Repair and replacement are different jobs

A repair fixes a defined defect. The leak is at a penetration, a valley, a flashing against a wall, or a damaged area of covering, and the work addresses that defect. A replacement takes the old covering off, looks at the deck, replaces sheathing that will not hold the new roof, and installs a new underlayment, new flashing, and a new covering. Those are not two sizes of the same sale. They have different permits in ordinary practice, different debris, and different things an inspector can see. Calling a patch a replacement, or a full tear-off a repair, is how owners and insurers and building departments end up reading three different jobs.

You cannot make the choice honestly from the curb every time, and you cannot make it from a photograph of someone else’s roof. Age, soft decking, prior layers, and ventilation show up when someone is on the roof and, for a replacement, when the covering is off. A contractor who promises the path before that look is guessing. This page will not guess for you. Roof repair and roof replacement describe the two services. The roofing hub adds shingles, metal, and commercial roofs as assemblies. Read those for the work. Stay here for the distinction and the code geography.

Coatings and a shiny surface are not a new roof. A new roof is an assembly: deck, underlayment, flashing, covering, and the ventilation the design uses. If nothing comes off, you are not in the replacement paragraph.

What each path has to include

A repair scope names the defect and the limit of the work, including what happens if the deck under that spot is rotten. Matching nearby shingles is often impossible after years of sun, and the patch may show. The Florida Building Code limits how far piecemeal work can go before the broader roof has to meet the current code. This page will not invent the percentage. The building department applies that rule. Ask them before you commission a long series of patches.

A replacement scope names the tear-off, the deck repair allowance or the way damaged wood will be handled, the underlayment method, the flashing at walls, chimneys, and penetrations, the covering, the drip edge, and the attic ventilation if the attic is vented. It names whether the work is a house roof or a commercial roof. Low-slope membranes, drains, and equipment curbs are not house details copied onto a bigger building. A roofing project file, if one were published, would have to say those things about a real address. This guide says them so you know what to look for in a proposal. It does not publish the address.

Permits belong in the same conversation. A replacement is permit work. Many repairs are too, depending on the office and the extent. The building permits guide explains which counter has the parcel. It does not list a fee, and this page will not invent one either. Do not start a tear-off because the shingles arrived. The dry-in of a house that is occupied is a weather plan, not a hope that the afternoon stays clear.

Marion County is not the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone

The High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, the HVHZ, is a defined piece of the Florida Building Code. It covers Miami-Dade County and Broward County. It does not cover Marion County. It does not cover Ocala, Belleview, Dunnellon, or the unincorporated communities. Roof underlayment rules, product tests, and fastening details written only for the HVHZ are not automatically the rules for a house here. A Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance is a product listing aimed at that zone. It is not the design wind speed for an inland lot, and it is not a trophy that replaces the local permit set.

That fact is easy to misuse in both directions. One misuse is to copy a coastal HVHZ assembly as if an Ocala inspector were enforcing Miami-Dade chapter and verse. The other is to hear ‘not HVHZ’ and conclude that wind design does not apply. Wind design still follows the Florida Building Code for the site: wind speed, exposure, risk category, and the roof pressures that come from them. Those numbers live in the permit calculations. This page will not invent a miles-per-hour figure. Inland is not the same as optional.

Opening protection is a separate question. Some Florida sites must protect glazed openings because they fall in a wind-borne debris region. Whether a given parcel in this county is in that region is a determination for that permit, based on the code maps. Do not let a roofing brochure decide the windows. Statewide product approval and a Miami-Dade listing are not interchangeable. Read the approval for use outside the HVHZ when the house is outside the HVHZ.

What still matters on a local roof

Water finds the edges. Step flashing at walls, kick-out flashing where a roof dumps against a wall, valley metal or the valley method that was specified, boots at pipes, and the chimney or cricket where one exists decide whether the new covering means anything. Ventilation decides whether a shingle roof cooks itself in a Marion County attic. Those details are in a replacement whether or not anyone mentions hurricanes. They are also where repairs often belong, because the field of the shingle is not always the leak.

Deck condition decides the fastener. A new nail in rotten sheathing is not an attachment. Replacement is the moment that wood can be seen. A repair that will not open the field cannot make the same promise, and the scope should not pretend it can. Metal roofs add their own edge, clip, and penetration details. They are not shingles in a different color. Commercial roofs add drains and curbs. Pick the assembly that matches the building. Then let the code for this county, not a South Florida test label alone, set the minimum.

• Repair names a defect and a limit, including what happens if the deck is soft
• Replacement names tear-off, deck, underlayment, flashing, covering, and ventilation
• Coatings are not called new roofs on this site
• HVHZ means Miami-Dade and Broward, not Marion County
• Wind design still comes from the Florida Building Code for the site
• No invented wind speed, no invented repair percentage, no insurance result

What this guide will not claim

It will not report how any insurance claim ended, guess a roof age, or call a representative photo a company project. A written scope can be shown to an insurer if you choose. The outcome is not a fact this page owns. Have the actual roof looked at.