-Sea as a 'perfect city' with 80-foot residential streets; NE 172nd Street (the old Fulford Boulevard) and NE 19th Avenue still follow that plan.⁶

Storms that hit here

• Great Miami Hurricane (1926). The area was still unincorporated and took devastating damage: the wooden Fulford-Miami Speedway and the WGBU radio station were blown down. Residents incorporated as the City of Fulford in 1927 to get relief, and the city was renamed North Miami Beach in 1931.⁶

What this means for a re-roof in North Miami Beach

How old the houses are. The median home in North Miami Beach was built in 1967; 88.5% of its 17,533 homes predate 2000 and 8.3% 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.^5,8,9,10

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).^8,9,10

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.^9,10,11,12

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.^11,13

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.¹⁴