Whether you need a roofing license depends on your state. Texas has no state roofing license, while Florida, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Louisiana and Michigan all license roofing, and Oklahoma will require a residential roofing endorsement from January 1, 2028. In Florida, California, Illinois and Nevada, a company is licensed through a named person, the qualifier, who can be a hired employee.
If the qualifier leaves, Florida counts the company as unlicensed for that work until it employs another, which it has 60 days to do. California suspends the license automatically unless the qualifier is replaced within 90 days.
Licensing is outside our work at Zentora, so everything below comes from public sources, mainly the laws and licensing boards of 11 states as they stood on October 3, 2026. Fees and dates change, so check your own board before you act on a number.
Texas has no state roofing license, and RCAT runs a voluntary one
RCAT, a Texas roofing trade association, says the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation “does NOT currently administer licensure for roofing contractors.” A Texas roofer needs no state license to sell or install a roof.
RCAT’s license takes two continuous years as a principal in a Texas roofing company, plus workers’ comp or a filed DWC-005 notice saying you don’t carry it. You also need general liability of $300,000 for residential work or $500,000 for commercial, or a $100,000 bond.
The exam fee is $550 per license for an RCAT member or $850 for anyone else, and renewal takes eight hours of continuing education a year. If you hold one, name it on your website and trucks, since a bare “licensed” in Texas points to no state license.
Florida checks experience, exams, credit and insurance before certifying a roofer
A certified Florida roofer can work statewide, and a registered one only where they met local competency rules.
Certification takes four years of active experience, at least one of them as a foreman, though a relevant four-year degree or accredited college credit can replace part of it. Only “lawfully acquired experience gained under the supervision of a contractor” counts, and that contractor had to be licensed at the time for roofing or a category covering it. Years paid under the table don’t count, and neither does work exempt from licensing.
A sign-off from someone you never worked for fails too. “I have a close friend of mine that is willing to sign off on my experience but I never worked for him directly,” a new owner wrote on r/Contractor in February 2026. If you plan to qualify yourself, check that every contractor you worked under held a license at the time.
Then come two open-book exams on a computer, Business and Finance (6.5 hours) and Roofing General Trade Knowledge (5 hours).
Your credit report can’t show unsatisfied judgments or liens against you or any business you’ve qualified, and you need a FICO-based score of 660 or higher. Below that, a 14-hour Board-approved financial responsibility course can stand in.
The minimum insurance for a roofing contractor is $100,000 of liability and $25,000 of property damage, and in construction, workers’ comp applies from your first employee.
California’s C-39 needs four verified years and workers’ comp, employees or not
California licenses roofers under the C-39 classification. The qualifier needs “four years experience as a journeyman, foreman, supervising employee or contractor” in roofing within the last 10 years, verified by someone with firsthand knowledge of the work. Up to three of those years can come from training, apprenticeship or education.
CSLB charges $450 to apply. The first license then costs $200 for a sole owner or $350 for any other business.
Every license also needs a $25,000 contractor’s bond, and every active C-39 must carry workers’ comp or a self-insurance certificate “whether or not they have employees.” Roofing Workers’ Comp and General Liability: What It Costs and How Audits Work covers what the insurance costs.
Unlicensed work is allowed only on jobs under $1,000 in total that need no building permit, and only for someone who doesn’t advertise as a contractor or employ anyone on the job.
Ask four questions before you pay someone to qualify your company
I found no public source for what qualifiers charge. One owner on r/Roofing, asking in 2024 what Florida companies pay their license holders, had seen anywhere from $2,000 a month to $500 per completed job.
In Florida, a primary qualifying agent is jointly and equally responsible for supervising all of the company’s operations and its finances. That includes field work at every site, even ones they never visit.
- Will they work for the company? California lets a company qualify through a responsible managing officer (RMO) or a responsible managing employee (RME), among others. An RME has to be “actively engaged” at least 32 hours a week, or 80% of the hours the business is open if that’s less. Illinois wants its qualifying party on a W-2, and that person “shall not receive a Form 1099” from the company. For the wider 1099 question, see Roofing Contracts and 1099 Rules: What a New Owner Needs in Writing.
- How many other companies do they qualify? Florida needs Board approval for each company after the first, and the qualifier has to appear before the Board unless they own at least 20% of it or are its W-2 employee. California allows a second firm only with at least 20% common ownership or a tie such as a subsidiary, and never more than “three firms in any one-year period.” Breaking that is a misdemeanor.
- How fast do they sign permits? “My current qualifier isn’t responsive and taking weeks to sign permit submission,” an owner on r/RoofingSales wrote in January 2025. Put a turnaround for permit signatures in the agreement.
- Will they own part of the company? In California, a qualifier who isn’t the sole owner or a general partner files a second $25,000 bond unless they own at least 10%. A partner on the license can put it at risk too. One California owner on r/Roofing gave a family member 25% and a place on the license, then got a CSLB letter saying it would be suspended over that partner’s unpaid child support. Read Roofing Business Partnerships: Splitting Roles, Money and the Exit before you hand out a share.
Losing a qualifier can leave you unlicensed and unable to collect
A Florida company can’t enforce, “in law or in equity,” a contract it signs while it has no qualifying agent, so jobs sold before the replacement starts put your payment at risk. Contracting without a license there is a first-degree misdemeanor, and a third-degree felony on a repeat offense or during a declared state of emergency.
California’s 90 days cover both the written notice to CSLB and the replacement, which costs $230. An unlicensed California contractor can’t sue to collect, and the customer can sue to get back “all compensation paid.”
Illinois gives you 30 business days to notify the state and 60 days to name a new qualifying party. That person then has seven months from approval to pass the exam, or the license becomes inoperative.
Write a notice period into your qualifier’s agreement, since each state’s clock starts when they leave.
Florida and California discipline license holders who lend their license out
California treats “allowing one’s license to be used by an unlicensed person” as cause for discipline, and the registrar can order the license holder to pay the people harmed. Florida can discipline a licensee who knowingly lets an unlicensed person use the license to get around the law, and fine them up to $10,000 per violation.
In September 2026 a licensed C-39 roofer on r/Contractor said a B general contractor wanted to use his license for roofing jobs. He pointed to a new 2027 law he said would bar B contractors from roofing permits, and asked, “how much should I get on a yearly basis for ‘leasing out my license’ to him?”
I found no such change in the code section on B contractors, last amended in 2013, or in CSLB’s September 2026 board packet, so ask CSLB before you price a deal around it. That section already bars a B from a roofing-only prime contract unless it holds a C-39 or subcontracts the roof to a licensed contractor. The C-39 holder can be that subcontractor, under his own license.
Eight other states range from no roofing license to an exam per qualifier
- Arizona licenses contractors through a qualifying party with four years of practical or management experience in the trade, at least two of them in the last 10.
- Illinois has a limited license for residential buildings of up to eight units and an unlimited one that adds commercial and industrial work. The qualifying party takes the exam, and local permits need proof of the state license.
- Louisiana has a Residential Roofing classification and a commercial Roofing and Sheet Metal, Siding classification, each with its own trade exam.
- Michigan lists roofing among the trades on its residential maintenance and alteration contractor license, which you qualify for by passing the exam.
- Minnesota requires a residential roofer, building contractor or remodeler license to roof a one- to four-family home under contract with its owner, and each qualifying person passes a written exam.
- Nevada licenses roofing as C-15a, under C-15 Roofing and Siding. The qualifier needs four years of experience in the last 15, must “devote himself or herself solely” to the business, and needs 25% ownership to qualify a second active license.
- North Carolina’s statute sets no separate roofing license, though its board can issue specialty classifications, and any project of $40,000 or more needs a general contractor license.
- Oklahoma will require a Residential Roofing Endorsement for all residential roofing from January 1, 2028. Roofers registered by January 1, 2027 can be grandfathered with 10 hours of continuing education or the exam. From that date it’s unlawful to subcontract with an unregistered labor-only crew, and from 2028 those crews must work directly for an endorsed contractor. Both dates already moved once, in May 2026.
I didn’t check the other 39 states or any Canadian province, so if you work there, start with the agency that licenses contractors where you build.
Three states want your license number on every ad, and Google checks licenses
Florida wants the license number on every offer of services, bid, contract and advertisement, in any medium. California wants it on contracts, subcontracts, bids and all advertising, and Illinois wants the number and name in all advertising. If someone else makes your website, truck wraps, yard signs or Google ads, check that the number is on them.
Google’s Local Services Ads list a “Business license on state level” and an “Owner license on state level” for roofing, “Where applicable by local law.” A family exterior remodeler that does roofing wrote on r/smallbusiness in 2023 that its Local Services account was suspended for a while because it didn’t submit its new licensing in time. Send Google each renewal the day it arrives, and keep the renewal date where whoever runs your ads can see it.
Once the license is in order, the next thing to check is whether homeowners nearby can find you on Google Maps. 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.