About Elmer Cook Construction & Roofing
Elmer Cook Sr. started the business in 1972, and his son Elmer Lesley Cook II has been running it since. That's two generations on the same Fort Walton Beach footprint, now more than fifty years in, which is a genuinely unusual thing to find in a Gulf Coast roofing market that sees its share of operators come and go after a bad storm season.
The shop pivoted to metal roofing in 1995 and has built most of its reputation there since. That's not a small detail on the Panhandle. Standing-seam metal systems earn the highest wind-uplift ratings under the Florida Building Code, and a well-installed metal roof in this climate can run forty or fifty years without a replacement conversation. For a homeowner looking past asphalt toward something that actually holds up to Gulf-driven wind loads, Elmer Cook's thirty-plus years of metal-specific work matters more than a generalist's credentials.
The BBB profile has been clean since the late 1990s, and the Angi ratings sit at the top of the scale. The broader review picture across platforms is more mixed, which is worth acknowledging honestly. It's not a red flag for a fifty-year-old shop with this volume of work, but it does mean the right move before signing is asking for two or three recent customer references on metal installs in Okaloosa County specifically.
Elmer Cook II holds the Florida certified roofing contractor license as qualifying agent, and the license is current. When you call, ask for Elmer directly, mention you're considering a metal roof, and ask him to walk you through what he's installed in your wind zone in the past year. That conversation will tell you most of what you need to know.