Roofing Contractor Insurance & Licensing FAQ

There is no Colorado state roofing license. Roofers are licensed locally by the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department (PPRBD), which covers Colorado Springs, unincorporated El Paso County, Fountain, Manitou Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake, Green Mountain Falls and Calhan.

You will apply for one of two classes: D-1 Specialty Single Trade (Roofing), or D-1 Specialty Exterior, which adds siding and stucco. Both are $100 plus a $50 non-refundable application fee. PPRBD does not split roofing into residential vs. commercial or steep-slope vs. low-slope, so one license covers all of it, which means your insurance has to cover all of it too.

To qualify you will need to pass ICC exam G14, National Standard Roofing Contractor (60 questions, 3 hours, open book, scheduled through Pearson VUE); document six permitted, verifiable roofing projects where you held a supervisory role; provide three trade references; and clear a name-based record check. A certificate of insurance has to be on file before the license issues.

The Licensing Committee meets the second Thursday of each month and everything is due three weeks ahead, so plan on six to eight weeks start to finish. Licenses renew annually on the anniversary month you got yours. You will also want your entity registered with the Colorado Secretary of State and a City of Colorado Springs sales and use tax license. Fees and requirements change, so confirm current numbers with PPRBD Licensing at 719-327-2880 before you apply.

PPRBD requires general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate before it will issue or renew your license.

The part that trips up most roofers is the wording. Standard GL policies often exclude re-roofing, so your certificate has to state either that re-roofing is included in general liability coverage, or that re-roofing is not excluded. Without that line PPRBD rejects the certificate, and a lot of carriers will not put it on. This is the single most common reason a roofing license stalls.

PPRBD also checks that the certificate holder reads exactly Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, 2880 International Circle, Colorado Springs, CO 80910; that the policy carries an endorsement giving the department 10 days advance notice of cancellation or reduction; that the named insured matches your license exactly, including any trade name; that there is a real policy number, because binders and pending policies get rejected; and that coverage is broad enough for everything the license permits, residential and commercial.

Workers compensation is required before you pull a permit or renew, unless you have no employees and an approved rejection on file. PPRBD does not require commercial auto, but you are driving trucks and trailers to job sites and general contractors will require it. Let coverage lapse for more than 12 months and your license is administratively revoked.

In Colorado, if you have even one employee, full time, part time, or family, workers' comp is mandatory. There is no small-business exemption, and on a construction site every person working has to be covered.

What you can do is reject coverage on yourself as an owner. That is available to a corporate officer or LLC member who owns at least 10 percent and actually controls or manages the business, and to construction sole proprietors and partners. The mechanism is Form WC43 from the Colorado Division of Workers' Compensation, which replaced the old WC45 in 2024. Each person files their own notarized section. If you carry a policy the form goes to your carrier; if you do not, it goes straight to the Division. It takes effect the day after it is received, and it is tied to your policy, so if you change carriers or let one lapse, you re-file.

Doing nothing is not the same as being exempt. If you are a construction sole proprietor or partner and you never file, you are out of compliance.

Before you reject, know the trade-off. Under C.R.S. 8-41-401(3), an owner who has rejected coverage is capped at $15,000 in recovery for their own on-the-job injury, and most health plans exclude work injuries entirely. You also have no certificate to hand a general contractor, which is why plenty of owner-only roofers carry a policy anyway just to stay biddable.

New for 2026: building permits over $1 million require a WC205 declaration of compliance filed with the permitting agency.

The more of this you have ready, the faster and more accurately we can shop it. Send what you have and we will chase the rest.

Business basics: legal entity name, DBA, FEIN, years in business, PPRBD license number, owner name and roofing background, last year's gross receipts and next year's projection.

Your work: the split of residential vs. commercial and new construction vs. re-roof and repair; the percentage of steep-slope vs. low-slope and whether you do any torch-down or hot tar; the maximum height you work; annual subcontractor costs and whether you collect certificates from them.

Payroll and people: payroll by class code, field vs. office, number of employees, and a driver list with dates of birth and license numbers.

Property and vehicles: a vehicle schedule with VIN, year, make, model, value and radius of operation, plus a tools and equipment list with values.

History: loss runs for three to five years, currently valued; copies of your current declarations pages; and any contract or general contractor requirements, such as required limits, additional insured, waiver of subrogation, and primary and non-contributory wording.

General liability. Pays when your work damages someone else's property or injures someone. PPRBD requires $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, and yours must not exclude re-roofing.

Workers' compensation. Medical bills and lost wages for injured employees. Legally required once you have any employee, and roofing carries one of the highest class-code rates there is, because falls are expensive.

Commercial auto. Your trucks and trailers. Personal auto policies exclude business use, so a crash on the way to a job site can be denied outright. Add hired and non-owned auto if crews ever drive their own vehicles.

Tools and equipment, also called inland marine. Covers compressors, nail guns, ladders and lifts on the job, in transit, and overnight in the truck. Your GL and auto policies will not touch a stolen trailer full of tools.

Installation floater. Covers materials you have bought but not yet installed. A pallet of shingles stolen off a driveway or scattered by a windstorm is your loss until the roof is finished.

Products and completed operations. The part of general liability that responds after you have left the job. A leak that shows up eight months later is a completed-operations claim, and it is exactly what general contractors look for when they require you to carry coverage for years after the work.

Umbrella or excess liability. Sits above your general liability, auto and employers liability. Roofing produces severe claims, a fall or a fire can burn through $1 million quickly, and most commercial contracts require $2 million or more.

Contractors pollution liability. Responds to asbestos disturbed on a tear-off, sealant and adhesive fumes, or runoff into a storm drain. Standard general liability has a pollution exclusion that leaves this wide open.

Employment practices liability. Defends wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment claims from your own crew. Defense costs alone run into five figures, and no other policy covers it.

Cyber liability. You store customer addresses, photos, insurance claim details and payment information. A ransomware hit or a wire-fraud loss on a deposit is not covered anywhere else.

Also worth a conversation: surety and license bonds, builder's risk on ground-up work, and the additional insured and waiver of subrogation endorsements that almost every general contractor contract demands.