Do I Need a Wind Mitigation Inspection in Florida?

Do you actually need a wind mitigation inspection?

Do you own a house in Florida with a roof that was put on in the last twenty years? Has anyone ever climbed into your attic and photographed the way the roof deck is nailed to the trusses? If the answer to the second question is no, then nobody has ever written down what your house does well in a storm.

That is the whole purpose of a wind mitigation inspection. It is not a pass or fail test. It is a record of the features your house already has that reduce the chance of wind damage. It is written on a state form, so everyone who reads it reads the same thing.

I do these inspections across Florida. Most of the calls I get start with a question from an insurance agent or a renewal letter. The homeowner has been asked for a wind mitigation report and does not know what one is. So let me answer the question the way I would on your driveway. What is the inspection? What does the form ask? What do I look for, and what can you do with the result?

What is the form, and who wrote it?

The report is written on a form published by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Its number is OIR-B1-1802, and the version in use was adopted in 2012. Every inspector in the state who may sign it fills in the same seven questions. Same order, same answer choices. There is no room on the form for an opinion.

Why does that matter to you? Because the form is the carrier's own language. When I mark a box, the person at the insurance company does not have to interpret my words. They read the box and apply their own filing to it. That is the reason the state standardised it. Before the form existed, every inspector described a roof differently, and every carrier read them differently.

The form exists because of a Florida statute, section 627.0629. That section requires insurers to offer discounts, credits or other rate differentials for construction features that reduce windstorm loss. The statute sets the duty. The form is how the duty is documented. Neither one promises you a particular result. The credits depend on what your house has and on your carrier's filed rates. I cannot tell you in advance what a carrier will do with the report.

Which seven questions does the form ask?

Here is the list, in the order it appears on the form. I will go through each one below in more detail.

1. Building code. Was the house built, or the roof permitted, under the Florida Building Code that took effect in March 2002? In Miami-Dade and Broward, was it the earlier South Florida Building Code?
2. Roof covering. What is on top of the roof, when was it permitted, and does it meet the product approval standards of the current code?
3. Roof deck attachment. How is the plywood or board decking nailed to the trusses or rafters: what nail size, what spacing?
4. Roof to wall attachment. How is the roof structure connected to the walls: toe nails, clips, single wraps or double wraps?
5. Roof geometry. Is the roof a hip shape, a gable shape, a flat roof, or a mix?
6. Secondary water resistance. Is there a sealed underlayment or a self-adhering membrane directly on the deck that keeps water out if the shingles blow off?
7. Opening protection. Are the windows, doors, garage doors and skylights protected by rated shutters or impact glass, and is every opening covered?

Each question has photographs attached. The form does not let me answer from memory. If I cannot see the feature and photograph it, the answer defaults to the weakest choice. I explain why that happens in the attic section.

Why does the attic decide most of the report?

Three of the seven questions can only be answered from inside the attic. The deck nailing, the roof to wall connection and the secondary water resistance are all hidden under the roof covering and above the ceiling. So the attic visit is the heart of the inspection, and it is the part most homeowners never see.

What do I do up there? I find a spot where the underside of the roof deck is visible and measure the nail pattern. I am looking for the nail shanks that come through the plywood. I measure the spacing along the edge of a sheet and in the field of the sheet, and I note the nail size. Then I move along the top of the exterior walls and photograph how the trusses meet the wall. A metal strap that wraps over the top of the truss is one answer. A strap that only goes up one side is another. A toe nail with no strap at all is a third.

Why do I say the attic decides the report? Because the deck nailing and the roof to wall connection are where the biggest credits usually sit. And because an attic I cannot enter is an attic that scores as unknown. The hatch may be blocked. The insulation may be blown so deep that the wall tops are buried. There may be no safe way to reach the eaves. In each case I have to mark what I could not verify. The report is honest about it, but you do not get the benefit of a feature nobody could see.

Should you clear the attic access before I arrive? Yes. If the hatch is in a closet, move what is under it. If the attic has a ladder, make sure it extends. If you know of a place where the roof deck is exposed near the eave, tell me. Ten minutes of preparation often changes what I can document.

What does the roof covering question really ask?

Question two sounds simple, but it has two parts. The first is the covering itself: shingles, metal, tile, built up or membrane. The second is the permit. The form asks for the permit application date, the year of installation, and whether the product meets the Florida Building Code approval standards.

How do I find the permit date? I check the county or city permit record before or after the visit. If the roof was replaced and permitted after the 2002 code took effect, that one fact answers several parts of the form at once. If no permit is on record, I document what I can see and note the gap. A roof that was replaced without a permit is not a disqualified roof. It is a roof with less paper behind it, and the form reflects that.

Does the age of the roof matter here? The form itself does not grade age. Your carrier may have its own view on roof age, which is a separate question from mitigation. On this form I record what the covering is, when it was permitted, and whether it carries product approval. That is all.

What is the difference between hip and gable, and why do carriers care?

Question five is roof geometry, and it is the one question I can mostly answer from the ground. A hip roof slopes down on all four sides, like a pyramid with the top cut off. A gable roof has two sloping sides and two vertical triangular walls at the ends. Flat roofs are their own category.

Why does the shape matter? A gable end is a vertical wall exposed to wind. Under load it acts like a sail, and the framing behind it takes the force. A hip roof has no such wall; the wind rides over it. Engineering studies that fed into the Florida code treat the hip shape as the better performer, and the form reflects that.

What if your roof is mostly hip with one gable section over the garage? The form uses a measured rule. I measure the total perimeter of the roof and the length of any non-hip features. If the non-hip portion is small enough, the roof still qualifies as hip. If it is larger, it does not. So a single gable can change the answer, and I measure it rather than guess. This is the part of the visit where I walk the whole perimeter with a tape or a measuring wheel.

What counts as secondary water resistance?

Question six is the one most homeowners have never heard of. Secondary water resistance, often shortened to SWR, is a layer that keeps rain out even if the shingles or tiles are torn away. The form recognises two ways to get there. One is a self-adhering modified bitumen membrane applied directly to the deck. The other is a foam adhesive applied from the attic side to the deck joints.

Why does ordinary felt underlayment not count? Because felt is held by staples or cap nails and lifts with the covering. The form is specific about this. A roof with standard underlayment answers no to this question, even if the roof is new and well installed.

How do I verify SWR? When the roof is new, the permit file often records the underlayment product. If it does not, I look for the membrane at a roof edge, in a vent cut, or at the drip edge. Then I photograph it. From the attic I can sometimes see the foam adhesive at the deck seams. If I cannot find proof, I cannot mark it. A roofer's word, or a homeowner's memory of what was ordered, is not evidence the form accepts.

Can you add SWR to an existing roof? The attic-applied foam product is designed for exactly that. It is one of the few mitigation features that can be added without taking the roof off. Whether it is worth doing is a question for your own judgement and your carrier's filed credits, not something I decide for you.

What does opening protection mean in practice?

Question seven covers every opening in the house: windows, entry doors, sliding doors, garage doors and skylights. The form sorts protection into categories by the test standard the product passed. Impact-rated glass, rated shutters and rated panels count. A plywood sheet you keep in the garage does not count on this form, even though it may help in a storm.

Here is the part that surprises people. The form asks whether all openings are protected. Not most. All. If one window on the side of the house has no rated protection, the whole house answers as if that is the weakest opening. So a homeowner who shuttered every window and left the garage door as it was may find the answer is still no.

How do I check? I walk the outside of the house and photograph every opening. For impact glass I look for the permanent etched label in the corner of the pane that states the standard. For shutters I look for the product approval label on the track or panel. If there is no label, I ask for the paperwork. No label and no paperwork means I cannot confirm the rating, and the form is marked accordingly.

What happens on the day of the visit?

Here is the order I follow. I start outside and walk the full perimeter, photographing each elevation, each opening, and the roof shape from every side. I measure the perimeter for the geometry question. Then I go inside, find the attic access, and spend the longest part of the visit up there with a light and a camera. I come down, review what I have, and if the permit record is not already in hand I pull it the same day.

How long does it take? It depends on the size of the house, the attic access and how many openings there are. A small single-storey home with a clear hatch is quicker than a large house with a tight attic and thirty windows. I will tell you what to expect when you call.

Do you need to be home? Someone needs to let me in and show me the attic access. It helps if you are there, because I can show you what I am photographing and you leave the visit understanding your own roof. That is not required, but most owners say it is the most useful part.

What do you get afterwards? The completed OIR-B1-1802 form with my licence number, signature and the photographs attached, delivered as a PDF. You own the report. You send it to your agent yourself, or I send it where you tell me to.

How is this different from a four-point inspection or a Citizens roof report?

People ask for the wrong inspection often enough that it is worth laying out the three side by side.

Can one visit cover more than one? Often, yes. The same walk through the attic and around the house gives me most of what the four-point and the Citizens form need. If your agent asked for two reports, tell me both at the time of the call and I plan the visit for both. The wind mitigation form is the only one of the three that is about credits. The other two are about condition. I have separate pages that explain the four-point inspection and the Citizens roof report.

Who does the inspection, and why does the licence matter?

The form may only be completed by professionals the state names. They are a general, building or residential contractor, a home inspector, an architect, an engineer, or a building code inspector. Each must hold the Florida credential for that work. The form carries the inspector's licence number and signature, and the inspector is personally responsible for the accuracy of what is marked.

What does that mean for you? It means the person on your roof is accountable to the state for what they write. If a report marks a feature the house does not have, the licence is at risk. That is why I photograph everything and why I would rather mark unknown than guess. A report that is later found to be wrong does not help you; it creates a problem at claim time.

These are the credentials I hold, listed as issued: Florida Building Contractor CBC059592, Florida Roofing Contractor CCC1327217, Florida Home Inspector HI4878. They are Florida credentials, listed as facts about me. Any one of them qualifies me to sign the form. Holding all three means I look at the roof as the person who would also repair it.

How does Florida's geography change what I find?

Does a house in Jacksonville need the same inspection as a house in Miami? The form is the same statewide, but what I find varies by region and by the age of the building stock.

In Miami-Dade and Broward, the South Florida Building Code was in force before the statewide code. Homes built under it after 1994 often already have the clips, straps and opening protection the form rewards. In Central Florida, around Orlando, Kissimmee and Clermont, a large share of the houses went up after 2002. There the code question is usually answered by the permit date alone. Along the Gulf coast and in older parts of Jacksonville and Tampa, I see more pre-2002 construction. There the attic visit matters most. The house may have been strapped during a later re-roof and nobody wrote it down.

The point is that where you live does not change whether the inspection is worth doing. It changes which questions are likely to be the interesting ones.

What should you do if the report shows weak points?

First, nothing is required. The report is information. Nobody makes you fix anything because of a wind mitigation form.

Second, some features can be added without replacing the roof. Opening protection is the clearest example: rated shutters or impact glass change question seven. The attic-applied foam adhesive changes question six. Roof to wall straps can sometimes be retrofitted from the attic, though that depends on access and on what the trusses sit on.

Third, some features only change at re-roof time. Deck nailing, the covering and the roof-level secondary water resistance are all set when the roof goes on. If your roof is near the end of its life, get the wind mitigation report before you talk to anyone about replacing it. It tells you exactly which answers a new roof could change. I handle roof repair and replacement as well as the inspections. I can walk you through that conversation on the same visit if you want.

Fourth, keep the report. It is valid for a set period under most carriers' rules. If you re-roof or add shutters, you can ask for an updated one that reflects the new work.

Ready to get your roof's features on paper?

Has your agent asked you for a wind mitigation report, or are you simply curious whether your house has features nobody has ever documented? Either way, the visit is the same, and you leave with a state form, photographs and a clear picture of your own roof.

The wind mitigation inspection page explains how I schedule the visit. If you would rather just ask a question first, send me a request and I will call you back myself. Or ring the number at the top of the page.

Common questions