Roofing in St. Augustine, FL, From the Old City to the Island to Nocatee

The colonial core and Lincolnville hold frame houses, tin roofs and flat commercial roofs packed shoulder to shoulder. Historic district guidelines may apply to what goes on a roof in these blocks, and we work with them rather than around them. The practical answer on most of these houses is metal, because it is what they wore for generations: a 5V crimp panel or a low standing seam in a color the review process will accept.

A roof replacement on one of these is slower than a subdivision hip roof and we price it that way, with the deck work spelled out. Flat roofs on the downtown commercial buildings and on the back additions of older houses are a job for TPO single-ply membrane with heat-welded seams, not another coat of silver paint over a failing built-up roof.

Davis Shores, the first neighborhood over the Bridge of Lions, then St. Augustine Beach and Crescent Beach down A1A, all sit within a short distance of the Atlantic, the Matanzas River or the Intracoastal. Salt finds every cut edge and screw head on painted steel and starts rust there, and it ages a shingle's granule bond faster than sun alone would.

This is where metal roofing in aluminum earns its keep. Tri County Metals, the Florida manufacturer behind every panel we install, makes its Coastal Defender finish for roofs within 1,500 feet of the coast or a salty or brackish water body: 70 percent PVDF paint on aluminum rather than steel. Aluminum does not rust. On the island we run Coastal Defender in .032 aluminum 5V for beach cottages and older houses, and aluminum SL-LOK or TCM-LOK standing seam for newer houses that want hidden fasteners. All of them hold Florida Product Approvals under FL 36904, with the paint covered by Tri County Metals' limited paint and finish warranty. Juan is a factory trained installer for Tri County Metals, and the panels come cut to length from the Jacksonville branch.

A nor'easter can blow for three days at the beach. On a St. Augustine Beach roof we pay extra attention to the drip edge, the eave closure and the hip and ridge, because that is where the wind gets its fingernails under a panel.

Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 pushed roughly seven feet of storm surge into Davis Shores and put the downtown streets under water by midday, damaging on the order of a thousand historic buildings. Hurricane Irma in September 2017 flooded many of the same blocks, arriving right behind a nor'easter that had already filled the inlets, and Dorian in 2019 battered Davis Shores again. Since Matthew the city has counted a serious flooding event nearly every year. Surge does not reach a roof, but the wind and sideways rain that come with it do.

Our storm damage restoration work in St. Augustine starts with a tarp if you need one, then photographs of every slope, then a written scope. If you file a claim, Juan meets the adjuster on the roof and explains what he found and why. Florida's claim statute runs one year from the date of loss for a new claim, so a post-storm roof inspection is worth booking before the next season.

St. Johns County has been the fastest-growing county in Florida for years, and most of that growth is master-planned: Nocatee in the northeast of the county, World Golf Village and the neighborhoods off International Golf Parkway in 32092. These are block-and-stucco houses from the 2000s through the 2020s with hip roofs, architectural shingles, pool enclosures on the fascia, and HOA architectural review.

The first roofs in the older sections are now old enough that insurers ask about them at renewal. The choice in Nocatee or World Golf Village usually comes down to another asphalt shingle roof or a standing seam metal roof that will outlast the mortgage. We quote both, and the financing plans on our site through Regions Bank were set up so a metal roof does not have to wait for the shingles to fail first.

St. Augustine sits between two other towns on our service area list. South on I-95 we work in Palm Coast, and north we cover Jacksonville from the Westside to the beaches.