Hawaii · Roofing licensing · official-source guide
Hawaii licenses roofing work through the Contractors License Board (Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs) under the C-42 Roofing specialty classification, part of its state-only contractor licensing system. Applicants need four years of supervisory experience, must pass a PSI-administered exam, carry liability and workers compensation insurance, and may need a bond. No city or county issues a separate roofing license; counties only handle building permits.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-18. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Hawaii licenses roofing contracting at the state level only. The Contractors License Board, housed within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Professional and Vocational Licensing Division, issues a specialty classification called C-42 Roofing Contractor. This sits inside a three tier system set out in Hawaii Revised Statutes chapter 444 and Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 16-77: an A general engineering contractor license, a B general building contractor license, and C specialty contractor licenses, of which C-42 is one. There is no separate municipal or county roofing license anywhere in the state. The four counties, City and County of Honolulu, County of Hawaii, County of Maui, and County of Kauai, do not issue their own contractor licenses. They issue building permits, and it is the state contractor license that lets a business legally sign for and perform permitted roofing work in any of them. A person or firm that installs, repairs, or replaces roofing for pay in Hawaii, whether the work is residential, commercial, or on a public project, must hold the C-42 classification, or must hold a B general building license if the roofing work involved is limited to the aluminum, metal shingle, or wood shingle and shake installation that automatically comes bundled with that broader license. Roof coatings, meaning waterproofing or reflective coating application, sit under a related but separate subclassification, C-42g, and are not automatically covered by a plain C-42 license. Anyone advertising, bidding, or contracting for roofing work outside these classifications without the matching Hawaii license is engaged in unlicensed contracting, which both the Board and the Regulated Industries Complaints Office investigate on complaint.
Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 16-77, Exhibit A, breaks the C specialty contractor category into named subclassifications, and roofing sits primarily under C-42, described as a contractor who installs roofing to an acceptable surface and provides a weather tight covering using metal, composition and cementitious shingles, wood shingles and shakes, concrete, clay, and other tile, built-up, modified bitumen, single ply, and fluid type systems, spray urethane foam, asphalt, and liquid cutback asphalt, plus other roofing materials. The C-42 scope also covers applying protective or reflective roofing, applying deck coatings and top coatings, and installing roof flashing tied to any of that work. A related subclassification, C-42g Roof Coatings Contractor, is limited to applying roof coatings for waterproofing and reflective purposes, including the surface preparation those coatings need, and is the classification for a business that only recoats existing roofs rather than installing new roofing systems. Two narrower roofing subclassifications, C-42a, aluminum and other metal shingles, and C-42b, wood shingles and wood shakes, exist separately, and under HAR section 16-77-32(c) a contractor who holds the B general building contractor license automatically holds both C-42a and C-42b without a further exam or added fee. That automatic grant does not extend to full C-42, so a general building contractor who wants to install composition shingle, tile, built-up, or membrane roofing systems still needs to apply for the standalone C-42 classification. A sheet metal contractor licensed as C-51 may also install metal siding and roofing as part of sheet metal fabrication work under that classification's own scope. Applicants can apply for more than one specialty classification on a single application, paying the associated examination fees for each classification sought.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov
A contractor license is required in Hawaii for any project where the aggregate contract price, including labor, materials, taxes, and all other items, exceeds 1,500 dollars, and for any project that requires a building, electrical, or plumbing permit regardless of price. Below that combined threshold, and without a required permit, a limited handyman-style exemption applies: no license is needed if the total contract price is 1,000 dollars or less and no building permit is required, though this exemption never covers electrical or plumbing work that itself needs a permit. Property owners or lessees may build or improve a residential or farm structure on their own property without a contractor license, but this owner-builder exemption does not cover electrical or plumbing work, the structure cannot be offered for sale or lease within a year of completion, the owner-builder must register as such with the county building department, and the owner-builder must personally supervise construction and use only licensed subcontractors. Bidding on a roofing project requires a license even before any contract is signed, because offering to undertake licensed work is itself regulated. Suppliers and manufacturers who merely sell roofing material or equipment do not need a contractor license, but anyone who bids for or performs the installation, even if that installation work is subcontracted out to a licensed roofer, needs a license. Joint ventures and partnerships bidding on roofing work must be licensed as a joint venture unless every party to the venture already holds an individual contractor license and the Board is notified in writing.
Under Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-77-18, every individual applicant, and every responsible managing employee, called an RME, standing in for a licensed entity, must show at least four years of supervisory experience within the ten years immediately before filing the application, working as a foreman, supervising employee, or contractor in the specific classification the applicant intends to hold, such as C-42 roofing. Self-employed or unlicensed experience can still count toward that four year requirement at the Board's discretion, so time spent running an unlicensed roofing operation is not automatically thrown out, though it is reviewed case by case. A contracting entity, such as a corporation or LLC, cannot qualify on its own; it must qualify through a designated RME who personally meets the experience standard, and that RME's name, address, and official capacity are posted publicly by the Board for at least fourteen days as part of its background review before a license issues. Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-77-71 further requires that the entity's principal RME actually reside in Hawaii while the entity's license is in effect, or at minimum during any period when a project under that license is under construction, which rules out having an out of state supervisor sign off remotely for an active Hawaii roofing job.
An applicant for a Hawaii roofing license applies either as a sole proprietor or, for a corporation, LLC, or partnership, as an entity paired with a separate responsible managing employee application. A separate application and application fee is required for each contracting entity and for each RME. The filing deadline for a complete application is on or before the first Tuesday of the month before the Contractors License Board meeting at which it will be reviewed, and the Board does not meet or review applications in December. Once the Board's applications committee determines an application is proper, the Board must act on it within one hundred twenty days. As part of that review, the applicant's name and, for entities, the names and capacities of RMEs, officers, members, managers, and partners are posted publicly for not less than fourteen days, and no license can be issued until that posting period ends. After Board approval, the qualifying individual, whether sole proprietor or RME, must sit for and pass the required licensing examination before the Board will finish processing the license. An application that goes incomplete, or where an applicant fails to appear for a scheduled exam or fails to pay required fees or post a required bond within one hundred twenty days of notice, is automatically rejected.
Since January 2023, the Hawaii Contractors License Board's licensing examinations have been administered by PSI Services LLC rather than by the Board directly. An applicant cannot register for the exam on their own; the Board must first approve the underlying application, after which the applicant receives an examination approval letter naming the specific exam or exams they are cleared to take. That letter also explains how to register directly with PSI, and applicants should allow up to twenty four hours after the letter issues before registering. Most classifications, including C-42 roofing, require passing two separate exam parts: Part I, Business and Law, and Part II, Trade, which covers the technical content of the specific classification. Registration with PSI can be completed online through PSI's candidate portal or by calling PSI's exam registration line. Applicants must pass all required parts of the examination within six months of the Board's approval letter; anyone who does not pass within that six month window must file an entirely new application and restart the approval process rather than simply retaking the exam. Once an applicant passes, the Board's examination step is complete and the applicant moves on to submitting the license fees, insurance documentation, and any bond the Board requires before an active license is issued.
The Contractors License Board publishes a flat fee schedule that applies to the C-42 roofing classification the same as any other. The application fee is 50 dollars per application, and an applicant can apply for more than one classification on a single application. The examination fee is 75 dollars per part, so a C-42 applicant sitting for both the Business and Law part and the Trade part pays 150 dollars in exam fees. Once an applicant passes and is ready to be issued a license, the license fee for a contracting entity or sole proprietor is 663 dollars if the license is issued between October 1 of an even numbered year and September 30 of the following odd numbered year, and 494 dollars if issued between October 1 of an odd numbered year and September 30 of the following even numbered year, reflecting Hawaii's two year licensing cycle. The RME license fee follows the same cycle at 438 dollars or 334 dollars. At renewal, the fee is 353 dollars for a contracting entity or sole proprietor and 208 dollars for an RME. Separately, every licensee pays a 10 dollar contractors recovery fund fee, and a license that is automatically forfeited for missing that recovery fund assessment can be restored within thirty days by paying the fee plus a 10 dollar penalty fee. These figures come from the Board's own published fee schedule and administrative rules; applicants should confirm current amounts with the Board before submitting payment, since fee schedules can be updated between the Board's publication cycles.
Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-77-10 sets the minimum insurance a roofing contractor must carry before a license is issued. The applicant must submit a certificate of liability and property damage insurance showing bodily injury coverage of at least 100,000 dollars per person and 300,000 dollars per occurrence, and property damage coverage of at least 50,000 dollars per occurrence. The certificate must come from an authorized insurer, an authorized unauthorized insurer under Hawaii's surplus lines rules, or a qualifying risk retention or risk purchasing group. A contractor with employees must also submit a workers compensation certificate from an authorized insurer confirming the policy is in force, or proof of approved self-insurance under HRS chapter 386; a contractor with no employees can instead file a signed statement claiming exclusion from chapter 386's workers compensation requirement. A surety bond is not automatically required of every C-42 applicant. Instead, the Board may impose a bond, at its discretion, as proof of financial integrity when it is not otherwise satisfied the applicant can operate responsibly, and failing to file a bond the Board has required is grounds for automatic rejection of the application. A licensee who has maintained a Board-imposed bond for at least one year may ask the Board to waive it going forward. Any change to a licensee's insurance or bond information must be reported to the Board in writing within thirty days of the change.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov
Hawaii contractor licenses, including C-42 roofing licenses, run on a two year cycle and expire on September 30 of every even numbered year regardless of when during the cycle the license was first issued. Renewal applications are mailed to current licensees before August 15 of the expiring year, and the completed renewal, along with all required documents and fees, must reach the Board by September 30. Firms and sole proprietors renewing on active status must be current on general liability insurance, workers compensation insurance or a filed exclusion, any bond the Board still requires them to maintain, and a tax clearance from the Hawaii Department of Taxation, which the Department mails directly to contractors ahead of the renewal deadline; the Board may accept a letter confirming a tax payment arrangement in place of a clean clearance. Verification of current liability and workers compensation insurance is required again if the existing policy expires before September 30. A firm's designated RME must also be renewed, or the firm's own license cannot be renewed. RMEs themselves are not required to submit insurance information or a tax clearance unless the Board needs to verify past due taxes or liens against them. A license not renewed by September 30 is automatically forfeited; the licensee then has sixty days to restore it by filing all required documents, fees, and a late renewal fee, and after that sixty day window closes the licensee must apply again as a brand new applicant. The Board's published materials reviewed for this brief do not describe any continuing education hour requirement tied to renewal.
Hawaii does not have reciprocity agreements with any other state for contractor licensing, and the Contractors License Board states plainly that every applicant, regardless of how long they have been licensed elsewhere, must meet the same experience, application, and examination requirements as a first time applicant. A roofing contractor moving to Hawaii from another state gets no credit toward the four year supervisory experience requirement simply for holding an out of state roofing license, though documented supervisory work performed while operating under that out of state license can still count toward the four years if it fits the Board's experience criteria. Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-77-89 does give some flexibility to licensees based outside the state: an out of state address may be listed as a licensee's place of business if the license is placed on inactive status, and the rule sets separate requirements for naming an in-state agent for service of process when an out of state licensee wants to keep an active Hawaii license without a physical Hawaii office. Outside that narrow accommodation, an out of state roofing contractor must go through the full Hawaii application, experience verification, and PSI examination process before being allowed to contract for roofing work anywhere in the state.
Hawaii treats unlicensed contracting as a matter for its Regulated Industries Complaints Office, known as RICO, which sits within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs alongside the Contractors License Board. Anyone who discovers a person or business performing or offering roofing work without a license can report it to RICO by phone or by filing a written complaint. Because RICO must build a case to investigate unlicensed activity, useful reports include any written contracts or quotes from the unlicensed party, canceled checks or receipts showing payment, a description of the workers at the jobsite and any vehicles present including color, make, and model, and the exact address, dates, and hours the work is happening. A homeowner who hires an unlicensed roofer loses access to Hawaii's Contractors Recovery Fund, the consumer protection fund that can otherwise help pay a homeowner back when a licensed contractor's work causes a covered loss; that protection exists only for work performed by a properly licensed contractor. This brief could not confirm, from a source that returned successfully, the specific criminal fine or imprisonment range that Hawaii Revised Statutes chapter 444 sets for a person convicted of contracting without a license, since the state's own statute site blocked automated retrieval; that figure is left out here rather than guessed, and is listed separately as unconfirmed.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov
Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-77-83 requires a contracting entity that advertises through any media to identify itself as a licensed contractor by including the name it is licensed under, or its board-filed trade name, plus its license number; the rule defines media broadly to include newspapers, magazines, radio, television, the internet, and directories such as yellow pages listings. Before a homeowner contract is even signed, section 16-77-79 requires the contractor to disclose in writing the approximate percentage of work to be subcontracted, whether the contractor is bonded and, if not, the extent of financial security available, the contractor's license number and classification, all warranties, and a cost estimate. Once work is contracted, section 16-77-80 requires the written homeowner contract itself to state the contractor's name, address, license number, and classification, the exact dollar amount due, the start date and number of days for completion, the scope of work and materials, the names and license numbers of any subcontractors, a capitalized statement near the signature line about the risk of loss on payments made to a sales representative, lien rights of everyone performing under the contract, and the terms of any warranty. Separately, section 16-77-87 requires every licensed contracting entity to maintain a permanent physical place of business within Hawaii where the license is prominently displayed and where the entity can be served legal notice; a post office box does not satisfy this requirement. Licensees must notify the Board in writing of any address change within ten business days.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov
The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs directs homeowners to confirm a contractor's license before signing anything, using the contractor's name and license number. The Board's public license search tool is hosted at mypvl.dcca.hawaii.gov, and DCCA also lists a phone option through the Licensing and Business Registration Information Section, reachable at 844-808-3222, with the Board's direct verification line published separately at 808-587-3295. A more general company lookup, covering business registration status rather than license classification detail, is available through businesscheck.hawaii.gov. DCCA also periodically publishes downloadable lists of currently licensed contractors, and separate lists for licensed electricians and plumbers and for licensed engineers, architects, land surveyors, and landscape architects, as a backup way to cross check a name. A homeowner checking a roofing bid should confirm both that the license is active and that it carries the C-42 classification, or the relevant automatically bundled classification under a B general building license, since a contractor can hold an active license in an unrelated classification without being licensed to perform roofing work at all. Verifying before signing a contract, rather than after a dispute starts, is what preserves a homeowner's access to the Contractors Recovery Fund if the job later goes wrong.
Hawaii's four counties, City and County of Honolulu, County of Hawaii, County of Maui, and County of Kauai, do not issue their own roofing or contractor licenses; contractor licensing in Hawaii happens only at the state level through the Contractors License Board. What each county does control is the building permit. Because a Hawaii contractor license is required for any project that needs a building, electrical, or plumbing permit, regardless of the project's dollar value, a roof replacement or major re-roofing job that requires a county building permit automatically triggers the state licensing requirement even on a small residential job that would otherwise fall under the 1,500 dollar general threshold. An owner-builder who wants to reroof a home without hiring a licensed contractor must still register as an owner-builder with the county building department where the property sits and must personally supervise the work using only licensed subcontractors for any part that is subcontracted out. This research could not confirm current county-by-county permit fee schedules or online permit portal addresses for Honolulu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai counties from a source that returned reliably, so specific county permit fees and current portal links are intentionally left out and noted as unconfirmed rather than guessed.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov
The primary source materials reviewed for this brief, the Contractors License Board's statute and rule pages, its published license classification descriptions, and Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 16-77, do not describe any roofing-specific storm damage or hail restoration contractor registration separate from the standard C-42 license. Hawaii's general homeowner contract disclosure rules, requiring a written estimate, license number, subcontracting percentage, and warranty terms before work begins, apply the same way to a storm or wind damage roofing repair as to any other roofing job; nothing in the reviewed rules carves out different requirements for storm-chasing contractors or door-to-door storm repair solicitation. Likewise, the Contractors License Board materials reviewed here do not set out a prohibition on public adjuster involvement, or public-adjuster-style practices by roofing contractors, tied specifically to the roofing classification; public adjuster licensing in Hawaii is handled under a different regulatory line than contractor licensing, and this brief did not verify its specific requirements from a primary source, so no claim is made about it here. Anyone advertising storm or hail damage roofing repair in Hawaii is still bound by the same advertising, license display, and homeowner contract rules that apply to every other C-42 licensed roofing job, and any storm-chasing contractor who is not licensed in Hawaii remains subject to the same unlicensed contracting enforcement described above.
Every Hawaii contractor license, including a C-42 roofing license, carries a 10 dollar contractors recovery fund fee under Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-77-100 and the underlying statute it implements. If a contractor does not pay an assessed recovery fund fee within sixty days of the assessment, the license is automatically forfeited without a hearing. A forfeited license can be restored within thirty days of forfeiture by paying the assessed recovery fund fee plus a 10 dollar penalty fee; if the contractor misses that thirty day window, they cannot simply pay their way back in and must instead apply as a brand new applicant, meeting every experience, exam, and fee requirement again from the start. The Board's consumer-facing materials describe the fund itself as a protection that can be available to a homeowner who hired a licensed contractor and suffered a covered loss connected to that contractor's work, a protection that is not available to a homeowner who instead hired someone without a license. A licensee whose obligation to the fund is ever paid off through a court-ordered claim against them has that specific claim automatically closed once the court order authorizing payment from the fund issues. The recovery fund sits alongside, not instead of, the liability and workers compensation insurance every active licensee must also carry.
These are common details other guides publish about Hawaii, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. Roofing is licensed at the state level under the C-42 Roofing Contractor specialty classification issued by the Hawaii Contractors License Board, and no city or county issues a separate roofing license.
C-42 is the specialty classification covering installing roofing and providing a weather tight covering using shingles, tile, built-up and membrane systems, spray foam, and other roofing materials, plus deck coatings, top coatings, and flashing tied to that work.
Hawaii Administrative Rules section 16-77-18 requires at least four years of supervisory experience as a foreman, supervising employee, or contractor in the roofing classification within the ten years before filing the application.
Applicants take a PSI Services administered exam with two parts for most classifications, Business and Law and Trade, and must pass both within six months of the Board's approval letter or reapply.
Published fees include a 50 dollar application fee, 75 dollars per examination part, a license fee of 663 or 494 dollars depending on where the two year cycle falls, and a 10 dollar recovery fund fee.
The Board requires liability and property damage insurance with minimums of 100,000 dollars per person and 300,000 dollars per occurrence for bodily injury and 50,000 dollars per occurrence for property damage, plus workers compensation coverage if the contractor has employees.
Not automatically. The Board may require a bond at its discretion as proof of financial integrity, and a licensee who has maintained a required bond for at least a year can ask the Board to waive it.
Licenses run on a two year cycle and expire on September 30 of every even numbered year, with renewal applications due by that date along with current insurance proof and a state tax clearance.
No. The Contractors License Board requires every applicant to meet the same experience, application, and examination requirements regardless of any license already held in another state.
Unlicensed activity can be reported to the Regulated Industries Complaints Office for investigation, and a homeowner who hires an unlicensed contractor cannot access the Contractors Recovery Fund if something goes wrong.
Yes. Advertising through any media must show the licensed name or filed trade name plus the license number, and written homeowner contracts must list the contractor's license number and classification among other required disclosures.
Through the Board's public license search at mypvl.dcca.hawaii.gov, by calling the Licensing and Business Registration Information Section, or through the businesscheck.hawaii.gov lookup.
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