Tennessee Roofing License Requirements
Tennessee licences roofing at $25,000 and above under classification BC-21 (Roofing, including gutters and vinyl siding) with the Board for Licensing Contractors. The threshold catches subcontractors as well as primes: since 1 January 2014 a roofing subcontractor must be licensed whenever the roofing portion of a project is $25,000 or more. No trade exam is required to add BC-21 — approval rests on experience — and a contractor already holding BC-B may roof commercial buildings while BC-A covers residential roofs; all applicants must pass the Business and Law exam. Licensure also requires a CPA-prepared reviewed or audited financial statement, general liability and workers' compensation cover, a reference letter and a notarised affidavit. Below $25,000 a second regime applies in nine counties only — Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby — where a Home Improvement licence is required for residential work from $3,000 to $24,999, backed by a $10,000 bond. Roofing is expressly named in the home improvement definition.
Do roofers need a license in Tennessee?
Only above $25,000 — Tennessee licenses larger roofing jobs
The state credential kicks in only once the job is worth more than a set dollar figure. Below it, the work sits outside state licensing entirely.
Look up a Tennessee licenseThe rule in detail
- State-level requirement
- Licence above threshold
- Class covering roofing
- BC-21 — Roofing, which includes gutters and vinyl siding (a subcategory of the BC Building classification). Broader classifications are also acceptable for roofing: BC-B (commercial) for commercial roofs and BC-A (residential) for residential roofs. Below the state threshold, the separate Home Improvement Contractor licence applies in certain counties.
- Dollar threshold
- $25,000 — A contractor licence is required where the total cost of the undertaking is $25,000 or more, materials and labour included. This applies to prime contractors and, since 1 January 2014, also to roofing SUBCONTRACTORS where the roofing portion alone is $25,000 or more. Separately, a Home Improvement licence is required for residential remodelling from $3,000 to $24,999 — but only in the nine counties that adopted the law. Outside those counties, residential work under $25,000 needs no state credential.
- Statute or rule
- T.C.A. title 62, chapter 6, part 1 (Contractors Licensing Act; $25,000 contractor definition and the roofing subcontractor rule added by Public Chapter 355, eff. 1 Jan. 2014). Home Improvement: T.C.A. § 62-6-501(4)(A) et seq.
- Bond
- Contractor licence: no fixed surety bond — applicants demonstrate financial capacity via a reviewed or audited CPA-prepared financial statement less than 12 months old, which sets the monetary limit on the licence. From 1 July 2026 a Contractors' Surety Bond option becomes available as an alternative to the financial statement. Home Improvement licence: $10,000 surety bond, or other financial responsibility in the form of a cash or property bond or an irrevocable letter of credit.
- Insurance
- General liability and workers' compensation insurance required for the contractor licence.
- Reciprocity
- No published reciprocity arrangement for roofing.
- Public license lookup
- Search the Tennessee register
Local licensing and permits in Tennessee
Local building departments issue roofing permits and inspect the work throughout the state, and some municipalities require a local business licence. The county-by-county structure of the Home Improvement licence makes local verification essential: the same $10,000 residential re-roof needs a Home Improvement licence in Davidson or Shelby County but no state credential in a county that never adopted the law.
Permitting is a separate system from licensing, and it is almost always local. In Tennessee, 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 Tennessee. 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 Tennessee
- ●Check the credential at the source. Search the Tennessee 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 Tennessee
Tennessee 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 Tennessee licensing is Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, Department of Commerce and Insurance, not this page — if anything below conflicts with what the board publishes today, the board is right.
Note on this entry
Verified against the Board's own materials: the tn.gov contractor licensing page for the $25,000 threshold and application requirements, the tn.gov Home Improvement Contractor page for the $3,000-$24,999 range, the exact nine-county list, the $10,000 bond and the T.C.A. § 62-6-501(4)(A) citation, and the Board's classification document (parsed in full) confirming BC-21 as the roofing code and the 1 January 2014 subcontractor rule. Worth flagging: several secondary sources describe BC-A as 'residential roofing' — the Board's own document shows BC-A is the residential building classification generally, and BC-21 is the roofing classification.
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 Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, Department of Commerce and Insurance. Before you sign a contract or bid a job, confirm the current rule with them directly.
Next steps
Roofing contractors in Tennessee
Browse roofing companies across Tennessee 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.
Roofing licensing in every other state
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.