Roofing Contractor Software in Minnesota

Minnesota licenses roofers even when it does not license anyone else. Most specialty contractors in the state are exempt from the residential building contractor license as long as they stick to one trade, but the exemption has one exception written into it, and that exception is roofing. A company that only replaces roofs still needs a Residential Roofer license from the Department of Labor and Industry, which takes an exam, continuing education, and a payment into the Contractor Recovery Fund instead of a bond. A company that does roofing and siding needs the full Residential Building Contractor license, since that is more than one special skill.

Hail is the reason the state wrote its own storm law. The Twin Cities get hit most summers, and after a big storm the suburbs fill with out-of-state trucks. Minnesota's answer is a statute that says a contractor being paid from an insurance claim cannot offer to pay or waive any part of the homeowner's deductible, and cannot compensate the homeowner for anything. The contractor has to hand over a written notice of that rule with the first estimate. If a contractor breaks it, the insurance company is allowed to throw out that contractor's estimate, and the homeowner or the insurer can sue for damages.

Winter does the rest. Snow load and ice dams are the everyday roofing problems here, the state residential code requires an ice barrier at the eaves, and the working season runs from May to October. Every roof the company will do that year has to fit inside it.

The houses are ramblers, which is what Minnesotans call a ranch, built across the Twin Cities suburbs from the 1950s through the 1970s, along with pre-war stock in Minneapolis and St. Paul, newer subdivisions out in Woodbury, Maple Grove, and Lakeville, and lake cabins up north around Brainerd. Duluth adds lake-effect snow off Superior and a 60-inch frost line that matters more to the deck builder than the roofer.