North Carolina · Checked October 22, 2026
License above a job-value threshold. North Carolina has no roofing-specific license. Roofing is a specialty classification, S(Roofing), inside the general contractor license run by the NC Licensing Board for General Contractors. If the cost of your own contract is $40,000 or more, you must hold a GC license in a classification that covers the work (Building, Residential, or the S(Roofing) specialty under a covering classification) with a Limited, Intermediate or Unlimited limitation; below $40,000 no state GC license is required for the job.
| Item | North Carolina |
|---|---|
| Regime | No roofer license — general contractor license once your own contract hits $40,000 |
| Exam | PSI classification exam for the chosen classification (e.g. Building Contractor exam — 90 questions) plus the NC Business and Law / Business Law and Project Management exam; NASCLA Accredited Examination accepted as an alternative trade exam — pass mark 70% (for example 63 of 90 on the Building / Residential exam). Board approval and an eligibility letter come first; eligibility is good for 120 days. Exams are partially open-book and administered by PSI. Exam fee reported at $79 per exam in current guides. The qualifier who passes need not be the licensee owner — see qualifying_party. |
| Experience | No fixed years-of-experience statute for the GC license itself in the Board materials checked; applicants must show good moral character and meet the financial requirements for their limitation, and the qualifier must pass the exam. Some prep-school pages describing a points system or 4-year claims are not Board rules — treated as Not published for a Board-set experience minimum. |
| Application fee | Limited $75 / Intermediate $100 / Unlimited $125 application-license fee |
| License / registration fee | Annual renewal at the same limitation-based amounts ($75 / $100 / $125 in the schedules checked), due annually by December 31; late renewal $10 per month past due in guides checked |
| Total state cost | About $154-$204 in state and exam fees (application fee plus $79 exam fee), before any CPA financial-statement cost or bond premium — Fees from NCLBGC-linked guides and Harbor Compliance agency listing checked 2026-10-22. |
| Bond | No bond is required if the applicant meets the working-capital / net-worth test for its limitation. In lieu of working capital the applicant may post a surety bond: $175,000 (Limited), $500,000 (Intermediate), $1,000,000 (Unlimited) — amounts from the Board's own classifications and limitations page (21 NCAC 12A .0204). Higher bond figures on some secondary sites ($350,000 / $1,000,000 / $2,000,000) contradict the Board page and were not used. |
| Insurance minimums | No general liability insurance requirement for the GC license itself in the Board materials checked. Workers' compensation is required for employers under G.S. Chapter 97, and owners, projects and permit offices may impose their own insurance requirements. |
| Who qualifies | The license is held by the business / individual applicant, but the exam may be taken by a designated qualifier — an owner, principal or other qualifying individual approved by the Board. If the qualifier leaves, the license is at risk until a new qualifier is designated and approved. |
| Timeline | Commonly 6-12 weeks: application preparation, Board review (about 2-4 weeks), exam scheduling within the 120-day eligibility window, and issuance after passing. First applications with CPA financial work can run longer (guides report up to 3-6 months). |
| Renewal | Annual renewal by December 31 at the limitation-based fee, with proof of continued financial responsibility (working capital or the in-lieu bond maintained and reported on the renewal form). |
| Credential | Scope | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Building Contractor (covers S(Roofing)) | both | Covers all building construction and demolition, commercial, industrial, institutional and residential, and the work done under specialty classifications including S(Roofing), S(Concrete), S(Insulation), S(Interior), S(Masonry), S(Metal Erection), S(Swimming Pools) and S(Asbestos). NCLBGC classifications page. |
| Residential Contractor (covers S(Roofing) for homes) | residential | Covers construction of residential units under the NC Residential Code and work under S(Insulation), S(Interior Construction), S(Masonry), S(Roofing), S(Swimming Pools) and S(Asbestos) as part of those units. |
| S(Roofing) specialty classification | both | A specialty classification under the GC license system — it is not a standalone roofer license. Specialty work is performed under a covering classification / limitation; the Board's classifications page lists S(Roofing) under Building and Residential. |
| Limitations: Limited / Intermediate / Unlimited | both | Limited: single project up to $750,000. Intermediate: single project up to $1,500,000. Unlimited: no single-project value limit. Values exclude land cost and ancillary land-improvement costs (G.S. 87-10(a1)). Older secondary pages still showing $500,000 / $1,000,000 limits are outdated against the Board's current page. |
License trigger: $40,000 — Cost of the undertaking under G.S. 87-1 — your own contract value. Anyone who undertakes to bid on, construct, or superintend/manage construction of any building, highway, public utilities, grading or any improvement or structure where the cost of the undertaking is $40,000 or more is a general contractor for licensing purposes. Below $40,000, no GC license is required for that job.
The $40,000 test is applied to your own contract, not the whole project: under the Board / G.S. 87-1 framework as explained in current enforcement guidance, a roofing subcontractor whose own subcontract is $50,000 on a $2 million project needs a GC license, while a sub whose own contract is $25,000 on the same project does not — the sub's portion counts, not the total project cost. (One secondary guide states the test is total project value; the statute's 'cost of the undertaking' enforcement reading says otherwise, and the own-contract reading is used here.)
No city roofer license replaces the state GC license. Local building permits, inspections and city/county business requirements still apply, and a GC license may be required to pull permits for work at or above the threshold. Check the local inspections department.
No specific deductible-waiver statute found. Careful finding: bills filed repeatedly (2013 H880, 2015/2017, 2019 S576, 2021 S205, 2023 S622) would have created G.S. 75-150 to 75-152 banning advertising or promising to pay any portion of an insurance deductible as an inducement — but those bills are shown in Legislative Reporting Service summaries as filed / referred to committee, and no enacted Article 9 with that ban was found in the current General Statutes in this check. The enacted roofing law, S124 / S.L. 2024-11 (effective Oct. 1, 2024), instead requires a five-business-day cancellation period for residential roof replacement or repair contracts after an insurance claim denial and bars starting work or collecting payment until it expires (emergency services excepted, acknowledged in writing). Because the deductible-ban bills' enactment could not be confirmed from a primary current-statute page, the status is honestly recorded as no_specific_statute with this explanation rather than claimed as an explicit ban.
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