Roofing in Jacksonville, FL: Houses, Storefronts and Warehouses Across Duval County

Springfield was Jacksonville's first suburb, platted in 1869 just north of downtown, and its square mile holds more than 1,800 structures: Queen Annes with towers, Colonial Revivals, Prairie-style houses and bungalows. Riverside and Avondale, south of downtown along the St. Johns, are the bungalow neighborhoods, with more than half the houses in Riverside built as bungalows in the early 1900s and 1920s, under some of the oldest oaks in the city.

Roofs on these houses have steep pitches, multiple gables and dormers, chimneys and a century of layered repairs. The right roof replacement here is a full tear-off to the original board decking, plywood over the boards where the code requires a solid nailing surface, re-nailing, peel-and-stick underlayment and flashing cut into every wall and chimney. Historic district guidelines may apply in Springfield and Riverside Avondale, and we work with them. These neighborhoods also learned about the river in September 2017, when Hurricane Irma pushed the St. Johns to a record 5.57 feet at the Main Street Bridge and flooded streets in Riverside and San Marco. The roofs took wind and sideways rain, and the roof leak repair calls afterward were mostly flashing and old valleys.

Mandarin runs along the river on the south end of the city under a canopy of live oaks, and its housing is largely 1970s through 1990s: block or frame, low hip roofs, architectural shingles that have been replaced once already. The Westside is older and more mixed, post-war ranches and frame houses near the rail yards with newer subdivisions farther out. The Southside and the neighborhoods off Baymeadows and toward the beaches are the newest, 2000s to 2020s, with pool cages and HOA review.

On all of these the conversation is the same one we have across north Florida: another asphalt shingle roof that will need replacing again in a couple of decades, or a metal roof that will not. Tri County Metals, whose panels go on every metal roof we build, has a Jacksonville branch on the west side of the city, so panels for a Mandarin or Southside roof are formed in Duval County and picked up on the way to the job. Juan is a Tri County Metals factory trained installer. On a suburban hip roof we generally run TCM-LOK nail-strip standing seam or SL-LOK floating-clip standing seam in 24 or 26 gauge steel with the Max Defender 70 percent PVDF finish, the system Tri County Metals recommends for hot and humid conditions. Every one of those panels holds a Florida Product Approval under FL 36904, and the finish comes with Tri County Metals' limited paint and finish warranty. Our financing plans through Regions Bank cover a full metal roof on a Jacksonville house.

The three beach cities on the Duval coast are their own roofing climate. Salt spray, onshore wind and a nor'easter season that can blow for days mean painted steel starts rusting at cut edges and screw heads within a few years, and shingles lose their granules early. Within 1,500 feet of salt water, Tri County Metals specifies its Coastal Defender system, a 70 percent PVDF finish on aluminum instead of steel, and that is what we install there: .032 aluminum 5V on the cottages and .032 or .040 aluminum standing seam on the newer houses. Aluminum does not rust, and 5V is the profile the older beach houses in Atlantic Beach were built with.

A roof inspection on a beach house every couple of years catches the first rust spot or lifted edge while it is still a small fix.

Jacksonville is a port and distribution city, and that means a lot of low-slope roof. Strip retail along Blanding, Beach and Atlantic Boulevards, warehouses and flex space near the interstates and the port, churches and shops. Our commercial roofing work in Jacksonville covers two kinds of roof. On flat and low-slope decks we install TPO single-ply membrane, heat-welded at the seams, with tapered insulation where the deck ponds. On metal buildings and sloped commercial roofs we install Tri County Metals' PBR panel in 26 gauge, or MS-LOK mechanically seamed standing seam where the owner wants a roof with no exposed fasteners to leak at.

Commercial jobs run on a schedule, and Tania coordinates the dumpsters, deliveries and hours so a store can stay open and a dock stays clear.

Jacksonville is the north end of our service area. Down I-95 we cover St. Augustine and the island, and west along I-10 we reach Lake City.