Do roofers need a licence in Texas? What actually applies in 2026

This page covers Texas — Dallas–Fort Worth and Houston. Our Phoenix board is in Arizona and our Los Angeles board is in California, and both of those states DO license contractors. Jump to the state-by-state section below if that is where you are.

If you are hiring a roofer in Dallas–Fort Worth or Houston and you have tried to check whether they are licensed, you have probably found a confusing answer — because a lot of what is published about this is describing a law that never came into force.

Here is the position, verified against the state's own records.

There is no Texas roofing licence

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation is the agency that would run one. Its published list of licensed and regulated programmes covers air conditioning and refrigeration contractors, electricians, elevator safety and industrialised housing — roofing and reroofing are not on it.

So a roofer working in Texas needs no state licence to do so, and there is no state licence number for you to ask for. Anyone offering to show you their "Texas roofing licence" is showing you something else.

The bill that would have changed this — and did not

This is where the confusion comes from, and it is worth understanding because it is still being published as fact.

House Bill 3344 in the 89th Legislature would have created exactly this: regulation and licensing of reroofing contractors by TDLR, with administrative and civil penalties and a public database of licensed contractors. It cleared the House Trade, Workforce & Economic Development Committee on a 7–1 vote.

Then it stopped. The bill's last recorded action is "H Committee report sent to Calendars" on 8 May 2025. It was never scheduled for a floor vote, and the session adjourned on 2 June 2025.

The Roofing Contractors Association of Texas — who supported the bill — said so plainly afterwards. Their president wrote that "our licensing bill (HB 3344) died in the House Calendar committee along with thousands of others."

Despite that, a number of pages still describe a Texas reroofing licence as active, some giving a start date of June 2026 and quoting penalty amounts from the bill text. Those pages are describing a bill, not a law. It is worth noticing what most of them have in common: they are published by companies selling software, bonds, exam prep or licensing services to roofers. The trade association that actually wanted the licence is the one telling you it does not exist.

What does apply

Three things, none of them a state licence.

Insurance. This is the one that protects you financially, and nobody checks it for you. Ask for a certificate of insurance for general liability and, if they have employees, workers' compensation. Ask for it to come directly from their insurer or agent — a forwarded PDF proves nothing, and an expired certificate looks identical to a current one at a glance.

City permits and registration. Many Texas cities require contractors to register locally and pull a permit for reroofing work. This varies city to city, so the reliable move is to ask your own city's building or permitting department what is required at your address. A roofer who wants to skip the permit is telling you something useful about how they work.

The RCAT credential — voluntary, but real. The Roofing Contractors Association of Texas runs an RCAT Licensed Roofing Contractor programme, created for "voluntary self-regulation" precisely because the state does not license the trade. It is not a legal licence and no one is required to hold it. But it is not nothing: it requires at least two continuous years as a principal in a Texas roofing company, proof of general liability insurance, workers' compensation cover or documented non-coverage, and passing a business-and-safety exam plus residential and/or commercial roofing exams at 70% or better, with continuing education to renew.

A roofer who holds it has chosen to be measured against a standard when they did not have to. That is a genuine signal, as long as you understand what it is.

If you are not in Texas

State roofing rules do not travel, and two of our US boards are in states that do license contractors. If you are in one of those, the advice above does not apply to you:

  • Phoenix is in Arizona, where contractors are licensed by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors. Verify a licence at roc.az.gov.
  • Los Angeles is in California, where contractors are licensed by the Contractors State License Board, with roofing as its own C-39 specialty classification. Verify a licence at cslb.ca.gov.

In both states there is a real licence number, and a public register you can check it against in under a minute. Do that before anything else.

The roofers we list

We list roofing companies alphabetically, with nothing hidden and nothing reordered by payment:

Those are the businesses we hold for each market, not every roofer in those metros — we say so on about, along with how to be added free. We do not verify licences or insurance on anyone's behalf, and we say that too: what we publish is sourced business information, and the checks above are yours to make. The order is alphabetical and cannot be bought.

Sources checked 30 August 2026: TDLR programmes licensed and regulated · HB 3344 bill history, Texas Legislature Online · RCAT — the real truth about the Texas roofing licence · RCAT Licensed Roofing Contractor programme · Arizona ROC · California CSLB

Common questions

Is there a Texas state roofing licence in 2026?

No. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation does not list roofing or reroofing among the programmes it licenses and regulates. House Bill 3344 would have created one, but it died in the House Calendars Committee before the 89th Legislature adjourned on 2 June 2025.

But I have read that licences start in June 2026 — is that wrong?

Yes, that is wrong. Those pages describe HB 3344 as though it became law. It did not pass. The Roofing Contractors Association of Texas — who backed the bill — published a correction stating it 'died in the House Calendar committee along with thousands of others.'

What is an RCAT Licensed Roofing Contractor, then?

A voluntary industry credential run by the Roofing Contractors Association of Texas, not a government licence. RCAT describes it as 'voluntary self-regulation'. It requires two continuous years as a principal in a Texas roofing company, proof of general liability insurance, workers' compensation cover or documented non-coverage, and passing exams at 70% or better.

So is anyone checking Texas roofers at all?

At city level, often yes. Many Texas cities require contractors to register locally and pull permits for reroofing work, and permit inspection is a real check on the work itself. It varies by city, so ask your city's building or permitting department.

What should I actually ask a roofer in Texas?

Ask for a certificate of insurance naming you, sent directly by their insurer or agent rather than forwarded by them. Ask who pulls the permit. Ask whether they hold the RCAT credential. Those three answers tell you more than any licence number would.