Short answer: As of October 2026 no roofing contractor in the Wenatchee metro qualifies for our certified ranking. GAF’s directory lists one certified firm here with enough reviews, and we excluded it because Washington’s Labor and Industries register shows a 2026 contractor strike for operating without workers’ compensation cover and a workers’ compensation account in collections. So The Roofing Brief ranks none here. Instead this page lists five Chelan and Douglas County roofers whose Washington registrations we checked, none showing a bond lawsuit or serious safety citation.
The Roofing Brief searched the GAF certification registry across the principal cities of the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area. No roofing contractor based inside the metro clears the evidence floor this ranking applies, which is manufacturer certification plus at least five independent customer reviews, so this page ranks nobody rather than pad a list. What it does instead is set out the contractors we could verify individually against the credential that actually exists here. In Wenatchee the roof threat is embers and snow, not hail: the 2015 Sleepy Hollow Fire burned 29 homes inside the city, wildfires carry 89 percent of the zone’s recorded damage, and a single January 2022 storm dropped 20 to 30 inches. The city has run its own wildfire roof code since 2011, requiring Class A roofs and banning wood shakes on its hillsides, and Washington’s register shows every contractor’s compliance record. The one certified firm in the directory fails that record, so none is ranked.
Why a Wenatchee roof fails slowly rather than suddenly
Washington has no roofing licence or exam, but every contractor must register with Labor and Industries, with a continuous bond of $30,000 for a general contractor or $15,000 for a specialty contractor and liability insurance; if either lapses the registration suspends automatically. Working unregistered is a gross misdemeanour. L&I’s public register shows bond lawsuits, lapses, workers’ compensation account status and safety citations, so it is the first place to look before you sign.
On a residential job of $1,000 or more the contractor must give you a written notice of its registration number and bond amount, warning that the bond may not cover a claim; a solicited roofing contract over $1,000 must be written and itemised, and if you finance it you may rescind before work starts. We found no Washington law that stops a roofer from waiving your deductible.
Wenatchee requires a permit for a reroof; starting without one triggers a $500 investigation fee or triple the permit fee. The city’s code sets a 40 psf roof snow load and requires ice shield underlayment and at least a Class C rated roof everywhere. In its mapped wildfire zones the rules tighten: Class A roofs in the primary zone, Class B in the secondary, no wood shakes in either, and a reroof of half the roof or more in a year must meet them.
County records for Chelan and Douglas show just five hail reports and 10 thunderstorm wind reports from 2016 to 2025; the weather that matters is filed by forecast zone, with 62 heavy snow reports, 14 high wind reports and seven wildfires carrying $3.7 million of damage. In January 2018 trees fell on houses as a 110 mph gust hit Mission Peak. In Wenatchee and East Wenatchee more than half the homes predate 1980, and 46 percent of Wenatchee’s are rented.
Wenatchee roofers we checked on the state register
No roofer in the metro qualifies for our certified ranking, so none is ranked; Owens Corning’s directory lists no roofer within 50 miles either. These five are based in Chelan or Douglas County and their Washington registrations show no bond lawsuits, infractions or serious safety citations. We left out a dozen others for expired registrations, tax warrants or serious citations. They are not scored and we are not recommending them.
| Company | Verified credential |
|---|---|
| Trey Gooch Roofing, Inc. | Registration TREYGGR971L6 since 2003 with a $30,000 bond; workers’ compensation current; BBB accredited since 2016 at A+; East Wenatchee, offering roof snow removal. |
| Select Roofing LLC | Roofing specialty registration SELECRL847JF since 2016 with a $15,000 bond, based in Rock Island; no infractions or safety inspections. No BBB profile found. |
| CJL Roofing & Construction LLC | Roofing specialty registration CJLRORC801N6 since 2020 with no lapses, in East Wenatchee; one 2025 inspection with minor items only. |
| Kennemer Construction & Roofing LLC | Registration KENNECR764KZ since 2024 with a $30,000 bond, in Wenatchee; BBB accredited since 2025, rated A for its short time in business. |
| H&R Roofers LLC | Roofing specialty registration HRROORL777CH since 2023, in East Wenatchee; no infractions or safety inspections. |
Roof replacement and repair in Wenatchee, WA
Short answer: No Wenatchee roofer is ranked here: the one certified firm in the directory fails Washington’s contractor compliance record. Firms with clean state registrations include Trey Gooch Roofing, which offers roof snow removal, Select Roofing, CJL Roofing & Construction and Kennemer Construction & Roofing. The rule that matters most: in Wenatchee’s mapped wildfire zones a reroof of half the roof or more in a year must meet Class A or Class B roof rules.
In Wenatchee the roof threats are embers and snow rather than hail. Chelan and Douglas county records show just five hail reports from 2016 to 2025, while seven wildfires carried $3.7 million of recorded damage, about 89 percent of the zone’s total. The Sleepy Hollow Fire of 28 June 2015 destroyed 29 homes inside the city. Snow is the other load: in January 2022 the area took 20 to 30 inches in 48 hours and Leavenworth declared an emergency amid numerous roof slides. Wind adds damage too, with trees falling on houses in January 2018 as a 110 mph gust hit Mission Peak. More than half the homes in Wenatchee and East Wenatchee predate 1980.
Wenatchee requires a permit for a reroof, and starting without one triggers a $500 investigation fee or triple the permit fee. The city designs for a 40 psf roof snow load and requires ice shield underlayment and at least a Class C rated roof everywhere. In the primary wildfire zone roofs must be Class A, with Class A ridge vents and noncombustible gutters; in the secondary zone, Class B; wood shakes are banned in both. Washington has no 25 percent roof rule, but under the state’s residential code a replacement is torn off to the deck and a recover is not allowed over a water-soaked or deteriorated roof, slate or tile, or two existing layers.
Washington has no roofing licence or exam, but every contractor must register with Labor and Industries, with a $30,000 bond for a general contractor or $15,000 for a specialty contractor plus liability insurance, and registration suspends automatically if either lapses. L&I’s register shows bond lawsuits, lapses, workers’ compensation status and safety citations, so check it before you sign. On a residential job of $1,000 or more the contractor must give written notice of its registration number and bond amount; a solicited roofing contract over $1,000 must be written and itemised, and a financed one can be rescinded before work starts. We found no Washington law that stops a roofer waiving your deductible.
Because no firm is ranked, the register is the main filter. Trey Gooch Roofing has been registered since 2003 with a $30,000 bond and BBB accreditation since 2016, and offers roof snow removal. Select Roofing of Rock Island, CJL Roofing & Construction and H&R Roofers of East Wenatchee hold roofing specialty registrations, and Kennemer Construction & Roofing in Wenatchee has been registered since 2024. We are not recommending or scoring these firms. For a hillside home, first ask the city’s building division whether the house sits in a mapped wildfire zone, then ask for a Class A assembly, ember-resistant vents and noncombustible gutters.
| Rule | What applies | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor registration | Every contractor registers with Labor and Industries, with a $30,000 bond (general) or $15,000 bond (specialty) and liability insurance; working unregistered is a gross misdemeanour. | RCW 18.27.040; Washington L&I |
| Disclosure and contract | Written notice of registration number and bond amount on residential jobs of $1,000 or more; a solicited roofing contract over $1,000 must be written and itemised; a financed contract can be rescinded before work starts. | Washington state law (RCW 18.27) |
| Reroof permit | Required; starting without one triggers a $500 investigation fee or triple the permit fee. | Wenatchee City Code 2.06 |
| Snow load and underlayment | 40 psf roof snow load; ice shield underlayment and at least a Class C rated roof everywhere. | Wenatchee City Code 2.04.030 |
| Wildfire zone roofs | Class A in the primary zone, Class B in the secondary, no wood shakes in either; applies to a reroof once half or more of the roof is replaced in 12 months. | Wenatchee City Code 3.36, 3.36.050 and 3.36.060 |
| Tear-off and recover limits | A replacement is torn off to the deck; no recover over a water-soaked or deteriorated roof, slate or tile, or two existing layers. | 2021 IRC with Washington amendments, R908.3 and R908.3.1.1 (chapter 51-51 WAC) |
| 25 percent rule | Washington has no 25 percent roof rule. | Chapter 51-51 WAC |
Related guides: roof replacement cost in Washington; the 25% roofing rule in Washington and every other state; how to decide between roof repair and replacement; how to read and compare a roof replacement quote; how to compare roof repair quotes; what homeowners insurance covers on a roof.
14 severe weather reports in a decade, and why that matters in Wenatchee
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 2 counties of the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area over ten years, with the dates, the stone sizes and the towns they landed on. Over that decade the metro logged 5 hail reports, 10 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 Wenatchee in a decade
| Date | Stone size | Reported near | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 June 2022 | 1.0 in | Orondo | Douglas |
| 10 July 2023 | 1.0 in | Waterville | Douglas |
| 20 May 2023 | 1.0 in | Chiwaukum | Chelan |
| 10 August 2019 | 0.77 in | Withrow | Douglas |
| 3 July 2022 | 0.75 in | Columbia River | Douglas |
The largest stone on record for this metro fell on 5 June 2022 near Orondo, measured at 1.0 inches. One inch is the point at which hail starts bruising asphalt shingles, which is damage an adjuster can find even when a homeowner cannot.
Wind. The strongest thunderstorm gust logged in the metro was 62 knots, about 71 mph, near Entiat on 30 May 2017. 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 EF0 near Mold on 22 July 2016.
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 25 June 2018 event near Entiat, reproduced verbatim:
The Entiat RAWS station reported a wind gust of 69 mph as thunderstorms moved through the area during the early morning of June 25th.
A roof in this metro is built against events like that one, as recorded by the agency that recorded it rather than by a contractor selling the repair.
When it happens. Severe weather reports cluster in June (6), July (4), May (3). The worst years on record were 2022 (6), 2023 (3), 2017 (2). If you are scheduling non-urgent work in Wenatchee, 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 Wenatchee. Weight your decision toward wind rating, ventilation and flashing detail rather than paying extra for impact-rated shingles.
Embers, not hail: Wenatchee writes its own wildfire roof code
At about 2:30 p.m. on 28 June 2015 the Sleepy Hollow Fire ignited in the north-west of the city. It burned 2,950 acres and destroyed 29 homes and three businesses inside Wenatchee. In the decade since, seven wildfires in the Wenatchee forecast zone have carried $3.7 million of recorded damage, about 89 percent of all damage the zone records, from the Red Apple Fire near Monitor in 2021, which threatened 400 structures, to the Batterman Road Fire east of the city.
Wenatchee did not wait for the state. Since 2011 its own code has applied wildland urban interface standards in mapped zones drawn with the county fire district. In the primary zone every roof must be Class A, ridge vents Class A, gutters and downspouts noncombustible and eaves fire protected; in the secondary zone roofs must be Class B; wood shakes and shingles are banned in both. A reroof counts once half or more of the roof is replaced in a year, so a vinyl gutter or a shake roof on a hillside home will not pass.
Statewide, the picture is unsettled. Washington’s own wildland urban interface code took effect in March 2024 but was rescinded in April 2026, pending a state wildfire hazard map that is still being drawn; once it is done, Class A roofing will be required on reroofs in high and very high hazard areas. Until then, Wenatchee’s local chapter is the rule in the city.
Snow is the other load. In January 2022 the Wenatchee area took 20 to 30 inches in 48 hours, two inches an hour at times, and Leavenworth declared an emergency amid numerous roof slides. The city designs for a 40 psf roof snow load and requires ice shield underlayment.
For a hillside homeowner the first question is whether the house sits in a mapped wildfire zone; the city’s building division can say. Then ask the roofer for a Class A assembly, metal or listed penetrations, ember-resistant vents and noncombustible gutters, and check its L&I record before you sign.
Wenatchee’s wildfire and snow rules for a reroof
| Item | Figure or rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Sleepy Hollow Fire, 28 June 2015 | 29 homes destroyed in Wenatchee | NOAA NCEI Storm Events |
| Wildfire share of zone damage, 2016 to 2025 | About 89% ($3.7 million) | NOAA NCEI, zone WAZ041 |
| Primary wildfire zone roof | Class A; no wood shakes; noncombustible gutters | Wenatchee City Code 3.36 |
| Secondary wildfire zone roof | Class B; no wood shakes | Wenatchee City Code 3.36.050 |
| Reroof trigger | Half or more of the roof replaced in 12 months | Wenatchee City Code 3.36.060 |
| Statewide wildfire code | Rescinded April 2026 pending a hazard map | WSR 26-07-075 |
| Roof snow load | 40 psf; ice shield required | Wenatchee City Code 2.04.030 |
| January 2022 snow | 20 to 30 inches in 48 hours | NWS Spokane via NOAA NCEI |
| Permit without one first | $500 or triple the fee | Wenatchee City Code 2.06 |
| Contractor bond | $30,000 general; $15,000 specialty | RCW 18.27.040 |
Source: NWS Spokane episode narratives and NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (Chelan and Douglas counties and zone WAZ041); RCW 18.27, 19.186, 19.27.560 and 51.48.103; WAC 51-51 and WSR 26-07-075; Washington Department of Natural Resources; Wenatchee City Code 2.04, 2.06 and 3.36 and building division guidance; Washington Labor and Industries contractor register; BBB business profiles; US Census Bureau ACS 2020 to 2024.
Before you sign anything in Wenatchee
Licensing is required in WA. Washington requires every contractor to register with the Department of Labor and Industries, and registration requires both a surety bond and general liability insurance. A roofer registered as a specialty contractor carries a $15,000 bond; one registered as a general contractor, as many are, carries $30,000.
RCW 18.27.050 sets insurance minimums of $50,000 property damage, $100,000 injury to one person and $200,000 per occurrence; L&I’s registration page also accepts a $250,000 combined single limit. The bond is continuous, and if it or the insurance lapses the registration suspends automatically until cover is restored.
Check here: Washington L&I Verify a Contractor. L&I’s verification tool shows lawsuits against a contractor’s bond, registration lapses, workers’ compensation account status and safety citations, which together make it one of the most informative contractor lookups in the country. Since 1 July 2026 a state homeowner recovery program can, at the department’s discretion and subject to funding, pay up to $25,000 per contractor per property toward an unpaid court judgment against a registered contractor over work on your primary residence (RCW 18.27.410).
For what a full replacement costs across Washington, including state labor rates and permit rules, see our Washington roof replacement cost guide.
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 Wenatchee market behind this ranking
0 certified roofing contractors serve the principal cities of the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area, of which 0 hold the top President’s Club tier. The pool carries 0 customer reviews between them at a mean rating of 5.0. The statistical area had a 2024 population of 127,023, a change of 4.05% against the 2020 census base, per the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates.
How these Wenatchee rankings were produced
Every contractor in the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA 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 0 certified contractors, of whom 0 hold President’s Club standing and 0 Master Elite, against a metro mean rating of 5.0. No contractor cleared the floor, so the alternatives listed above were instead researched individually against Better Business Bureau records, state licence registers and manufacturer directories. Where that research turned up something awkward it is on the page, and no placement was paid for.
Set aside in Wenatchee. A contractor that would otherwise have scored into the top no was removed for the reason stated. The score is computed from public data, but where the research pass finds evidence undermining an input to that score, the score is set aside.
- Columbia Roofing & Exteriors, which scored 77.0: Excluded on register compliance. A small Wenatchee firm, BBB A+ with no complaints, but Washington’s Labor and Industries register lists a contractor strike from July 2026 for operating without workers’ compensation cover, shows its workers’ compensation account as not current and in collections, records a week unregistered in October 2025 after its bond was cancelled, and a February 2026 safety inspection that found four serious violations including no roof fall protection.
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: 2026-10-12. Corrections go to the editor and are actioned on verification.
Common questions about roofers in Wenatchee
Who are the best roofers in Wenatchee, WA?
No Wenatchee roofer qualifies for our certified ranking, so The Roofing Brief ranks none. It checked five local roofers on Washington’s contractor register instead: Trey Gooch Roofing, Select Roofing, CJL Roofing & Construction, Kennemer Construction & Roofing and H&R Roofers. On a hillside lot ask whether you are in Wenatchee’s wildfire zone, where a reroof must be Class A and wood shakes are banned.
What is the 25% rule for roofing in Washington?
Washington has no 25 percent roof rule. The statewide code for houses is the 2021 International Residential Code with Washington amendments, under which a replacement is torn off to the deck and a recover is not allowed over a water-soaked or deteriorated roof, slate or tile, or two existing layers. In Wenatchee’s wildfire zones, the city’s own trigger is a reroof of half or more of the roof in 12 months.
Do I need a permit to replace a roof in Wenatchee?
Yes. Wenatchee requires a permit for a reroof, and starting without one triggers a $500 investigation fee or triple the permit fee. In mapped wildfire zones the new roof must be Class A in the primary zone or Class B in the secondary, with no wood shakes.
Can I put a wood shake roof on my house in Wenatchee?
Not in the city’s mapped wildfire zones: wood shakes and shingles are banned in both the primary and secondary zones under Wenatchee City Code 3.36. Outside those zones the city still requires at least a Class C rated roof. The city’s building division can say whether a house sits in a mapped zone.
Who does roof snow removal in Wenatchee?
Trey Gooch Roofing in East Wenatchee offers roof snow removal and has been registered with Washington Labor and Industries since 2003 with a $30,000 bond. It is listed here on the strength of its clean state registration and is not scored or ranked.
How many certified roofing contractors serve Wenatchee?
0 contractors on the GAF certification registry serve the principal cities of the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area as of October 2026, of which 0 hold President’s Club status.
How much damaging hail does Wenatchee get?
The Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area recorded 3 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 1.0 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 every verified alternative listed.
What was the worst hailstorm in Wenatchee in the last ten years?
The largest hailstone logged by the National Weather Service in the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area between 2016 and 2025 measured 1.0 inches, reported near Orondo on 5 June 2022. One inch is the point at which hail starts bruising asphalt shingles, which is damage an adjuster can find even when a homeowner cannot. Across the decade the metro recorded 5 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 Wenatchee?
Severe-weather reports in the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area cluster in June, July, May, on the NOAA record for 2016 to 2025. Outside those months local crews are not triaging storm damage, so lead times are shorter and scheduling is easier.
Do roofers need a licence in WA?
Washington requires every contractor to register with the Department of Labor and Industries, and registration requires both a surety bond and general liability insurance. A roofer registered as a specialty contractor carries a $15,000 bond; one registered as a general contractor, as many are, carries $30,000. RCW 18.27.050 sets insurance minimums of $50,000 property damage, $100,000 injury to one person and $200,000 per occurrence; L&I’s registration page also accepts a $250,000 combined single limit. The bond is continuous, and if it or the insurance lapses the registration suspends automatically until cover is restored.
What should I check before hiring a roofer in Wenatchee?
L&I’s verification tool shows lawsuits against a contractor’s bond, registration lapses, workers’ compensation account status and safety citations, which together make it one of the most informative contractor lookups in the country. Since 1 July 2026 a state homeowner recovery program can, at the department’s discretion and subject to funding, pay up to $25,000 per contractor per property toward an unpaid court judgment against a registered contractor over work on your primary residence (RCW 18.27.410).
Embers, not hail: Wenatchee writes its own wildfire roof code?
At about 2:30 p.m. on 28 June 2015 the Sleepy Hollow Fire ignited in the north-west of the city. It burned 2,950 acres and destroyed 29 homes and three businesses inside Wenatchee. In the decade since, seven wildfires in the Wenatchee forecast zone have carried $3.7 million of recorded damage, about 89 percent of all damage the zone records, from the Red Apple Fire near Monitor in 2021, which threatened 400 structures, to the Batterman Road Fire east of the city.
Is Wenatchee a hard market to find a good roofer in?
In Wenatchee the roof threat is embers and snow, not hail: the 2015 Sleepy Hollow Fire burned 29 homes inside the city, wildfires carry 89 percent of the zone’s recorded damage, and a single January 2022 storm dropped 20 to 30 inches. The city has run its own wildfire roof code since 2011, requiring Class A roofs and banning wood shakes on its hillsides, and Washington’s register shows every contractor’s compliance record. The one certified firm in the directory fails that record, so none is ranked.
Is wind or hail the bigger risk to a roof in Wenatchee?
Wind, by a wide margin. The Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA statistical area logged 10 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports against 3 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.
Why is Columbia Roofing & Exteriors not on this list?
Excluded on register compliance. A small Wenatchee firm, BBB A+ with no complaints, but Washington’s Labor and Industries register lists a contractor strike from July 2026 for operating without workers’ compensation cover, shows its workers’ compensation account as not current and in collections, records a week unregistered in October 2025 after its bond was cancelled, and a February 2026 safety inspection that found four serious violations including no roof fall protection..
Roofer rankings for other metros
The Roofing Brief scores certified roofing contractors in U.S. metropolitan and micropolitan areas on the same formula.
- Best roofers in Yakima, WA, about 59 miles from Wenatchee
- Best roofers in Seattle, WA, about 95 miles from Wenatchee
- Best roofers in Kennewick, WA, about 101 miles from Wenatchee
- Best roofers in Bremerton, WA, about 112 miles from Wenatchee
- Best roofers in Mount Vernon, WA, another WA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Olympia, WA, another WA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Bozeman, MT, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Morristown, TN, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Spokane, WA, also scored, about 136 miles away
See the full index of 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 Wenatchee, WA: 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.