Roofing in Orange County, FL

What is on the roofs in Orange County

Orange County's big growth came after Walt Disney World opened in October 1971. The freezes of 1983, 1985 and 1989 destroyed most of the remaining citrus groves. The older suburbs sit north of downtown Orlando (Winter Park, Maitland, Baldwin Park). Growth also spread southwest, south and east, into Horizon West, Dr. Phillips, Hunter's Creek, Lake Nona and Avalon Park.⁶

Rules, history and conditions that affect roofs here

• Inside Orlando city limits, the City of Orlando Permitting Services Division issues re-roof permits, not the county. You submit a residential re-roofing form online and the city replies within three business days. Since Jan. 1, 2020, every re-roof needs a dry-in/in-progress inspection (code 125) plus an affidavit on deck nailing and the secondary water barrier. Skip the dry-in and the inspector can make the roofer strip part or all of the new covering.⁷
• Orlando has six historic preservation overlay districts. The Historic Preservation Board reviews all changes to structures in them and issues Certificates of Appropriateness. Check the city's GIS map before you choose a new roof material for a house in one of these districts.⁸
• Winter Park and Apopka run their own building departments. Winter Park Building & Permitting Services requires a permit for re-roofing and exempts only minor roof repairs of one square (100 sq ft) or less. Apopka's Building Division takes applications through its OpenGov permit portal.^9,10
• In unincorporated Orange County, roof permits go through Fast Track. The application asks for building class, re-roof versus repair, roof square footage, number of stories and material (shingle, torch-down, shake, tile). If the job is worth more than $5,000, you also need a recorded Notice of Commencement.¹
• The Florida Building Code defines the wind-borne debris region as land within 1 mile of the coastal mean high-water line where the design wind speed is 130 mph or more, plus anywhere the speed is 140 mph or more. Inside it, Section 1609.1.2 of the code requires glazed openings, such as windows and glass doors, to be impact-resistant or covered by an approved impact-resistant protection. Orange County has no coastline, so only the 140 mph test can apply, and it reaches just the strip east of the 140 mph line. Most Orange lots fall outside the region, and a lake does not count as coast. Ask the building official before you price shutters or impact glass.^3,11,12
• The Florida Geological Survey's public subsidence-incident database lists reports from Orange County. Most of these reports statewide were never verified as true sinkholes, so treat a crack or sagging roofline as something to have a geologist or engineer check, not a diagnosis.¹³

Storms that shaped these roofs

• Charley (2004). Charley's center passed near Kissimmee and Orlando late on Aug. 13, 2004, still a hurricane. Orlando International Airport measured sustained winds of 79 mph with a 105-mph gust. In Orange County a girl was killed when the wind blew a moving van into the vehicle she was in.¹⁴
• Irma (2017). Irma's center passed between Tampa and Orlando early on Sept. 11, 2017, as a Category 1 hurricane. Its heavy rain flooded homes in Orange County, and some residents had to be rescued.¹⁵
• Ian (2022). Ian's 10 to 20 inches of rain caused major flooding along the Little Wekiva River and Shingle Creek. The NHC report includes a photo of rescue workers in Orlando on Sept. 29.¹⁶
• Milton (2024). Milton crossed the peninsula on Oct. 9–10, 2024. Orlando International Airport recorded an 87-mph gust, and a weather observer near Orlando measured 14.83 inches of rain.¹⁷

Klear Sky Roofing is based in Miami-Dade and takes roofing work in Orange County. We add a city page once we have done work there and have local photos to show. Call to check scheduling for your address.

What this means for a re-roof in Orange County

How old the houses are. The median home in Orange County was built in 1994; 60% of its 586,805 homes predate 2000 and 19.3% 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.^5,18,19,20

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).^18,19,20

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.^19,20,21,22

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.^{11,21,23,24,25}

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.²⁶