My Safe Florida Homeand what it means for your roof
A state program that helps Florida homeowners harden their homes against hurricanes, and a plain explanation of where a licensed roofing contractor fits into it.
Understanding theMy Safe Florida Home grant
The My Safe Florida Home (MSFH) program is a state initiative designed to assist homeowners in strengthening their homes against natural disasters, primarily hurricanes. Established by the Florida Legislature, the program provides for a wind mitigation inspection and financial assistance toward hardening improvements for homeowners who qualify, particularly in vulnerable areas such as roofing.
Here in Jacksonville and along the Nassau County coast, that matters. A roof takes the wind, the rain and the salt air before any other part of the house does, and it is the component most likely to decide whether the rest of the building stays dry.
We are not the program and we do not administer it. We are the licensed contractor who does the roofing and wind-mitigation work a grant like this is typically used for.
Before you plan around itcheck the current rules
My Safe Florida Home is funded by the Florida Legislature session by session. Eligibility rules, award amounts and application windows have all changed between sessions, and windows have opened and closed on short notice. That is why you will not find a dollar figure or a deadline on this page. Anything we printed would be stale before you read it.
Confirm the current status on the program’s official state website, and confirm your own eligibility with them rather than with a contractor. Then call us about the roof.
What it coverswhere the roof is concerned
One of the key areas the MSFH program focuses on is roofing. Upgrading a roof to meet Florida Building Code requirements improves how the home holds up in a storm, and it is the kind of improvement insurers look at. These are the three roofing-related areas the program has addressed.
Roof replacement
Where a roof is outdated or damaged, the program is intended to help cover the cost of installing a newer, more resilient one that meets current code.
Wind mitigation
Measures that help a roof stand up to high winds: roof-to-wall connections, secondary water barriers, impact-resistant materials and the like.
Inspections and assessments
The program provides for a professional inspection to identify where a home can be strengthened, which is what an award is scoped against.
Where we come inand where we don't
We do the work. Roof replacement across shingle, metal and low-slope systems, decking and fastening to current code, secondary water barriers, and the flashing and connection details that decide how a roof behaves in high wind. We pull the permit with your county, city or municipality building department and we do not perform unpermitted work on your property.
We do not submit your application, we do not decide whether you qualify, and we will not guess at what an award might be worth. If someone tells you they can guarantee you grant money, be careful.
What we will give you is a free estimate, photos of whatever we find up there, and an honest answer about whether the roof needs replacing or can be repaired. The same thing we would tell you if the program did not exist.
The other routeto a lower premium: IBHS FORTIFIED
My Safe Florida Home is a grant programme. FORTIFIED is a building standard, and in Florida the two often end up pointed at the same goal, which is getting your insurer to charge you less.
FORTIFIED is a voluntary, beyond-code standard from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, built on more than twenty years of their research and real-world testing. A FORTIFIED Roof is not a product you buy. It is a specific set of upgrades, verified independently.
Per IBHS, a FORTIFIED designation may qualify a home for an annual wind mitigation credit that could lower the insurance premium. Whether it does, and by how much, depends entirely on your policy. Check with your insurance agent before you budget around it. We are roofers, not agents, and we are not going to quote you a saving we cannot stand behind.
Bryan Kinser, our owner, has completed the 2025 FORTIFIED Standard Roofing Contractor Exam, so we can build a roof to that standard when you want one. Two things worth being precise about: that is an individual training credential rather than a company certification, and the designation itself is awarded by an independent third-party evaluator that you select, not by us. We do the work; somebody else signs it off. That separation is the point of the programme.
What a FORTIFIED Roof actually requires
- Enhanced roof deck attachment
- Ring-shank nails at tighter spacing than code requires, which roughly doubles the uplift capacity of the deck.
- Sealed roof deck
- A secondary water barrier over the deck seams or the whole deck. If the covering comes off in a storm, IBHS puts the reduction in water intrusion at up to 95 percent.
- Locked-down edges
- Minimum 26-gauge drip edge, installed over the underlayment at tighter nail spacing, with the starter course fully adhered. Edges are where wind gets underneath.
- Wind- and rain-resistant attic vents
- Vents tested and rated to keep both wind and water out, rather than whatever came off the shelf.
- Impact-resistant shingles
- Optional, and rated on the IBHS scale rather than by the Class 4 label alone.
My Safe Florida Homequestions we get asked
My Safe Florida Home is a state program created by the Florida Legislature to help homeowners strengthen their homes against hurricanes. It provides for a wind-mitigation inspection and, for homeowners who qualify, financial assistance toward hardening improvements identified by that inspection. Roofing is one of the main areas it addresses, because the roof is usually the first thing a storm takes.
Broadly, roof replacement where the existing roof no longer meets current standards, wind-mitigation improvements such as better roof-to-wall connections and a secondary water barrier, and the inspection that identifies what a home needs. Exactly what is covered, and how much, is set by the program itself and has changed between legislative sessions. Read the current rules on the program's official state website before you plan around a number.
Call or text us and we will tell you exactly where we stand on that today, because programme participation is administered by the state and can change. What does not change is that we are a licensed Certified Roofing Contractor (CCC1335155) and Certified Building Contractor (CBC1270530) doing the roof replacement and wind-mitigation work these grants are typically used for, across Duval, Nassau, Clay and St. Johns counties.
No. The application is between you and the state. We are a roofing contractor, not an administrator of the program, and we will not tell you otherwise. What we can do is come out, inspect the roof, and give you a free written estimate with photos, which is the kind of documentation homeowners generally need when they are working out what their roof actually requires.
We do not publish that here, because it would be out of date almost immediately. My Safe Florida Home is funded by the Legislature session by session, and application windows have opened and closed on short notice in past years. Check the program's official state website for the current status rather than relying on any contractor's website, including ours.
It can. Florida insurers generally price wind mitigation features into homeowners' policies, which is why a wind mitigation inspection matters after the work is done. Whether your premium moves, and by how much, is entirely your insurer's call. Ask them directly before you count on a figure.
Start with the roofWe'll tell you what it needs
Call or text us and we'll come look at it. Free estimate, photos for your records, and a straight answer about repair versus replacement, whether or not a grant is part of your plan.
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