New Roof Wind Mitigation in Florida: What a Reroof Can Change on Your Report

Wind mitigation after a new roof: which answers can change

If you are replacing the roof on a Florida home, the wind mitigation report your insurer has on file stops describing the house the day the old covering comes off. A new roof wind mitigation inspection records what the roofer actually installed: the new covering and its approval, how the deck is now fastened, whether a secondary water barrier went down and, on some homes, new straps where the roof meets the walls. Those are four of the nine questions on form OIR-B1-1802, and on most homes they carry real weight in the windstorm credits.

Not every answer moves. Item 1 asks which code was in force when the house was first permitted, so a new roof never changes it. Item 2, the region, depends on the design wind speed at your address. Items 3 and 7, roof slope and roof shape, only change if the reroof changes the pitch or the outline of the roof, which a normal replacement does not. Item 9, opening protection, is about windows and doors, but skylights count as openings, so a reroof that replaces skylights can affect it too.

The form itself says it is valid for up to five years only while no material changes are made to the structure. A full roof replacement is about as material as changes get, which is why our guide to how long a wind mitigation report lasts treats a reroof as a reason to replace the report early. If you want to see what each roof item looked like on your previous report, our walk through the pages of a wind mitigation report explains how to read it.

What the Florida Building Code requires when a roof is replaced

The reroofing rules sit in the Florida Building Code, Existing Building, in Section 706, titled Reroofing. The edition in force today is the 8th Edition (2023). The 9th Edition (2026) is scheduled to take effect on December 31, 2026, so for a roof permitted around the turn of the year, ask your roofer which edition governs the permit, because section numbers can shift between editions. The numbers below are from the 8th Edition.

The mitigation pieces of Section 706 exist because the Legislature asked for them. Section 553.844 of the Florida Statutes told the Florida Building Commission to adopt ways to apply hurricane mitigation to existing site-built single-family homes, and it says that a roof replacement on those homes must include secondary water barrier and roof-deck attachment techniques, plus roof-to-wall techniques for certain higher-value homes. The code then spells out how.

Tear-off or recover

Section 706.3 lists when the old roofing must come off down to the deck: when it is water-soaked or deteriorated, when the existing covering is wood shake, slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile, or when there are already two or more layers. Some single-layer shingle roofs can legally be recovered, but a recover leaves the deck hidden. For wind mitigation purposes, that is a lost opportunity: none of the deck work below can be done or proved without a tear-off.

Which homes the mitigation sections cover

Section 706.7 applies when the covering on an existing structure with a sawn lumber, wood plank or wood structural panel deck is removed and replaced. Two limits matter. First, it is about wood decks, so a reinforced concrete roof deck is outside it. Second, it carries an exception: structures permitted subject to the Florida Building Code do not have to comply. The Florida Building Code took effect on March 1, 2002, so in practice these sections reach homes permitted before it, which describes a large share of the houses in older South Florida neighborhoods. The code also allows the roofing contractor to perform these procedures as part of the reroof, so the work does not need a separate contractor.

A home permitted under the Florida Building Code is not left with an old-style roof, though. Section 706.1 sends every recover or replacement to the roofing chapter of the Building or Residential code, and the underlayment methods that chapter now requires for most coverings line up with what the wind mitigation form calls a sealed roof deck. More on that below.

Roof deck attachment: renailing the deck with 8d or ring-shank nails

Older homes often have plywood decks held down by staples, 6d nails or 8d nails spaced far apart in the field. With the covering gone, the roofer can see the fastening along every truss, and Section 706.7.1 sets the minimum. It also defines what counts as an existing 8d nail: at least 0.113 inch in diameter and 2¼ inches long, whatever the head shape.

• Existing 8d nails at 6 inches on center or closer: no supplemental fasteners are needed.
• Staples, 6d nails, or 8d nails spaced wider than 6 inches: supplemental fasteners are added at the spacing set by the code's table.
• The supplemental fastener: a ring-shank nail meeting ASTM F1667 RSRS-01, with a 0.113-inch shank, a full round head at least 0.280 inch across and a length of at least 2⅜ inches.
• Board decking: lumber or plank decking up to 12 inches wide with at least two 8d nails into each framing member is treated as adequately connected. Fewer or smaller fasteners are supplemented to reach two per member.

Rotten or water-damaged sheathing is a separate issue. It has to be replaced, not renailed, and it is common at eaves, around old leaks and under valleys. Expect the roofing contract to price replacement sheathing per sheet, because nobody can count the bad sheets until the deck is exposed.

How the new nailing shows up on item 5

Item 5 of the wind mitigation form asks for the weakest form of deck attachment on the house. Its main answers are written around nail size and spacing on sheathing at least 7/16 inch thick over framing no more than 24 inches apart: answer A for staples or 6d nails at 6 inches on the edges and 12 in the field, B for 8d common nails at no more than 12 inches in the field, and C for 8d common nails at no more than 6 inches in the field. Each answer also accepts any fastening system shown to resist at least as much, with uplift values of 55, 103 and 182 pounds per square foot as the benchmarks.

Ring-shank nails are not 8d common nails, so the way newer fastening gets credited is through that equivalence language and good documentation. Ask the roofer to write the nail type, its dimensions and the spacing used in the field and at the panel edges on the invoice or a signed letter. In the attic, the inspector measures the spacing of the nail tips along the trusses and photographs it with a tape measure, which our article on the wind mitigation inspection visit describes. Nails that missed the framing are visible from below too, and a row of misses is a weak spot the form has to take into account.

Secondary water barrier: what the reroof code asks and what the form credits

A secondary water barrier is the layer that keeps rain out of the house after wind has torn away part of the covering. Section 706.7.2 requires one when a roof covering is removed and replaced, installed under Section 1507.1.1 or, in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, Section 1518.2 of the Building code, or R905.1.1 of the Residential code. It has two exceptions: roofs with a slope under 2:12 that have a continuous roof system, and clay or concrete tile roof systems installed as the code requires. Both are deemed to comply.

The three underlayment methods in the code

For shingle, metal and several other coverings, Section 1507.1.1.1 gives three ways to underlay the roof:

1. Full self-adhered deck. The entire deck is covered with a self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen underlayment that meets ASTM D1970.
2. Taped seams plus underlayment. A 3¾-inch strip of self-adhering membrane (ASTM D1970) or self-adhering flashing tape (AAMA 711, Level 3) covers every joint in the deck, and an approved underlayment then covers the whole roof.
3. Two layers. Two layers of ASTM D226 Type II, ASTM D4869 Type III or IV, or ASTM D8257 underlayment are laid in an overlapping pattern the code describes course by course.

Compare that with item 8 of the 2026 wind mitigation form, which accepts four methods as a sealed roof deck: a fully adhered ASTM D1970 underlayment, tape over the deck seams with felt or synthetic over it, a double layer of felt or synthetic without tape, or spray foam applied along the rafter and deck intersections and panel joints. The first three mirror the code. The form also says plainly that standard underlayment and hot-mopped felts do not qualify.

Where tile and flat roofs need a closer look

The code's tile exception is about code compliance, not about the wind mitigation answer. Tile underlayment follows the manufacturer's instructions or the FRSA/TRI Florida High Wind Concrete and Clay Roof Tile Installation Manual, and some tile systems use hot-mopped felts. A tile roof can therefore be fully legal and still come up short on item 8 if nothing in the system matches the form's list. If the credit matters to you, ask before you sign whether the tile underlayment will be a fully adhered ASTM D1970 membrane or will include taped deck seams, and get the answer in writing. The same caution applies to low-slope roofs: the code's exception does not make a membrane roof a sealed roof deck on the form, so ask your inspector how your roof would be answered.

One more practical point: seam tape and peel-and-stick membranes sit on top of the deck, so an inspector looking up from the attic usually cannot see them. Spray foam is the exception. For the other methods, the permit, the product name on the contract and photos taken during the job are what turn "unknown" into a documented answer.

Roof-to-wall connections: when a reroof requires hurricane straps

Section 706.8 adds a third requirement for some homes: improving the connections that tie the roof framing to the walls. It applies when the covering on a wood-deck structure is removed and replaced, the building is in the wind-borne debris region as the Building code defines it, and the building has an insured value of $300,000 or more. If the home is uninsured, or no documentation of insured value is presented, the test switches to a just valuation for the structure, for property tax purposes, of $300,000 or more. The wind-borne debris region is drawn by design wind speed and distance from the coast, so ask your roofer or the building department whether your address falls inside it.

The 15% cap and the order of the work

The retrofit is limited. Mandated roof-to-wall work is not required beyond a 15% increase in the cost of the reroof, and connections do not have to be installed at all unless the gable ends or all of the corners can be completed within that 15%. When both cannot be done, the code sets priorities: on a house with hip and gable ends, the gable ends come first unless the hip end is more than 1.5 times wider than the gable end, and corners with the longest roof spans come before shorter ones.

The prescriptive details describe the scope. At a gable end, the trusses or rafters within 6 feet of each corner are checked, and missing straps, or straps with fewer than four fasteners per end, are replaced or supplemented with connectors rated for at least 500 pounds of uplift. On masonry walls, the connection to the wall uses masonry screws with at least 2½ inches of embedment. On hip roofs, the work focuses on the king jack, the hip girder and each corner. Access can come from under the eave, from above while the deck is open, or from inside the attic.

Two exceptions apply. Homes permitted under the Florida Building Code are outside the section, and so is a home where code adoption and permit dates show that connections were already required when it was built.

Why a code retrofit may not change item 6

Item 6 of the wind mitigation form is graded by the weakest roof-to-wall connection, leaving out only the hip and valley jacks within 5 feet of a roof corner. A retrofit limited to the gable ends or corners can leave ordinary trusses along the walls still toe-nailed, and if so, the answer stays toe nails. To move item 6, the qualifying connections have to reach every truss the form counts. Retrofit connectors are credited by their documented uplift capacity when installed to the manufacturer's specifications, with site-specific documentation, so ask the installer for that paperwork before the work starts. Our deep dive on hurricane straps and roof-to-wall answers shows how each connection type is identified in the attic.

Reroofing in Miami-Dade and Broward: the HVHZ rules

The Florida Building Code applies the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone only to Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and roofing there follows its own set of sections in the Building code, 1512 through 1525. Section 706 points HVHZ roofs to those sections for tear-off decisions and flashings, and Section 1521 is the HVHZ reroofing section. A few rules stand out for homeowners:

• Product approval for everything. Section 1515.1 requires product approval for all roof assemblies, roof coverings and roof systems in the HVHZ. That approval number is one of the two pieces of evidence item 4 of the wind mitigation form accepts.
• No new roof over a bad deck. Under Section 1521.5, a new roofing system may not go over sheathing that is not fastened to code, will not hold fasteners or is water-soaked or deteriorated, and deteriorated sheathing must be removed and replaced.
• Renailing is on the roofer. The same section says the building official is not required to inspect the renailing of the sheathing. That makes the roofer's written description of the nailing, and your own photos, more valuable than usual.
• Underlayment. Section 1518.2 gives the HVHZ version of the three underlayment methods for slopes of 2:12 and steeper, and its first method refers back to Section 706.7.1 for renailing.
• No layering of tile. Tile, slate or similar coverings may not go over an existing roofing system, and no recover is allowed over existing tile, slate, wood shingles, shakes or metal shingles. A tile reroof in the HVHZ is a tear-off.
• Owner's notification. Section 1524 is a required owner's notification for roofing considerations. In practice it is a form the roofer explains and the owner initials, covering points such as renailing a wood deck that may need it, ponding water, keeping attic ventilation from being reduced and reinstalling rooftop solar under its own permit. Keep your signed copy with the permit.

Palm Beach County sits outside the HVHZ, so reroofs there follow the code's statewide roofing provisions, and item 4 is answered with a Florida or Miami-Dade product approval, or the permit application date. Some South Florida building departments also ask roofers to sign an affidavit that the deck attachment was corrected and a secondary water barrier provided, and some have a matching affidavit for roof-to-wall work or an owner's affidavit of exemption. If your city uses one, a copy belongs in your roof file.

Permit dates and the roof covering answer

Item 4 asks the inspector to list every roof covering on the house and, for each one, give the permit application date or a Florida or Miami-Dade product approval number, plus the year it was installed or replaced. The overall answer is A when every covering meets the Florida Building Code through a product approval current at installation, a roofing permit application dated on or after March 1, 2002, or an original roof on a home built in 2004 or later. A new roof permitted in 2026 clears that date line easily, but the form still needs the date or the number in hand, not an estimate.

Notice that the form uses the permit application date, not the date the roof was finished. That date sits on the permit itself and in the building department's online records, which is why the permit number is the single most useful thing you can keep.

The covering you forgot about

If one covering on the house falls short of A or B, item 4 drops to C, and if none qualify it is D. The classic case is a reroof of the main house that leaves the flat roof over a Florida room, a porch or an old addition untouched. If that small roof has no permit or approval on record, it can pull the whole item down. When you get bids, ask for every roof section to be priced, including low-slope areas, or find the permit for the section you are keeping.

Open permits

A permit that was issued but never received its final inspection shows up as open. Insurers notice. Citizens, for example, takes a finalized roof permit as proof of the replacement year, or a roofing contract, work order or receipt marked paid in full. Make sure the final inspection happens and that the record shows the permit closed before you send anything to your agent.

What to ask your roofer before the old roof comes off

The best time to settle the wind mitigation details is before you sign the roofing contract, while the scope and the price are still on the table. These are the questions worth asking, and the answers worth getting in writing:

• Is this a full tear-off down to the deck on every roof section, including flat and low-slope areas?
• Which underlayment method will you use, by product name, and does it match one of the sealed roof deck methods on form OIR-B1-1802?
• On a tile roof: is the underlayment a fully adhered ASTM D1970 membrane, or a system with hot-mopped felts?
• What nails will you use to refasten the deck, at what spacing in the field and at the panel edges, and will you put that on the invoice?
• How is replacement sheathing priced, and will you photograph damaged areas before replacing them?
• Does Section 706.8 apply to this house, and if so, which connections will be retrofitted and what is the rated capacity of the connectors?
• What are the product approval numbers for the covering and the underlayment?
• Are skylights being replaced, and will the new ones be impact-rated with an approval number?
• Who schedules the final inspection, and will you send me the closed permit?

A roofer who does this work regularly will answer these without hesitation. If the answers are vague, the paperwork afterward will be too, and vague paperwork is how a new roof ends up with "unknown" next to items 5 and 8.

Documents to collect: permit, product approval, nail pattern and underlayment

A wind mitigation answer is only as good as the evidence behind it, because every attribute marked on items 2 through 9 needs a photo or a document attached. For roof items, the documents usually come from the roofer and the building department, and they are easiest to collect while the job is fresh.

Keep paper and digital copies in one place with the closing documents for the house. A future buyer, a future insurer and a future inspector will all ask for the same file, and a roof with a complete history is easier to insure for its whole life. The documents also feed the roof condition inspection or 4-point form your insurer may ask for later, since those forms record the date of the last roofing permit and whether the last update was a full or partial replacement.

Photos that help the wind mitigation inspector later

The building department's inspections confirm the work for the permit, but they do not produce photos for you. Once the covering goes on, the deck, the seams and the nail heads are hidden for the life of the roof. A few minutes with a phone while the roofers are working can save an item from being answered as unknown. Date-stamped photos are best, and they should show:

• the bare deck after tear-off, with any replaced sheathing visible;
• the nailing along a framing member, with a tape measure laid beside the nail heads to show the spacing;
• the seam tape or the self-adhered membrane going down, with the product's roll label in at least one shot;
• the underlayment over the full roof before the covering starts;
• any straps or connectors added at the walls, with the connector's stamped model visible if possible;
• labels on new skylights before they are removed;
• each finished roof slope, once the job is complete.

Photos taken by an owner are supporting evidence, not a substitute for the roofer's documents. Insurers can ask questions about the features on a form, and an inspector will only mark what the documents and the visit support. Put the photos with the permit and contract so they can be shown together.

When to schedule a new roof wind mitigation inspection

Timing a new roof wind mitigation inspection is simple once you know what the form needs. The work has to be finished and documented, and the permit should be closed, so the report describes a completed roof with a clean record behind it.

1. Before the contract. Ask the questions above and get the underlayment, nailing and connector details written into the scope.
2. During the job. Take your photos at tear-off, during refastening and while the underlayment goes down.
3. Final inspection. The roofer schedules it with the building department. Wait until it passes and the permit shows as finalized.
4. Collect the file. Closed permit, paid invoice, product approvals, the roofer's written fastening and underlayment details, any affidavits and your photos.
5. Book the inspection. Send us the permit number when you book, so we can confirm the dates before the visit.
6. Send the report to your agent. Ask from what date the insurer will apply the new answers, and check your next declarations page to see that they were.

A new roof also changes the roof section of a 4-point inspection, which records the covering, its age and the date of the last permit. If your home is old enough that your insurer asks for a 4-point insurance inspection, updating it at the same visit makes sense, and a roof that was the problem on the last 4-point is often what insurers flag on a 4-point. Both reports can be done in one appointment, and insurance reports usually arrive the same day.

Does a new roof lower insurance in Florida?

It can, in two separate ways, and neither has a fixed number attached. The first is age. Many underwriting rules turn on how old a roof is, and a documented replacement resets that clock; our guide to Florida roof age rules for insurance explains the 15-year statute and Citizens' age lines in detail, so we will not repeat them here. The second is construction. Section 627.0629 of the Florida Statutes requires insurers' rate filings to include discounts, credits or other rate differentials for windstorm mitigation features, and the wind mitigation form is how those features reach your policy. Insurers set their own credits, and since October 1, 2023 they have had to describe their hurricane mitigation discounts on their websites, so that is the place to look before you ask your agent what your new answers are worth.

A new roof also usually ends the need for remaining-life paperwork on the roof. If your insurer had been asking for a roof certification or condition report because the old roof was past its age line, a finalized permit for the replacement is typically the document that closes that question instead.

FORTIFIED roofs and state grants

The wind mitigation form accepts a FORTIFIED Home Roof, Silver or Gold certificate to validate items 4 through 6 and 8 through 9. FORTIFIED designations come from a third-party evaluation by a certified FORTIFIED evaluator and a documentation review by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, so a FORTIFIED roof has to be planned with the program before the work, not after. If your home already holds a designation, note that the program's own guidance says replacing the roof covering may invalidate it or require renewal.

The state's My Safe Florida Home program has offered free wind mitigation inspections and grants of up to $10,000 for qualifying improvements, but its funding and application windows open and close. Our plain guide to My Safe Florida Home covers how it works, and mysafeflhome.com has its current status. Check it before you sign a roofing contract, since grant programs usually have their own order of steps.

New roofs and wind mitigation across South Florida

Across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, replacement roofs fall into four families. Concrete and clay barrel tile are common in many subdivisions, and tile underlayment choices decide item 8. For a local example, see how tile roofs read on Boca Raton reports. Asphalt shingle is common on older ranch homes and additions, and those reroofs usually follow the code's three underlayment methods closely. Standing seam metal has become a frequent replacement choice, and its panel approvals go on item 4 like any other covering. Low-slope membranes cover Florida rooms, carports and some entire homes, and they are the sections most often left out of a reroof.

The coast adds its own wear. Salt air works on metal connectors and fasteners, and the form only counts roof-to-wall connectors that are free of visible severe corrosion, so a reroof is a good time to have corroded straps near the shore looked at while the eaves are open. Our local pages cover what is typical in each city, such as wind mitigation inspections in Fort Lauderdale, and the list below covers the rest.

Common misunderstandings about a new roof and wind mitigation

• "My new roof updates the wind mitigation report automatically." Nothing reaches the insurer until a new form is completed, signed and sent. The old report keeps describing the old roof.
• "The roofer installed a sealed deck, so item 8 is a yes." Only if the method matches the form's list and can be documented. Hot-mopped felt alone does not qualify.
• "A permitted tile roof always gets the secondary water resistance credit." The code deems code-installed tile compliant with its own requirement. The form applies its own definition.
• "The code made my roofer add straps, so item 6 improves." Item 6 follows the weakest counted connection. Corner or gable-end work alone may not change it.
• "Any new roof answers A on item 4." Every covering on the house counts, including the small flat roof that was not part of the job.
• "I should book the wind inspection as soon as the last tile is laid." Wait for the final inspection and a closed permit, so the report and the record agree.

The bottom line

A reroof is the moment a Florida home's wind rating can improve the most, and wind mitigation after a new roof is how that improvement reaches your policy. Older site-built homes get renailed decks and a secondary water barrier under the code, some get roof-to-wall retrofits, and the new covering gets a permit date and product approval. What decides whether those changes show up on form OIR-B1-1802 is documentation: a closed permit, written fastening and underlayment details, approval numbers and a few good photos. If your new roof is finished in Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach, ask us for a quote or call (954) 297-0317, and you will have a firm price before anything is scheduled. You can also read about our wind mitigation inspections in South Florida or how an inspection works from booking to report.

About the author

Peter Lemos, Certified Master Inspector®

Owner and lead inspector of Global Home Inspectors in Hollywood, FL. Peter holds InterNACHI certifications in wind mitigation, 4-point and mold inspection and has served Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties since 2008.