Does Alabama require a license to put a roof on my house?

For residential work costing more than ten thousand dollars in labor and materials together, yes. The Home Builders Licensure Board licenses that work, and a company holding a limited license needs a separate residential roofers license on top. Unlike Texas, this is a real license you can look up before you sign.

What is the Strengthen Alabama Homes grant?

A state program that pays up to ten thousand dollars toward bringing an existing home up to the FORTIFIED Roof standard. It is for owner occupied single family homes used as a primary residence, there is no income test, and the work has to be done by a contractor approved by the program.

Does a FORTIFIED roof actually cut my premium?

It usually cuts the wind portion of it. Published discount ranges run from about 25 to 35 percent at the Roof level and higher at Silver and Gold. The saving is on the wind part of the policy rather than the whole bill, so ask your agent for the number on your own policy before you count on it.

Can I get the grant and just replace the roof?

No. The program pays for work that meets the FORTIFIED Roof standard, not for a standalone roof replacement. If the roof simply needs replacing and nothing more, that is your own job to pay for, though doing it to the standard while you are up there is usually the cheaper moment.

Roofing around Mobile Bay

There is a state grant worth up to ten thousand dollars sitting there for a stronger roof, and a license rule most homeowners here have never heard of. Both are worth ten minutes.

Call (251) 810-0465 Send it over

FORTIFIED Roof explained
The state grant, plainly
One call, one local company

What people ask about

FORTIFIED and the grantWhat the standard actually specifies, and how the state grant works.
Replacing a roofWhat drives the price here, and the questions that separate quotes.
Storm damageWhat to do in the first week, and what a wind claim turns on here.

Mobile gets more rain than almost anywhere else in the country, and once every few years it gets a storm that takes roofs off. Those two facts pull in different directions. The rain punishes a roof slowly, at the details, year after year. The storm arrives all at once and takes whatever was already loose.

What is different about Alabama, and what most people here only find out halfway through a job, is that the state has put real money and a real standard behind the second problem. The FORTIFIED Roof standard is a specification from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety covering how the deck is fastened, how the edges are finished and how the whole assembly is sealed. Strengthen Alabama Homes will pay up to ten thousand dollars toward getting an existing house there. Insurers discount the wind part of a policy for a house that has it.

The other Alabama specific thing is the license. Residential work over ten thousand dollars in labor and materials needs a Home Builders Licensure Board license, and there is a separate residential roofers license for companies holding a limited license. That gives you something to check that homeowners one state over in Texas simply do not have.

The pages here go through each of those, plus what to do when a storm has already been through. If you would rather just get somebody out, the number at the top goes to one roofing company working this area.

Start with what people ask about or go to your town. There is more on what this site is and how to reach somebody.

Questions people actually ask

Does Alabama require a license to put a roof on my house?: For residential work costing more than ten thousand dollars in labor and materials together, yes. The Home Builders Licensure Board licenses that work, and a company holding a limited license needs a separate residential roofers license on top. Unlike Texas, this is a real license you can look up before you sign.
What is the Strengthen Alabama Homes grant?: A state program that pays up to ten thousand dollars toward bringing an existing home up to the FORTIFIED Roof standard. It is for owner occupied single family homes used as a primary residence, there is no income test, and the work has to be done by a contractor approved by the program.
Does a FORTIFIED roof actually cut my premium?: It usually cuts the wind portion of it. Published discount ranges run from about 25 to 35 percent at the Roof level and higher at Silver and Gold. The saving is on the wind part of the policy rather than the whole bill, so ask your agent for the number on your own policy before you count on it.
Can I get the grant and just replace the roof?: No. The program pays for work that meets the FORTIFIED Roof standard, not for a standalone roof replacement. If the roof simply needs replacing and nothing more, that is your own job to pay for, though doing it to the standard while you are up there is usually the cheaper moment.

Where we cover

Semmes, Spanish Fort, Fairhope, Chickasaw and Tillmans Corner sit in the same weather and the same rules. Say where the house is when you call.

Tell us about the roof

Send this and it goes to one roofing company working the Mobile area. One company, not a list of nine, and your number is not passed on anywhere else.