Trade
The hardest general liability class in construction — and one we place. Few carriers write roofing at all; knowing which ones, and what they want to see on a submission, is most of the job.
Roofing sits at the top of almost every contractor rate table, and it is the trade where the gap between a broker who knows the market and one who does not shows up fastest. Height, hot work and a long residential defect tail combine to shrink the panel of carriers willing to write it at all — and in California the classification carries a workers’ compensation obligation that does not depend on having employees.
Which license class this trade falls under, and what that class obliges you to carry.
C-39. This is one of the five classifications — with C-8 concrete, C-20 warm-air HVAC, C-22 asbestos abatement and C-61/D-49 tree service — that must carry workers’ compensation whether or not it has employees. A sole-proprietor roofer with no crew still needs a policy, and since 1 January 2026 a lapse carries a minimum $10,000 penalty and blocks license renewal.
All California requirements →Roofing is a specialty endorsement, so the CCB sets your general liability at $300,000 per occurrence residential or $1,000,000 aggregate commercial level 1, with a $20,000 or $55,000 bond respectively. The endorsement you hold, not your size, decides the number.
All Oregon requirements →Registers as a specialty contractor: $15,000 bond rather than the $30,000 a general contractor posts. The liability floor is the same low $200,000/$50,000 as every other registration, which on roofing is nowhere near what a commercial general contractor agreement will accept.
All Washington requirements →Roofing done on homes generally falls under the residential or home-improvement license, which means $100,000 general liability and proof of workers’ compensation filed with the board BEFORE the license issues, kept continuous while it is active. Commercial roofing sits under the commercial license, which requires no proof of insurance at application.
All Louisiana requirements →Roofing is a specialty classification, residential or commercial. The ROC requires a bond — $4,250 or $7,500 residential by volume band — and no general liability at all. Workers’ compensation is required once you have one employee under A.R.S. § 23-961.
All Arizona requirements →Not statute — this is the part no board publishes, and the part that decides whether a submission comes back priced or declined.
Tell us the state, the license class and the payroll. We will tell you which markets fit before we submit anywhere.
