Save on Insurance
T Ryan Contracting Serving Broward, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties
Many homeowner insurance providers give discounts based on your roof’s construction. Ask T.Ryan Contracting what you can do to mitigate these costs on your particular roof. Our dedication to combining commercial quality standards with cutting-edge technology and continuing education allow us to provide you with the highest quality roofing systems on the market.
What is a Mitigation Inspection?
After seven major hurricanes during the 2004-2005 hurricane seasons damaged much of Florida’s properties insurance companies rated all buildings at a maximum risk, unless proven otherwise. Since October of 2006 the only way to prove your building is not a major risk is to have a mitigation inspection performed showing what steps have been taken to reduce damages from a storm. This inspection must be performed by a specially licensed certified contractor.
What is the Wind Mitigation Form?
The Wind Mitigation Form is an inspection document listing 7 major areas of concern. This is the form Mitigation Inspectors use to certify the building and is universally accepted by all insurance carriers. The report has been revised multiple times with the latest version replacing all previous versions being released January 1st, 2012. This new form is more restrictive and is what the insurance company’s inspectors use.
How much can I save?
The mitigation savings are deducted from the wind portion of your homeowner’s policy, which makes up more than ½ of your yearly premium costs. Most customers can cut their annual insurance bill in half by making a few improvements to help “harden” their building. We suggest going online to the state’s insurance saving calculator for what these savings would look like on your own building.
What is “Hardening”?
Hardening is a term used to describe upgrades made to a building to make it more resistant to storm related effects and damages. Examples include:
Impact glass or hurricane shutters
Straps or clips added at the roof to wall connection area to prevent the roof structure from blowing off
A building constructed with a hip sloped roof
Roofs installed with extra fasteners to prevent wind blow-off
A Secondary Water Barrier installed under the roof system in the event the roofing materials are damaged
Re-nailing the roof decking to increase their wind uplift
How can T.Ryan Contracting help?
Out of the 7 main areas of inspection, T.Ryan Contracting can help with 5 of them. Most of the items will be upgraded as part of the standard roof replacement process and won’t involve extra costs. The remaining two areas are related to when and how the building itself was constructed.
What are the 7 main Mitigation Inspection areas?
Building Code: When the building was originally constructed it had to conform to the building code of that time. For the most generous deductions the building must have been constructed after March 1, 2002.
Roof Covering: Roof applications each have their own rating assembly number based on product and performance wind testing. Recently installed metal roofs have the greatest deductions for this category, but newly installed roofs all fair well.
Roof Deck Attachment: Plywood is the standard roof decking material. Deductions vary based on the type of and number of fasteners used. The optimal is a 8d ring shank nail fastened every 6 inches on center. See the next section “Deck Re-Fastening” for more information.
Roof to Wall Attachment: A critical point of failure during high wind events is where the roof trusses attach to the wall. This “roof to wall connection area” is a large focus of insurance re-inspectors. There have been many changes in this section of the form recently. The type of clip/strap, how it was installed, the number of fasteners and where the fasteners were installed are all important. Often times hurricane clips were installed, but were not fastened correctly. During a new roof installation this simple fix could net hundreds of dollars in annual savings. Ask Kelly Roofing about how we can help ensure you are getting the maximum discount.
Roof Geometry: If you have a hip roof you will get the maximum discount. Any perimeter with more than 10% not being of hip construction will fall into the “other” category and lose the discount. There is not much T.Ryan Contracting can do to help this one since its part of the building’s original design.
Secondary Water Resistance Barrier (SWR): There are two ways to achieve maximum discount here; a peel and stick underlayment installed directly to the roof’s decking or an expensive adhesive installed under the roof’s decking. T.Ryan Contracting installs Peel-&-Stick underlayments as part of our standard reroofing system.
Opening Protection: ALL openings including windows, doors, garage doors and skylights must be impact rated or have hurricane shutter protection available. This is the biggest area for discount available. Most people forget about skylights. That’s where T.Ryan Contracting can help as well . All of the skylights we install are impact rated for maximum insurance discount and protection.
Is there anything else I must know?
Inspectors look for the “weakest” point. If 99% of the building is constructed one way, but they missed a single fasteners, the entire building will be downgraded and you will have to pay more.
Everything must be documented. Insurance companies will not accept affidavits anymore. Only Certified Mitigation Inspections with photographs and permit records are accepted.
T.Ryan Contracting inc. properly documents every roof we install at no additional charge to customer.
Your old mitigation inspection is no longer valid. You will need a new one on the current form for the maximum discount. Insurance companies will say your old form is accepted to avoid having to give you the maximum discount.