Unified Steel roof brings peace of mind, cost savings to Florida condo owners

By Westlake Royal Roofing Solutions.

This new roof gave homeowners long-term savings, lower insurance costs and immediate energy savings. 

Like many multifamily properties in Florida, Summergate Condominiums in Orlando was facing a quandary: How to replace the community’s aging roofs while navigating increasingly extreme weather conditions and tightening insurance standards. Never an easy task for a homeowner’s association made up of 216 different units in six separate buildings. After researching options and connecting with Stratus Roofing, the Summergate Condominium Association ultimately landed on a stone-coated steel roof as the ideal solution for durability, energy efficiency and return on investment.

Options for an aging roof

Completed 2001, the Summergate community comprises six three-story garden-style condo buildings, with two- and three-bedroom units of 1,100 to 1,400 square feet each. In 2019, the aging roof structures were starting to fail and leak. Maintenance costs were climbing and the existing truss system and sheathing were no longer code compliant to handle tile. And, of course Florida, insurance costs were rising.

The homeowner’s association worked with Orlando-based Stratus Roofing on a replacement project, and after researching various options for metal, asphalt and tile, chose Unified Steel™ stone-coated roofing from Westlake Royal Building Products™ for its combination of light weight, extreme weather resistance, energy efficiency and long life span.

The stone-coated steel roof — Pinecrest Shake in the Harborwood color — is made with granite stone chips adhered to 26-gauge steel using an acrylic polymer adhesive. The result is all the benefits of a metal roofing system but with a look of hand-split shakes well-suited to the building style and neighborhood.

Long-term cost savings

Unified Steel roofing offers a long service life and carries a 50-year transferable limited warranty. And it’s built for durability: The roofing has a 120-mph wind resistance rating and meets Florida wind requirements for the High Velocity Hurricane Zone, it has Class 4 hail protection and FM 4473 Very Severe Hail Performance. 

This translated into tremendous savings for the homeowners. “This particular community association saved approximately 25-30% on their insurance premiums, which is significant,” said Julieta Knapp, executive vice president for Stratus Roofing. “Knowing what’s happening in the insurance market with the extreme weather conditions that we get, this is a viable option not only for homeowners but also for community and multifamily associations.” Mitch Heitsch, regional sales manager for Unified Steel, added, "This is a product that holds up very well; it’s viewed very favorably by the insurance companies. We see massive price discounts because of that.”

So while stone-coated steel roofing has higher initial costs than some alternative materials, the long-term savings adds up quickly. “This was the cheapest option. It wasn’t the cheapest option on day one, but over 30 years it was by far the cheapest,” said Arthur Knapp, Owner of Stratus Roofing, noting that the stone-coated steel eliminates much of the typical maintenance budget and hurricane challenges thanks to its batten system and Class 4 hail protection. 

The immediate impact of a new roof

The homeowners in the Summergate community embraced the change. Along with long-term savings and lower insurance costs, they reported immediate energy savings. “The first thing that I noticed as a third-floor unit owner was energy decreases,” said Nick Johnson, president of the Summergate Community Association. “Right in the middle of the summer, my energy bill was almost $100 less than it normally would have been and that’s still tracking throughout the year.”

An active hurricane season in 2024 sealed the deal even further. “We had a lot of tropical storms that swept through the area and a couple of hurricanes as well — and we had no damage to our roof,” Nick said. “That was something I was concerned about. It was a new roofing system; you don’t know how it’s going to fare, you hope for the best — and we were dry. That’s the biggest thing I think we can ask for is dry homes after a hurricane.”

“This system is designed to keep water from getting underneath it. It’s one of the very few systems that have that,” said Arthur Knapp. “This matters greatly to the community because it means they don’t have constant leaks that we’re having to come repair. It matters to me as a contractor because I can now stand behind my work and I look great when he says, ‘I had a hurricane and I didn’t have a leak.’ It’s because he has the right system.”

After the replacement process and now living under the Unified Steel stone-coated steel roof, Johnson is more than pleased with the community’s decision. “I would tell board members who are in this position of having to replace their roofs that the Westlake stone-coated steel product is it. This is the product that you should be looking at first and foremost,” he said. “Your buildings will probably thank you in the long run — and you’ll thank Westlake for it for sure.”

Learn more about Unified Steel Stone Coated Roofing online.