Hiring a roofer in Minneapolis: the DLI license, the permit, and what 18,000 roofing permits show

Minneapolis roofing in numbers

Roofing in Minneapolis is seasonal: the filing index runs from 16 in January to 243 in October (100 is an average month). A roofer quoting in late summer is quoting into its busiest stretch, so ask for a start date in the contract. Prices by job size are on the Minneapolis roofing cost page.

Which license a Minneapolis roofer needs

Minnesota's Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) licenses roofers. Its rule is that anyone who contracts with a homeowner for work in more than one special skill needs a residential building contractor or remodeler license, and that "roofers are required to obtain a license" even though roofing is one skill (DLI, read 22 October 2026). So the license to ask for is a DLI residential roofer, building contractor or remodeler license, never a City residential specialty license alone.

Check it in under five minutes on DLI's iMS lookup: choose "Continue as guest", enter the full license number from the quote, and read the status, the license type and any enforcement actions. The business name on the license should be the one on your contract. More on the state rules, the exemption certificate and the recovery fund is in the Minneapolis contractor license lookup.

The permit rule for a Minneapolis re-roof

A re-roof needs a permit. The City lists "Reroofs" among the exterior jobs eligible for its express limited permit, and the conditions say the applicant must be "a pre-approved licensed contractor for the City of Minneapolis", working on an existing one- or two-family home, who has confirmed with the City that the work qualifies (City of Minneapolis, read 23 October 2026). The roofer pulls it, not you. The FTC lists a contractor who asks the homeowner to get the permits as a scam sign (FTC, read October 2026).

Once the job is booked, search your address on the City's property information search: the permit should be there with the roofer's name on it, and after the final inspection, a final.

Red flags in the Minneapolis record

• A finished share below 75.6%. That is the 10th-percentile line among the 351 roofers with 10 or more Minneapolis permits; 19 of them finish under 70%. Ask a roofer below the line about its open permits, by address.
• A license that is no longer active. 171 roofing firms on Minneapolis permits (11.5%) matched a DLI license that is now expired, suspended or otherwise not active. Check today's status, not last year's.
• A firm that went quiet. 144 roofing firms with 5 or more permits filed none in the last 12 months. After a hailstorm, ask how long the firm has worked in the Twin Cities and for three Minneapolis addresses you can look up.
• A price far outside its neighbors. Half of Minneapolis roofers have a usual filed value between $9,660 and $16,057. A quote far outside that range needs a reason (a tear-off of several layers, a steep or flat roof, metal), not a refusal.
• Days to final far above 85. A roofer whose permits sit open for months leaves the roof uninspected and the paperwork for your sale unfinished.

The busiest Minneapolis roofers in the last 12 months

Ranked by roofing permits filed in the last 12 months of the window. This is volume, not quality: a busy firm has more records to read, which is all a rank like this can tell you.

The market is spread wide: the five busiest firms hold 13.2% of all roofing permits, and 38.0% of firms filed exactly one. Finished share, days to final and license status for each firm, the five above included, are on the compare list, where you choose the sort.

See every Minneapolis roofer by finished share and DLI license →

What the Minneapolis record does not tell you

A final inspection means the City signed off on code; it does not check the shingle manufacturer's installation spec, the warranty registration or the cleanup. Insurance never appears on a permit, so ask for a certificate naming you and phone the insurer. We match firms to DLI by business name, so 12.5% of roofing firms had no match; unmatched is not unlicensed. A roofer from a suburb may have a long record in Bloomington or Saint Paul and a short one here; for Saint Paul, see hiring a roofer in Saint Paul. The national checklist with ten questions is in hiring a roofer, and the material choice in metal roof vs shingles in Minneapolis.