General liability insurance is the foundation policy of any roofing business. It pays for bodily injury and property damage you cause to someone who isn't your employee. It's the coverage your customers, your general contractors, and your municipal license all require you to carry — and the one most roofing companies buy without ever being shown the small print that matters.
What general liability actually covers
A standard commercial general liability (CGL) policy for a roofing contractor pays for three categories of claim:
- Bodily injury to a third party. A homeowner trips over a coiled extension cord on the driveway. A passing pedestrian is hit by a piece of debris from a tear-off. A child falls because of a temporarily missing handrail your crew removed. The medical bills, the legal defense, and any judgment are paid by the policy.
- Property damage to someone else's stuff. A nail gun discharges and embeds in a customer's car. A ladder slips and damages the gutters of the house next door. A stack of shingles falls off your truck and dents a parked vehicle. The repair or replacement is covered.
- Personal and advertising injury. Libel, slander, copyright infringement in your ads. Less common for roofers but it's part of the standard form.
The policy also pays your legal defense costs, usually outside the policy limit — meaning the insurer hires the lawyer and the cost of defense doesn't eat into the money available to settle a claim.
What general liability does NOT cover for roofers
This is where roofers get hurt. The standard CGL form has a long list of exclusions. The ones that bite roofing contractors most often:
Damage to your own work
If your crew installs a roof and it leaks six months later, GL will not pay to fix the leak. It might pay for water damage to the customer's drywall and furniture below — that's third-party property damage — but the roof itself is your work product, and CGL excludes work performed by you or on your behalf. This is what builders risk and product-completed-operations enhancements address.
Employee injuries
When your installer slips off a ridge and breaks an ankle, that's a workers' compensation claim, not a GL claim. The CGL form has a hard exclusion for any injury to an employee arising out of and in the course of employment. Without workers' comp, you pay the medical bills out of pocket — and in most states, that's a six-figure problem.
Property in your care, custody, or control
Materials you're storing on a customer's property, a piece of equipment you borrowed from the GC, the homeowner's lawn furniture you moved before tearing off — these are technically in your control during the job, and the CGL excludes them. Inland marine and bailee coverage handle this gap.
Roofs above a certain height (sometimes)
Some non-specialty carriers exclude or sub-limit work performed above three stories or above a stated number of feet. If you do steep-slope, multi-story, or commercial low-slope work, this exclusion can void your coverage on exactly the jobs that pay the best. Always read the height endorsement before signing.
Subcontractor exclusions
Many roofing GL policies exclude work performed by subcontractors unless those subs were named or scheduled at binding. If you sub out tear-offs or details work and a sub causes a loss, your policy may not respond. The fix is a subcontractor warranty endorsement or a higher-tier policy that doesn't carry that exclusion.
What limits should a roofing contractor carry?
The most common limits we write for residential roofing contractors are $1,000,000 per occurrence / $2,000,000 aggregate. That meets the minimum requirement on almost every residential GC contract and most municipal license requirements.
For commercial roofing, public-sector work, school districts, multifamily, and any contract that involves working alongside other trades, $2,000,000 / $4,000,000 is increasingly the floor. School districts and hospitals will sometimes require $5M+ aggregate. The cheapest way to reach those limits is usually a separate umbrella or excess liability policy stacked on top of the underlying CGL.
A practical rule: buy the limits that match the contracts you want to win in the next twelve months, not just the ones you've already signed. Going back to a carrier mid-policy to raise limits is annoying and slow. Doing it at renewal — or buying it right the first time — is cheaper and keeps you ready when the next bigger job lands in your inbox.
How GL premium is calculated
Roofing GL is rated primarily on annual gross receipts — your total revenue. Insurers apply a rate per $1,000 of revenue based on your classification, your state, and the carrier's appetite for the risk. Other factors:
- • Years in business — anything under three years is rated higher.
- • Claims history — a single $20,000 claim in the last three years can double your rate.
- • Type of work — commercial vs residential, steep vs low-slope, repair vs full replacement.
- • Subcontractor usage — heavy reliance on subs without their own coverage drives premium up.
- • State — premium varies sharply by state due to legal climate and loss frequency.
- • Limits — the jump from $1M/$2M to $2M/$4M is usually not double the price; it's often only 20–40% more.
The audit at the end of the policy year
Roofing GL policies are almost always auditable. At binding, you give the insurer an estimate of your gross revenue for the year. At the end of the term, the insurer audits your actual revenue and either refunds you (if you came in lower) or sends you an additional invoice (if you came in higher).
This is the most common source of "surprise insurance bills" in the roofing industry. If you doubled your revenue and didn't update your insurer, you'll get a five-figure invoice 60 days after policy expiration. We recommend updating your projected revenue mid-year if you're tracking significantly higher than your initial estimate. It smooths the cash impact and usually saves money on the audit.
Certificates of insurance (COIs)
Every general contractor, every property manager, and every municipal job will ask for a Certificate of Insurance before letting you start work. The COI shows your policy limits, the dates of coverage, and any additional insureds. It's not the policy itself — it's a one-page summary. We can issue COIs same-day, name additional insureds, and set up automatic delivery to repeat customers so you're never holding up a job over paperwork.