Roof Repair in St. Augustine, FL

The wind has been out of the northeast since Thursday, the rain never quite stopped, and this morning there is a drip landing on the third stair. Nothing looks wrong from the driveway. This site connects you by phone with an independent local roofing contractor who repairs roofs in St. Johns County.

The leak starts uphill of the stain

The crew begins under the ceiling stain rather than up on the shingles. A stain tells them where water arrived, and on a shingle roof the entry point is often several feet uphill of that and around a hip. They look in the attic for a wet line on the decking, then go up and check the slopes that faced the wind.

Five problems account for most St. Johns County repair calls. Shingle tabs whose seal strip let go, lifted by a nor'easter on the north or east slope. A pipe boot or vent seal split by sun. Flashing at a wall or chimney that pulled away, common on the older frame houses downtown. A fastener line on a metal roof where the gaskets dried out or the screws backed out in salt air. And a valley where two slopes meet and every gallon of a three-day rain runs over one seam.

A bucket, a screwdriver, and a photo from the driveway

Set a bucket where the water is landing and pull the rugs and furniture clear of it. If the ceiling is sagging, poke a small hole at the low point with a screwdriver to let the water out before the drywall comes down on its own. Photograph the stained ceiling, then step into the driveway and photograph the roof. Do not get on the roof. A wet shingle roof is slick, and a wet metal roof is worse.

Write down when the drip started and whether it only shows up with wind from one direction. That detail tells the crew which slope to walk first.

One lifted course or a roof at the end: what a repair fixes

Most leaks on a shingle roof under 15 years old are a single-spot repair: reseal or replace a few courses, replace a boot, reset a flashing. Metal roofs on the island usually leak at a screw line or a penetration, and the repair is new fasteners with fresh gaskets or a sealed boot. Tile on the Mediterranean-style homes around Davis Shores and the Shores is lifted at the leak and reset over new underlayment.

What is not saved is a shingle roof where the seal has failed across whole slopes. When the crew finds lifted tabs on three sides of a 2003 roof in World Golf Village, patching one slope buys a season, and the conversation moves to a roof replacement. When the damage came from a named storm, start with the storm damage page, which puts tarping and documentation ahead of repair.

The 25 percent rule, the review board, and the committee letter

Fixing a small area of the roof does not normally trigger a requirement to bring the entire roof up to today's code. Florida ended the old 25 percent rule in May 2022 for roofs built to the 2007 code or later, so a partial repair on a roof permitted since March 2009 stays a partial repair. For roofs that predate that, the answer depends on the roof, and the contractor will say where yours falls.

Inside the City of St. Augustine's historic preservation districts, an in-kind repair that matches what is there is usually the simplest path, but a change of material on a visible slope goes to the review board first. The historic district roofing page covers that. In Palencia, Nocatee, and the gated neighborhoods of World Golf Village, a visible shingle patch in a different color can draw a letter from the architectural committee, so contractors who work those communities match the product before they climb.

Island and Vilano roofs: a leak found after a nor'easter has often been running since the last one. A spring look at the roof, covered on the roof inspection page, is cheaper than a wet ceiling in November.

When you call about a drip after three days of wind

Be ready with the address, whether the roof is shingle, metal, or tile, its approximate install year, and where the water appears and under what wind. Say whether the house is inside the city, on the island, or in a community with an architectural committee. Call (904) 895-7548.