Tile Roof Repair in South Florida

A tile roof rarely fails all at once. It fails in one valley, one ridge, one slope where a branch landed. The tile you see sheds most of the rain, but the waterproof layer is the underlayment beneath it. So the job on a tile repair is to find out what is happening under the tile, fix it with tile that matches, and know when the damage has crossed the line where the code requires more than a repair.

What goes wrong on tile roofs

These are the five problems to look for, and why each matters.

• Cracked or broken tile. Falling limbs, wind-borne debris and people walking on the roof crack tile. One Florida roofer’s guide lists improper foot traffic, from satellite, gutter or AC work, as a common cause of cracks unrelated to weather.¹ A cracked tile lets sun and water reach the underlayment it was protecting.
• Slipped or loose tile. When a mortar or adhesive bond lets go or a fastener backs out, tiles slide down the slope or rock in place. For comparison, a new mortar- or adhesive-set roof in Miami-Dade or Broward may have no more than two loose tiles per 100 square feet, and never two side by side.²
• Underlayment failing under intact tile. Tile commonly outlasts the underlayment beneath it.¹ A stain under a roof with no broken tile often means this, and it is the reason we lift tiles around a leak instead of only looking from the ground.
• Ridge and hip caps. The caps along the top of the roof and down the hips are set in mortar or fastened. We check them for cracked or missing mortar and loose caps, because an opening there sits right where water runs.
• Flashing at walls, valleys and penetrations. Where tile meets a wall, a chimney or a pipe, or where two slopes meet in a valley, the metal flashing does the waterproofing. The residential code requires flashing and counterflashing where the roof meets a wall.³ In the HVHZ, flashing metal must meet minimums such as 26-gauge G-90 galvanized or stainless steel, 16-ounce copper or 0.025-inch aluminum.²

If water is coming in now, see leak detection and repair or, after a storm, emergency and storm repair.

Matching your tile

This is where tile repairs get hard. The Florida Building Code lets existing or salvaged clay or concrete tile be reused to repair a tile roof, and salvaged tile must be the same kind in both material and profile. Damaged, cracked or broken tile may not be reinstalled.⁴

Profiles and colors get discontinued, and a new tile may not look like one that has spent years in the sun. Older or discontinued profiles sometimes have to be sourced as reclaimed tile, which adds cost and time.¹ When no good match exists, one approach is to take sound tiles from a slope you don’t see from the street, use them for the visible repair, and put the closest new match on the hidden slope. We show you the options, and the tile, before anything goes up.

In Miami-Dade and Broward, repairs must be made with roofing components that have a product approval.² Florida Product Approval governs the rest of the state.⁵

When a repair becomes a re-roof: the 25 percent rule

The Florida Building Code says no more than 25 percent of a roof, or of a roof section, may be repaired, replaced or recovered in any 12-month period unless that whole roof or section is brought up to current code.⁴ That rule is written into the HVHZ roofing chapter too.²

There is an important exception. If your existing roof or roof section was built, repaired or replaced under the 2007 Florida Building Code or later, only the part being repaired has to meet today’s code, even at 25 percent or more.⁶ The 2007 code took effect on March 1, 2009.⁷ So the date on your last roof permit matters. We check it before we quote, and if a repair would cross the line, we tell you before the work starts, not halfway through. That is when the tile roof replacement page applies.

Permits for tile repairs

• Miami-Dade and Broward. The code requires a permit for roof repair and maintenance work, except where its Section 105 allows, filed on the HVHZ Uniform Roofing Permit Application with the product approvals.² Broward exempts maintenance or repair of a roof covering up to $1,500, as the building official determines.⁸ In unincorporated Miami-Dade, a licensed roofing contractor can repair or replace roof covering without a permit only if the job is no more than $2,000 in materials and labor and no more than two roofing squares (200 sq ft); painting a roof is exempt; maintenance coatings and gutter work are exempt only while all such work stays at or under $5,000 in 12 months.⁹
• Everywhere else. Florida law requires a permit to repair a building unless a law says otherwise, and “ordinary minor repairs” skip it only with the building official’s approval.¹⁰¹¹
• The $7,500 exemption. Since July 1, 2026, single-family owners can ask to skip a permit on work under $7,500. The law does not name roofing and excludes structural work and flood-zone properties, so confirm with your building department first.¹⁰

Where a permit is needed, we pull it and schedule the inspection.

What a tile repair involves

1. Inspection from the roof and the attic, tracing stains back to where water enters, which is often uphill from the stain.
2. Lifting tiles around the problem to see the underlayment and deck.
3. Repairing underneath: new underlayment and flashing where needed, and replacing rotted decking.
4. Resetting tile with the same attachment method the roof uses (mortar, adhesive or fasteners), and re-bedding ridge and hip caps.

Our workmanship carries a 10-year warranty.

Cost

Repair prices depend on access, tile availability and what is under the tile, so we price after we look. For reference, national guides put underlayment replacement under existing tile at $0.75 to $4.00 per square foot (HomeGuide, 2023),¹² and rotten decking found under a roof at about $250 for a minor fix and $2,000 or more for major repairs.¹³ See the tile roof cost guide.

Insurance and storm claims

• Roof deductible. Insurers may add a separate roof deductible, but it cannot apply to hurricane losses, a tree that punctures the deck, or repairs of less than 50 percent of the roof.¹⁴
• Roof age. Repairs don’t reset your roof’s age for insurance. Age runs from the last time 100 percent of the roof was replaced, or from the first of several partial replacements that together covered the whole roof.¹⁵
• Deadlines. A new claim must be reported within 1 year of the date of loss.¹⁶
• Citizens forms. A roofing contractor can sign Citizens’ roof inspection form and the roof section of its 4-point form, and Citizens asks that active leaks be fixed before you apply.¹⁷¹⁸¹⁹ The wind mitigation form is different: a roofer is not among the signers insurers must accept.²⁰
• Contracts. A roofer may not waive your deductible or offer rebates for a claim, and every roof repair contract must say to call your insurer before signing if a claim is involved.²¹

Request an inspection and we will tell you which of these applies to your roof.