Short answer: As of October 2026, the one highest-scoring roofing contractors in the Bangor, ME metro on The Roofing Brief Contractor Score are Smith Builders Roofing (94.6). Each holds a certification we verified on the manufacturer’s own register, every rating was corroborated elsewhere, and placement on this page is not for sale.
The Roofing Brief scored 1 certified roofing contractors serving the Bangor metro on a published, reproducible formula, then researched each of the top one individually to confirm its record. Bangor is a city of old houses under heavy snow: four in ten homes were built before 1940, the city designs roofs for 70 pounds per square foot of ground snow, and its worst storms of the decade were winter gales, with a 71 mph gust in December 2023. Maine licenses no roofers, and a 2025 bill to change that died in April 2026. One manufacturer-certified roofer with five or more reviews appears in the directory for the Bangor area, and it is ranked; five more local roofers with an Owens Corning credential or a long BBB record are listed for comparison.
Wind, terrain and the Bangor housing stock
Maine does not license roofers or general contractors; the Attorney General’s own guidance says so, and only plumbers and electricians are licensed by state boards. LD 1226, which would have created a residential contractor licence, passed the House in June 2025 but died in the Senate when the Legislature adjourned on 29 April 2026. The one state licence that touches roofers covers transient door-to-door sellers of home repairs with no permanent place of business in the town (32 M.R.S. 14504), and Bangor issues no contractor licence of its own.
What Maine does require is a written contract for any home construction job over $3,000, signed by both sides before work starts and setting out the work, materials, price, payment method and dates. The down payment may not exceed a third of the price, and a breach carries a civil forfeiture of $100 to $1,000 and is prima facie evidence of an unfair trade practice (10 M.R.S. 1487 to 1490). We found no Maine law on insurance deductibles.
Bangor enforces the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code, which moved to the 2021 International Residential Code from April 2025. The city publishes a 70 psf ground snow load, a 107 mph design wind speed and a five-foot frost depth. Renovation permits cost $52 for the first $2,500 plus $7 per $1,000 above; the fee list has no roofing line and the city does not say whether a like-for-like reroof needs a permit, so ask Code Enforcement first.
Across 2016 to 2025 Penobscot County logged 31 hail reports, none of two inches, 139 thunderstorm wind reports and one tornado, in woodland 60 miles north. NOAA records no dollar damage for any event in the decade, which reflects reporting practice rather than an absence of losses. Bangor’s median home was built in 1954, 41.1 percent of its homes predate 1940, and 52.8 percent are rented.
The one certified roofer ranked in Bangor, ME
Scored 2026-10-08. The metro mean rating used as the Bayesian prior for Bangor is 4.9, across a pool of 1 certified contractors.
| Rank | Company | TRB Score | Certification | Rating (reviews) | Adjusted | In business since | Based in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smith Builders Roofing | 94.6 | President’s Club | 4.9 (275) | 4.9 | not published | Glenburn, ME |
1. Smith Builders Roofing: TRB Score 94.6
Smith Builders Roofing is based in Glenburn, ME, led by Chris Smith, founder and co-owner; Ted Murray, co-owner, BBB accredited since 26 April 2023, A+ rating, no complaints, and holds President’s Club standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: President’s Club (GAF), VELUX Certified Installer (self-published). Certification by more than one manufacturer is uncommon and requires meeting each programme’s separate standards for insurance, training and track record.
| Score component | Points | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Certification tier | 35 | 35 |
| Adjusted rating | 36.0 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 15.0 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 8.6 | 10 |
| Total | 94.6 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Accredited since April 2023 with an A+ rating; business started 1993; alternate name Smith Builders Roofing Specialists; 20 employees; no complaints.. BBB business profile
- Crews concentrated in eastern and central Maine, working Penobscot, Waldo, Hancock and Piscataquis counties; Bangor, Brewer, Hampden, Orono, Old Town, Glenburn and Hermon among the towns listed.. Company website, service areas
What they actually do. Asphalt shingle, metal, stone-coated steel and cedar roofing, silicone coatings, skylights, siding, gutters and chimney masonry.
Why it ranks here. A second-generation roofing firm on Broadway in Glenburn, just northwest of Bangor, at GAF’s President’s Club tier with 275 reviews averaging 4.9, the deepest record in the area by far. Roofing is its core trade, across asphalt, metal, stone-coated steel and cedar, and its service area names Bangor and the surrounding towns. BBB has accredited it since 2023 with no complaints. Its own pages give both 1993 and 1995 as its founding year, and BBB records it as a sole proprietorship while a Smith Builders, Inc. registered in Bangor in 2007 could not be confirmed as the same business, so we give no year. Its FAQ says roofs of 3:12 pitch or less should go to a low-slope specialist.
Best fit for: Bangor-area homeowners who want the region’s most-reviewed roofer for a steep-slope roof, including metal or cedar.
What we would want clarified. It does not do flat or low-slope roofs, BBB accreditation dates only from 2023, and its legal entity is unclear; make sure your written contract names the business you are paying. We publish this because a ranking that only prints the flattering findings is an advertisement, not an assessment.
Verify the certification yourself on the GAF registry listing. The number carried on that listing is (207) 852-8250, which is the registry’s contact line and is often a directory tracking number rather than the contractor’s own: take the number from the company’s own website and compare the two.
Other roofers serving Bangor
One certified firm is ranked here. These five are based in the Bangor area with an Owens Corning credential or a long BBB record. They are not scored and we are not recommending them; Maine has no licence to check, so ask each for insurance certificates and a written contract.
| Company | Verified credential |
|---|---|
| Armor Roofing, Inc. | Owens Corning Preferred in Orrington; a Maine corporation since 2011 in good standing; BBB A+, not accredited, no complaints. Specialises in standing seam and copper metal as well as asphalt and cedar. |
| Lee Builders Roofing | Owens Corning Preferred in Glenburn; an owner-operated firm trading since 2014; BBB A+, not accredited, no complaints; serves Bangor, Brewer, Orono and Old Town. |
| Scesny Roofing | Owens Corning Preferred in Holden, trading since 2006; BBB rated A and accredited since 2025, with two complaints in three years marked answered rather than resolved. |
| Central Maine Exteriors, Inc. | BBB accredited since 2018 at A+, trading since 2004 in Hampden; a general exterior contractor with roofing among siding, windows and decks; no complaints. |
| Home Roofing Solutions | Owens Corning Preferred in Etna and Bangor; since April 2025 owned by Vertex Service Partners, a Charlotte, North Carolina company, so no longer an independent local firm. |
The 139 wind reports that shape a Bangor roof
Aggregate hail counts tell you very little about a specific roof. These are the individual events: every severe-weather report logged by the National Weather Service across the 1 county of the Bangor, ME statistical area over ten years, with the dates, the stone sizes and the towns they landed on. Over that decade the metro logged 31 hail reports, 139 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports and 1 tornado. The database’s property-damage fields are left blank for most of these reports, so it carries no usable loss total for this metro and we do not quote one.
The biggest hail to fall on Bangor in a decade
| Date | Stone size | Reported near | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 July 2019 | 1.75 in | Lincoln | Penobscot |
| 5 June 2024 | 1.75 in | Prentiss | Penobscot |
| 5 June 2024 | 1.75 in | Prentiss | Penobscot |
| 21 July 2019 | 1.75 in | Springfield | Penobscot |
| 3 August 2017 | 1.5 in | Penobscot | Penobscot |
| 5 June 2024 | 1.5 in | Mattawamkeag | Penobscot |
The largest stone on record for this metro fell on 2 July 2019 near Lincoln, measured at 1.75 inches. That is ping-pong-ball sized, enough to bruise asphalt shingles and shorten a roof’s life without necessarily looking dramatic from the ground.
Wind. The strongest thunderstorm gust logged in the metro was 61 knots, about 70 mph, near Penobscot on 5 June 2025. Asphalt shingles begin lifting at roughly 67 mph when they are correctly nailed, and considerably below that when they are not.
Tornadoes. 1 tornado touched down in these counties over the decade, the strongest rated EF1 near (Mlt)Millinocket Arp on 5 August 2017.
What the National Weather Service wrote about it
The NWS logs a written account of each severe-weather episode. This is its description of the 5 June 2025 event near Penobscot, reproduced verbatim:
An estimated 60 to 70 hardwood and softwood trees were toppled or snapped between mile marks 4 and 8 of Huber Road by wind gusts estimated at up to 70 mph. The time is estimated.
That is what the specification has to anticipate here, written up by the agency that recorded it rather than by a contractor selling the repair.
When it happens. Severe weather reports cluster in July (70), June (50), August (36). The worst years on record were 2024 (54), 2016 (39), 2019 (18). If you are scheduling non-urgent work in Bangor, the months outside that window are when crews are least stretched and least likely to be triaging emergency callouts ahead of your job.
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, county-level detail files 2016 to 2025, filtered to the counties of this statistical area by The Roofing Brief. Damage figures are as reported to the NWS and undercount insured losses.
What to do with this. Hail is not the governing risk in Bangor. Weight your decision toward wind rating, ventilation and flashing detail rather than paying extra for impact-rated shingles.
Old roofs, heavy snow and winter gales
Snow governs a Bangor roof. The city publishes a design ground snow load of 70 pounds per square foot, and NOAA’s daily records at Bangor International Airport average 73.7 inches of snow a season over 1991 to 2020; the 2014 to 2015 season brought 138.5 inches. The biggest single day of the past decade was 21.5 inches on 13 February 2017, in a storm NOAA files as a blizzard.
The houses carrying that load are old. Bangor’s median home was built in 1954, 23 years before the county’s, and 41.1 percent of the city’s homes predate 1940, almost double the county share. On houses that age, a reroof is often the first look in decades at the decking and rafters under the snow.
The worst wind comes in the cold months, not in summer thunderstorms. On 18 December 2023 NWS recorded a 71 mph gust at Bangor amid record warmth and heavy rain on partly frozen ground, toppling trees and cutting power widely. On 30 October 2017 a rapidly deepening storm carrying the remnants of Tropical Storm Philippe brought a 66 mph gust; NWS Caribou estimated hundreds of thousands of trees down and outages for about 56 percent of the local utility’s customers. On 19 December 2025 another 66 mph gust hit the airport as warm rain thawed the ground.
The Southern Penobscot zone around Bangor logged 19 high wind, 21 heavy snow, 16 winter storm and four blizzard events in the decade, against 31 hail reports for the whole county, none of two inches. NOAA records no dollar damage for any of them, so the federal figures say nothing useful about what these storms cost.
With no licence to check, a Bangor homeowner has to do the vetting. Insist on the written contract Maine law requires, with no more than a third paid up front; ask the roofer how it will fasten the roof against 70 mph winter gusts and how it will handle ice at the eaves of an old, poorly insulated house; and check with Code Enforcement whether your job needs a permit.
Bangor’s snow and wind design and the rules on a reroof
| Item | Figure or rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Ground snow load, Bangor | 70 psf | City of Bangor base climate data |
| Design wind speed | 107 mph | City of Bangor base climate data |
| Average seasonal snowfall, Bangor airport | 73.7 inches | NOAA daily records via ACIS, 1991 to 2020 |
| Strongest gust, 2016 to 2025 | 71 mph, 18 December 2023 | NWS Caribou via NOAA NCEI, zone rows |
| Winter storm events, Southern Penobscot zone | 21 heavy snow; 16 winter storm; 4 blizzard | NOAA NCEI Storm Events, zone rows |
| State contractor licence | None; LD 1226 died 29 April 2026 | Maine Legislature |
| Written contract | Required over $3,000; down payment capped at one third | 10 M.R.S. 1487 |
| Penalty for a contract breach | $100 to $1,000 civil forfeiture | 10 M.R.S. 1490 |
| Homes built before 1940, Bangor | 41.1 percent | ACS 2020 to 2024, B25034 |
| Renter-occupied homes, Bangor | 52.8 percent | ACS 2020 to 2024, B25003 |
Source: Maine Attorney General home construction guidance; 10 M.R.S. 1487 to 1490; 32 M.R.S. 14504; Maine Legislature record for LD 1226; City of Bangor code enforcement pages, base climate data, fee schedule and Chapter 85; NOAA daily records for Bangor International Airport via ACIS; NWS Caribou narratives and NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (Penobscot County and zone rows); Maine Secretary of State corporate search; Owens Corning contractor locator; BBB business profiles; US Census Bureau ACS 2020 to 2024.
How to check a Bangor roofer in ten minutes
There is no state roofing licence in ME. Maine does not license roofing contractors, or general contractors, at state level. There is no exam and no state board with authority to discipline a roofer; the one state licence in this area covers transient door-to-door sellers of home repair services with no permanent place of business in the town, who must be licensed under 32 M.R.S. 14504. What Maine does require is a written contract: under the Home Construction Contracts Act any residential construction, remodelling or repair contract for more than $3,000 must be in writing (10 M.R.S. 1487).
The written contract must set out the work, the materials, the price and the payment schedule, and the down payment may not exceed one third of the price. A contractor who breaks the Act faces a civil forfeiture of $100 to $1,000, and the breach is prima facie evidence of an unfair trade practice (10 M.R.S. 1490). The parties can waive some requirements in writing after the contractor has disclosed them (1489).
That absence is the most important fact on this page. Where a state issues no credential, a manufacturer certification that can be revoked is the only quality signal a homeowner can actually check, which is why this ranking is built on certification rather than star ratings.
Check here: Maine Attorney General, home construction and repair. A 2025 bill to license residential contractors, LD 1226, passed the House but died in the Senate when the Legislature adjourned on 29 April 2026, so Maine still licenses no residential contractors. There is no general municipal contractor licence either; the written contract and the contractor’s own record are the formal protections a Maine homeowner has.
Four checks to run before you sign anything, in any state.
- Verify certification at the source. Use the GAF verification tool rather than trusting a badge image on a company website.
- Get the certificate of insurance from the insurer, not the contractor, and confirm general liability and workers compensation are both active on the day work starts.
- Confirm who pulls the permit. If a contractor asks you to pull it as the homeowner, that moves liability onto you. Decline.
- Get warranty terms in writing before any deposit, and check the manufacturer warranty being promised actually requires the certification tier the contractor holds.
The shape of the Bangor contractor market
1 certified roofing contractors serve the principal cities of the Bangor, ME statistical area, of which 1 hold the top President’s Club tier. The pool carries 275 customer reviews between them at a mean rating of 4.9. The statistical area had a 2024 population of 156,840, a change of 3.05% against the 2020 census base, per the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates.
How these Bangor rankings were produced
Every contractor in the Bangor, ME pool was scored out of 100 on four published components: certification tier, a Bayesian adjusted rating, review depth and distance from the metro centre. In this metro that meant scoring 1 certified contractor, of whom 1 hold President’s Club standing and 0 Master Elite, against a metro mean rating of 4.9. The top one were then researched individually against Better Business Bureau records, state licence registers and manufacturer directories. The findings are printed above whether they flatter the contractor or not, and nobody paid to appear.
The full method, the weightings, what the GAF certification tiers actually mean, who is eligible to be ranked and what we do not claim are all set out on our roofer ranking methodology page. Last updated: October 2026. Scoring run: 2026-10-08. Corrections go to the editor and are actioned on verification.
Questions Bangor homeowners ask
Who is the best roofer in Bangor, ME?
How many certified roofing contractors serve Bangor?
1 contractors on the GAF certification registry serve the principal cities of the Bangor, ME statistical area as of October 2026, of which 1 hold President’s Club status.
How much damaging hail does Bangor get?
The Bangor, ME statistical area recorded 28 hail reports of 1 inch or larger and 0 of 2 inches or larger between 2016 and 2025 in the NOAA Storm Events Database. The largest hailstone reported measured 1.75 inches.
Did any contractor pay to appear on this list?
No. The Roofing Brief takes no placement fees, no lead fees and no affiliate commission from any roofing contractor. Ranking comes entirely from the published formula applied to public registry data, followed by an individual research pass on the top one.
What was the worst hailstorm in Bangor in the last ten years?
The largest hailstone logged by the National Weather Service in the Bangor, ME statistical area between 2016 and 2025 measured 1.75 inches, reported near Lincoln on 2 July 2019. That is ping-pong-ball sized, enough to bruise asphalt shingles and shorten a roof’s life without necessarily looking dramatic from the ground. Across the decade the metro recorded 31 hail reports. The database’s property-damage fields are left blank for most of these reports, so it carries no usable loss total for this metro and we do not quote one.
When is the worst time of year for roof damage in Bangor?
Severe-weather reports in the Bangor, ME statistical area cluster in July, June, August, on the NOAA record for 2016 to 2025. If the work can wait, booking outside that window usually buys you shorter lead times and more of the contractor’s attention.
Do roofers need a licence in ME?
Maine does not license roofing contractors, or general contractors, at state level. There is no exam and no state board with authority to discipline a roofer; the one state licence in this area covers transient door-to-door sellers of home repair services with no permanent place of business in the town, who must be licensed under 32 M.R.S. 14504. What Maine does require is a written contract: under the Home Construction Contracts Act any residential construction, remodelling or repair contract for more than $3,000 must be in writing (10 M.R.S. 1487). The written contract must set out the work, the materials, the price and the payment schedule, and the down payment may not exceed one third of the price. A contractor who breaks the Act faces a civil forfeiture of $100 to $1,000, and the breach is prima facie evidence of an unfair trade practice (10 M.R.S. 1490). The parties can waive some requirements in writing after the contractor has disclosed them (1489).
What should I check before hiring a roofer in Bangor?
A 2025 bill to license residential contractors, LD 1226, passed the House but died in the Senate when the Legislature adjourned on 29 April 2026, so Maine still licenses no residential contractors. There is no general municipal contractor licence either; the written contract and the contractor’s own record are the formal protections a Maine homeowner has.
Old roofs, heavy snow and winter gales?
Snow governs a Bangor roof. The city publishes a design ground snow load of 70 pounds per square foot, and NOAA’s daily records at Bangor International Airport average 73.7 inches of snow a season over 1991 to 2020; the 2014 to 2015 season brought 138.5 inches. The biggest single day of the past decade was 21.5 inches on 13 February 2017, in a storm NOAA files as a blizzard.
Is Bangor a hard market to find a good roofer in?
Bangor is a city of old houses under heavy snow: four in ten homes were built before 1940, the city designs roofs for 70 pounds per square foot of ground snow, and its worst storms of the decade were winter gales, with a 71 mph gust in December 2023. Maine licenses no roofers, and a 2025 bill to change that died in April 2026. One manufacturer-certified roofer with five or more reviews appears in the directory for the Bangor area, and it is ranked; five more local roofers with an Owens Corning credential or a long BBB record are listed for comparison.
Is wind or hail the bigger risk to a roof in Bangor?
Wind, by a wide margin. The Bangor, ME statistical area logged 139 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports against 28 hail reports of an inch or more between 2016 and 2025. Wind damage shows up at the rake, ridge and edge rather than across the field of the roof, so the fastening schedule and edge detail matter more here than the impact rating of the shingle.
Roofer rankings for other metros
The Roofing Brief scores certified roofing contractors in the 400 largest U.S. metropolitan and micropolitan areas on the same formula.
- Best roofers in Portland, ME, about 108 miles from Bangor
- Best roofers in Manchester, NH, about 184 miles from Bangor
- Best roofers in Traverse City, MI, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Hattiesburg, MS, a metro of comparable size
See the full index of all 400 metro roofer rankings, or read how to find and vet a roofing contractor anywhere in the country.
Cite this analysis
The Roofing Brief. “Best Roofers in Bangor, ME: The Roofing Brief Contractor Score.” Published October 2026. Inputs: GAF certification registry; NOAA Storm Events Database 2016-2025; U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 population estimates; Better Business Bureau and independent review-platform records for each ranked contractor.