FORTIFIED Roofing · Baldwin & Mobile County, AL
A FORTIFIED roof is built to stay on the house
Most roofs on this coast are built to code and code assumes the shingles stay put. FORTIFIED assumes they won't. It is a documented, beyond-code standard from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, and it is the only roof upgrade in Alabama that comes with a certificate your insurance company is required by law to pay attention to. Here is what the standard actually requires, what it costs extra, and how to check any roofer's credential in thirty seconds — including ours.
BBB A+ · accredited since 1988 · licensed and insured in Alabama
What it is
A standard, not a product
FORTIFIED is a set of construction requirements written by IBHS — the research arm the insurance industry funds — after decades of testing real houses in a lab that generates hurricane-force wind, and then checking those results against what actually happened to real neighborhoods after real storms. It exists because the failure pattern is boringly consistent: the roof goes first, water follows it in, and the house is lost from the inside out long after the wind quits.
Because it is a standard and not a product, nobody sells you a FORTIFIED roof off a shelf. You get one by having a credentialed contractor build to the requirements, documenting it while the roof is open, and having an independent evaluator confirm it. What you own at the end is a designation certificate tied to your address.
Three designation levels
FORTIFIED Roof
The entry level and the one almost every existing Gulf Coast home starts with. It targets the roof by itself — the deck, how the deck is attached, the edges, and how water is kept out once the covering is gone. It is the level a re-roof can reach without touching the rest of the house.
FORTIFIED Silver
Everything in FORTIFIED Roof, plus the openings and attached structures — gable ends, soffits, chimneys, attached porches and carports. Silver is where a house starts being treated as a whole pressurized box instead of a lid on a building.
FORTIFIED Gold
Everything in Silver, plus a continuous load path — the engineered chain of connections that ties the roof through the walls and down to the foundation. Gold is the strongest designation and generally the biggest project.
Level definitions per IBHS, fortifiedhome.org.
Want to know whether your roof can get to the standard? That starts with somebody on it.
Why it matters here
The storm record your roof lives in
Since 1950, 52 named systems have tracked within 100 miles of Mobile Bay, 14 of them still at hurricane strength when they got here. That is not a scare statistic — it is the NOAA best-track record, and it is the design condition every roof between Fairhope and Dauphin Island is actually built against, whether or not it was built for it.
Severe hail reports
67 Baldwin
70 Mobile
Baldwin and Mobile County, 2000–2025
Damaging wind reports
210 Baldwin
267 Mobile
Baldwin and Mobile County, 2000–2025
Peak recorded wind gust (mph)
120 Baldwin
90 Mobile
Highest gust on the SPC record for each county
Source: NOAA SPC severe-report database and NOAA HURDAT2. Full county-by-county record on our Gulf Coast storm data page.
What the standard requires
Five things a normal re-roof doesn't do
A code-minimum roof and a FORTIFIED roof can look identical from the driveway. The difference is under the shingles and in the paperwork.
A sealed roof deck
The seams in the decking are sealed and the deck gets a full secondary water barrier. If the shingles come off in a storm, the house still doesn't take water. This is the single biggest reason FORTIFIED roofs come through hurricanes with dry ceilings.
Stronger deck attachment
The decking is fastened to the framing on an upgraded schedule, which is what determines how much uplift the roof takes before it starts to peel.
Enhanced edges
Drip edge and edge metal are upgraded and fastened tighter along every edge. Wind gets under a roof at the edge first, and a roof that loses its edge loses the rest quickly.
Wind-rated covering and detailing
The covering, the ridge and hip details, the vents, and the pipe penetrations all have to be rated and detailed for the wind zone the house sits in.
Documentation an independent evaluator can check
The standard is proven with photographs and product data captured as the roof goes on, then reviewed by a third-party FORTIFIED Evaluator. Work that isn't documented while it's open can't be designated after the fact.
Requirements described in general terms and sourced to IBHS, fortifiedhome.org/roof. The controlling technical documents are IBHS's, not ours — your evaluator works from the current version.
Don't take our word for it — look us up
Any roofer on the coast can say the word “fortified.” The FORTIFIED program keeps a public directory of every contractor and every credentialed provider, and you can search it yourself in about thirty seconds. Here is exactly what you will find when you look us up.
Our listing is the company record and the provider record together: the company carries a compliance status, and Dane DeValk carries the individual credential behind it. Search either the company name or the provider ID.
Open the official FORTIFIED directory- Company
- Liberty Roofing Company Inc (011483)
- Company status
- Compliant
- Credentialed provider
- Dane DeValk — ID R011603
- Designation
- Roofer — Active
Read from the FORTIFIED Verify a Pro directory on 2026-08-17. Statuses change — check it yourself before you sign anything, with us or with anybody else.
One thing we are not: your evaluator
A FORTIFIED designation is documented by an independent, third-party FORTIFIED Evaluator — a separate credential from ours, held by someone with no stake in the roof job. Liberty is the roofer. We build to the standard and we hand the evaluator the photographs and documentation the standard calls for. We do not inspect our own work for the designation, and you should be suspicious of any roofer who says they do both.
Start to certificate
How a FORTIFIED roof actually happens
Six steps, and two of them belong to someone other than your roofer. That separation is the point.
- 01
Start with an evaluation
An independent FORTIFIED Evaluator inspects the house and tells you what your roof needs to reach the designation. The evaluator is hired by you, not by us, and the fee is yours.
- 02
Scope and quote the work
We take the evaluator's findings and quote the actual roof — including the parts of the standard that don't show up on a normal re-roof bid, like the sealed deck and the upgraded edge metal.
- 03
Build it, and document it as we go
The photographs and product data the standard requires get captured while the deck is open. There is no way to add them later, which is why the paperwork discipline matters as much as the workmanship.
- 04
The evaluator reviews and submits
Your evaluator reviews the documentation against the standard and submits it. We supply what they ask for; we don't grade our own roof.
- 05
IBHS issues the designation certificate
The certificate is the document with real money attached to it. Keep the original and know where it is.
- 06
Take the certificate to your insurance agent
The certificate is what triggers the Alabama premium credit. Designations run on a renewal cycle — five years for a roof designation — so calendar the expiration the day you get it.
What it costs
Where the extra money goes
We are not going to put a number on your roof from a web page. Anybody who does is quoting a chart, not a house. What we can tell you is exactly which line items make a FORTIFIED re-roof cost more than a standard one, so you can read a bid and know whether the roofer actually priced the standard.
The evaluation fee, paid separately
The independent evaluator is a separate line item you pay directly, before and after the work. It is not part of the roof price and no roofer can waive it.
Sealing the deck
Taping or sealing every seam and running a full secondary water barrier is labor and material a standard re-roof does not include.
The fastening schedule
An upgraded deck-attachment schedule means more fasteners and more labor across the whole deck, and often re-nailing decking that a normal job would leave alone.
Edge metal and detailing
Upgraded drip edge and edge metal cost more than builder-grade, and the detailing at ridges, hips, vents, and penetrations takes longer to do to spec.
What the evaluator finds
Soft or delaminated decking, an undersized existing nailing pattern, or vents that can't be brought to spec all add scope. This is the single biggest swing factor and nobody can price it before the evaluation.
The roof itself
Square footage, pitch, the number of valleys and penetrations, and the covering you choose move the number the same way they do on any roof.
The offsetting side of the ledger is the Alabama premium credit, which is mandated rather than negotiated — we break down how that math really works, including why a percentage off “the wind portion” is not a percentage off your bill.
Two different gates
FORTIFIED with the grant, or without it
Strengthen Alabama Homes is a state grant program that pays up to $10,000 toward a FORTIFIED roof, with no income cap (as of 2026-08-17, source: Alabama Dept. of Insurance (SAH program document)). It is genuinely good money and worth chasing if your timing works. It is also fiercely competitive, awarded first-come first-served on published quarterly dates, and it requires you to hire from the state's own approved-contractor list.
Liberty holds the FORTIFIED credential and is not on that state list — those are two different gates, and we are candid about which one we're through. If the grant is what you want, we'll tell you how to go get it. If the grant window is closed, your roof can't wait a quarter, or you simply don't want to run a state application process, the standard is available to you today without any of it.
Common questions
FORTIFIED roofing questions
- What is a FORTIFIED roof?
- FORTIFIED is a beyond-code construction standard developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) for homes in high-wind and hurricane regions. A FORTIFIED roof has a sealed roof deck, an upgraded deck-attachment schedule, enhanced edges, and wind-rated coverings and details — and, critically, the work is documented and reviewed by an independent third-party FORTIFIED Evaluator, who submits it for the designation. It is a documented standard with a certificate at the end, not a marketing term a roofer can apply to their own work.
- Is Liberty Roofing actually FORTIFIED-certified?
- Yes, and you can check it yourself rather than taking our word for it. In the official FORTIFIED "Verify a Pro" directory, Liberty Roofing Company Inc is listed as company 011483 with a status of Compliant, and Dane DeValk is listed as a credentialed provider, ID R011603, Designation: Roofer, Status: Active. That listing was read live on 2026-08-17. Search the directory for the company name or the provider ID and you will see the same record.
- Do you do the FORTIFIED evaluation too?
- No, and no honest roofer would. The designation depends on an independent, third-party FORTIFIED Evaluator with no stake in the roof job. You hire the evaluator; we build to the standard and hand over the documentation the evaluator asks for. A contractor who offers to both build and certify your roof is describing something the program does not allow.
- How much does a FORTIFIED roof cost?
- More than a standard re-roof on the same house, and the gap depends on what your deck looks like once it's open. The extra cost lives in the sealed deck, the upgraded fastening schedule, the enhanced edge metal, the detailing, and the separate evaluator fee you pay directly. What the evaluator finds — soft decking, an undersized existing nailing pattern — is the biggest swing and can't be priced honestly before the evaluation. We quote after the evaluation, on your actual roof, not off a chart.
- Is a FORTIFIED roof worth it in Alabama?
- The insurance side is not a sales claim here — it is state law. Alabama requires insurers to discount the hurricane portion of a premium by 35–60% and the other-wind portion by 20–35% for a designated home (Ala. Code § 27-31D-2.1). Those are percentages of portions of a premium, not of the whole bill, so what you actually save depends on your policy and how close to the water you are. Add the part that doesn't show on a bill: a sealed deck keeps water out of the house after the shingles are gone.
- Does the designation expire?
- Designations run on a renewal cycle — five years for a roof designation — after which the home has to be re-evaluated to keep it current. Calendar the expiration the day the certificate arrives, because an expired designation is the quiet way homeowners lose a premium credit they already paid for.
- Do I need the state grant to get a FORTIFIED roof?
- No. FORTIFIED is a construction standard and Strengthen Alabama Homes is a separate state grant program that pays for one. You can build to the standard any time, with any FORTIFIED-credentialed roofer, without touching the grant. Liberty is credentialed on the standard and is not a Strengthen Alabama Homes program contractor — the two are different gates, and we explain the difference on a page of its own.
Keep reading
Related reading
The rest of the coastal-roofing picture, from what a storm actually does to a roof to what your insurer owes you afterward.
FORTIFIED insurance discount
The Alabama-mandated premium credits, what an endorsement is, and how you actually claim it.
Read itFORTIFIED vs. the state grant
A standard and a grant program are not the same thing. Here's the line between them.
Read itWhat a FORTIFIED roof costs
The increment over a code roof, what drives it, and the two offsets that change the math.
Read itFORTIFIED requirements, plainly
The Roof/Silver/Gold stack, what an evaluator documents, and what an existing roof can retrofit.
Read itRoof replacement
What a full tear-off and rebuild includes when you're not chasing a designation.
Read itMetal roofing
Standing-seam and exposed-fastener metal in a salt-air, high-wind climate.
Read itStorm damage repair
Hail, wind, and hurricane damage — documented for your claim, repaired for the next one.
Read itRoof insurance claims
How coverage, deductibles, and the claim process work on a Gulf Coast roof.
Read itTalk to a FORTIFIED-credentialed roofer
Get a straight answer about your roof
Tell us what you've got and what you're trying to accomplish — a designation, a premium credit, a roof that survives the next one, or all three. We'll tell you what the standard would take on your house and what it wouldn't. No pressure, and no charge for the conversation.
BBB A+ · accredited since 1988 · licensed and insured in Alabama