Vetting a North Carolina roofer: six documents, what each one proves, and where to get it

What to check on a North Carolina roofer before you sign

1. 1

   Look the license up yourself

   North Carolina has no separate roofing license; roofing sits under the general contractor law. G.S. 87-1 requires a license from the NC Licensing Board for General Contractors when the cost of the undertaking is $40,000 or more, and the Board lists roofing as the specialty classification S(Roofing) on its classifications page. Type the company or license number into the Board’s public license search and read the status, classification and limit for yourself; do not accept a photograph of a card.

2. 2

   Match the limit to the job

   Under G.S. 87-10 a Limited license covers projects up to $750,000, an Intermediate license up to $1.5 million and an Unlimited license carries no cap. Almost any house is inside the Limited tier; a commercial or multi-building job may not be. Below $40,000 no state license is required at all, which is why the insurance and workers’-comp checks matter on smaller roofs.

3. 3

   Ask for two certificates, then verify them

   General liability protects your property; workers’ compensation protects you from a crew member’s injury claim. G.S. 97-2 makes coverage mandatory once a business regularly employs three or more people, and the NC Industrial Commission runs a public coverage search. Ask for certificates naming you as certificate holder, then confirm the policy is active.

4. 4

   Know the permit and the cancellation rules

   G.S. 160D-1110 exempts single-family work under $40,000 from a building permit but names the addition of roofing, excluding replacement, as a trigger, so ask your inspections office which applies. If a roofer signed you up at your door after a storm, G.S. 14-401.13 gives you five business days to cancel after your insurer denies the claim, and the NC Department of Insurance keeps a plain-language page on post-disaster contractor scams.

Why the storm record belongs in the file

A roofer who quotes a repair without asking what the weather did is guessing. In Wake County, NOAA logged 125 hail reports and 322 damaging-wind reports in 2016 through 2025. If your damage followed a listed event, the NCEI record is the date and size you put in front of the insurer; the directory’s North Carolina storm center shows what is active now.

Tropical systems reached the county on 6 days in the same period (Hermine, Florence, Michael, Dorian, Isaias and Ian), per the NCEI tropical-storm records. Counts are NCEI reports, not individual storms: one storm can generate several reports in a county.

• 125

  hail reports in Wake County, 2016–2025

• 93

  of them 1 inch or larger, the NWS “severe” line

• 2.75 in.

  largest hail, May 13, 2019

• 322

  damaging thunderstorm-wind reports

• 76 mph

  strongest measured gust, September 8, 2023

• 5

  tornadoes (strongest EF2)

Three candidates, one file each

Run every candidate through the same six documents. These are the three places a candidate usually comes from.

1. 1

   A roofer from the directory’s ranked list

   The list above ranks Raleigh-based companies by Google rating from the North Carolina directory. A rating is one input; the license record on the Board’s portal and two insurance certificates are the ones that decide.

2. 2

   Carolina Trophy Roofs

   A Rocky Mount roofing contractor whose site lists Raleigh and Eastern North Carolina in its service area, with residential and commercial roofing, storm-damage repair and insurance-claim work, free inspections, and manufacturer certifications from Owens Corning, GAF, IKO and Atlas, according to that site. Check it the same way as any other option: license number on the Board’s portal, insurance certificate, written scope.

3. 3

   A referral from a neighbour

   The most common source and the least checked. A neighbour’s good experience is real evidence about workmanship and nothing at all about whether the license is still active or the insurance still paid; the file is the same six documents.

Disclosure: this site and the National Roofing Directory are run by the same publisher, and quote requests sent from this page can be passed to Carolina Trophy Roofs as well as to other roofers listed here.

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