Roofing in Boca Raton, FL

What is on the roofs in Boca Raton

Boca's roof style starts with Addison Mizner. In 1925 his company began 29 houses in what is now Old Floresta, with uneven, low-pitched roofs of barrel tile made at Mizner Industries, set against flat parapets. The city later wrote that look into its 1988 downtown code, which called for Spanish clay tile roofs or something reminiscent of them. Later came the big planned enclaves, starting with Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, which opened in 1959.^4,5,6

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• Old Floresta and Pearl City are Boca Raton's designated historic districts. Any exterior construction, alteration, repair or maintenance there, including a roof, needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Historic Preservation Board, which meets monthly; applications are due three weeks before the meeting, with material samples and colors.⁷
• The Community Appearance Board reviews exterior alterations to buildings other than single-family homes, so a house re-roof does not go before it. Condo and commercial roofs are a different story.⁸
• Boca's 1988 downtown ordinance called for Mizner-style buildings with Spanish clay tile roofs or something reminiscent of them. In 2023 the city was weighing changes to those rules, so check the current version for downtown and commercial work.⁵
• On a re-roof, complete Florida Product Approval documents for every product must be on site at inspection. A Re-Roofing Mitigation Package, with a sub-permit from a licensed general, residential or building contractor, is required when roof-to-wall connections have to be upgraded. The city also accepts a Miami-Dade NOA, but Boca is not in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone.²
• Mizner's company started 29 houses in Old Floresta but ran out of money before it could finish them all when the 1920s land boom ended.⁴

Storms that hit here

• Wilma (2005). Wilma's eye passed over all of Palm Beach County on October 24, 2005. Boca Raton Airport took nearly $12 million in damage: every structure was hit, two large hangars collapsed, and tenants reported damaged roofs, walls and doors.^9,10

What this means for a re-roof in Boca Raton

How old the houses are. The median home in Boca Raton was built in 1983; 81.4% of its 49,128 homes predate 2000 and 10.5% 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.^3,11,12,13

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).^11,12,13

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.^12,13,14,15

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.^{14,16,17,18,19}

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