How to Start a Roofing Business

Find out how your state regulates roofers

Your first call is to your state's contractor licensing board, and your second is to the building department in each city or county where you plan to work. Roofing licensing varies widely by state: some states license roofing contractors as their own category, some cover roofing under a broader contractor license or registration, some have no statewide requirement, and cities and counties can layer their own registration and permit rules on top.

Ask the board and the building department:

• Does the state license roofing as its own classification, cover it under a broader contractor license, or only require registration?
• Are there exam, experience, insurance or bond requirements before you can bid?
• Do residential and commercial roofing need different credentials?
• Is there a job size or dollar threshold below which no license is needed, and does it cover repairs as well as replacements?
• Does the city require its own contractor registration, and do re-roofs and repairs need a permit and inspection?
• What changes if you work in a neighboring state, or after a declared disaster?

Get the answers from the board's own website or in writing, keep copies, and show your license or registration number everywhere your state requires it.

Get insurance quotes before you price a roof

In roofing, insurance is a pricing input, not paperwork to sort out after the first sale. You need real quotes before you can set a labor rate that covers your costs.

General liability

General liability covers claims from third parties, such as a homeowner whose house is damaged or a passerby who gets hurt. Exclusions differ by policy, so ask the agent roofing-specific questions:

• How does the policy treat interior water damage if rain arrives in the middle of a tear-off?
• Is damage from falling debris, a dropped bundle or a ladder through a window covered?
• Are there exclusions for certain roof types, heights, or hot work such as torch-applied membranes?
• What limits do the general contractors and property managers you want to work for require on a certificate of insurance?

Workers' compensation

State law decides when you must carry workers' compensation, and the rules differ from state to state, so check yours with your state's workers' comp agency before you bid your first job or hire anyone. Ask your agent how the carrier will classify your roofing work, since the classification drives the rate, and describe the work accurately: tear-off, steep-slope or low-slope installs, and any torch or hot work.

Get a quote for your expected roofing payroll before you bid your first job, because the premium is part of every labor hour you sell. Fold it into your labor cost along with payroll taxes and other burden, the way the labor rate guide walks through.

Example: Say your agent quotes workers' comp at $20 per $100 of roofing payroll (a made-up rate; yours depends on your state, insurer and history). A roofer you pay $25 an hour then costs another $5 an hour in comp alone. If your crew puts 3 labor hours into each square, comp adds $15 per square, or $450 on a 30-square roof, before payroll taxes or anything else.

If you use subcontracted crews, collect their certificates of insurance before they set foot on a roof, and ask your agent how uninsured subs would be treated when your policy is audited. Whether a crew can legally be paid as subcontractors at all is a separate classification question (see independent contractor), so get it answered before you build your business around sub crews.

Vehicles and equipment

Confirm that the truck and trailer hauling shingles, ladders and tear-off debris are insured for business use, and ask what covers tools and equipment stolen from a job site or a parked trailer.

Build your fall protection program before the first job

Fall protection is where roofing compliance starts. The federal rules below say when protection is required, which systems count and how workers must be trained, and they become your legal duty once you have employees on roofs. Build the program before your first job anyway, so the gear and the habits are in place before anyone else climbs a ladder for you.

What the residential rule requires

• The 6-foot trigger. Each employee doing residential construction work 6 feet or more above a lower level must be protected by a guardrail system, a safety net system or a personal fall arrest system, unless another part of 1926.501(b) allows an alternative ¹.
• The plan exception. If the employer can demonstrate that those systems are infeasible or create a greater hazard, it must write and follow a fall protection plan that meets 1926.502(k) ¹. That is an exception you have to be able to prove, not a default.
• The old interim policy is gone. OSHA cancelled its interim residential fall protection guidelines (STD 03-00-001), and residential employers must comply with 1926.501(b)(13) ². If you learned the trade from someone who worked under the old policy, check their habits against the current rule.
• Low-slope vs steep roofs. OSHA defines a low-slope roof as a slope of 4 in 12 or less and a steep roof as anything steeper than 4 in 12 ³. The permitted options differ for each, under 1926.501(b)(10) and (b)(11) ¹, so read the paragraph that matches the roofs you will actually work on.

Note: Some states run their own OSHA-approved workplace safety programs, and their fall protection rules can differ from the federal rules described here. If your state has one, check its construction rules as well.

Training and records

Under 29 CFR 1926.503, every employee who might be exposed to fall hazards must be trained by a competent person to recognize those hazards and follow procedures that minimize them ⁴. The required topics include the nature of fall hazards in the work area; the correct procedures for erecting, maintaining, disassembling and inspecting the fall protection systems to be used; and the use and operation of the systems you rely on, such as guardrails, personal fall arrest systems and safety nets ⁴.

Keep a written certification record for each person with the employee's name, the training dates, and the signature of the trainer or the employer ⁴. Retrain when changes on the job or in the equipment make earlier training obsolete, or when a worker's performance shows the training didn't stick ⁴. The roofing hiring guide covers how to fit this into onboarding, and the fall protection glossary entry explains the terms.

Gear to budget for

For a new residential roofing company, the fall protection budget usually covers:

• Full-body harnesses sized for each person, with lanyards or self-retracting lifelines
• Roof anchors suited to the deck and the system, plus rope lifelines and rope grabs
• Guardrail components for the jobs where you'll use them
• Ladders in good condition, set up and secured for roof access
• Covers or guards for skylights and other roof openings
• A written rescue plan for getting a fallen worker down quickly

Decide when to pursue manufacturer certification

Shingle and roofing-system manufacturers run contractor programs, often in tiers, and the higher tiers can let you offer extended system warranties that an uncertified installer can't. A manufacturer credential is not a license, and it doesn't replace anything your state requires. Requirements and benefits vary by manufacturer, so read each program's terms and look for:

• Entry requirements: proof of licensing and insurance, product training, and in some programs a minimum time in business or a review record.
• What you get: a listing in the manufacturer's contractor locator, eligibility for enhanced warranties, and sometimes marketing support or rewards on purchases.
• What you owe: installing every roof to the manufacturer's instructions with the required system components, registering warranties on time, and keeping your credentials current.
• Who pays for what: whether a warranty claim on your workmanship comes back to you, and how the enhanced warranty fits with the workmanship warranty you offer yourself.

In year one, the credentials that matter are your license, your insurance and a run of clean installs. Some programs look for that track record anyway, so treat certification as a goal for once you have it.

Open a supplier account that fits your cash cycle

On a re-roof, the materials bill usually comes due before the customer's final payment arrives, so your supplier terms and your payment schedule have to fit together.

• Apply for a trade account at one or two roofing supply houses rather than buying retail. Expect a credit application, business and bank references, and possibly a personal guarantee while the business is new.
• Know the terms. Find out when invoices are due, whether there's a discount for paying early, and what happens to your account if you pay late.
• Ask about delivery. Find out whether they can land materials on the roof or only on the ground, what their delivery windows are, and what they charge. A rooftop drop saves your crew the carry.
• Ask about returns. Find out how unopened bundles and unused accessories are credited, and whether there's a restocking fee.
• Match your payment schedule to theirs. Collect a deposit where your state allows it and size it against the materials order; the deposits guide covers state limits and contract language. On insurance-funded jobs, payment can arrive in more than one check, which the roofing invoicing guide explains.

Plan tear-off debris before the first job

Every tear-off produces heavy, sharp debris, and how it leaves the site affects your price, your schedule and what the homeowner tells the neighbors. Decide before you sell the first job:

• Dumpster, dump trailer or hauler. A rented roll-off is simple but comes with rental periods, weight limits and overage fees. A dump trailer lets you control timing, but you pay disposal fees and spend crew time on trips. Compare the all-in cost per job, not the sticker price.
• Disposal rules. Ask your local transfer station or landfill what they accept, how they charge, and whether asphalt shingle recycling is available nearby.
• Placement. Check whether your city requires a permit to put a dumpster in the street, and protect driveways from dumpster and trailer damage.
• Protecting the property. Tarp landscaping, keep debris off gutters and windows, and run a magnetic sweeper over the lawn and driveway for nails before you leave each day.

Price disposal as its own cost, not something your margin quietly absorbs.

Example: Suppose disposal for a typical tear-off costs you $600 all in (dumpster rental, fees and fuel; a made-up figure). On a 30-square roof, that is $20 per square. If the same roof has a second layer to remove, the weight and the cost go up, so price tear-off by layer instead of as one flat add-on.

Storm work without the storm-chaser reputation

Hail and wind storms create bursts of roofing demand, and they also draw some crews that sign contracts fast and are hard to reach once the job is done. A new local company gets judged against that pattern, so build your storm work around what a storm chaser can't offer:

• Be legal where you work. Hold whatever license or registration the state and city require before you sign a contract there, and ask the state board whether anything changes after a declared disaster.
• Leave claim decisions to the homeowner and the insurer. Document damage with photos and write your scope. Before you take insurance-funded work, check your state insurance department's and licensing board's rules on deductibles, contract cancellation, and whether a contractor may discuss or negotiate a claim for the owner, because those rules differ by state.
• Sell without pressure. Door-knocking after a storm can bring the FTC Cooling-Off Rule into play for sales made at the customer's home; the roofing customers guide covers honest storm marketing.
• Be reachable later. Answer the phone after the job, honor your workmanship warranty, and keep records you can find when a leak call comes in a year later.

What it costs to start, by category

Startup costs depend on whether you begin solo on repairs or with a crew doing tear-offs and replacements, so build your budget from quotes in your own market. The categories:

• Licensing and registration: application and exam fees, required courses, and any bond your state requires.
• Insurance: down payments on general liability, workers' comp and commercial auto.
• Safety: harnesses, lifelines, anchors, guardrail components, ladders and opening covers.
• Tools: roofing nailers, a compressor and hoses, tear-off shovels and pry bars, cutting tools, magnetic sweepers, and a ladder hoist or a rental budget for one.
• Vehicles: a truck that can haul materials and pull a trailer, plus a dump or utility trailer if you haul your own debris.
• Measuring and estimating: measuring tools or a budget for aerial measurement reports, and software for estimates, contracts, photos and invoices.
• Marketing: truck lettering, yard signs, a website and a Google Business Profile.
• Working capital: enough cash to buy materials and run payroll until jobs pay.

Then build your prices from those real costs. Pricing by the roofing square, including pitch, waste and tear-off layers, is covered in the roofing pricing guide, and what belongs on the paper is in how to write a roofing estimate.

Know the labor market you're hiring into

Know what roofers earn before you set a labor rate or post a job. BLS reports a median annual wage for roofers of $55,440 in May 2025, and projects about 12,000 openings for roofers each year, on average, over the 2025 to 2035 decade ⁵. It updates those figures with each new edition of its Occupational Outlook Handbook. Start there, then check local job postings, because pay in your area can sit well above or below the national figure. The roofing hiring guide turns the wage into what a first employee really costs once payroll taxes, comp and gear are added.

Plan to compete for good people on pay, steady work through the slow months and a safety record they can see on your roofs.

Startup checklist, in order

1. Confirm your state license or registration and your city's registration and permit rules, and get credentialed.
2. Form the business, set up your tax IDs (see EIN) and open a business bank account.
3. Get general liability, workers' comp and commercial auto quotes, and build the comp rate into your labor cost.
4. Buy fall protection gear, write your procedures and rescue plan, and train and certify everyone who will go on a roof.
5. Open a supplier account and confirm delivery, return and payment terms.
6. Set up debris disposal and price it per square and per layer.
7. Build your estimate, contract, deposit and job photo process.
8. Start local marketing from your first jobs, well before storm season puts you next to the storm chasers.