Roofing in Lake Worth Beach, FL

What is on the roofs in Lake Worth Beach

Lake Worth Beach was platted in 1912 and incorporated in 1913, and its six historic districts cover most of the east side between Dixie Highway and the Lake Worth Lagoon. The oldest houses are 1910s Frame Vernacular cottages, originally roofed in wood shingle, metal shingle or rolled roofing. Post-1930 Masonry Vernacular homes typically wore hip roofs of flat white concrete tile, occasionally asbestos shingle or white glazed barrel tile, and College Park holds the city's largest group of Mediterranean Revival and Mission Revival houses.⁶

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• The City has six local historic districts: College Park, Northeast Lucerne, Old Lucerne, Old Town, Southeast Lucerne and South Palm Park. A Certificate of Appropriateness is typically required for exterior alterations there, and the City's design guidelines say not to order any products until both the COA and the building permit are issued.^6,7
• For a historic roof, the guidelines say the right replacement is the same material as the original, or the closest match if it is no longer made. Swapping to something that does not match, coating a roof that was never coated, or adding skylights and vents that change the roofline is flagged as not recommended and can send the job to the Historic Resources Preservation Board.⁶
• In 1925 the town re-platted parts of Northeast Lucerne and other sections into 25-foot lots, instead of 50 or 75 feet. That is why many of its houses are small, one-story and packed close together, which can leave little room for staging tile and debris during a re-roof.⁶
• The city's guidelines note that the late-1920s land bust and the hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 nearly stopped construction; Northeast Lucerne has few buildings from 1928 through 1937, and the next building boom came after World War II.⁶

Storms that hit here

• Frances (2004). The C-MAN weather station on the Lake Worth Pier measured an 87 mph peak gust during Frances. Wind damage to house roofs was greatest in Palm Beach County, where the NWS counted inland damage to about 15,000 houses.⁸

What this means for a re-roof in Lake Worth Beach

How old the houses are. The median home in Lake Worth Beach was built in 1969; 87.6% of its 17,949 homes predate 2000 and 4.8% 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.^5,9,10,11

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).^9,10,11

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.^10,11,12,13

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.^{12,14,15,16,17}

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.¹⁸