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Roofing Contractors in the City of Tampa

Tampa's historic districts can need city approval before a roof comes off. Tell us the street, and we'll plan the job around that review.

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Yellow 1950s block house with jalousie windows, a low shingle roof and a flat-roofed carport under an oak

Is the house inside Tampa city limits?

Licensed, insured roofers for leaks, worn-out roofs and storm damage on houses inside Tampa city limits. Call Roofing Services Tampa, and we’ll get a licensed roofer to your street. A roof job in the city runs on city rules: a permit from the Construction Services Division, inspections done over video and, on some streets, a historic review before any shingles come off.

A Tampa mailing address doesn’t always mean a city permit, though. Plenty of houses with one sit in County jurisdiction, and on a split ZIP the parcel decides. Your roofer files with whichever office covers the house. The County side of Tampa is on the Hillsborough County page, and Tampa and Hillsborough roof permits explains how the two offices differ.

What an older city house adds to a re-roof

City houses run older than the county’s, and plenty of them went up before 1960. An old house doesn’t always mean an old roof. What the house’s age changes is the job itself:

  • If the house predates the Florida Building Code, a re-roof means re-nailing the deck wherever it was stapled or nailed too lightly, and adding a secondary water barrier. What a full roof replacement includes goes through both.
  • Decking on an older house is a guess until the tear-off. Your written price should carry a per-sheet number for replacement decking, so a rotten section has a known cost before it’s found.
  • If the current roof went on before the 2007 code, a repair covering more than a quarter of it can force a full re-roof. The 25% rule spells out the cutoff.
  • Insurers start asking harder questions once a roof reaches 15 years. Roof certification for insurance covers what a roof visit can document for them.

White wood-frame house with a 5V metal roof and a deep front porch under a mossy live oak On older frame houses, the decking under the roof is a guess until the tear-off.

Historic districts: the approval comes before the tear-off

Tampa has four local historic districts. Hyde Park, Seminole Heights and Tampa Heights fall under the Architectural Review Commission, and Ybor City falls under the Barrio Latino Commission. A house inside one of them can need the city’s approval for roof work before anything starts, not after.

Tampa Heights’ design guidelines say any modification or replacement of a roof needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first. City staff can issue it for minor repairs or for a replacement in appropriate materials. If the job goes beyond the roof surface, or the new material isn’t similar to what’s on the house now, the commission reviews it at a public hearing, which means waiting for a meeting date.

So the material you pick sets the pace:

  • Like for like moves fastest. Shingles for similar shingles, or tile for similar tile, is the kind of job staff can approve.
  • A switch to metal likely goes to the board. Under the Tampa Heights wording, metal on a shingle house would probably count as a dissimilar material.
  • Each district has its own guidelines. The wording above is Tampa Heights’. Tell us which district the house is in, and your roofer prices a material with that district’s rules in mind.
  • The application wants the product sheet. Applications can go in online, with the sheet for the new material attached, and your roofer has that sheet.

New metal step flashing woven into charcoal shingles where a roof meets a stucco wall In a historic district, the product sheet for the new material goes in with the application.

Limbs over the roof

Hurricanes bring down a lot of trees in Tampa, and big limbs hang over plenty of older city roofs. Mention them when you call about a re-roof. They need to come back before the tear-off, so nothing drops onto an open deck.

If a limb is already on the roof after a storm, stay off it and call us. Emergency roof repair explains how the opening gets tarped until the repair.

Broken oak branch on a wet shingle roof beside a torn, folded-back shingle A limb on the roof can tear shingles; stay off it and call us.

What the written price on an older city house shows

On an old house, code work left off the price tends to come back later as a change order. On a city job, look for these lines:

  • A City of Tampa permit and the inspections that go with it
  • The Certificate of Appropriateness, if the house is in a district
  • Deck re-nailing and the secondary water barrier, where the house predates the Florida Building Code
  • The decking price per sheet, and how many sheets the price already assumes
  • The underlayment, by product name

Timing, permits and what happens if it rains mid-job are covered in the questions homeowners ask before a roof job.

What happens when you call

From your call to a finished roof

A leak, storm damage or a roof that’s due: tell Roofing Services Tampa what’s going on anywhere in Hillsborough County and nearby Polk County, and we’ll stay with you from the first call until the job is done.

  1. Call and tell us what’s going on

    A drip over the bedroom, shingles in the yard, a letter from the insurer: tell us what the roof is doing and where the house is.

  2. We get a licensed roofer out

    A licensed, insured roofer who works your part of the county looks at the roof, or calls back first to set a time.

  3. You see a written price

    You’ll have the price in writing before any work starts, and you only pay for work you agreed to.

  4. Your roof gets fixed

    The leak stops, the storm damage gets put right, or the new roof goes on. Then it’s done.

Questions about Tampa

Do I need a city permit to fix a small roof leak?

Not if the work covers 500 square feet or less. The City of Tampa exempts a repair, a recover or a new covering at that size. Anything bigger needs a permit, and your roofer pulls it. In a historic district even small roof work can need a Certificate of Appropriateness, so name the district when you call.

Will a city inspector come out to look at the new roof?

Not in person. The City of Tampa runs residential roofing inspections virtually through Vu-Spex, from photos and video. Tile roofs get a dry-in inspection before the final. On other roofs your roofer can upload a mitigation or attestation document in place of the dry-in.

How much does a City of Tampa roof permit cost?

There's no flat number. The city sets the fee from the details of the job. Your roofer pulls the permit, and you can ask to see the fee as its own line on the written price.

Call (813) 227-6775