Roofing in Port St. Lucie, FL

What is on the roofs in Port St. Lucie

Most of Port St. Lucie is single-family houses on quarter-acre lots platted by General Development Corporation, which owned the city when it incorporated in 1961; the city counts more than 80,000 of those lots. The houses went up slowly and then fast: the city had 330 residents in 1970 and almost 89,000 by 2000. West of I-95, land annexed between 2000 and 2006 became large master-planned developments such as St. Lucie West, Tradition and Verano. So the roof on your street depends on when your lot finally got its house.⁶

Local rules and history that affect your roof

• Port St. Lucie was incorporated in 1961 while General Development Corporation owned it. GDC sold quarter-acre lots on installment plans to buyers across the U.S. and abroad, which is why the city calls itself a 'pre-platted' community, like Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres.⁶
• Between 2000 and 2008 the city annexed about 24,000 acres, mostly west of I-95. That area holds several Developments of Regional Impact, including Tradition, Southern Grove, Riverland/Kennedy and PGA Village (Verano), plus smaller planned communities. If you live there, your association's architectural rules sit on top of the city permit.⁶
• The city's re-roof checklist asks for the product approval and the manufacturer's installation specs. A recorded Notice of Commencement is required for work valued at $5,000 or more, and it must be filed before the first inspection. Replacing existing skylights goes on the same permit at no extra cost.⁷
• After a storm, the city's Post-Storm Recovery Permitting Guide says temporary roof tarping needs no permit, while roof replacements or substantial repairs do, and roof permits get expedited review.⁸
• City code requires roof plans to spell out the roofing system, fasteners, flashing and wind-resistance rating, and product approvals must show compliance with the wind criteria for your specific site. Florida Product Approval governs here; Miami-Dade's HVHZ and NOA rules do not apply.⁹

Storms that hit here

• Frances (2004). Frances landed on southern Hutchinson Island on September 5, 2004, and moved slowly inland. A Texas Tech wind tower in Port St. Lucie recorded sustained winds of about 77 mph with a gust near 96 mph.¹⁰
• Jeanne (2004). Three weeks later, Jeanne's eye crossed the coast just east of Stuart as a Category 3 hurricane. A station in Port St. Lucie measured a pressure of 953.7 mb and a gust of about 85 mph, and hurricane-force winds covered the coast from near Cape Canaveral south to near Stuart.¹¹

What this means for a re-roof in Port St. Lucie

How old the houses are. The median home in Port St. Lucie was built in 2002; 43% of its 90,911 homes predate 2000 and 21.8% were built in 2010 or later. So most houses here were built in 2000 or later, around or after Florida’s first statewide building code took effect on March 1, 2002.^5,12,13,14

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.^13,14,15,16

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.^{15,17,18,19,20}

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.²¹