Commercial · Miami-Dade
A commercial roof inspection in Miami-Dade should cover eight areas: drainage, membrane field, seams and laps, base flashings, penetrations, equipment curbs and supports, perimeter edge metal, and interior evidence of water. Each finding gets photographed and located on a roof plan, so the record is comparable year to year.
The checklist
Eight areas, in the order a competent inspection walks them. Drainage first, because water that does not leave the roof causes most of what follows.
01 · Drainage
Are drains clear, are strainers present and intact, are clamping rings tight, are scuppers and overflow paths open? Note any area still holding water well after rain. Ponding is a durability problem, not a cosmetic one: it loads the structure, ages the membrane and turns a small seam defect into a continuous leak.
02 · Field
Blisters, ridging, splits, punctures, abrasion from foot traffic, surfacing loss on a cap sheet, and soiling on a reflective membrane. Photograph and locate each defect rather than describing it generally, so the next inspection can tell whether it has grown.
03 · Seams
Probe seams for openings, fishmouths and lifted edges, particularly at T-joints and end laps. On a welded single-ply system a seam is meant to be a fusion; on a multi-ply system it is bonded plies. Either way, an open lap is the shortest path into the assembly.
04 · Flashings
Every point where the membrane turns up a vertical surface: parapets, walls, curbs and skylight kerbs. Look for termination bars pulling away, failed sealant at counterflashing, cracked or slipping flashing, and any place the flashing height has been compromised by added surfacing.
05 · Penetrations
Boots and collars split by ultraviolet exposure, pitch pans that have shrunk or cracked and no longer shed water, abandoned penetrations left unsealed, and conduit or refrigerant lines run across the roof without proper support.
06 · Equipment
Condensate lines discharging onto the membrane, rusted or unsupported equipment stands, missing access panels, and damage around units where technicians have worked. On occupied buildings this is one of the most common origins of a leak on an otherwise sound roof.
07 · Perimeter
Wind uplift concentrates at edges and corners, and failures characteristically start there and peel inward. Check coping joints, fascia and drip edge for lifting, open joints, corrosion and loose fasteners — and expect salt air to have reached the metal before it reached the membrane.
08 · Interior
Walk the top floor and any accessible plenum or deck underside. Log active leaks, historic staining, corrosion on a steel deck, and damp insulation. Interior evidence often locates a defect faster than the roof surface does, because water enters at one point and appears at another.
The record
A usable inspection ends in a document, not a phone call. At minimum it should contain: dated photographs; a roof plan with each finding numbered and located; a short condition statement for each of the eight areas above; a separation of items into fix now, monitor and plan for; and a note of anything that has changed since the previous inspection. That last line is the one that turns a series of inspections into an asset record rather than a series of opinions.
Where trapped moisture is suspected in the insulation, note it explicitly rather than folding it into a general comment. Whether an assembly is wet is the single fact that decides between restoration and replacement — see repair versus replacement for why. It is also the fact most often assumed rather than established.
Keep the reports. A dated baseline from before a storm is materially better evidence of condition than anything written afterwards, and it is the part building owners most often wish they had. Condition reports follow the same structure.
Timing
A workable cadence for a Miami-Dade commercial building is twice yearly — once ahead of hurricane season with drains cleared, once after it — plus an inspection after any named storm that affects the area, and a check after any contractor has worked on the roof. Buildings with heavy rooftop plant, frequent service visits or a history of leaks warrant more frequent visits.
That is maintenance practice and a reasonable standard of care, not a legal requirement. Inspection, permitting and reporting obligations that apply to a specific building in Miami-Dade are set by the county or municipal building department with jurisdiction over it, and by any statutory program that covers the building type. Confirm those with the building department or a licensed engineer rather than with a contractor's checklist — including this one.
Miami-Dade specifics
Two different things get called a roof inspection in Miami-Dade, and conflating them causes real confusion. The first is the maintenance inspection above: voluntary, arranged by the owner, and aimed at catching defects early. The second is the county's own inspection of permitted roofing work, which is mandatory, scheduled by the permit holder, and performed by the building official.
The county inspection has code-mandated hold points. Florida Building Code
Section 1512.4.3.1 requires an inspection during the application of any
roofing system prior to the full concealment of the adhesion/attachment
process to the roof deck or to the existing roofing assembly
, and
Section 1512.4.3.3 requires that after all roofing work has been
completed, a final inspection shall be performed by the building
official.
In other words, the attachment has to be seen before it is
covered up — which is precisely the part of a roof nobody can verify
afterwards.
Roofing in Miami-Dade is separately permitted; it is not covered under a general building permit. The submittal includes the Uniform Roofing Permit Application required by Section 1525, roof plans and specifications, hurricane-mitigation documentation covering roof-to-wall connections, roof decking attachment and the secondary water barrier, affidavits of compliance or exemption, and the Required Owner's Notification form under Section 1524.
Worth knowing
Miami-Dade publishes its own roofing inspection guidelines. Several items on it are worth knowing before you commission work on a commercial low-slope roof.
Recover work
For a roof recover, Miami-Dade's inspection checklist calls for moisture testing per TAS 126 and uplift testing per TAS 124. That is the 'is the existing assembly wet, and will it hold' question written into the inspection regime — and it is the same question that decides between restoration and replacement.
Perimeter
Edge metal size and type are checked against Roofing Application Standard RAS 111, with fastening at 4 inches on center. Perimeter metal is where wind uplift failures start and peel inward, so this is not a trim detail — it is structural to how the roof survives a storm.
Materials
Base sheet type is verified against the manufacturer's Notice of Acceptance, along with approved fasteners and tin caps or stress plates. Product approvals are publicly searchable, which means an owner can verify that what was installed is what was approved.
Slope
The checklist applies a minimum roof slope of 1/4 inch per 12 inches to new construction under Section 1515.2.2.1, while Existing Building Section 611.1 imposes no slope requirement on existing construction. That is why an existing building that ponds is a maintenance and design problem rather than an automatic code violation.
Drainage
Drainage components are explicitly on the county's list, as are base and counter flashing. It is the same short list that dominates the maintenance checklist above, which is a useful signal about where the risk genuinely sits.
Responsibility
Miami-Dade instructs its inspectors that the permit holder 'is responsible for the job and shall inspect the work and ascertain it meets code requirements before calling for inspection.' A contractor treating the county inspection as their quality control has the relationship backwards.
Sources
Section numbers and quotations reflect the Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023) and Miami-Dade's own published material at the time of writing. Confirm anything you intend to rely on with the building department having jurisdiction.
Questions
Common commercial practice is twice a year — once before hurricane season and once after it — plus an additional inspection after any named storm that affects the area, and after any trade has worked on the roof. Roofs carrying heavy rooftop equipment or frequent service traffic justify more. This is maintenance practice, not a code requirement; requirements that apply to your specific building come from the Miami-Dade County building department or the municipality with jurisdiction.
Drainage first, because standing water drives most of the other problems: drains, strainers, clamping rings, scuppers and overflow paths. Then the membrane field, seams and laps, base flashings at every parapet and curb, penetrations and pitch pans, equipment supports, perimeter edge metal and coping, and finally the interior — ceiling stains, deck underside where accessible, and any reported leaks. Everything is photographed and marked on a roof plan.
At interruptions, not in the open field. Base flashings where the membrane turns up a parapet or curb, seams and laps, drains and scuppers, pitch pans and penetrations, and the supports under rooftop equipment. A recurring cause on occupied buildings is damage from other trades servicing that equipment — the roof was fine until a technician set a ladder or dragged a unit across it.
Because condition is only meaningful as a change over time, and because a dated record made before a storm is very different evidence from a description written after one. Photographs located on a roof plan let you see whether a blister has grown, whether a seam has opened further, and whether last year’s repair held. Without that baseline, every inspection starts from zero.
Yes, in both directions. Miami-Dade and Broward counties make up the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, and the HVHZ roofing provisions sit in Chapter 15 of the Florida Building Code, Building (Sections 1512 through 1525), with their own Roofing Application Standards (RAS) and Testing Application Standards (TAS) rather than the ASTM and UL regime relied on elsewhere. Products must be approved for HVHZ use — typically evidenced by a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, or a Florida Product Approval carrying an HVHZ designation; a Florida Product Approval without it is not sufficient inside these two counties. In practical inspection terms, that puts extra weight on the perimeter and corners, on edge metal and its attachment, and on anything added to the roof since it was installed. What governs a specific repair or replacement is still determined by the authority having jurisdiction, not by a checklist.
No. A roof inspection assesses the roofing assembly and its details. Florida also has separate statutory inspection programs for certain condominium and multifamily buildings, carried out by licensed engineers or architects, which are structural in scope and have their own triggers and deadlines. Whether one applies to your building, and when, should be confirmed with your county building department or your association’s engineer — we do not determine that, and this page deliberately does not state thresholds for it.
Written for commercial low-slope roofs in Miami-Dade, which along with Broward sits in the High Velocity Hurricane Zone. Do not generalise this to other jurisdictions. Related: commercial roofing, flat roofing systems, and the wider resource library.
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