Should I look into roof replacement OR maximize its usage?

50 year shingle roof lol. Maybe on a roof on a playhouse kept inside a temperature controlled warehouse. Even a tile roof someone should blush when they say “It’ll last 50 years”.

Florida is *HARD* on roofs. From the blistering heat to the drenching rain and wind at all speeds and directions routinely, Florida weather puts it to the test.

15 years is typical life expectancy, and that’s what most insurers are looking for now. That’s what most home inspectors’ rule of thumb is. Anything older than 15 years is “expect to replace it soon”.

A roof is fine until it isn’t. While it will tell you it’s getting old (shingles start to curl, increased granular loss) the failure mode for a roof is a leak and damage inside the house. So now your let’s say $12,000 roof replacement has turned into a $30,000 roof replacement , insulation replacement, mold remediation and drywall project.

A shingle roof not leaking for 20 years in Florida is a relatively rare exception, and I’ve only seen 1 or 2 25 year shingle roofs that were anything other than disasters. At time of sale anything within a few years of 15 years is a mandatory replacements.

The only way a roof has a chance to last that long is buying the highest quality materials and hiring a superior, professional, attention to detail crew to install it, and I can tell you there just are not very many of those folks around. And they don’t charge $12,000 it’d be more like $20,000 for the same square footage.

But here’s the thing. Doesn’t matter because insurance can force you to replace it whenever they feel like it, and currently that’s when it’s around 15 years old.

Roofs last a LOT longer in areas that don’t get blasted by as much heat. But Florida isn’t that place.