Compare roofing quotes on what the insurer will and will not see

For years the code allowed a new roof over the old one, and houses from the eighties and nineties around the bay often carry the result. Pulling two layers is close to twice the labor and twice the disposal of pulling one. A quote priced for a single layer on a roof that has two will grow the morning the crew finds the second.

Attic humidity here works on the plywood from underneath for years before anything shows, and nobody sees it until the roof is off. A price per sheet, and the count the estimate assumes, bounds that risk. A quote that says nothing about decking has left it to be settled in the heat with the sky darkening.

The membrane under the shingle is what keeps the three o'clock downpour out while the roof is open and after it is closed. A self-adhered product and a mechanically fastened one are different prices and different roofs. "Underlayment included" does not say which. Ask for the product by name.

Ice is not the concern here; rain driven sideways across the bay is. Whether the deck is fully sealed with a self-adhered membrane, taped at the seams, or left at the code minimum decides what happens the day a shingle tab lets go, and it decides what the insurer's inspection says. Each answer is a different quantity and a different premium.

Where a lanai roof meets the wall or a dormer meets the main slope, re-using the old flashing and sealing it is faster on the day. Under a summer of daily downpours and a sun that bakes the deck, that sealant has a short life, and re-used flashing is the usual reason a roof a few years old is staining a ceiling.

Chimneys are uncommon on this housing, but every roof has penetrations that behave the same way: vent stacks, a satellite mount, solar standoffs. Each is its own flashing detail, separate from the field, and each is routinely absent from a headline number.

A Florida attic runs hot and damp for most of the year, and that is what ages the roof from below. Reinstalling the vents that were there does nothing about it. Adding intake at the soffit and exhaust at the ridge is real work, and the quote should say whether it is doing that or putting back what was found.

The metal at the eave and the starter course under the first row are where wind gets under a roof, and here that is the whole question. Whether the edge metal is rated, how it is fastened, and whether the starter is sealed are cheap lines that decide how long the edge stays down and what the mitigation report says.

Aluminum gutters on a house under live oaks fill every spring and hold wet debris through the rainy season. Whether they come down and go back, get replaced, get guards, or get worked around should be a written line, not an assumption.

Each county and city around the bay issues its own permit, and the inspection includes the fastening pattern and the sealed deck. Whether the contractor pulls the permit, bills it separately, or leaves it to you are three different arrangements, and the permit is what the insurer asks for next.

The manufacturer stands behind the shingle. Somebody has to stand behind the fastening and the membrane, which is where a roof around the bay actually gives out. A shingle warranty with no labor warranty behind it covers the one part that seldom fails.

Two layers of shingle coming down onto a paver driveway beside a pool cage, in the hour before the afternoon rain. Where the container sits, how the screen enclosure is protected, and a magnet sweep of the lawn are small lines that produce most of the complaints afterward.