Door knocking still pays for some storm roofers. A DFW insurance roofer we work with estimated at our first meeting that 95 to 98% of its customers come from knocking. The rep who knocks a door there also sells and runs the job, and takes about 40% of its profit. No public source gives a close rate for roofing canvassing. The only numbers are reps’ own accounts, like one on YouTube in 2026 knocking about 100 doors a day for one to three leads.
Owners who write about knocking mostly say they can’t keep canvassers, and a rep who walks past a no-soliciting sign can cost you a one-star review that stays up for years. Cities write their own permit rules, and some states limit what a rep may say about an insurance claim.
We sell the Google side of roofing marketing, so weigh what I say with that in mind. If knocking signs your jobs, I wouldn’t tell you to stop. We haven’t measured what a knocked job costs next to one that called in, and I’ve never run a canvassing team.
Owners still sign jobs at the door, and say neighborhoods are getting fed up
An owner on r/RoofingSales who gets enough referrals to skip knocking wrote in 2024 that “some of our largest deals come in off door knocks.” A Florida owner whose four reps were signing two to three jobs a week from canvassing wrote on r/Roofing in 2025 that “Neighborhoods are getting more fed up with soliciting.” Another owner on r/RoofingSales was blunter that year: “nobody wants someone at their door trying to sell a roof.”
The DFW roofer’s 95 to 98% is the owner’s spoken estimate, and nobody has pulled the lead sources from its CRM to check it. Its website wasn’t yet bringing in work when we went through the business in September. A second DFW roofer we met, a supplier that moved into roofing, told us its customers come through recommendations instead of knocking, and that it now wants to find its own customers directly.
A rep on r/Contractor wrote in July 2026 of knocking 1,000 doors just to get a roof or two. To get a close rate of your own, have your reps count the doors they knock and set that against the jobs they sign.
At one DFW roofer, a knocked job pays the rep about 40% of its profit
The 40% is one company’s split, and I don’t know yet whether it pays the same on a job from its website or Google profile.
Other owners pay knockers by the hour or by the week. One on r/RoofingSales wrote in March 2026 of paying $20 an hour to knock during peak times, plus $50 for each roof inspection and $250 for each signed contract. Another on the same sub was paying two knockers in Florida $500 a week in 2025, and on their own they hadn’t set a single appointment. How to Pay Roofing Sales Reps: 10/50/50, Profit Splits and Draws goes through the usual splits.
Door knocking came up in 163 of the 3,595 roofing posts and comments we collected from Reddit and YouTube. Reps wrote most of them, and the owners among them mostly say they can’t keep canvassers. I found no public data on how long canvassers stay, so hear that from someone who keeps them. How to Hire and Train Roofing Sales Reps Who Find Their Own Leads covers the hiring side.
A bad knock can stay in your one-star reviews for years
A DFW roofer I looked at in September had a 4.8 on Google, and four of its five one-star reviews describe a rep at the door. One from 2019 and one from 2020 say an insurance claim was filed off a signature taken there. The 2024 and 2025 reviews say the rep walked past a no-soliciting sign. The 2024 one also faults the company for a canvasser with no city soliciting permit, and in the 2025 one the rep pushed for insurance details the homeowner refused to give. The fifth one-star is about something else.
Knocks show up in five-star reviews too. Of the 152 Google reviews a DFW insurance roofer had in July 2026, I count seven that mention a knock. Six are five-star reviews naming the rep who knocked as the start of the job, one of them from a homeowner who had never listened to a door knocker before. The seventh, a one-star, alleges a pressured claim and a contingency agreement signed after a knock, and the owner disputes it in a reply.
Permit fees and knocking hours change from one city to the next
Wherever you work, look up each city’s rules before your reps go out. Of 12 DFW cities I checked in October 2026, eight posted rules, and no two match:
- Dallas: a $50 permit from Dallas Police, required since January 2014. Knocking runs from 9 a.m. to sunset, Monday through Saturday, never on listed holidays or at a “NO SOLICITORS OR HANDBILLS” sign, with fines up to $500. Ask whether the ordinance has changed since.
- Fort Worth: free registration for 180 days, asking for ID, the vehicle’s plate and a Texas sales tax ID (check that last one with the city). No knocking at a “No Soliciting” or “No Trespassing” sign, after a verbal no, or before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m. (8 p.m. in daylight saving time) unless the occupant asks.
- Plano: police posts say knocking is unlawful where a weatherproof card at least 3 by 4 inches reads “no solicitation”, “no peddlers” or “no trespassing”, and a 2015 post sets the hours from half an hour after sunrise to half an hour before sunset. I couldn’t confirm Plano’s permit or its fee.
- Allen: in-person registration with Allen Police and an ID badge. A 90-day permit costs $50, plus $35 for a background check and $5 for the ID card, and takes up to 10 working days.
- Coppell: $50 with a background check, up to 10 working days. Knocking from 9 a.m. to 30 minutes after sunset, Monday through Saturday, never at a “No Solicitors” sign at least 3 by 4 inches.
- Flower Mound: $75 a year for a master permit plus $20 per rep, with a background check that can take two weeks. Knocking from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. or dark, whichever comes first, and reps must leave at once if told they’re unwelcome.
- McKinney: a permit for any solicitation, good for six months, with up to 10 business days to process.
- Trophy Club: permit holders get the town’s No-Knock Address Registry, and going onto a registered home that shows a “No Solicitation” sign breaks the ordinance.
Apply before hail season, since several of these permits take up to two weeks. For Frisco, Southlake, Keller and Roanoke I found nothing posted, so call the city.
In Texas a canvasser can talk about the damage and has to stay off the policy
The Texas Department of Insurance says a roofer may discuss the damage, the scope, its estimate and supplements with the homeowner or the insurer. It may not advocate for the homeowner or discuss what the policy covers or excludes, and it may not act as a public adjuster or advertise that it adjusts claims (Insurance Code 4102.163). Even a licensed adjuster may not act as one on a property where they provide or may provide roofing services.
A contractor also can’t waive or rebate a deductible (Business & Commerce Code 27.02), and since September 1, 2019, offering to do so carries a fine of up to $2,000 and up to six months in jail. A contract of $1,000 or more that involves an insurance settlement must include a notice that the policyholder pays the deductible, and the insurer may ask for proof it was paid.
Other states draw the line elsewhere. Florida counts an in-person visit as soliciting and bars offering anything of value in exchange for a roof inspection or a claim, with penalties up to $10,000 per violation. It amended that law in 2022, 2024 and 2025, so check the current text. Minnesota bars promising to pay a deductible, and interpreting the policy or adjusting a claim without a public adjuster license. Look up the rule in your own state or province before a rep brings up a claim at the door.
In the US, a homeowner who signs at the door has three business days to cancel
The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule covers sales of $25 or more made at the buyer’s home. The seller has to tell the buyer, out loud and in writing, that they can cancel within three business days. One exclusion covers an emergency repair the buyer asked for, when the buyer waives the right to cancel.
Texas has its own version (Business & Commerce Code ch. 601). As the Attorney General summarizes it, a homeowner who agrees at the door to buy more than $25 of goods or services can cancel until midnight of the third business day. You have to hand over a dated contract or receipt with your company’s name, address and a cancellation notice, written in the language you pitched in, so a Spanish pitch needs a Spanish contract. Leave those out and the sale can be void, and after a cancellation you have 10 business days to refund.
Colorado adds a window for insurance jobs: a homeowner can cancel a roofing contract paid from insurance within 72 hours of written notice that the claim was denied in whole or in part, and the roofer must return payments within 10 days.
The Texas Attorney General warns homeowners that door-to-door contractors “flock” to neighborhoods after storms, and tells them to be especially suspicious of one who won’t leave a contract overnight. A rep who offers to leave it avoids one of the state’s warning signs.
I haven’t checked the Texas penalties against the statutes or read either three-day rule’s full exclusions, so have an attorney in your state read your door script and contract before storm season.
Count what knocking brings in before you add to it or cut it
If you run a CRM, pull the lead source on every signed job from your last storm season. Add up what your canvassers cost over the same months, with pay and permit fees included, and divide by the knocked jobs. That’s your cost per knocked job. Work out the same figure for every other source and compare. How to Track Which Marketing Brings In Your Roofing Jobs covers the setup.
Before the next storm, go through these with whoever runs your canvassers:
- Read your own one-star reviews for complaints about reps at the door.
- Give every rep the permit for each city they work, with that city’s hours and sign rules.
- Keep reps on the damage and the scope, and off what the policy covers.
- Use a door contract with the cancellation notice in the language of the pitch, and offer to leave it overnight.
If you want to know how far your Google profile reaches without a knock, run the free Google Maps heatmap. Pick your profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.