Roofing in Michigan: licenses, permits, snow and storm claims

Licensing: who may roof a Michigan house

Michigan treats roofing as one craft of the residential maintenance and alteration contractor license, which the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) issues. A company needs that license for work on a house that comes to $600 or more in total. The law exempts an owner working on their own home and a single job under $600, though not a larger job split into small contracts to get under the limit. The license names its craft, so look for roofing on it.

Hiring an unlicensed company carries real consequences in the statute: a civil fine of $5,000 to $25,000 against the company, no right for it to sue you for payment, and no right to file a lien. To get the license a person must be 18, complete 60 hours of approved prelicense courses and pass an exam, and a complaint about workmanship must reach LARA within 18 months. The Homeowner Construction Lien Recovery Fund was abolished in August 2010, so any page sending you to it is out of date. The licensing statute sets no insurance, bond or workers' compensation requirement that we could find, so asking for a certificate of insurance is a request you make, and the law gives you no right to one. Check any license on the LARA lookup, and see how in our guide to checking a Michigan roofer's license.

Permits: no statewide exemption for roofs, so your city decides

The residential code's list of building-permit exemptions in Michigan leaves out roofing, re-roofing and roof repair. LARA's Statewide Jurisdiction List shows the building department enforcing the code is local in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Flint, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Saginaw, Midland and Portage, while some small townships are enforced by the county or the state. Whether a re-roof at your address needs a permit, and what it costs, is a question for the building department that covers it.

The cities we read differ widely. Grand Rapids requires a residential building permit to re-roof, open to the owner-occupant or a licensed residential builder, at $66 on its FY2027 fee schedule. Sterling Heights requires one even for a second layer and lists $78 plus a $56 application fee. East Lansing has its own roof permit, $60 to apply and $140 for the residential permit. Kalamazoo handles re-roofing through a non-structural maintenance permit, and its 2026 schedule lists $52, a figure to confirm with the city. Midland's roofing form values the job at squares times $300 and asks for photographs of the deck, ice and water shield, underlayment and flashing before the new covering goes on. Portage says no permit is needed to remove and replace shingles only, but one is required for more than four sheets of decking or any structural component.

Code and snow: the 2015 code, ice barrier and tear-off

As of Oct 19, 2026, LARA still lists the 2015 Michigan Residential Code for houses. A Court of Claims order on July 7, 2025 temporarily blocked the rules adopting the 2021 code, LARA's notice says the 2015 versions remain in effect while the order stands, and we could not confirm whether the case has since ended. This may change, so check LARA before you rely on an edition. We print no effective date for the 2015 code because the government sources we read give different ones.

Three points in the 2015 text matter for a roof. Replacement means removing the existing layers of covering down to the roof deck (R908.3), and covering over an existing roof is barred where it already has two or more applications, is water soaked or deteriorated, or is slate, clay or cement tile (R908.3.1.1). Michigan's table says an ice barrier is required. The base ICC text, which the Michigan rules we read leave unchanged, puts it along the eaves from the edge to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, and at least 36 inches measured along the slope on slopes of 8:12 or steeper. The barrier covers an eave strip only, and standing-seam and other metal panels are not on the code's list of coverings that need one.

Snow load is set county by county in Table R301.2(5), in pounds per square foot of ground snow, which is not the load on your roof. Wayne County is 20 (Northville 25), Kent and Saginaw 35, Marquette 70, Houghton 80 and Keweenaw 90 to 100, so the statewide range runs from 20 to 100. Townships can differ from the county figure, so your building department is the place to confirm yours.

Storms and winter: what NOAA recorded and what DIFS says

NOAA's Storm Events database, read for July 2024 to June 2026 across 20 Michigan counties, records hail of 1 inch or larger only sparsely. Genesee, Muskegon, Midland and Clinton counties have none recorded, and Ottawa County has 14 reports that all fall on a single day, with hail up to 2.75 inches. Severe wind of 50 knots or more shows up in all 20 counties, with readings up to 87 knots in Ottawa County, 83 in Jackson and 78 in Eaton. These are counts of reports and not unique storms, the newest months are preliminary, and a low count does not mean low risk. The county storm history has the figures for each county.

For winter, the state insurance regulator (DIFS) says standard homeowners policies cover a wide range of winter-related damage, including ice dams, wind damage, leaky roofs and a building collapse caused by the weight of ice or snow, and that keeping gutters clean helps prevent ice damming. Coverage still depends on cause and policy wording. ENERGY STAR says air sealing combined with attic insulation can help alleviate ice dams, so ask a roofer about the attic as well as the roof. Stay off a snowy or damaged roof yourself: OSHA calls falls the leading cause of death in construction, with 389 fatal falls to a lower level among 1,034 construction deaths in 2024.

Storm claims: what Michigan's insurance regulator says

After storm damage, DIFS says to notify your insurer as soon as possible, photograph and video the damage before cleaning up, and make only temporary repairs until the insurer has inspected. It also says a homeowners policy covers only the damaged portion of a roof and that the insurer is not required to replace the entire roof. The hail and wind damage claim guide walks through the order of steps.

The insurer must tell you within 30 days what proof of loss it needs and must pay within 60 days after proof, with 12 percent simple interest on late payment unless the claim is reasonably in dispute. A lawsuit must start within 1 year after the loss, or within the time your policy gives if that is longer, and the time is paused from your notice until the insurer formally denies the claim. That provision is written for fire policies, so how it applies to your claim is a question for an attorney. You may choose your own contractor. Do not sign an insurance check over to one, and know that a roofer who offers to cover your deductible by raising the bill is describing insurance fraud, a felony in Michigan. A sale you agree to at your door can be cancelled until midnight of the third business day, though one that began with your own call after a general advertisement may fall outside that rule.

What roofing costs in Michigan: the evidence we have

Our estimates for each job are the first rows below. Each is a model, not a quote: published national cost ranges for the job, adjusted for what Michigan roofers are paid, plus a typical permit fee where the work needs one. No Michigan roofing company we looked at published a price we could count, so none is shown. After the estimates come what roofers are paid and the permit fees we could read.

How we estimate costs: each Estimated range is a model, not a quote. It takes published national cost ranges for the job (cost guides from third-party sites that we have not verified and do not cite), multiplies them by Michigan's roofer median wage ratio to the US (1.07, BLS May 2025 data read through O*NET OnLine) and adds a typical permit fee where the work needs one. The wage and permit rows are what roofing workers are paid and what a city's own schedule charges, and neither is a price. We have not collected quotes, and we found no Michigan roofing company that publishes a price we could count. Full method.

Questions about roofing in Michigan

• DetroitWayne · 636,644 · 90% pre-1980
• Grand RapidsKent · 197,768 · 75% pre-1980
• WarrenMacomb · 138,128 · 83% pre-1980
• Sterling HeightsMacomb · 133,473 · 58% pre-1980
• Ann ArborWashtenaw · 121,179 · 64% pre-1980
• LansingIngham · 112,546 · 80% pre-1980
• DearbornWayne · 107,846 · 84% pre-1980
• LivoniaWayne · 94,058 · 78% pre-1980

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