Tile Roof Replacement in South Florida

If your house has a clay or concrete tile roof, the part that keeps water out is not the tile. It is the underlayment under it. The tile shields that layer from sun and wind, and in a hurricane each tile has to stay put. How it stays put is set by lab tests and field tests written into the Florida Building Code. This page explains what a code-compliant tile re-roof involves, where Miami-Dade and Broward differ from the rest of the state, and what tile costs and lasts.

Replace or repair?

Tile often outlives what sits beneath it. One Florida roofer’s 2026 cost guide says concrete tile commonly outlasts its underlayment by one or even two cycles.¹ So a few cracked tiles don’t mean you need a new roof. These do push toward replacement:

• Leaks in several places, or leaks that return after repairs. With intact tile on top, that points below the tile.
• The 25 percent rule. No more than 25 percent of a roof or roof section may be repaired, replaced or recovered in any 12 months unless that whole roof or section is brought up to current code.² If your roof was built or replaced under the 2007 Florida Building Code or later, only the part being worked on must meet today’s code.³ The 2007 edition took effect March 1, 2009.⁴
• Insurance. Once a roof is 15 years old, your insurer must let you get an inspection before requiring a new roof. If it shows at least 5 more years of life, the insurer can’t refuse you for roof age alone.⁵ Citizens requires owners of tile, clay or concrete roofs older than 50 years to document at least 5 years of remaining life, or show a full replacement.⁶

If a repair is the right call, see tile roof repair.

How a tile re-roof works in Miami-Dade and Broward (HVHZ)

Both counties are the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. Roofing there follows Florida Building Code Sections 1512 to 1525 and their RAS and TAS standards.⁷ The design wind speed is fixed: 175 mph in Miami-Dade, 170 mph in Broward.⁸

1. Permit. Every re-roof needs the HVHZ Uniform Roofing Permit Application, signed by a licensed contractor, with the product approvals attached.⁷ A tile roof fills in Section D, the steep-sloped roof system, plus Section E, the tile calculations.⁹⁷ The contractor must also walk you through the Owner’s Notification for Roofing Considerations, which you initial. It warns that the deck may need renailing once the old roof is off.⁷ We pull the permit and schedule the inspections.
2. Tear-off. Tile can’t be covered over. The code requires removal to the deck when the existing covering is clay or concrete tile, and in the HVHZ no tile may go over an existing roof.²⁷ Water-soaked or deteriorated sheathing is removed and replaced, and tile goes only over a solid sheathed deck.⁷
3. Underlayment and tin caps. Nails into the wood deck must be 12-gauge, ring-shank and corrosion-resistant, driven through tin caps 1-5/8 to 2 inches across or approved cap nails.⁷ Tile underlayments are tested under TAS 103 and TAS 104, and Miami-Dade’s roofing section says any tile underlayment other than 30/90 needs its own NOA.¹⁰
4. Tile set to a calculated attachment. Tile is installed under RAS 118, 119 or 120; RAS 120 covers mortar- and adhesive-set tile. The fasteners or adhesive each tile needs are calculated with RAS 127 from the uplift values in the tile’s approval. Those values come from lab tests: TAS 101 for mortar or adhesive, TAS 102 for mechanically fastened tile.⁷ Steep roofs get more: above a 7:12 slope, every mortar- or adhesive-set tile also gets at least one fastener. Headlap is at least 2 inches for mortar or adhesive tile and 3 inches for fastened tile.⁷
5. Inspections. Miami-Dade County’s building department schedules them as 059 (Tin Cap / Dry In), 010 (Tile Placing) and 001 (Final).¹¹ Mortar- or adhesive-set tile also needs a TAS 106 field static uplift test before the final, with results sent to the building official. The code allows no more than two loose tiles per 100 square feet, never side by side.⁷

Every component needs a current product approval, and where the manufacturer’s instructions conflict with it, the approval wins.⁷ You can look up any NOA on Miami-Dade’s Product Control Search under Roofing, Roofing Tiles.¹²

Outside Miami-Dade and Broward

Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Collier, Lee and the Central Florida counties are not HVHZ, and no NOA is required unless a local government there has adopted the HVHZ provisions.⁷ Tile goes over solid sheathing, and its slope, underlayment, fasteners and flashing follow the FRSA/TRI Florida High Wind Concrete and Clay Roof Tile Installation Manual, Seventh Edition.¹³ Products need Florida Product Approval, searchable by FL number at floridabuilding.org.¹⁴ Your design wind speed comes from the code’s wind map for your address, not one countywide number.⁸

Older homes: what a re-roof adds, statewide

If your wood-decked house was permitted before the Florida Building Code took effect on March 1, 2002,⁴ the re-roof triggers upgrades:²

• Deck renailing. Board decking needs two 8d nails into every rafter or truss it crosses. Plywood held with staples, 6d nails, or 8d nails more than 6 inches apart gets ring-shank nails at 6 inches or closer.
• Secondary water barrier. Required on these re-roofs, but tile installed as the code requires is deemed to comply.
• Roof-to-wall connections. In the wind-borne debris region, a home insured for $300,000 or more must also get stronger roof-to-wall connections, capped at 15 percent of the re-roof cost. If the gable ends or all corners can’t be done within that 15 percent, no retrofit is required.³ That region is anywhere the design wind speed is 140 mph or more, or 130 mph or more within 1 mile of the coast. It covers all of Miami-Dade and Broward and reaches well beyond them.¹⁵⁸

Florida law puts this work inside a roofing contractor’s scope when it is done with the re-roof.¹⁶

Clay or concrete, and reusing your tile

Clay costs more than concrete.¹⁷ Published lifespans vary by source: 40 to 60 years for both in Florida (This Old House),¹⁸ 50 to 100 years for both in Florida (HomeAdvisor),¹⁹ 40 to 50 years for concrete in South Florida (FoxHaven Roofing),²⁰ and 50 to 100 years for clay nationally (HomeGuide, 2023).²¹

Lifting the tile, replacing the underlayment and relaying the same tile is a common way to re-roof.¹ The code’s reuse rule, written for repairs, requires salvaged tile of the same material and profile and bars cracked or broken tile.² Expect some breakage: one Florida guide calls 5 to 15 percent normal, and discontinued profiles can mean hunting for reclaimed tile.¹ In Miami-Dade and Broward every roofing component, reused tile included, needs a valid and current product approval.⁷ Going from shingle to heavier tile can require structural reinforcement.²²

What it costs

HomeAdvisor puts a 2,000-square-foot Florida roof at $20,000 to $30,000 in concrete tile and $22,000 to $32,000 in clay.¹⁹ Tile permits also cost more: in unincorporated Miami-Dade, $0.140 per square foot for tile against $0.11 for shingle.²³ Our own price comes after we measure. See the tile roof cost guide.

Insurance and your contract

• Roof age resets on the last date 100 percent of the roof was replaced.⁵
• Wind mitigation. Form OIR-B1-1802 records the roof covering and its product approval, deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment and secondary water resistance, so an older form won’t reflect your new roof.²⁴ Insurers must accept it from the signers in F.S. 627.711(2); a roofing contractor is not one of them.²⁵
• Grants. My Safe Florida Home can fund deck attachment, roof-to-wall and secondary water resistance on eligible pre-2008 homes whose owners have low or moderate income, when the program’s own inspection recommends them. Applications open in phases, and approval must come before work starts.²⁶
• Contract rules. A roofer may not waive your deductible or offer rebates for a claim. If you sign within 180 days of a declared emergency, you can cancel within 10 days of signing or before the official start date, whichever comes first.²⁷

Our installation carries a 10-year workmanship warranty; manufacturer warranty terms vary by product. Request an inspection and we will tell you whether your roof needs repair, lift-and-relay or new tile.