What a Miami-Dade roofing permit actually involves

Every full roof replacement in Miami-Dade County needs a permit, and so do many repairs. Homeowners mostly experience this as a line item and a delay. Knowing what the permit actually covers makes it easier to tell a careful contractor from a careless one, and it explains why a re-roof here takes longer than the crew’s three days on the roof.

Who issues it

If the house is in unincorporated Miami-Dade, the county’s Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources issues the permit. If it is inside a city (Miami, Hialeah, Coral Gables, Homestead, Doral, Miami Gardens, Cutler Bay and the rest), that city’s building department does. The contractor applies; you sign as the owner. Applications are online almost everywhere now.

The owner’s notification form

Miami-Dade requires the owner to sign a “Required Owner’s Notification for Roofing Considerations” as part of a re-roof permit. It is a one-page acknowledgment that you have been told about several choices the code gives you: whether to install a secondary water barrier, how the roof deck is attached, whether to add or improve attic ventilation, and how the new roof will look and drain. Read it. It is the one point in the process where the code asks the homeowner, not the contractor, to make decisions.

Products with an NOA

Miami-Dade and Broward are Florida’s High Velocity Hurricane Zone. Roofing products used here must carry an approval for the High Velocity Hurricane Zone: usually a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, an approval number showing the product passed the county’s wind uplift and impact testing, or a Florida Product Approval that is marked for HVHZ use. Tile, shingle, metal panels, underlayment, fasteners, and adhesives each have one. The permit application lists them, and the inspector checks them on the roof. A quote that names the products and their NOA numbers is a good sign; one that says “30-year shingle” and nothing else is not.

What the code requires of the roof itself

A Miami-Dade re-roof is designed for winds well above 170 mph. The pieces that follow from that:

• Tear-off to the deck and replacement of rotted or delaminated decking.
• Re-nailing the deck to the current pattern, with ring-shank nails.
• A sealed roof deck or a secondary water barrier over the deck, so the house stays dry if the covering is lost in a storm.
• HVHZ-rated underlayment, then the covering, fastened or adhered to the pattern in its NOA.
• Metal edges, valleys, and flashings sized and attached to code.

Inspections

A roofing permit here is not one inspection at the end. There is typically an in-progress inspection after tear-off and deck nailing, before the underlayment covers it; sometimes a separate one for the underlayment or the tile-in-progress on tile roofs; and a final inspection when the covering is complete. The contractor schedules them and has to be there. Weather and inspector availability are why a re-roof can sit partly finished for a few days.

The closed permit

When the final inspection passes, the permit is closed. Keep a copy. It is what a buyer’s inspector, an insurer, and a wind mitigation inspector will ask for, and it is the record that puts the roof on the right side of the 25% rule for future repairs. An open permit on a finished roof is a problem at resale; if a contractor disappears before the final, the county can tell you what it takes to close it.

What to watch for

• A contractor who suggests skipping the permit, or who wants you to pull it as an owner-builder for a job they are doing. Both leave you holding the liability.
• Quotes with no NOA numbers or product names.
• A roof that is finished before any inspection has happened.

If you want a roofer who does this routinely, call.

Related pages

• Roof replacement in Miami-Dade
• Roof leak repair
• Service areas