A roofing canvasser job description has to say where the job ends. A knocker who sets inspections for a salesperson to close is a different hire from one who inspects the roof and signs the contract, and that line decides how you can pay them and whether the law treats them as an employee. A job description you can copy is below, then the pay plans and rules behind its brackets. Whether knocking pays at all is in Is Door Knocking Still Worth It for Roofing Companies?.
Write the hand-off point into the first line
Owners on r/RoofingSales disagree about what a commissioned rep should own. One pays 10% of revenue because his reps don’t manage jobs and can’t control profit on his set insurance pricing. Another hires on 10/50/50 and wants reps to sign the contract, hand over the deposit check and move on, leaving the rest to a project manager and a supplement team. Reps on that same split describe running the whole job.
Before you post the ad, decide whether the knocker sets an inspection for a salesperson or inspects, signs and passes the contract to production, and put that in the first line.
Copy this canvasser job description and fill in the brackets
The door rules here follow Texas law and Florida’s gift rule, so swap in your own state’s before you post it.
Roofing Canvasser, [Company name], [City]
What you’ll do. Knock on doors in neighborhoods we assign, talk with homeowners about roof damage, and [set inspection appointments for our sales team / inspect the roof and sign the contract]. Your job ends when [the sales rep arrives for the inspection / you hand the signed contract and deposit check to our production manager].
Pay. [$__ an hour / $__ an hour plus $__ for each appointment that ___ / __% of ___], paid [weekly / every two weeks]. This is a [W-2 employee / 1099 contractor] role. [For 1099 roles: you pay your own self-employment tax and income tax, plus your own vehicle, gas and health insurance.]
What you need. A photo ID, and the ability to get a solicitor permit in each city we work, which can include a background check. We [pay / don’t pay] the permit fees.
At the door, you will:
- carry your city permit on every shift
- skip any house with a no-soliciting sign, and leave when the homeowner says no
- talk about the damage and our estimate, and leave what the homeowner’s policy covers or excludes to the homeowner and their insurer
- never offer to cover or waive a deductible, or offer a gift or anything of value for an inspection or a claim
- [if you take signatures:] give the homeowner the three-day cancellation notice, in the language you pitched in
How to apply. [Phone or email], with [what to send].
Owners pay canvassers four ways, from flat hourly to straight commission
Owners asking Reddit how to pay canvassers name these models:
- flat hourly
- hourly, plus money once the contract is signed and the job is done
- pay per claim number turned in
- straight commission, such as 10% of sales or 100% commission
Reps described two offers that added $100 per appointment to an hourly wage. One paid $15 an hour, with the bonus on each set appointment that insurance approves. The other paid $20 an hour with a vehicle and full benefits, with the bonus on each appointment the sales rep writes an estimate on. Write down which event earns your bonus.
An owner on r/RoofingSales wrote, “I’m paying two door knockers $500 a week in Florida to knock and set appointments. They haven’t really produced anything.” Alone they set none; when he went out with them they set appointments and closed a deal. For the first weeks, count the appointments each knocker sets on days you aren’t riding along.
On straight commission you pay nothing until a job signs. “All of our work came from door knocking. 100% commission door knockers,” an owner on r/Roofing wrote about his year-old company, which he said did about three roofs a week all year without any marketing. If your knockers only set appointments, read the next section before you copy that plan.
A Cincinnati owner said he offers canvassers the same 10/50/50 split as his salespeople: 10% off the top for overhead, then the remaining profit split evenly between the company and the rep.
At a DFW insurance roofer we work with, the rep who knocked, sold and ran a job takes about 40% of its profit. How to Pay Roofing Sales Reps: 10/50/50, Profit Splits and Draws covers how these splits work.
An employee who only sets appointments may be owed minimum wage and overtime
Federal law exempts an outside salesperson from minimum wage and overtime only if their primary duty is making sales or obtaining orders or contracts, and they work customarily and regularly away from your place of business. The Department of Labor also says promotion work incidental to sales made, or to be made, by someone else is not exempt outside sales work.
That last line describes a canvasser who sets appointments for a salesperson to close. If that canvasser is your employee, plan on minimum wage and overtime. A canvasser who inspects and signs the contract is a different case. Have an employment lawyer check the plan before you put an appointment setter on commission alone.
Calling a canvasser a 1099 contractor doesn’t make them one
The Department of Labor decides employee or contractor by economic reality: a worker who depends on you economically for work is your employee. What you call them doesn’t count, and neither does a signed agreement saying they’re a contractor. Two of its six factors are how much you control the work and whether the work is integral to your business.
The IRS has its own test, and Texas runs another for unemployment tax, so a worker can come out differently under each. The Texas Workforce Commission counts a worker as an employee if you have the right to direct or control both the result and when, where and how the work gets done. The right is enough even if you never use it, and misclassifying a worker brings increased taxes, penalties and interest. If you set a knocker’s hours and assign their streets, read these tests before you hand over a 1099.
For payments made after December 31, 2025, you file a Form 1099-NEC for any non-employee you pay $2,000 or more in a calendar year, commissions included.
A rep on r/RoofingSales warned new 1099 reps that they owe about 15.3% self-employment tax on top of income tax and should set aside roughly 30%. The template’s pay line tells them so.
Permits can take two weeks, so file them the day you hire
Each knocker usually needs a city permit, and towns differ on the cost and the wait. Around Dallas, Allen and Coppell can each take up to ten working days to issue one, and Flower Mound’s background check can take up to two weeks. Check each town on the route in Do Roofers Need a Solicitor Permit to Door Knock?.
City and state law limit what a canvasser does at the door
A knocker’s conduct lands on your Google reviews. A DFW roofer rated 4.8 has one-star reviews from separate households describing a canvasser at the door, two of them past a no-soliciting sign and one accusing the rep of knocking without the city’s permit.
Dallas bans knocking where a home posts a “NO SOLICITORS OR HANDBILLS” sign, and Fort Worth bars calling at a “No Soliciting” or “No Trespassing” sign or after being told no in person.
State law limits what a canvasser says about insurance. In Texas a roofer may discuss the damage, the scope, its estimate and supplements, and may not advocate for the homeowner, discuss what the policy covers or excludes, or act as a public adjuster. Offering to waive a Texas homeowner’s deductible or promising a rebate can bring up to a $2,000 fine and up to six months in jail.
Florida’s statute 489.147 bars a contractor soliciting in person from offering a rebate, gift or anything of value in exchange for a roof inspection or an insurance claim, with penalties up to $10,000 per violation.
If the canvasser takes a signature at the door, Texas gives the homeowner until midnight of the third business day to cancel, and a pitch given in Spanish needs a contract in Spanish. The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule sets the same three days federally for home sales of $25 or more. Put your own state’s rules in the job description and have each knocker sign them.
Check these before the first knocker starts
- The hand-off point is the first line of the job description.
- The bonus names the event that earns it.
- An employment lawyer has seen the plan for any appointment setter on commission.
- Each knocker has a permit filed for every town on the route.
- Your state’s door rules are in writing and signed by each knocker.
A canvasser reaches one route, while homeowners who search for a roofer find whoever shows up on Google Maps near them. To see where that is for you, run the free Google Maps heatmap: pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.