A roofing contractor’s own general liability insurance runs about $2,800 to $3,200 a year. That is the real cost sitting behind the certificate most homeowners never ask to see. Next to the price of a new covered patio, a solid-roof pergola, or a re-roofed sunroom, it is a small number. Which is exactly the point.
Farmer Brown Insurance, a commercial brokerage that has covered small businesses and contractors in all 50 states since 1996, prices this coverage every day for the crews who build and repair exactly these structures. The rate for roofing contractor insurance is public information, and it undercuts the usual excuse for skipping it. A roofer who skips coverage isn’t saving money. That roofer is leaving the risk sitting on your roof.
The insurance on the quote is not the same insurance that protects you
A roofing contractor’s general liability policy protects the contractor’s business. It doesn’t automatically protect you, and the difference matters more on a roof than almost anywhere else on the property. Most commercial insurers write these policies with $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate, and most legitimate general contractors and commercial clients require exactly that limit before a roofing crew gets on site.
General liability policies split coverage into two windows, and the split rarely comes up in the sales pitch. Ongoing operations coverage protects you while the crew is actively working. Completed operations coverage protects you after they pack up and drive away, and that’s the version that matters on a roof, since a leak from a bad flashing job or a poorly sealed seam often doesn’t show up for months. A contractor whose policy only covers ongoing operations is covered for exactly the part of the job least likely to go wrong. Exactly backwards.
A certificate proves a policy existed, not that one still does
A certificate of insurance is a summary, generated on request, showing what a contractor’s policy covered on the day someone asked for it. It’s not the policy itself, and nothing about it updates if the contractor lets the coverage lapse two weeks later. Request the certificate directly from the issuing agency rather than accepting a forwarded PDF, since a forwarded document is easy to edit and impossible to verify by looking at it. A legitimate agency can typically reissue one within hours of a request. A roofer who stalls for days on a document that should take an agency an afternoon is telling you something.
“Certificate holder” means you receive paperwork. “Additional insured” means you receive actual coverage if a claim comes out of the job. Ask which one you are before you sign, not after a ladder goes through a skylight.
A pergola roof in Ohio revealed a gap nobody priced in
Picture a homeowner in Columbus who paid $14,300 for a two-person crew to put a solid, shingled roof over an existing pergola, turning it into a proper covered patio. The crew’s certificate listed general liability with a $1 million limit, and the homeowner filed it away without a second look. Eleven weeks later, the first hard rain found a flashing gap where the new roof met the house, and $9,750 in water damage showed up in the sunroom below. The contractor’s policy, it turned out, covered ongoing operations only. Completed operations had been left off the policy to keep the premium down.
None of that required an unusual contractor or an exotic policy gap. It required a homeowner who read the limit on the certificate and never asked which window of coverage it came with. Just one question, never asked.
Roofing is the most dangerous part of the job, and that changes what to ask
Roofing sits inside the four causes OSHA calls the Fatal Four, responsible for more than 65 percent of construction deaths nationally. Falls are one of them, and a roof is where falls happen. Workers compensation, required in every state except Texas, is the policy that responds when a worker on your property gets hurt, and it’s worth asking about even on a small patio-roof job. Without it, an injury on your property can turn into a liability claim against you instead of a claims file that never reaches your door.
A roofer carrying real workers compensation is not charging you for it directly. It shows up nowhere on your invoice. But its absence shows up everywhere if someone falls.
Ask these four questions before you hire a roofer
Ask for the certificate straight from the agency, not a forwarded file. Confirm the policy is active by calling the carrier listed on it. Ask specifically whether completed operations is included, not just ongoing operations. And ask to be added as an additional insured before the crew shows up, not after.
The pergola in Columbus cost $14,300 to build and $9,750 to fix, on a job that already had a certificate on file. Four questions would have caught the gap before the first rain did. That’s not a hard trade to make. It’s just one most homeowners never think to make until the roof is already leaking.
