The nor'easter sat offshore from Thursday to Saturday, the rain came in sideways, and now there is a drip over the stairs. The shingle roof went on in 2004 with half the neighborhood. In St. Johns County the storm that finds a roof is often the one nobody named. Call now to be connected with an independent local roofing contractor who works roofs from Vilano to Hastings.
Call Now — Lines OpenMost St. Johns County roofs face the afternoon thunderstorm from the southwest. A nor'easter comes from the other direction, for days, and pushes rain up under the shingle edge on the slopes that never get tested. That is why the first drip on a twenty-year-old roof so often shows up in November or March, not August.
The county was built in waves. A block of 1920s and older homes downtown, 1950s and 1960s ranches in St. Augustine South and Davis Shores, and then one enormous run of shingle roofs from World Golf Village to Julington Creek between 1995 and 2008. Those roofs are now at the age where an insurer asks the year before it asks anything else.
A local contractor who works both the island and the interstate corridor can tell you which roof you have: a single lifted course and a wet spot, or a roof that has reached the end. One visit tells you what it needs.
A lifted shingle after a nor'easter, a rusted fastener line on island metal, or a flashing seam at a chimney, traced to the source and fixed in writing.
Tear-off to the deck, new underlayment, and a new shingle, metal, or tile roof permitted through the county, the city, or St. Augustine Beach.
Tarping, photos, and repair after a named storm, a nor'easter, or a live oak limb opens the roof.
A walk on the roof and a look in the attic, written up with photos for a purchase, a renewal letter, or a post-storm check.
Standing seam and 5V panels specified for salt air from Vilano to Crescent Beach, with the fasteners and trim the ocean side of A1A demands.
The state form that records deck nailing, roof-to-wall straps, and roof shape so the wind portion of a Florida premium reflects the roof you have.
Standing byDescribe the roof in plain words. The call is routed to an independent local roofing contractor who works shingle, metal, and tile roofs in your part of St. Johns County.
| What happens | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| The crew walks the roof and checks the attic before anyone quotes anything | The drip over the stairs gets traced to the seam that actually let the water in, which is often uphill and around a corner |
| Wind-lifted shingles are resealed or replaced by the course, not by the slope | A repair after a nor'easter stays a repair when the rest of the roof is sound |
| Fasteners, flashing, and trim on the ocean side of A1A are specified for salt | An island roof stops failing at the small parts first |
| The Certificate of Appropriateness is filed before the permit on a historic-district house | The roof downtown gets done once, with the review built into the schedule instead of discovered mid-job |
| Photos, measurements, and a written scope on every job | You have a document for an adjuster, an architectural committee, or a buyer instead of a memory |
| Permits pulled through the county, the City of St. Augustine, or St. Augustine Beach, whichever the address needs | The roof gets inspected during and after the job, and the permit record follows the house |
Do not go up. A wet shingle roof after a nor'easter is slick, and a wet metal roof is worse. Put a bucket under the drip, move what is under it, and take photos of the ceiling and of the roof from the ground. If water is running down a wall near an outlet, turn that circuit off. Then call. You do not need to know whether the job is a repair or a replacement. Describe what you see and the contractor sorts out the rest.
The coast from Ponte Vedra to Summer Haven is a wind-borne debris region under the Florida Building Code, and the design wind speed steps down as you move inland toward Hastings. St. Johns County is well outside the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, but shingle fastening, underlayment, and roof-to-wall connections are all inspected items on a re-roof permit here.
Matthew passed offshore on October 7, 2016, and pushed two to seven feet of surge into the bayfront, Davis Shores, Lincolnville, and Vilano. Irma did it again on September 11, 2017. Ian dropped sixteen inches of rain on the island in September 2022 and Nicole followed in November with the beach erosion that put houses on the edge at Vilano and Summer Haven. Helene flooded the same low streets in September 2024, and Milton three weeks later set a record on Deep Creek and put five feet of water on parts of Hastings and Flagler Estates. Between the named storms, nor'easters do the quiet work on roofs every fall.
Re-roofs in unincorporated St. Johns, which includes Nocatee, World Golf Village, Julington Creek, Vilano, and everything south of the beach city, are permitted through the St. Johns County Building Department. Addresses inside the City of St. Augustine or the City of St. Augustine Beach go through that city's own building desk, and the historic districts add a review board step. The area pages on this site name the right one for your address.
Nobody on this site can tell you what your policy will pay. Sudden wind damage is usually the kind of loss a Florida homeowner policy is written for, but a hurricane deductible applies to named storms, wear and age are not covered, and since January 2023 a new claim has to be reported within one year of the loss. What a contractor can do is give you photos, measurements, and a line-item scope so the adjuster is looking at facts. The insurance claims page walks through the order of steps. Before the next storm, St. Johns County Emergency Management is where evacuation zones and shelter openings are posted.
St. Augustine and its neighborhoods from Lincolnville to Uptown, Davis Shores and the rest of Anastasia Island, St. Augustine Beach, Butler Beach, Crescent Beach, Vilano Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Nocatee, Palencia, World Golf Village, Julington Creek, Fruit Cove, Switzerland, St. Augustine South and the Shores, and the farm country around Elkton, Hastings, and Flagler Estates. See the full list of nearby communities on the areas page.
Call (904) 895-7548 to be connected with an independent local roofing contractor anywhere in St. Johns County.