Before you sign anything
Choosing a Miami roofing contractor comes down to four checks: is the license real and current, is the work being permitted and inspected, does the written quote describe the whole assembly rather than just the covering, and does the contractor say what happens when the deck turns out to be damaged. Everything else is presentation.
The four checks
Verify
Ask for the number and look it up yourself with the state licensing authority. Check the license holder's name matches the company on your contract. A license quoted verbally and never written down is not a license.
Permitting
Permitted work gets looked at by someone who is not being paid by the contractor. That independent set of eyes is worth more than any warranty document, and an unpermitted roof follows you to closing.
The quote
Tear-off, deck inspection and re-fastening, underlayment, flashings replaced rather than re-used, covering and its fastening, debris, permit responsibility, payment schedule. One paragraph and one number is not a scope.
Contingency
Nobody knows what is under the covering until it comes off. A serious quote states a unit price for replacing rotten sheathing up front. A weak one stays silent and renegotiates on day two, when you have no leverage and no roof.
Local context
Miami-Dade and Broward make up the High Velocity Hurricane Zone — the strictest roofing regime in Florida. For a homeowner comparing bids, the practical consequence is that a Miami roof is not the same product as the same-looking roof two counties north, and a contractor who mostly works outside the zone is not automatically qualified to work inside it.
In practice, working inside the zone means an HVHZ-approved product is required, typically evidenced by a Notice of Acceptance issued by the Miami-Dade Product Control Section. The detail of what applies to your address — which products, what fastening, the sequence of inspections — is set by the code as adopted and enforced by the building department issuing your permit. That department, not a salesperson and not this page, is the authority. Anyone who quotes you specifics with total confidence and without looking anything up is telling you something about themselves.
What the systems themselves involve is on the Miami roofing services page.
Ask these
There are no trick answers there. The point is that a contractor who does this work properly can answer all six without hesitating, and one who cannot has told you what you needed to know.
If you want a second opinion on a bid you already have rather than another bid, start with an independent look at the roof itself — see roof repair for what that assessment covers, or the full list of roofing services.
Questions
Ask for the license number, then look it up yourself with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which publishes a public license search. Check the name on the license matches the company on the contract — a common trick is a salesperson working under someone else’s license. If a contractor is reluctant to hand over the number, the conversation is over.
Roofing work in Miami-Dade is permitted and inspected work, and the permit is pulled by the contractor under their license. That matters to you for two reasons: an inspector independent of the contractor looks at the work, and an unpermitted roof becomes your problem when you sell or when you claim. Your local building department is the authority on what your specific job requires — ask them, not the salesperson.
The scope layer by layer: what gets torn off, what happens to the deck, how it is re-fastened, which underlayment, which flashings are replaced rather than re-used, the covering system and how it is fastened, permit and inspection responsibility, debris removal, the payment schedule, and — critically — a stated unit price for replacing rotten sheathing. A quote that is one paragraph and one number is not a quote, it is a guess you are being asked to sign.
Usually not any more, and this is the single most out-of-date claim still repeated by salespeople. Section 553.844(5) of the Florida Statutes provides that where the existing roof was built, repaired or replaced in compliance with the 2007 Florida Building Code or any later edition, and twenty-five per cent or more of it is being worked on, only the portion being worked on must be brought to current code. A local government may not amend that exception, the High Velocity Hurricane Zone included. If someone tells you a small repair forces a full replacement, ask them which edition of the code your roof was built to.
It is an inspection recorded on the state’s uniform mitigation verification form, OIR-B1-1802, which insurers use to apply windstorm discounts. Five of its seven sections are about the roof: building code compliance, roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment and roof geometry, plus secondary water resistance. Deck attachment and roof-to-wall are graded on the weakest connection found, not the average. Two things people get wrong: the discounts apply only to the hurricane-wind portion of the premium, and the form itself states they are not calculated cumulatively. The form was revised effective 1 April 2026, so older guidance about it is stale.
Almost always because they are not for the same work. One may include stripping to the deck, re-nailing, new underlayment, new flashing and correcting attic ventilation; the other may mean a new covering over old flashing and whatever is underneath. Compare the layers, not the totals. If the cheap bid is cheap because it skips the parts you cannot see, you will pay the difference later.
Pressure to sign today, a large deposit demanded before any material is ordered, no license number offered, no written scope, an offer to handle your insurance claim for you, a door-knock after a storm, and a price that requires you to decide immediately. None of these are illegal on their own; all of them are reasons to slow down and get a second written bid.
You can, but you are not obliged to, and it is worth understanding whose interest each party is serving before you decide. What your policy permits and requires is a question for your policy and your carrier. What we can do is document the roof’s condition factually so you are arguing from photographs rather than opinions.
Perkins Roofing has worked this coast since 1980 from two Florida offices — Miami and Jupiter. We would rather you check all of the above on us than take it on trust.
Free estimate
Written layer by layer, with the sheathing contingency stated up front.
