Roofing in Sunny Isles Beach, FL

What is on the roofs in Sunny Isles Beach

First, what this city is: since the early 2000s the beach side of Collins Avenue has been rebuilt almost entirely as high-rise condominiums and hotels, and in a condo tower the roof belongs to the association. Most homes here are condo units. Single-family houses are concentrated in Golden Shores, the large low-density residential area on the city's land-use map, at the north end of the city, where the first single-family homes went up in the 1950s. This page is mainly for owners there.⁵

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• The city's Future Land Use map dedicates the entire beachfront to Mixed Use High Density Resort. A large Low Density Residential parcel sits at the north end, in the neighborhood known as Golden Shores.⁵
• Sunny Isles Beach is a barrier island between the Atlantic and the Intracoastal Waterway and Dumfoundling Bay. As general guidance for homes this close to salt water, expect exposed metal flashing, drip edge and fasteners to corrode faster, and ask for corrosion-resistant components on a re-roof.⁵
• The city's Comprehensive Plan requires that structures in the Coastal High Hazard Area and the special flood hazard area that suffer repeated damage above 50 percent of replacement cost be brought up to the current building code, which can include retrofitting, elevating and storm-proofing.⁶
• In the 1950s and 1960s more than 30 motels lined Collins Avenue as Motel Row. Nearly all were demolished starting in the 1990s, and the city, incorporated in 1997, rebuilt the beachfront with towers during the early-2000s boom.⁵

Storms that hit here

• Wilma (2005). Wilma severely damaged the half-mile Sunny Isles Pier in October 2005. It reopened eight years later, in June 2013, as Newport Fishing Pier.⁵

What this means for a re-roof in Sunny Isles Beach

How old the houses are. The median home in Sunny Isles Beach was built in 1983; 68.8% of its 19,666 homes predate 2000 and 10.3% 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.^4,7,8,9

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).^7,8,9

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.^8,9,10,11

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.^10,12

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.¹³