Who licenses roofers in the states we cover
We hold roofing permits for 28 cities in 12 states. Whether there is a license to check depends on the state.
| State | License or registration to ask for | Look it up |
|---|---|---|
| California | CSLB C-39 Roofing, or a B General Building license | CSLB Check a License |
| Colorado | No state license. Boulder (D-2 roofing), Denver (supervisor certificate) and PPRBD in Colorado Springs (B-D specialty) license locally | Boulder search, PPRBD search |
| Florida | DBPR roofing contractor, certified (statewide) or registered (one county or city) | MyFloridaLicense |
| Illinois | IDFPR roofing license, number starting 104-; limited covers homes | IDFPR lookup |
| Massachusetts | Construction Supervisor License, Specialty: Roof Covering; plus HIC registration for owner-occupied 1–4 unit homes | Contractor Hub |
| Minnesota | DLI residential roofer license (or building contractor or remodeler) | DLI iMS lookup |
| Missouri | No state license; St. Louis requires a city business license only | St. Louis business license search |
| Ohio | No state license for house work; Cleveland and Cincinnati register contractors | Cincinnati search; Cleveland Building & Housing, (216) 664-2282 |
| Texas | None: TDLR's list of licensed programs does not include roofers | City permit record only |
| Utah | DOPL S280 Roofing, or an R100/B100 general license | DOPL Verify a License |
| Vermont | OPR residential contractor registration for jobs over $10,000 | OPR Find a Professional |
| Washington | L&I contractor registration: specialty ($15,000 bond) or general ($30,000) | L&I Verify |
Two details trip people up. A Florida registered roofer is licensed only in its county or city (DBPR FAQs), so check the registration covers yours. And a roofing-only license does not cover anything else: a C-39 in California or a roof-covering supervisor license in Massachusetts does not let the firm take on your addition.
Ten questions to ask a roofer, and how to check each answer
| Ask | A good answer | How to check it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. What is your license or registration number? | A number in the roofer's business name, in a class that covers roofs | The board in the table above |
| 2. Who pulls the permit? | "We do, in our name" | The permit on the city portal once issued; the contractor field should name this firm |
| 3. How many roofs have you permitted here in the last three years? | A number | The firm's page here: permits by year. Search the name from the permit history guide |
| 4. How many of those passed final? | Near or above your city's share (table below) | Finished share on the firm page |
| 5. How long from permit to final, usually? | Near your city's usual days | Days to final on the firm page |
| 6. What will you do if the decking is rotten? | A price per sheet, written into the contract | The contract |
| 7. Tear-off or overlay? | A clear answer, with the number of layers stated | The contract; the permit on the city portal shows what was filed |
| 8. What is the deposit and schedule? | Payments tied to stages; in California no more than $1,000 or 10% down (B&P § 7159.5) | The contract |
| 9. Who is your insurer? | A certificate naming you, from an insurer you can call | Phone the insurer, not the number on the certificate |
| 10. What address are you based at? | A local street address | The address on the license record and on the permit |
Questions 3 to 5 take about five minutes on this site. A roofer who will not name its business exactly cannot be looked up at all, and that is an answer too.
Red flags the permit record can show
| City | Roofing permits | Firms | Usual filed value | Usual days to final | Reached final | 10th-percentile firm | Firms under 70% finished |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami, FL | 6,585 | 908 | $16,250 | 38 | 97.5% | 92.7% | 0 of 75 |
| Minneapolis, MN | 18,620 | 1,483 | $13,000 | 85 | 93.0% | 75.6% | 19 of 351 |
| Saint Paul, MN | 16,928 | 1,322 | $12,600 | 128 | 76.2% | 42.5% | 113 of 290 |
| San Francisco, CA | 9,537 | 1,072 | $15,275 | 36 | 87.3% | 62.2% | 20 of 135 |
| Sacramento County, CA | 5,397 | 748 | $16,575 | 19 | 88.1% | 78.0% | 7 of 117 |
| Cleveland, OH | 4,923 | 586 | $10,500 | 91 | 78.3% | 62.2% | 25 of 97 |
The 10th-percentile column is the finished share of the firm one-tenth of the way up from the bottom, among roofers with 10 or more permits in that city. Compare a roofer only with its own city: each city records finals differently.
1. The permit is in your name, or there is none. The FTC lists "Scammers ask you to get any required building permits" among its scam signs (FTC, read October 2026). On the city portal, the contractor field should name the roofer. One exception: Seattle needs no re-roof permit on a one- or two-family house when the envelope is not changed, but does for repairs over 500 square feet (SDCI, read October 2026), so "no permit" is a question for your permit office before it is a verdict.
2. Its finished share is below its city's 10th percentile. In Saint Paul that line is 42.5%, and 113 of 290 roofers with 10 or more permits finish under 70%. In Miami the line is 92.7%. Ask about the open permits by address.
3. Its jobs take far longer than the city's usual days to final. Minneapolis roofing permits usually close in 85 days and Sacramento County's in 19. A roofer whose usual is several times that leaves roofs uninspected for months.
4. The price sits far outside what its neighbors file. In San Francisco the middle half of roofers have a usual filed value between $11,000 and $19,600; in Minneapolis, $9,660 to $16,057. Filed values are what the contractor told the city, not the contract price, so use them to ask "why is mine so different?", not to set a price.
5. The license lapsed or the firm went quiet. 197 of the 1,322 Saint Paul roofing firms on permits now hold an expired, suspended or otherwise non-active license, and 144 Minneapolis roofing firms with 5 or more permits filed none in the last year. After a storm, also ask how long the firm has worked locally: the FTC's list starts with door-knockers who are "in the area".
See every Saint Paul roofer by finished share and license status →
After a storm: the insurance-claim rules
A roof paid for by an insurance claim brings its own rules, and Texas, which has no state roofing license, puts them in its Insurance Code instead. The Texas Department of Insurance says it is illegal for a contractor "to offer to waive, rebate, or absorb a property policyholder's deductible"; a contract of $1,000 or more that involves an insurance settlement must include a notice about it; your insurer may ask for proof that you paid the deductible; and "Texas doesn't allow a roofer or contractor to act as a public insurance adjuster on insurance claims", or to advertise that it would (TDI, updated 24 March 2025, read 21 October 2026). Report violations to the Texas Attorney General, 800-621-0508.
Texas cities show why the permit check matters there. In Tyler, 218 firms filed 2,980 roofing permits at a usual $19,054, and in Denton 247 firms filed 595; with no state roofing license to match, only 0.9% of Tyler roofing firms matched any active state license record. The permit, pulled in the roofer's name, and the firm's finished share are the public record you have. Denton closed out 90.0% of its roofing permits a year or more old, the usual one in 39 days.
What a clean record does not prove
A high finished share means inspectors signed off; it does not mean the roof was installed to the manufacturer's spec, that the flashing an inspector never saw is right, or that the warranty was registered. It says nothing about cleanup, nails in the driveway or how the crew treated you. Insurance never appears on a permit. A roofer new to your city has no record here at all, which is not the same as a bad one. Our copy updates about monthly; the city portal is the live record. If things go wrong mid-job, see roofer didn't finish the job; for the repair-or-replace decision, roof repair vs replacement.
How we know this
Counts, usual filed values and days to final come from each city's roofing permits over its three-year window (Saint Paul July 2022 to June 2025; the others October 2023 to September 2026). "Reached final" is the share of permits a year or more old that the city closed with a final; days to final is the median from issue to final. The 10th-percentile and under-70% columns use roofing firms with 10 or more permits; the filed-value range uses firms with 3 or more. License status is matched by name to the state file where we hold one (California, Minnesota, Florida); Cleveland has no license match. State rules are quoted from the boards and statutes under Sources, read 20 October 2026.
Numbers come from City of Minneapolis construction permits (CCS); City of Saint Paul approved building permits; San Francisco DBI building permits on one- and two-family homes, with the contractor from the city's permit contacts file; City of Miami building permits (since 2014); Sacramento County building permits on single-family, duplex and townhouse homes in the unincorporated county (the County's Accela permit layer); City of Cleveland building permits, data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- Does a roofer need a license?
It depends on the state. California (C-39), Florida (DBPR roofing contractor), Illinois (IDFPR, number starting 104-), Minnesota (DLI residential roofer) and Utah (S280) license roofers by trade; Washington requires contractor registration with a bond; Massachusetts requires a roof-covering supervisor license. Texas, Colorado, Missouri and Ohio have no state roofing license, so the city permit record is the main public check.
- Who should pull the roofing permit?
The roofer, in its own name. The FTC lists a contractor asking you to get the required permits as a sign of a home improvement scam, and a permit in your name makes you the party the city holds responsible for inspections.
- What finished share is normal for a roofer?
It depends on the city. 97.5% of Miami roofing permits a year or more old reached a final, against 76.2% in Saint Paul. Compare a roofer with its own city: among Saint Paul roofers with 10 or more permits, the 10th-percentile firm finished 42.5%.
- How long should a roofing permit take to close?
The usual roofing permit reached its final in 19 days in Sacramento County, 38 in Miami, 85 in Minneapolis and 128 in Saint Paul. Most of that is waiting for the inspection to be booked, so a much longer gap is a question for the roofer, not proof of a problem.
- Can a roofer pay or waive my insurance deductible?
Not in Texas: the Texas Department of Insurance says it is illegal for a contractor to offer to waive, rebate or absorb a policyholder's deductible, that your insurer may ask for proof you paid it, and that a roofer may not act as your public adjuster. Report offers to the Texas Attorney General at 800-621-0508. In other states, ask your insurer before you accept such an offer.
- Is a roofer with no permits in my city a bad sign?
Not by itself; it means you cannot check its work here. Ask for addresses in nearby cities and look them up on those cities' portals. In Saint Paul, 105 roofing firms with 5 or more permits filed none in the last 12 months of the window, which is the pattern worth asking about.
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- How long does a roof last? Lifespans by material, and how many roofs get replaced
- How many contractor quotes should you get? Three, and how to tell if they're in range
- Roof replacement cost in 2026: what roofing permits were filed at in 16 cities
- What's a good completion rate for a contractor? The benchmarks from 12 trades and cities
For one city
- Licensing Classifications — CSLB (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Check a License — CSLB (accessed 2026-10-20)
- California Business and Professions Code § 7159.5 (2025 edition, via Justia) (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Construction Industry FAQs — Florida DBPR (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Verify a License — Florida DBPR (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Roofing contractor consumer brochure — IDFPR (accessed 2026-10-20)
- IDFPR license lookup (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Who needs a roofer license? — Minnesota DLI (accessed 2026-10-20)
- License and registration lookup (iMS) — Minnesota DLI (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Learn about different construction supervisor licenses — Mass.gov (accessed 2026-10-20)
- HIC contractor search — MA Contractor Hub (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Register as a Contractor — Washington L&I (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Verify a Contractor — Washington L&I (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Re-Roof Permit — Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Programs Licensed and Regulated by TDLR (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Contractor application, all classifications — Utah DOPL (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Residential contractor FAQs — Vermont OPR (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Find a Registered Contractor — City of Cincinnati / CAGIS (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Department of Building & Housing — City of Cleveland (accessed 2026-10-20)
- How To Avoid a Home Improvement Scam — FTC Consumer Advice (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Roofing and insurance: know the law — Texas Department of Insurance (updated 3/24/2025) (accessed 2026-10-21)
- Boulder licensed-contractor search (Customer Self-Service) (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Contractor search — Pikes Peak Regional Building Department (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Verify a License — Utah DOPL (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Find a Professional — Vermont OPR (accessed 2026-10-20)
- Business License Search — City of St. Louis (accessed 2026-10-20)