Roof Replacement Cost in Central Florida — Priced From Real Numbers

What a roof replacement actually costs here

Most roofing quotes arrive as a single number on one page. You have no way to tell whether it is fair, what it covers, or what happens when the crew finds bad wood under the shingles. That is not an accident. A single number is easy to inflate and impossible to argue with.

We price a roof replacement at $500 per square. A square is 100 square feet of roof. A typical Central Florida home lands somewhere between 20 and 35 squares, so the arithmetic is something you can do yourself before anyone knocks on your door.

The underlayment is where that shows up most clearly. We use SWR, a premium synthetic water-resistant underlayment, and we supply it at cost — no markup at all. Most contractors mark up materials and never tell you by how much. On the layer that decides whether the deck stays dry when the covering is gone, our margin is zero, and you can price the product yourself against any supplier and check that.

It is not a discount hook and not a teaser. It is the number we build every proposal from, and the rest of this page explains exactly what sits inside it, what does not, and why your total may differ from your neighbour's for reasons you can actually verify.

Why the other quote is cheaper — and how to find out for free

The honest answer is that we cannot tell you from here, and neither can anyone else who has not read it. A lower number is not automatically a worse job. Sometimes it genuinely is a simpler roof, a shorter drive, or a crew with less overhead.

But the difference is almost never in the headline figure. It is in what the quote quietly leaves out — the underlayment specification, whether decking is included or extra, how many tear-off layers are covered, whether the wind mitigation report is in there, and what happens when something unexpected is found.

Send us the other quote and we will review it and write back. Free, no obligation, and you do not have to be considering us to use it. You will get a written note on what it covers, what it does not, and which lines are likely to move once work starts.

We would rather you sign a good competitor's contract with your eyes open than sign ours because we were the only ones who explained it.

When a cheap quote does go wrong, it comes back the same way every time: change orders during the job, callbacks afterwards, and a warranty that turns out to be worth less than it sounded. Usually all three.

How your square count is calculated — and why it is not your roof's floor area

People are often surprised that a 2,000 square foot house does not have a 2,000 square foot roof. Pitch, hips, valleys and overhangs all add area, and every roof generates waste — the offcuts when a shingle course meets a valley or a rake edge.

The calculation runs like this: take the measured roof area, apply the waste factor from the measurement report, divide by 100, and round up to the next whole square.

A real example from our own files: a roof measuring 4,517 square feet with an 11% waste factor becomes 5,014 square feet, which is 50.14 squares, which rounds up to 51 squares.

We round up because materials are bought in whole squares. Rounding down would mean either short-ordering and stopping mid-job, or quietly absorbing a cost that has to come back to you somewhere else.

The offer: SWR underlayment at $100 over cost — 52 contracts, one a week

Everything above is our everyday pricing. This is different, and it is the reason most people are on this page.

Roof replacement at $100 over cost per square, with SWR underlayment included. Not a stripped package — every one of these is an SWR build, the sealed-deck specification that is the most protective method the Florida Building Code recognises.

Limited to 52 contracts. One a week. That is not a marketing countdown, it is the actual capacity. One properly-run job a week on these terms is what the schedule holds, and when the 52 are gone the offer stops.

The obvious question is how the same crew, the same materials and a better underlayment specification cost less than the $500-plus per square that comparable work usually runs at.

The answer is that you are not paying for the sales process.

Where the money goes in a normal roofing quote

A conventional roofing company sends a salesperson to your house. They drive out, sit in your living room, present, follow up, and drive back. Some of those visits become jobs; most do not. The ones that do are paying for the ones that did not — plus the salesperson's commission, plus the office that schedules them all.

None of that touches your roof. It is real cost, it is unavoidable in that model, and it is inside the per-square number whether or not it is itemised.

We took it out. Discussion happens in an online meeting — screen shared, measurements up, scope and price walked through line by line while you sit in your own kitchen without anyone in it. You can pause it, think, and come back. Nobody is closing you on a sofa.

You meet us in person exactly once, to sign the paperwork and collect the notarised Notice of Commencement. That is the meeting that legally has to happen. The rest does not.

So the saving is not a discount and nothing was removed from the roof to fund it. The specification went up. What came out was the overhead of driving to living rooms — and that goes back to you.

What an online meeting actually looks like

Worth describing, because "online meeting" sounds like a downgrade and it is the opposite.

You see your own roof measured on screen — area, pitch, the squares the price is calculated from. You see the scope line by line, what is included, what is not, and what happens if the tear-off finds something. You ask questions and get answers with the document in front of both of us.

Compare that to a salesperson with a folder on your coffee table at seven in the evening, going through a presentation designed to end in a signature that night.

The online version is more informative, entirely on your schedule, and you can have your partner on the call from their office. Most people who have done both do not want to go back.

If you would rather do it in person, we will. It simply does not change the price, because the price reflects a process that assumes it was not necessary.

The price is built from real numbers, not a rate card

The material and labour figures inside our rate are allowances — working numbers used until real ones exist. When we have an actual supplier quote for your shingle and an actual sub quote for your labour, those real numbers replace the allowances.

This matters more than it sounds. It means the mechanism is what we are committing to, not a placeholder. If your job is simpler than average, that shows up. If your shingle costs less, that shows up too.

It is also why the same approach works for any roof covering. Metal or 5V crimp does not need a different formula — it needs a real cost: a supplier quote for the panel and trim, plus a sub quote for the labour. Metal labour is genuinely slower than shingle, especially on a hip roof, and we will not carry a shingle labour rate onto a metal job and hope it works out.

The reason we quote this way at all is simple: it starts a conversation instead of ending one. A single number invites one response — yes or no. A mechanism invites you to ask what is in it, and that is a conversation we are happy to have and most are not.

That transparency is why the offer above can exist at all: once you can see what a roof actually costs to build, the only remaining question is how much process sits on top of it.

The underlayment question — and why ours is on a notarised form

Underlayment is the waterproof layer between your shingles and your deck. It is what actually keeps water out when a shingle lifts, and it is invisible once the roof is finished — which is exactly why it is the easiest place to quietly save money.

The Florida Building Code, Residential, section 905.1.1 sets out the acceptable methods. The first and most protective is that the entire roof deck be covered with an approved self-adhering polymer-modified bitumen underlayment complying with ASTM D1970.

That is our standard build. Full peel-and-stick, entire deck. Not valleys and edges with felt in between.

Here is the part that makes it checkable rather than a marketing line: Lake County requires the contractor to declare which underlayment method was used, on a notarised affidavit that becomes part of the permanent inspection record. The choice goes on the public file either way.

So if you are comparing quotes, ask each contractor a single question: which 905.1.1 method are you installing, and across how much of the deck? The answers will differ far more than the prices do.

What is included in a standard replacement

Every item below is in the standard scope. Not an upsell, not an optional line:

• Full tear-off of one existing roof covering, down to the wood deck
• Florida Building Code deck re-nailing
• Up to 3 sheets of OSB decking, included when needed
• Architectural shingles — your choice from three options, presented equally
• Drip edge, valley protection, hip and ridge cap
• Roof ventilation and pipe flashing boots, quantities set at the site survey
• An updated wind mitigation report documenting your roof's features
• Dump trailer or dumpster, all project debris hauled away, and a magnetic nail sweep of your property

The OSB line deserves a moment. Bad decking is the single most common mid-job surprise in this trade, and it is where a cheap quote turns expensive — the crew is already on your roof, the old covering is off, and you have very little leverage. Three sheets are included in ours before that conversation ever starts.

The underlayment decision most quotes never mention

Underlayment is the waterproof layer between your shingles and your deck. It is the thing that actually keeps water out when a shingle lifts in a storm, and it is invisible the moment the roof is finished — which is precisely why it is the easiest place to save money without you noticing.

We install full peel-and-stick / SWR underlayment across the entire deck. Not the valleys and edges with felt in between. The whole deck.

Synthetic underlayment is not part of our build unless it is approved in writing. If you are comparing quotes, this is the single most useful question you can ask any roofer: what underlayment, and across how much of the deck? The answers will differ more than the prices do.

Starter course is installed where manufacturer specification, warranty path, or code requires it — not as a blanket line item, and not omitted where it matters to your warranty.

What is not included

Being straight about exclusions is the other half of an honest price. Decking beyond the three included sheets, structural repair, skylights, and coverings beyond the first tear-off layer are all quoted separately when the site survey finds them.

Gutters are handled at cost plus a $75 setup fee. The sub quote passes straight through to you. If the gutter sub quotes $3,300 for 400 linear feet and 9 downspouts, you pay $3,375. There is no margin buried in that line.

The honest headline on exclusions is this: what is not included is unknown and hidden damage — the things nobody can see until the old covering is off. No contractor can quote what is underneath your shingles without looking underneath your shingles, and any quote that pretends otherwise is either padded to cover the risk or about to become a change order.

What we do instead is put a number on the most common one in advance. Three sheets of OSB are in the price. Beyond that, you see it before it is replaced.

What Lake County will inspect

Lake County operates under the Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023), and a re-roof carries specific documentation requirements that are worth knowing about before the crew arrives.

Printed progress photographs are required — sheathing re-nailing, underlayment, and purlins or insulation — each with a ruler or measuring device in frame to verify fastener spacing and overlaps, including drip edge and valley flashing. Those photographs must be on site at the final inspection and become part of the permanent record.

A notarised scope-of-work and inspection affidavit must be there too, along with Florida Product Approval documentation for every product used.

There is also a date that catches people out: sheathing must be re-nailed on any detached single-family home built before 1 March 2002 — 8d equivalent at no more than 6 inches on centre, per FBC-EB 706.7.1. Check your build year. If your house predates that, re-nailing is code rather than an upsell, and it will be inspected. It is already inside our standard scope.

One more constraint worth knowing if any part of your roof is low-slope: below a 2:12 pitch, shingles are not permitted at all, and between 2:12 and 4:12 multi-layer underlayment has to be verified by inspection or photographs. That is why low-slope sections get quoted differently rather than folded into the same rate.

How payment actually works

Your material deposit is written directly to SYL Roofing Supply, not to us. It is credited against your contract price, it covers the supplied project materials, and once the funds clear it removes the supplier's lien exposure on those materials.

That structure exists to answer a specific fear, and it is a reasonable fear: the contractor who takes a deposit and disappears. Ours is a payment you make to the supply house for materials that arrive at your home.

No material is ordered until you have chosen brand and colour and the supplier is paid. Your balance is due on completion and after the final inspection passes — not before it. That wording is deliberate. "Before final inspection" is a common contract phrase and it puts the risk on you.

Card payments carry a 3% processing fee. Late balances accrue 18% per annum. Claims have a 2-day window with written confirmation within 5 days. Your quoted price is held for 30 days — supplier price-increase notices arrive monthly through hurricane season, and we would rather tell you that than quietly re-quote you later.

Permits, the Notice of Commencement, and what Florida requires

Florida requires a Notice of Commencement on any residential contract over $2,500. We prepare it; you sign it and record it. Most homeowners have never heard of it until a permit is delayed because it was not filed.

Your contract includes the Florida construction lien notice, and we keep a separately signed lien-notice page as a matter of hygiene.

The permit itself is faster than most people expect. Residential re-roof permits in Lake County are auto-issue: once the application packet is submitted, the fees generate and the permit is issued. There is no plan-review queue for a standard re-roof. The one exception is a property in a flood zone, which requires additional review before issuance.

The application states the full square footage of the roof rather than the square count — which is why the number on your permit will not match the square count on your proposal. Both are correct; they measure different things.

Your warranty, and what it is worth

We provide a 10-year transferable workmanship warranty — 5 years on low-slope roofs. Transferable matters: it survives the sale of your home, so it is worth something to a buyer rather than dying with your ownership.

Workmanship warranty covers our installation. Your shingles carry their own manufacturer warranty, which is a separate document with separate terms, and we will show you both rather than blurring them into one reassuring sentence.

The wind mitigation report — and an honest limit

Every replacement includes an updated wind mitigation report documenting your roof's features for your insurance carrier to review.

Here is the part other contractors will not put in writing: that report documents features for your carrier to evaluate. It is paperwork we provide. It is never a promise about what your carrier will decide. Any credit decision is your carrier's call, and we have no influence over it.

We are a roofing contractor, not a public adjuster, and Florida law is clear about the difference. If a roofer tells you what your insurer will do with a wind mitigation report, ask how they know.

Choosing your shingle

You choose your brand from three options, presented equally. Not a "good, better, best" ladder engineered to push you upward — three real choices with their real differences explained.

Default colour basis is Weathered Wood or the manufacturer equivalent, not black. In Central Florida sun that is a practical choice as much as an aesthetic one, and you are free to choose otherwise.

Manufacturer choice and the selected contract price stay as fill-in fields on your contract until you actually pick. Nothing is pre-filled on your behalf.

Who is doing the work

Timothy Parks has been self-employed in construction for 46 years and holds three Florida licences: CBC059592 Certified Building Contractor, CCC1327217 Certified Roofing Contractor, and HI4878 Licensed Home Inspector. Every one is current Florida DBPR licences — look them up before you sign anything, with us or anyone else.

We are based at 614 E. Hwy 50, Suite 101 in Clermont, and we are BBB accredited with an A+ rating.

The building contractor licence is the one that matters when a job goes sideways. CBC059592 permits building, remodelling and structural repair — work a roofing-only contractor cannot legally perform. If the tear-off exposes framing that has been wet long enough to matter, a roofing-only crew has to stop and hand it to somebody else, with your roof open and your job now carrying two contracts and two schedules.

The home inspector licence, HI4878, matters at the other end of the job. Working out what is actually wrong with a roof is an inspection problem before it is a roofing problem, and those are not the same skill.

Common questions