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News Letter
Where is my roofer?
Recent news stories about out of state roofing companies installing the wrong
roofing products, getting paid, and disappearing off the map have prompted us to
dedicate this news letter to help educate consumers on different roofing
products and how to avoid getting scammed by ruthless “contractors” who are not
regulated by the state of Florida.
Florida has one of the toughest
regulatory agencies in the country responsible for regulating professions, the
Florida Department of
Business and Professional Regulation's
Construction Industry Licensing Board, or the dbpr-cilb. All state certified
contractors have to pass a grueling two day examination, as well as show
financial records of their companie before they can activate their licenses.
How does this affect you?
After the recent hurricanes, Governor Bush signed an emergency order allowing
out of state contractors to work in Florida and to be able to obtain permits.
All the “contractor” had to do was to meet the minimum insurance requirements
for the state. That’s it. No certificate of competency, no prior work
experience, no anything else needed to be a contractor.
It was only a matter of time for the problems to start showing up and show up
they did. We now have roofs that don’t meet code, customers with leaks and no
roofer to be found. It is understandable that in an emergency situation people
had to get the first available roofer to fix their roof, however Florida has
unique requirements for our high velocity wind zones that apply to our area
specifically. In short, the standard for roofing in the rest of the country is
inferior to the Florida standard and codes. We build for probable hurricane
strikes.
So why hire a roofer that is not familiar with the Florida codes? In short, you
shouldn’t. In many areas, the building departments accept affidavits from the
contractor stating that the roof meets all applicable codes with no physical
inspection by the building department of the roof in progress. The plywood
sheathing must be re-nailed to code, the roofing paper must be of ASTM #30 grade
and attached per code, and the shingles or tiles must be installed per code and
the manufacturer’s specifications. All of these processes cannot be seen by the
inspector when the roof is complete, so the consumer has to hope that the
contractor did the proper work.
Hire Florida
That’s why hiring a Florida contractor
is so important. If you have a problem with your roof, Florida will aggressively
go after any contractor that commits fraud or deceives customers. However,
Florida has no jurisdiction in any other state, so if there is a problem, the
homeowner could be all alone if they hired an out of state roofer.
On the bright side, some building departments do take the time to inspect all
phases of the roofing process, Wellington being one of them. But in the event of
another hurricane, other cities simply do not have the man power to affectively
police the contractors. For this reason, homeowners and business people should
take the time to make sure their roofer is licensed in Florida. Watch out for
scammers and slick sales people, any licensed contractor will be proud to show
you their license.
SSI Roofing
Dan Downey, owner of SSI roofing,
is a former building inspector (#BN 3904) and a licensed general and roofing
contractor (CCC 057658, CGC 049656).
Please call 561-602-4824 for a free no obligation quote for all your roofing needs
or use our feedback form to request a quote online.
Home owner and condo associations welcome
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DeltaPlus, Inc.