FAQ
Questions we get on the phone
Grouped by trade. If your question is not here, call the office and you will reach someone who can answer it rather than take a message.
General
- Are you licensed and insured?
- Yes. Qualitech holds six certified Florida state licenses covering roofing, electrical, solar, building, plumbing and air conditioning, and carries general liability and workers' compensation insurance. Every license number is printed on our proposals and listed on this site so you can verify it at myfloridalicense.com.
- Do you charge for estimates?
- No. Inspections and written estimates are free and carry no obligation. You keep the estimate whether or not you hire us.
- What areas do you serve?
- Broward and Palm Beach counties, from Weston and Southwest Ranches up through Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach and Deerfield Beach to Delray, Boynton, Lake Worth, Wellington and Palm Beach. If your city is not on our list, call us, because we may already be working nearby.
- What are your hours, and what about emergencies?
- The office is open Monday through Saturday, 8am to 8pm, and closed Sunday. For active leaks and storm damage outside those hours, call the main number and leave a message with your address; emergency tarping is dispatched as crews are available.
- Do you pull the permits?
- Yes, on every job that needs one. We file with your municipality, schedule the inspections, meet the inspector and close the permit out. An open permit becomes a problem when you sell the house, so we do not leave them open.
- Do you offer financing?
- Yes, through home improvement lending partners. We can include an approved monthly payment with your estimate. Qualitech is not a lender, so rates and terms come from the finance partner and are disclosed by them in writing.
Roofing
- How do I know whether I need a repair or a replacement?
- It depends on where the failure is and how the deck looks underneath, not on age alone. If damage is confined to one area, the roof is inside its service life and the decking is dry, a repair is the right call. Leaks in several places, aged underlayment or a stack of past repairs point to replacement. We photograph what we find and show you before recommending either.
- How long does a roof replacement take?
- Shingle roofs on a typical single-family home usually run two to four working days. Tile takes longer, often seven to twelve, because tear-off, dry-in and tile loading are separate stages with an inspection between them. Flat and low-slope work depends on how much insulation and drainage has to be rebuilt. Your estimate gives a working-day count, and we tell you if it changes.
- How long should a roof last in South Florida?
- As a working range: architectural shingle 15 to 20 years, concrete or clay tile 30 to 35 years with the underlayment replaced along the way, and metal 35 to 40 years. Ultraviolet load and salt air here shorten every one of those figures compared with inland states.
- Will insurance pay for my roof?
- Carriers generally cover sudden damage from a covered event such as a storm, hail or a fallen tree, and generally do not cover wear from age or deferred maintenance. We document the damage in the format adjusters expect and will meet your adjuster on site, but the coverage decision is your carrier's, not ours.
- What happens if you find rotten decking?
- We price replacement sheathing per sheet in the original estimate, so you already know the unit cost before we open the roof. We photograph what we find, tell you the count and get your approval before installing it.
- Do you clean up the nails?
- Yes. Debris is hauled and we run a magnet sweep over the driveway, walkways and lawn before we leave, then again at final walkthrough.
Electrical
- My insurer says my panel has to be replaced. Is that normal?
- It is very common in South Florida. Carriers frequently refuse to renew until an obsolete or recalled panel is replaced and the service is brought current. Send us the inspection report and we will quote the electrical items line by line and provide the documentation the carrier needs afterwards.
- How long does a panel or service upgrade take?
- Most residential panel replacements are a one-day job, with a planned power interruption during the changeover and the utility disconnect and reconnect scheduled around it. Larger service upgrades that involve a new mast or meter can add a day.
- Can you install an EV charger?
- Yes. We run a dedicated circuit sized to your vehicle and charger, perform a load calculation to confirm the existing service can carry it, and add a disconnect where the layout requires one. If the service cannot carry it, we will tell you what the upgrade costs before you buy the charger.
- Can you wire a generator so I can use it during an outage?
- Yes, with an interlock kit or a transfer switch so the generator feeds the panel without backfeeding the utility line. Feeding a house through an extension cord or a suicide cord is both a fire risk and a serious hazard to line workers.
- Do I need a permit for electrical work?
- For panel changes, service upgrades, new circuits and rewiring, yes. Swapping a fixture or a device usually does not need one. We tell you which category your job falls into and pull the permit when it does.
Solar
- Should I replace my roof before installing solar?
- If the roof has fewer than roughly ten years of service left, yes. Removing and resetting an array later to replace the roof underneath costs real money and puts a second set of penetrations in a brand-new roof. We hold both licenses, so we can quote the sequence honestly instead of selling you the array and leaving the roof to someone else.
- How do you size the system?
- From twelve months of your utility bills, your usage pattern through the day, the roof's structural capacity and how shade moves across it. Roof area is a constraint, not a target, because we are sizing to your consumption, not to the space available.
- Will solar leak my roof?
- A penetration that is flashed properly does not leak; one that is caulked and hoped for does. Our roofing crew flashes every penetration, which is the practical reason to use a contractor who holds a roofing license rather than a solar-only installer.
- Do I still need the utility after installing solar?
- Yes, for a grid-tied system. You remain connected and draw power at night and on heavy-cloud days, with an interconnection agreement covering what you export. Battery storage reduces that dependence during outages but does not remove the connection.
- What incentives are available?
- Florida exempts solar equipment from state sales tax and excludes the added value from residential property tax assessment. Federal incentives change with legislation and depend on your tax situation. We will tell you what is current when we quote and we will tell you to confirm it with your tax advisor, because we are contractors rather than accountants.
General contracting
- Do you subcontract the work?
- Roofing, electrical and solar are our own licensed crews. Specialty trades such as cabinetry or flooring may be brought in, and when they are, they are supervised on our schedule and under our contract, not handed to you as a separate vendor.
- How long does an addition or remodel take?
- Permitting alone can take several weeks depending on the municipality and how many revisions the plans require. Construction on a room addition typically runs eight to twelve weeks after the permit is issued. We give you both timelines separately so the permitting wait is not a surprise.
- How do change orders work?
- In writing, priced and approved before the work happens. If we open a wall and find something the estimate did not anticipate, we stop, photograph it, price it and get your sign-off. Nothing gets added to the invoice you have not already agreed to.
- Can you handle insurance restoration work?
- Yes. Storm restoration that spans roof, openings and interior is exactly the case for a single building contractor, because otherwise the scope crosses three companies. We document for the adjuster and manage the permit package end to end.
Plumbing
- How do I know whether my house needs a repipe?
- Age and material, mostly. Galvanised steel supply from before about 1960 and polybutylene from roughly 1978 to 1995 both fail from the inside out, so falling pressure, discoloured water and repeat pinhole leaks are the house telling you the pipe itself is done. Once a system starts leaking in more than one place, patching becomes the more expensive answer.
- How long does a whole-house repipe take?
- Most single-family repipes run three to five working days, plus drywall patching and paint. We open the walls in the smallest number of places that still allows a proper run, pressure test before anything is closed, and the city inspects it. Water is off during working hours, not overnight.
- Do you have to break the slab to fix a slab leak?
- Not always, and it should not be the first proposal. We locate the leak acoustically and with pressure testing first, then compare a spot repair against rerouting the line overhead. On an older system a reroute is often both cheaper and less disruptive than opening the floor.
- Tank or tankless water heater?
- Tankless saves space and standby energy but usually needs a larger gas line or a heavier electrical feed, which is a real cost. In a house that already has adequate service it is a good answer. In a house that would need a panel upgrade to support it, a modern tank heater is often the better value, and we will tell you which case you are in.
- Do you pull permits for plumbing work?
- For repipes, water heater replacements, sewer laterals and remodel rough-in, yes, in our own name under CFC 1431872. Unpermitted plumbing is the sort of thing that surfaces during a sale, and it surfaces as your problem.
Air conditioning
- How do I know what size system my house needs?
- From a load calculation, not from the tonnage of the old unit. The old unit may have been wrong for twenty years. The calculation works room by room from square footage, insulation, glazing and orientation, and it is the difference between a house that is comfortable and one that is cold and humid at the same time.
- Is a bigger system better?
- No, and in Florida it is actively worse. An oversized system reaches temperature quickly and shuts off, which means it never runs long enough to remove humidity. You get a house that is cool and clammy, and humidity is what damages flooring, trim and air quality.
- Can I replace only the outdoor unit?
- You can, but you usually should not. Condenser and air handler are rated as a matched pair, so putting a new condenser on an old handler generally gives you neither the efficiency you paid for nor the warranty you expected. When one half is at end of life, we price both and show you the difference honestly.
- Why is water dripping from my ceiling near the air handler?
- Almost always a blocked condensate drain. The pan overflows because the line clogged with biological growth, which is routine here and preventable with treatment at maintenance. If there is no secondary pan or float switch, the first sign is the ceiling stain rather than a shut-off, and that is worth correcting.
- Does a new system need electrical work?
- Often, yes: a correctly sized breaker, a new disconnect, sometimes a dedicated circuit that an older panel cannot accommodate. Most air conditioning companies stop there and tell you to hire an electrician. We hold EC 13011540, so it stays on one permit and one invoice.
Still have a question?
Call the office during business hours and ask it directly.