Roof Leak Detection and Repair in South Florida

A roof leak in Florida rarely gets a dry spell to wait out, and hurricane season alone runs from June 1 to November 30.¹ What matters most is the order you do things in: protect the people and the inside of the house, photograph everything, then find where the water actually gets in. A patch over the wrong spot costs the same as a patch over the right one, and the ceiling keeps getting wet.

If water is coming in right now

Safety first.

• If water is dripping from or near a light fixture, ceiling fan or outlet, stay away from it. Turn that circuit off at the breaker panel only if you can reach the panel without standing in water.
• A ceiling that bulges or sags with water can come down. Keep people and pets out from under it.
• Stay off the roof. Tile cracks underfoot, wet roofs are slick, and a leak can mean the deck under you is soft.

Protect the inside. If you can, take a few quick photos first (see below), but do not let photos delay stopping the water.

• Put a bucket or bin under the drip and towels around it.
• Move furniture, electronics, rugs and papers out of the room, or cover them with plastic sheeting.

Document it for your insurer.

• If it is safe, take wide photos of each wet room and close-ups of every stain, drip and damaged item.
• From the ground, photograph each side of the roof and anything that looks wrong: slipped or broken tiles, lifted shingles, bent edge metal, debris.
• Keep receipts for anything you buy to protect the house, such as buckets, tarps or fans.
• Write down the date you first noticed the water, and if a storm caused it, the storm’s name and date. Under Florida law, a new or reopened property claim must be reported within 1 year of the date of loss, and a supplemental claim within 18 months; for hurricanes and windstorms, the date of loss is the landfall date or the date NOAA verifies the event.²

Why the stain is rarely under the hole

Water that gets past the roof covering follows the underlayment, the roof deck and the rafters downhill until it finds a gap to drip through. On a tile roof, the tile sheds most of the rain, and the underlayment beneath it is what keeps the rest out. A cracked tile on the south slope can show up as a ceiling stain in a room on the other side of a hallway.

That is why leak detection starts inside when there is an attic or ceiling space to look into. We look for the wettest framing and the path the water took, then check the roof directly above and uphill from that point. We photograph what we find at each step, so you can see the same thing we see.

Where Florida roofs usually leak

Most leaks come from a short list of places where the roof covering stops or changes direction:

• Flashing where the roof meets a wall, a parapet, a chimney or a higher roof section.
• Pipe and vent penetrations, where the rubber or lead boot around a plumbing vent cracks with sun and age.
• Valleys, where two slopes meet and the water from both runs through one channel.
• Edge metal and drip edge along eaves and rakes, especially after wind has lifted it.
• Cracked, slipped or missing tile, and underlayment that has aged out beneath it.
• Lifted or missing shingles, often along ridges and edges after a storm.
• Flat and low-slope roofs: open seams, blisters, ponding water, and clogged drains or scuppers.
• Skylights and A/C or equipment stands set into the roof.

How a leak repair works under Florida code

In Miami-Dade and Broward (HVHZ)

Miami-Dade and Broward are the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, and roofing there follows Sections 1512 through 1525 of the Florida Building Code.³ Section 1512.3 requires a permit for all work on the application, repair or maintenance of any roofing component, except what Section 105 allows. Each job uses the HVHZ Uniform Roofing Permit Application, signed by a licensed contractor, with the Owner’s Notification for Roofing Considerations and the product approvals for the materials attached.³⁴ Every roofing component used must carry a current product approval.³

The exceptions are narrow and they are local:

• Broward County amendments say no permit is required for maintenance or repair of a roof covering when the work does not exceed $1,500, as determined by the building official.⁵
• Unincorporated Miami-Dade exempts replacement or repair of a roof covering by a licensed roofing contractor of no more than $2,000 in materials and labor and no more than two roofing squares. Painting a roof needs no permit, but a waterproofing roof coating does.⁶

Miami-Dade’s list applies to unincorporated areas only, so if you live inside a city, ask that city’s building department.⁶ When a repair needs a permit, we pull it.

Replacement metal flashing and drip edge in the HVHZ must meet RAS 111: at least 26-gauge G-90 galvanized or stainless steel, 16-ounce copper or 0.025-inch aluminum.³

Everywhere else in Florida

Outside the HVHZ, Florida law still makes it unlawful to repair a building without a permit unless a law says otherwise.⁷ The statewide permit-exemption list in Section 105.2 of the Florida Building Code has no roofing item. Ordinary minor repairs can be done without a permit only with the building official’s approval.⁸

The 2026 $7,500 exemption

Since July 1, 2026, F.S. 553.79(1)(g) requires any local government that issues building permits to exempt the owner of a single-family dwelling, or the owner’s contractor, from a permit for work valued at less than $7,500. To qualify, you or your contractor must submit a written request to the building department with a copy of the contract or other documents showing the nature and value of the work. It does not apply to a property partly or entirely in a flood hazard area, or to electrical, plumbing, structural, mechanical or gas work, and a project may not be split up to stay under the limit. The local government has no legal duty to you for exempted work.⁷⁹ The law does not mention roofing by name, so ask your building department before treating a roof repair as exempt.

How much of the roof you can repair

The code limits repairs to 25 percent of a roof or roof section in any 12-month period unless the whole roof or section is brought up to current code.¹⁰ If your roof was built, repaired or replaced under the 2007 Florida Building Code or later, only the repaired part must meet today’s code, even at 25 percent or more.¹¹ When a repair gets close to that line, compare it with tile roof repair, shingle roof repair or flat roof repair and with replacement.

Leaks and your insurance

• The separate roof deductible. Florida lets insurers add a roof deductible of up to 2 percent of Coverage A or 50 percent of the roof replacement cost, whichever is less. It cannot apply to hurricane losses, to a tree that punctures the roof deck, to repairs of less than 50 percent of the roof, or to a total loss.¹²
• Your claim stays yours. On residential policies issued on or after January 1, 2023, any assignment of post-loss benefits is void.¹³ A contractor may not interpret your policy or adjust your claim unless licensed as a public adjuster, and may not hand you a repair agreement without an itemized, good-faith estimate.¹⁴
• No deductible games. A contractor may not offer you a rebate, gift, cash or a waiver of your deductible for an inspection or a claim. Each violation can bring a fine of up to $10,000.¹⁴
• Fix leaks before you shop for coverage. Citizens requires a four-point inspection for homes more than 20 years old. It reports the roof’s age, type and condition with photos of each slope, and active leaks should be fixed before you apply.¹⁵

If the leak came with a storm, read emergency and storm damage repair for the claim rules that apply after a hurricane. If you want the whole roof checked, see roof inspection, or send us the details.