Texas Licenses No Roofers. Here Is What to Check Instead

In most trades the first question is whether someone is licensed. Roofing in Texas does not work that way. The state issues no roofing license at all, which means a roofer here can be excellent or terrible and neither one shows up in a state registry. That surprises people who have moved from a state with registration, and it is the single most useful thing to know before you start calling anyone. The checks still exist, they are just different documents, and any roofer working in Lewisville should hand them over without hesitation.

Insurance certificates, and the dates on them

Two policies matter: general liability, which covers damage to your property, and workers' compensation, which covers a person injured on your roof. A roofer working properly carries a current certificate of each and offers them unprompted. The certificate names an insurer, a policy number and an expiry date, and the expiry date is the part people skip. A certificate that lapsed in March tells you nothing about August.

A roofer who carries proper cover produces the certificates unprompted, dated and current. Hesitation at this stage is information in itself, and it costs nothing to find out early.

The permit trail, which the city keeps

Lewisville has adopted the 2021 International Residential Code, and a tear-off on a house here is building work that the city expects to see permitted. The permit is pulled in a name, and that name is the one the city holds responsible if something is wrong with the work later.

Ask who pulls the permit and in whose name. A roofer who asks the homeowner to pull it is moving the responsibility onto you, which is a choice you should make knowingly rather than by default. What the city requires for your particular address is a question the city answers directly, and one call before the work starts is worth more than a week of argument afterwards.

A written estimate a second roofer could read

The estimate is the document that survives the conversation. It should name the shingle line, the underlayment, the ventilation plan and the decking allowance, and it should say what happens if bad sheathing turns up once the old roof is off. A number on its own is not an estimate; it is a guess with a signature line under it.

The test that works: could a different roofer read this document and quote the same job from it? If the answer is no, the two quotes you are comparing are not comparable, and the cheaper one is usually cheaper because it left something out.

The workmanship warranty, separate from the shingle warranty

Two warranties cover a finished roof and they come from two different parties. The manufacturer warrants the material against defects. The roofer warrants the installation. Most failures in the first decade are installation failures, which means the roofer's document is the one that will matter to you.

Ask how long the workmanship warranty runs and get the terms in writing before signing. A roofer who explains the split without prompting has answered a question about more than the warranty.

Lewisville Apex Roofing does no roofing itself. The roofer who does the work is the one holding all four of these documents, and asking to see them is reasonable at any point before you sign.

The two documents that follow the work are set out on the warranties page, and what the city expects is on the permits page.