The Story Behind Florida's Best Roofing: Two Decades of Raising the Standard for Roofing in Florida

A roof gets noticed twice: the day it’s installed, and the day it fails. Everything in between — the storms it survives, the small repairs that keep it going, the twenty summers of Florida sun it quietly absorbs — happens without anyone watching. That’s the part of roofing we care about most.

We’re a family-owned roofing company, based out of our shop in Bunnell, and we’ve put roofs over more than 1,200 Florida homes and businesses since 2004. This page isn’t a highlight reel. It’s about what actually separates a Florida roofing contractor from someone who installs roofs — the wind numbers, the code, the warranties, and the things you can verify yourself before you sign anything.

We’re not going to tell you we’ve never made a mistake. Every contractor who’s been at this long enough has learned something the hard way. What we can tell you is what we did with those lessons.

A Florida Roof Is a Different Product

A roof built for Ohio winters isn’t built for Florida, and the reverse is just as true. Our climate doesn’t allow for generic solutions. According to NOAA’s hurricane landfall database, Florida has been struck by more hurricanes than any other U.S. state on record — a distinction no other coastline shares. That single fact shapes almost everything about how a roof should be built here.

But statewide facts aren’t what your roof is built to. Your county code is. And this is where most roofing pages go vague, so here is the specific number for our service area:

Flagler County sets a 130 mph ultimate design wind speed line for Risk Category II buildings — that’s ordinary homes — in its adopted building code. Volusia and St. Johns run on the same order of magnitude along the coast. If a contractor can’t tell you which wind zone your address sits in, that’s worth noticing.

That number decides what goes on your roof. Here’s how the three systems we install compare against it:

Wind is only the headline. Florida roofs also deal with:

• Near-constant UV exposure, which breaks materials down faster than in most other states.

• High humidity, which creates ideal conditions for trapped moisture, wood rot and mold if a roof isn’t properly ventilated.

• Salt air on coastal properties, which accelerates corrosion on fasteners and metal components — a real factor from Flagler Beach to Ormond Beach.

• Heavy, sudden rainfall, which finds weak flashing and underlayment faster than a slow, steady rain ever would.

• Code that keeps changing, as the state incorporates new engineering data after every major storm season.

We don’t treat these as obstacles to work around. We treat them as the job. A roof that isn’t built for these conditions isn’t built for Florida, no matter how good it looks the day it’s finished — and that applies whether we’re doing a single repair or a full replacement.

Twenty Years Only Counts If the Standards Changed

Experience alone was never the whole story. A roofer with twenty years of habits isn’t automatically better than one with five, if those habits never changed.

Every completed roof taught us something. Sometimes it was small — a better order of operations that saved an hour without cutting a corner. Sometimes it was bigger, learned after a storm exposed a weak point nobody had flagged. That’s the part most roofing companies don’t talk about: standards aren’t set once. They get revised, roof after roof, as new information comes in.

Over the years that showed up as:

• New installation methods adopted as manufacturer guidance and Florida building requirements evolved.

• Better ventilation practices, since a roof that traps heat and moisture fails faster regardless of how good the shingles are.

• Improved flashing systems around chimneys, skylights and valleys — the details that cause the most leaks when rushed.

• Stronger hurricane detailing, built around the wind-resistance requirements for our actual zone rather than the minimum a jurisdiction happens to enforce.

• Safer work practices, because a job site that isn’t safe for our people isn’t one we’re willing to run.

• Clearer communication, so homeowners understand what’s happening on their roof and why — not just an invoice at the end.

Programs like IBHS’s FORTIFIED Roof standard exist for exactly this reason: to define construction practices that go beyond minimum code and are proven to reduce storm damage. We pay attention to standards like that not because they’re required, but because they reflect the same question we ask on every job — is this roof actually going to hold up?

How to Check a Florida Roofing Contractor Before You Sign

Most of what a roofing company says about itself can’t be verified. A few things can. These are the ones worth your time, and they apply to any contractor you’re considering — including us.

1. Verify the license yourself

Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, through its Construction Industry Licensing Board, requires roofing contractors to document years of hands-on experience, pass state exams and carry proof of insurance before they can legally take on a roofing job.

Our license number is CCC1325974. It’s a Certified Roofing Contractor license, active, first issued in March 2004. You can look it up on the DBPR portal in under a minute, and we’d rather you did. A contractor who hesitates to give you a number is telling you something.

2. Ask who is actually on the roof

Every person on your roof should be someone the company trained and is accountable for. Our crews are W-2 employees, background-checked, trained by us — no subcontractors, ever. The same people who show up for your estimate show up for the work. That’s not a slogan; it’s what makes a workmanship warranty mean anything, and it’s visible in our project gallery.

3. Benchmark the workmanship warranty

This is the question homeowners most often skip. The National Roofing Contractors Association is blunt about the state of the industry: many contractors offer one or two years of workmanship coverage, and there is no industry standard at all.

We provide a 5-year workmanship warranty in writing on every install, registered in your name, alongside the manufacturer’s material warranty. Compare that against whatever else you’re quoted — and get the term in writing, not in conversation.

4. Ask what the inspection actually consists of

An estimate written from the driveway isn’t an inspection. Ours is drone photos plus an on-roof walk, and you get a written, itemized estimate with a straight answer: repair or replace, and why. If a patch buys you another five years, that’s what we’ll say — see our roof repair and leak repair pages for what that looks like in practice.

What the Warranties Actually Cover

Warranty language in this industry is deliberately fuzzy, so here is ours in plain terms.

Manufacturer material warranty: 15 to 50 years, depending on the system. We earned Owens Corning Preferred Contractor status in 2018 — a designation that requires meeting manufacturer standards for installation quality, not just placing an order. Two honest caveats most pages leave out: Preferred is the middle tier of Owens Corning’s program, with Platinum Preferred above it; and the longest material coverage requires the roof to be built as a qualifying Owens Corning system, with several of their components beyond the shingles — not just a certified installer. We’ll tell you which tier of coverage your specific build qualifies for before you decide.

Workmanship warranty: 5 years, in writing, registered in your name. If something we installed doesn’t perform the way it should, that’s our responsibility to fix, not your problem to chase down.

On insurance: we’re licensed roofing contractors, not public adjusters, so we don’t file or negotiate claims on your behalf. What we do is inspect for free and document storm damage thoroughly with photos you can take to your own carrier. More on how that works on our storm and insurance page.

1,200 Roofs, and What They Taught Us

We started small, the way most honest companies do — a few crews, word-of-mouth referrals, and a commitment to show up when we said we would. We didn’t grow by buying leads. The full company timeline lives on our about page; what matters here is the range of work behind the number.

More than 400 of those roofs are in Palm Coast alone — the city closest to our shop, and where our reputation was built first. The work has spanned residential replacements and repairs, commercial projects where downtime and tenant scheduling add a layer of complexity, insurance-documented storm damage, and everything in between.

The useful lessons came from the jobs that weren’t straightforward. A roof that looked fine from the ground but had hidden decking rot under three layers of old shingles. A commercial building where the schedule mattered as much as the workmanship, because every extra day meant lost business for the tenant below. In the months after Hurricane Ian, our crews completed more than 200 storm-damage restorations across Flagler and Volusia — work that meant tarping fast, documenting damage for adjusters, and getting families back under a secure roof before the next system rolled through.

None of those situations show up in a sales brochure. They show up in how a crew handles the job when something doesn’t go according to plan — which is usually where you find out what a Florida roofing contractor is actually made of. If a storm just hit, that’s what emergency roof repair is for: tarped within 24 hours, documented for your claim.

Where We Work

Based at 1 Enterprise Dr Unit 4 in Bunnell, we cover all of Flagler, Volusia and St. Johns counties — roughly an hour’s radius from the shop. Same crews, same standards, whether you’re oceanfront in Flagler Beach or a block off the Intracoastal.

That includes Palm Coast (about ten minutes from our door), Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, Bunnell, Ormond Beach, Port Orange and Flagler Beach. All service areas are listed here.

Phone: (386) 263-7906 · Email: floridasbestroofing@gmail.com · Hours: Mon–Fri, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

What Hasn’t Changed Since 2004

The company has grown. The tools have improved. The materials are better than when we started. Some things haven’t moved at all, and we don’t want them to.

• Honesty. If a roof doesn’t need replacing, we say so, even when a replacement would be the easier sale.

• Transparency. You get a clear explanation of what we found, what it means, and what your options actually are.

• Craftsmanship. A roof is judged by what you can’t see once it’s finished — the flashing, the fastening pattern, the underlayment. We care about those as much as the parts that show.

• The owner still walks roofs. Not as a sales visit, as a roofer. When the person whose name is on the company is also accountable for how a roof performs five years later, decisions get made differently.

• Standing behind every roof. If something we installed doesn’t perform, that’s ours to fix.

Growth changes a lot about a company. It shouldn’t change what the company is willing to promise.

Every Year We Ask One Question

How can we build a better roof than last year?

Not "how do we get bigger," or "how do we win more bids" — just: is the roof we install this year genuinely better than the one we installed last year? Sometimes the answer comes from a manufacturer releasing an improved product. Sometimes from a code update after a hurricane season exposes a weak point. Sometimes from a crew lead noticing that a particular fastening pattern performed better on a job three counties over.

We don’t have a finish line in mind. A roof installed with this year’s best practices should outperform one built five years ago — and the roof we install five years from now should outperform this one. That’s not a marketing position; it’s what it means to take the work seriously. If you’re also weighing the money side, we wrote a separate breakdown of what a roof replacement actually costs in Florida.

So, Are We the Best Roofing Company in Florida?

We won’t tell you that — it’s not our call to make, and any business can put the phrase on a website. What we can tell you is how we operate: family-owned since 2004, licensed under CCC1325974, our own W-2 crews, a written 5-year workmanship warranty, and a free inspection that gives you a straight answer instead of a sales pitch.

Those are all things you can check before you spend a dollar. That’s the only pitch we’ve got.

Need a Roofer Who’ll Give You a Straight Answer?

Whether it’s a repair, a full replacement, or just a second opinion, we’ll tell you what your roof actually needs — nothing more, nothing less. Free inspection, drone photos, written estimate. Call (386) 263-7906 for a same-day callback.

FAQ

How do I verify a Florida roofing contractor’s license?

Ask for the license number and look it up on the DBPR portal — it takes about a minute and shows the license type, status and expiration date. A certified roofing contractor license starts with CCC. Ours is CCC1325974. If a contractor won’t give you a number, or the number comes back inactive, stop there.

How do I know if I need a roof repair or a full replacement?

It comes down to how widespread the damage is and how much service life the roof has left. A licensed inspector should be able to show you what they found — photos, not just a verdict — before recommending either option. If a contractor pushes replacement without explaining why a repair wouldn’t work, that’s worth questioning.

What makes a Florida roof replacement different from a reroof in other states?

Mainly the wind requirements and the fastening schedules that come with them. Here in Flagler County the ultimate design wind speed line for ordinary homes sits at 130 mph, and coastal Volusia and St. Johns are comparable. A roof installed to a lower standard may look identical the day it’s finished, but it won’t perform the same way in a storm.

Is there really a difference between roofing companies, or is it mostly marketing?

There’s a real difference, and it shows up in three places: who’s actually on the roof (in-house crew or a rotating subcontractor), how thoroughly the job is inspected at each stage, and whether the company stands behind the work after the invoice is paid. On that last point, NRCA notes there is no industry standard for workmanship warranties and many contractors offer one or two years — so ask for the term in writing.

What should I ask before hiring a Florida roofing contractor?

Ask for the DBPR license number and confirm it’s active. Ask whether your roof will be worked on by their own crew or a subcontractor. Ask how long the workmanship warranty runs and whether it’s in writing. Ask how they document damage for insurance purposes. And ask what happens if something goes wrong after the job is done — a straight answer to that last one tells you a lot.

Do you handle insurance claims for storm damage?

We’re licensed roofing contractors, not public adjusters, so we don’t file or negotiate claims on your behalf. We provide a free inspection and thorough photo documentation of the damage, which you take to your own carrier. We work on homes insured by Citizens, Universal, State Farm, Tower Hill and every major Florida carrier.