State licence

Hawaii Roofing License Requirements

Hawaii requires a state licence. HRS § 444-9 provides that no person may act or advertise as a general engineering, general building or specialty contractor without a licence from the Contractors License Board. Roofing is a "C" Specialty Contractor classification, class C-42 Roofing Contractor, with narrower sub-classes C-42a, C-42b, C-42c, C-42e and C-42g. Applicants must be at least 18, show four years of supervisory experience under a licensed contractor, pass the Business and Law and trade examinations, submit financial statements, and carry workers' compensation and liability insurance. A small-job exemption exists for work of $1,500 or less but it does not apply whenever a building permit is required.

Do roofers need a license in Hawaii?

Yes — Hawaii requires a state roofing license

A state agency issues a credential you must hold before contracting for roofing work, and it can take that credential away.

Look up a Hawaii license

The rule in detail

State-level requirement: State licence
Licensing authority: Hawaii Contractors License Board, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA)
Class covering roofing: C-42 Roofing Contractor — a "C" Specialty Contractor classification. Scope per the Board: "To install roofing to an acceptable surface and provide a weather tight covering using metal; composition and cementitious shingles; wood shingles and shakes; concrete, clay, and other types of tile; built-up, modified bitumen, single ply, and fluid type systems; and other roofing materials including spray urethane foam, asphalt, and liquid (cutback) asphalt... To also install roof flashing in connection with all of the above." Narrower sub-classifications also exist: C-42a aluminum and other metal shingles, C-42b wood shingles and wood shakes, C-42c concrete and clay tile, C-42e urethane foam, C-42g roof coatings.
Dollar threshold: $1,500 — HRS § 444-2(4) exempts a project whose aggregate contract price for labour and materials is not more than $1,500 — but the exemption expressly "shall not apply in any case where a building permit is required regardless of the aggregate contract price," nor where the work is part of a larger project or has been split into small contracts to evade the chapter. Because re-roofing normally requires a county building permit, this exemption rarely reaches real roofing jobs.
Statute or rule: HRS Chapter 444 (Contractors) — § 444-9 "Licenses required"; § 444-2 exemptions; § 444-7 classifications; HAR Chapter 16-77, Exhibit A (classification list)
Bond: No standard bond at application. Under HRS § 444-16.5 the Board may require a specialty contractor to post a bond of not less than $5,000. Separately, HRS § 444-25.7 requires a roofing contract that guarantees workmanship for more than seven years to be accompanied by a surety bond for the replacement value of the roof covering, for the benefit of a private-residence owner or lessee.
Insurance: HRS § 444-11.1 requires licensees to maintain workers' compensation insurance (unless authorised as a self-insurer) and comprehensive liability insurance; lapse of the required coverage causes the licence to be forfeited/suspended. Applicants must also provide proof of liability and property damage insurance and submit financial statements and credit reports as specified in the Board's rules.
Reciprocity: No published reciprocity arrangement for roofing.
Public license lookup: Search the Hawaii register

Local licensing and permits in Hawaii

The C-42 licence is statewide, but each county (Honolulu, Hawaii, Maui, Kauai) issues its own building permits and enforces the county building code for re-roofing; permit applications require the contractor's licence number. Counties may also require a general excise tax licence and local business registration.

Permitting is a separate system from licensing, and it is almost always local. In Hawaii, as nearly everywhere in the United States, a full roof replacement is treated by the adopted building code as work requiring a permit and a final inspection, while small repairs are often exempt below a threshold the local code sets. The building department for the city or county where the house sits is the only body that can tell you which side of that line your job falls on.

The two questions are not the same question

Licensing asks whether this contractor is permitted to sell roofing work in Hawaii. Permitting asks whether this specific job on this specific building may proceed. A contractor can be perfectly licensed and still be doing unpermitted work, and an unpermitted roof tends to surface at a sale, at a claim, or at a warranty dispute — years later, when it is expensive.

If you are hiring a roofer in Hawaii

●Check the credential at the source. Search the Hawaii public register for the exact legal entity that will sign your contract — not the salesperson, and not the name painted on the truck.
●Ask for certificates of insurance directly from the insurer or agent. General liability and workers’ compensation both matter, and roofing carries some of the highest comp premiums of any trade — which is exactly why some operators go without. An injury on an uninsured crew can find its way to your policy.
●Confirm who is pulling the permit. It should be the contractor, in their own name. An invitation to pull it yourself as the homeowner moves the code liability onto you, and is often a sign the contractor cannot pull it.
●Get the scope in writing before any deposit changes hands. Tear-off versus overlay, decking replacement priced per sheet, underlayment and ice-and-water coverage, ventilation, flashing, and who hauls the debris. Most roofing disputes are scope disputes wearing a different hat.
●Be careful after a storm. Door-knocking crews follow hail. Before signing anything that assigns your insurance benefits or commits you to a contractor contingent on a claim being approved, read it twice and check the cancellation terms.

If you are a roofing contractor working in Hawaii

Hawaii holds a state-level requirement, so the first question is whether your work sits inside the classification described above and, where a dollar figure applies, whether the contract value crosses it. Thresholds are normally written against the total value of the contract or the project rather than an individual invoice, so splitting a job into pieces to stay underneath is the specific evasion those statutes exist to catch.

Two consequences of getting this wrong are worth knowing regardless of the state. Contracting without a required credential is commonly a misdemeanour offence, and in most states an unlicensed contractor cannot enforce the contract or file a mechanic’s lien — so an unpaid job simply stays unpaid, with no legal route to collect. Confirm your position with the board before you bid, not after.

Sources

This entry was checked against the following on August 2026. The authority on Hawaii licensing is Hawaii Contractors License Board, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), not this page — if anything below conflicts with what the board publishes today, the board is right.

Note on this entry

The $1,500 figure is the current statute (amended by L 2019, c 283) as published on capitol.hawaii.gov; note that the DCCA's own archived HRS 444 PDF still shows the older $1,000 figure. The current legislative text was used.

Checked August 2026. Licensing rules change — dollar thresholds get raised, boards get reorganised, and statutes get amended mid-session. This page is a research summary, not legal advice, and it is not the authority on anything.

The authority is Hawaii Contractors License Board, Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA). Before you sign a contract or bid a job, confirm the current rule with them directly.

Next steps

Roofing contractors in Hawaii

Browse roofing companies across Hawaii by city, compare Google reviews, and request quotes directly. Listings are compiled from public records — check the license yourself before signing.

Free roofing calculators

Roof pitch, roofing squares and shingle bundles, and attic ventilation — each one shows the formula it used, so you can sanity-check a quote before you accept it.

Looking for a Roofing Contractor?

Search roofing companies by city or state, compare Google reviews, and request quotes directly — free, with no middleman. Check any licence number yourself with the state board before work begins.

Roofers in Hawaii Free Roofing Calculators