It is the size of a dinner plate now, and the tile roof looked fine from the driveway. In Lee County the tile is rarely the problem. The underlayment beneath it is. Call now and be connected with a local roofing contractor who climbs up and finds out.
Call Now — Lines OpenIf water is dripping, a bucket and a towel are the first move. Move furniture and electronics out from under the spot. If the ceiling is bulging, do not poke it. A ceiling that has been holding water lets go all at once.
Most Fort Myers homes are concrete block with a truss roof, built between the 1970s and the 2000s. The tile or shingle you see from the street sheds most of the rain. The felt or peel-and-stick underlayment under it is what keeps the house dry, and it does not last as long as tile. On a roof past twenty years, a stain inside usually means the underlayment has opened up somewhere upslope of the drip.
A local contractor walks the roof, checks the attic side, and traces the water back to where it entered. That visit decides whether the roof needs a repair, a section relaid, or a full replacement.
A leak, lifted shingles, or cracked tiles traced to the source and fixed before the next rain band reaches Lee County.
Tear-off to the deck, new underlayment, and a new roof permitted and inspected under the Florida Building Code.
Tarping and repair after wind, tornado, or hurricane damage, with photos taken before anything is covered.
A walk of the roof and attic with written findings for a sale, an insurer, or a roof that is past year fifteen.
Barrel tile, architectural shingle, standing-seam metal, and low-slope membrane compared for Southwest Florida sun, salt, and wind.
What to photograph, what a contractor's written scope gives the adjuster, and the Florida deadlines that apply.
Standing byDescribe what you see in plain words. The call goes to an independent local roofing contractor who works your part of Lee County and decides what to look at first.
| What happens | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Roof walk and attic check before any quote | The leak is traced to its source instead of patched where it drips |
| Tarp or temporary dry-in when water is still coming in | The damage stops spreading while the real repair is scheduled |
| Photos of every damaged area before it is covered | You have a dated record for an insurer or a buyer |
| Tile lifted and relaid over new underlayment where the tile is sound | A twenty-year tile roof can be made watertight again without a full replacement in many cases |
| Permit pulled and inspections scheduled with the county or city | A re-roof in Lee County gets an independent check against the Florida Building Code |
| Written scope with materials, wind ratings, and the permit number | You can compare it line by line with another contractor's scope, or hand it to an adjuster |
Ask for the contractor's Florida roofing license number and look it up yourself. Ask for a written scope. Ask which permit office the job goes through. Do not sign anything on the doorstep after a storm, and do not sign a document that assigns your insurance benefits to anyone. You do not have to know whether the roof needs a repair or a replacement before you call. Describe what you see and let the contractor sort out the rest.
Hurricane Ian came ashore at Cayo Costa on September 28, 2022, as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds. Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel took ten to fifteen feet of surge, and wind stripped tile and shingle from roofs as far inland as Lehigh Acres and Alva. Two years later, in October 2024, Milton's outer bands dropped tornadoes on Fort Myers before the storm itself reached Sarasota County. Irma in 2017 and Charley in 2004 did the same to an older set of roofs.
So the housing stock here is split. Roofs replaced after Ian are new, permitted under the current code, and worth documenting. Roofs that survived Ian are often twenty or thirty years old and running on tired underlayment. Insurers know that, and roof age now drives whether a policy is written or renewed.
Lee County is not in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone that covers Miami-Dade and Broward, but it sits in a wind-borne debris region, and the current Florida Building Code sets the coastal design wind speed here well above what a 1990s roof was built for. Re-roofs in the unincorporated county are permitted through Lee County Community Development. Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Estero, Sanibel, and Fort Myers Beach each run their own permit desk, and the area pages on this site name the right one.
Many Florida homeowner policies cover sudden wind damage to a roof. Wear, age, and long-term leaks usually are not covered, and a named-storm deductible is a percentage of the dwelling coverage rather than a flat amount. Nobody on this site can tell you what your policy will pay or how an insurer will decide a claim. What a contractor can do is photograph the damage, write an itemized scope, and note the roof's age and material so the conversation with the adjuster is about facts. Florida changed its claim rules in 2022, and the deadlines are shorter than they used to be. Before the next storm, Lee County Emergency Management is where evacuation zones and shelter openings are posted.
Fort Myers and its neighborhoods along McGregor Boulevard and the river, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, North Fort Myers, Estero, Bonita Springs, Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, and the communities in between from Iona to Gateway. See the full list of nearby communities on the areas page.
Call (239) 306-8745 to be connected with an independent local roofing contractor anywhere in Lee County.