Repair, restore or replace a commercial roof

Start with one question: is the assembly beneath the membrane dry? A localised defect over dry, intact insulation is a repair, almost regardless of the roof’s age. Trapped moisture changes the answer, because coating or patching over a wet assembly seals the water in, and it keeps degrading the insulation and the deck underneath. After that, weigh the condition of the details — flashings, drains, penetrations, edge metal — the remaining service life of the membrane, and whether repairs have started recurring in new locations each season.

Not by looking at the surface. It is established by investigation: test cuts through the assembly to see and feel the insulation, and non-destructive moisture surveys over the roof area. A test cut is a small, patched opening that gives certainty about one location; a survey maps where wet areas are likely across the roof so cuts can be taken where they matter. Any recommendation to restore rather than replace should rest on that evidence, not on an assumption.

Often, yes. A fluid-applied coating or a membrane restoration can extend a roof that still has a sound, dry assembly and functioning drainage — with far less disruption, debris and cost than a tear-off, and without taking an occupied building out of service. The qualifying conditions are strict: dry insulation, a membrane in restorable condition, details that can be reworked, and drainage that actually works. Where those are not met, restoration buys a short delay at full price.

Sometimes. Replacing one clearly defined section — a wing, a roof area of different age, or a portion damaged by a specific event — can be sensible where the sections are genuinely independent and the tie-in between old and new can be detailed properly. The risks are the tie-in itself, which becomes a permanent seam in the roof, and mismatched service lives that produce a second project a few years later. The code angle matters too: the Florida Building Code Existing Building Section 706.1.1 limits repair, replacement or recovering to 25 percent of the total roof area or roof section in any 12-month period unless the whole roof system or section is brought to current code — but Florida Statute 553.844(5) now exempts roofs built, repaired or replaced under the 2007 Florida Building Code or any later edition, for which only the worked-on portion must meet current code. Which side of that line your building falls on depends on its permit history.

Largely not, for roofs built to the 2007 Florida Building Code or later. The rule itself is Florida Building Code Existing Building Section 706.1.1: not more than 25 percent of the total roof area or roof section may be repaired, replaced or recovered in any 12-month period unless the entire roof system or section is brought to current code, with Section 1521.4 as the HVHZ counterpart. Florida Statute 553.844(5), added in 2022, provides that where the existing roofing system or roof section was built, repaired or replaced in compliance with the 2007 Florida Building Code or any subsequent edition, only the repaired, replaced or recovered portion must meet the current code — even when the work exceeds 25 percent. Miami-Dade reproduces the exception with an explicit limit on local authority: a local government may not adopt an administrative or technical amendment to it, HVHZ included. For roofs predating the 2007 code, the original rule still governs, so the permit history of your specific roof decides the answer.

Yes, and it is routinely overlooked. A roof that consistently ponds water will consume a new membrane faster than the same membrane on a roof that drains, so replacing the covering without correcting slope or drainage repeats the original mistake at a new price. If the assessment shows persistent ponding, the honest scope includes tapered insulation, added drains or corrected slope — as part of doing the roof properly rather than as an upsell.

It is nearly always possible to re-roof an occupied commercial building, and most of our commercial work is exactly that. What it requires is planning rather than heroics: staging and material handling, protected entries and parking, agreed hours for noisy or odour-producing work, coordination with rooftop equipment and its service needs, and a sequence where no area is left open at the end of a working day. Those constraints belong in the schedule before work starts.

The building department with jurisdiction over the property, working from the Florida Building Code — and in Miami-Dade and Broward, from the High Velocity Hurricane Zone requirements that apply there. Permitting, inspection and the point at which a repair becomes a replacement in code terms are determined case by case against the actual scope, not from a general article. A licensed contractor will pull the permit and can tell you what they expect, but the authority having jurisdiction is the one that decides.