Short answer: As of October 2026 no roofing contractor based in the Monroe metro holds GAF certification with five or more customer reviews, so The Roofing Brief ranks none here. Instead this page lists six local roofers we verified individually on the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors register, where since 1 January 2026 any residential roofing job of $7,500 or more requires the Residential Roofing or Residential Construction classification. All six hold the new Residential Roofing classification, and four have been on the commercial roofing register since 2012 or earlier.
The Roofing Brief searched the GAF certification registry across the principal cities of the Monroe, LA 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. Monroe’s worst storm of the decade came on Easter Sunday 2020, when an EF3 ran eight miles through West Monroe and Monroe to the airport and accounted for about 94 percent of all storm damage recorded in the four parishes over ten years. Five years later Louisiana created a residential roofing licence classification, and the state register now shows exactly which Monroe roofers hold it and which do not. That register, not a manufacturer badge, is the credential to check here.
Wind loads, codes and the Monroe housing stock
Since 1 January 2026, La. R.S. 37:2156.4 has required anyone who bids or performs work on a residential roofing system worth $7,500 or more to hold the Residential Roofing or Residential Construction classification. The statute also requires a residential roofing trade exam, but the licensing board told contractors in August 2025 that the exam was not yet available and that existing holders of Residential Construction, Building Construction or Commercial Roofing would be exempt, so the new classification does not by itself prove a roofing exam was sat. Twelve Ouachita roofing firms hold it, most first issued between August 2025 and August 2026.
The register cuts both ways in Monroe. Several long-established local roofers, among them firms on the commercial register since 1998 and 2001, hold only a commercial Roofing and Sheet Metal licence with no residential classification; on the face of the statute they may not bid a residential roof of $7,500 or more. Others show suspended registrations or expired insurance. Under R.S. 37:2163 contracting without an active licence is a misdemeanour carrying up to $500 a day, rising to as much as $5,000 or five years where an unlicensed contractor causes harm over $300, and false claims about a licence are themselves unlawful.
The permit is now state law too. Act 239 of 2025 requires parishes and municipalities that issue permits to permit and inspect one- and two-family reroofs, and the City of Monroe applies it to reroofs started on or after 1 August 2025. The city notes that contracts must be in the name on the contractor’s licence, so a trade name is acceptable only if the licence carries it, and its posted fee schedule charges $75 for a roofing replacement permit. Louisiana is on the 2021 IRC, with the 2024 codes due in January 2027. R.S. 51:451 makes waiving or rebating your insurance deductible an offence for both the roofer and, unless the insurer is told, the homeowner.
Hail is regular rather than extreme. Across 2016 to 2025 Ouachita, Morehouse, Richland and Union parishes logged 137 hail reports, 116 of an inch or more, and all four reports of two inches or larger fell on one evening, 9 December 2023, between Sterlington and Frenchman’s Bend. Thunderstorm wind produced 356 reports, 94 of them at 58 knots or more. The city’s housing is old, with a median year built of 1971, and 52.2 percent of Monroe’s homes are rented.
Monroe roofers verified on the state licensing register
No roofer based in the metro clears our certified ranking floor, so none is ranked. These six were checked on the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors register, and each holds the new Residential Roofing classification. They are not scored and we are not recommending them. We checked and left out others: firms holding only a commercial roofing licence, which may not bid residential roofs of $7,500 or more, and firms whose licences or registrations are suspended.
| Company | Verified credential |
|---|---|
| Integrity Roof Systems, L.L.C. | Residential Roofing licence RL.08519 and commercial roofing licence since 2012; on Drago Street, West Monroe; BBB accredited since January 2015 at A+, the longest accreditation of the Monroe roofers we checked, with no complaints in three years. |
| Southern Roofing & Vinyl Siding, LLC | Residential Roofing licence RL.08813 and commercial roofing licence since 2010; West Monroe; BBB A+ but not accredited, with a 1992 business start, a single-source date. No website found. |
| Ark La Miss Roofing, LLC | Residential Roofing licence RL.08564 and commercial roofing licence since 2009; South Stanley Avenue, Monroe; BBB accredited since 2023 at A+. The liability policy on the register expired on 26 September 2026 with no renewal logged, so ask for a current certificate. |
| Rice Roofing & Construction LLC | Residential Roofing, Residential Construction and Building Construction under licence RL.08685; West Monroe; Owens Corning Preferred; BBB accredited since 2022 at A+. |
| NELA Roofing LLC | Residential Roofing licence RL.05862, among the first issued in Ouachita in September 2025; Owens Corning Preferred with Monroe and Ruston locations; BBB accredited since 2023 at A+, one complaint closed in three years. |
| Bayou Roofing, Inc. | Residential Roofing licence RL.09164 and a commercial roofing licence since 2003; Monroe. No BBB profile and no confirmed website, so the state licence is its only verified credential. |
54 tornadoes in ten years, and what they did to Monroe roofs
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 4 counties of the Monroe, LA statistical area over ten years, with the dates, the stone sizes and the towns they landed on. Over that decade the metro logged 137 hail reports, 356 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports and 54 tornadoes. Reported property damage from hail, severe wind and tornado over that decade totalled $265.0 million; flood and winter-storm losses are counted separately and are not included.
The biggest hail to fall on Monroe in a decade
| Date | Stone size | Reported near | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 December 2023 | 2.5 in | Phillips | Ouachita |
| 9 December 2023 | 2.5 in | Hammock | Ouachita |
| 9 December 2023 | 2.0 in | Deshard | Ouachita |
| 9 December 2023 | 2.0 in | Hammock | Ouachita |
| 2 April 2017 | 1.75 in | Buckner | Richland |
| 4 April 2019 | 1.75 in | Pine Grove | Ouachita |
The largest stone on record for this metro fell on 9 December 2023 near Phillips, measured at 2.5 inches. That is hen-egg sized. Two inches is the threshold at which insurers expect functional damage and full replacement claims.
Wind. The strongest thunderstorm gust logged in the metro was 83 knots, about 96 mph, near Union on 5 April 2022. Asphalt shingles begin lifting at roughly 67 mph when they are correctly nailed, and considerably below that when they are not.
Tornadoes. 54 tornadoes touched down in these counties over the decade, the strongest rated EF3 near Phillips on 12 April 2020.
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 April 2022 event near Union, reproduced verbatim:
Damaging straight line winds affected areas along and just south of Ruggs Bluff Road just southeast of Lake D’Arbonne, where a large portion of a metal roof was blown off of a metal barn and thrown across the roadway. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted farther east along Ruggs Bluff Road, with the greatest concentration of damage occurring where three pine trees were uprooted and fell onto a home. Numerous other hardwood and softwood trees were snapped and uprooted in an easterly direction nearby, with the winds rated here estimated near 95 mph. The wind damage became more sporadic farther east-southeast along Ruggs Bluff Road, especially as it crossed Francis Creek.
That account is the design case for a roof here, and it comes from the agency that recorded it rather than by a contractor selling the repair.
When it happens. Severe weather reports cluster in April (172), March (71), May (68). The worst years on record were 2025 (98), 2023 (84), 2018 (63). If you are scheduling non-urgent work in Monroe, 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. Monroe sees enough damaging hail that a Class 4 impact-rated shingle is worth pricing, though not automatically worth buying. Get both quotes and weigh the premium against any insurance discount.
Easter Sunday 2020 and the licence that followed
At 10:36 on the morning of 12 April 2020 a tornado touched down in Brownsville-Bawcomville and tracked 8.01 miles through south West Monroe and central and east Monroe to Monroe Regional Airport. NWS Shreveport rated it EF3, with peak winds near 140 mph and a path 300 yards wide. Its survey narrative records the roof of the Masur Museum of Art partly damaged, downtown missed by about a mile, the roof ripped off a two-storey home on South Grand Street, and three roofs torn off on Orchid Drive.
A second EF3 touched down three minutes later southwest of Sterlington and tore the roofs off two homes on End of Line Road. The parish emergency office’s initial estimate, quoted by NWS, was 458 homes affected across the three tornadoes that morning: 23 destroyed, 108 with major damage and 243 with minor damage. Damage at the airport alone was put at $25 to 30 million, and the storm record assigns $250 million to the main tornado, about 94 percent of all convective damage recorded in the metro across 2016 to 2025.
The metro was hit again on 13 December 2022, when an EF3 came off Lake D’Arbonne near Farmerville in Union Parish and removed the roof and much of the second storey of one home, injuring 14 people.
What changed afterwards was the law. Louisiana’s 2025 session created the Residential Roofing classification, required permits and inspections for residential reroofs, and made it an offence to begin work before a permit or misrepresent a job’s value. For a Monroe homeowner that turns the state register into a usable tool: enter the roofer’s name, and the record shows whether it holds Residential Roofing or Residential Construction, whether the licence is active, and whether its liability and workers’ compensation policies on file are current.
The register also shows the gaps that remain. One West Monroe roofer’s residential licence is suspended with both insurance policies expired; four other local roofing businesses hold only suspended home improvement registrations, one of them while showing as accredited on the BBB. A badge or a rating is not a substitute for the register entry.
What the Louisiana register and statutes let a Monroe homeowner check
| Item | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Licence for residential roofing of $7,500 or more | Residential Roofing or Residential Construction, since 1 January 2026 | La. R.S. 37:2156.4 |
| Residential roofing exam | Required by statute; not yet available per the board, existing holders exempt | LSLBC memo, 12 August 2025 |
| Ouachita firms holding Residential Roofing | Twelve | LSLBC register |
| Penalty for unlicensed contracting | Up to $500 a day; up to $5,000 or five years where harm exceeds $300 | La. R.S. 37:2163 |
| Reroof permit and inspection | Required for reroofs started on or after 1 August 2025 | Act 239 of 2025; City of Monroe |
| City reroof permit fee | $75 | City of Monroe fee schedule |
| Deductible waiver or rebate | An offence, up to $500 and 30 days | La. R.S. 51:451 |
| 12 April 2020 tornado | EF3, 140 mph, 8.01 miles, $250 million | NWS Shreveport via NOAA NCEI |
| Homes affected that morning | 458 initial estimate, 23 destroyed | Ouachita OHSEP via NWS |
| Renter share, city of Monroe | 52.2 percent | ACS 2020 to 2024, B25003 |
Source: La. R.S. 37:2156.4, 37:2163, 40:1730.23 and 51:451; Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors register and August 2025 memorandum; City of Monroe Inspections and Permitting and 2018 fee schedule; NWS Shreveport narratives in the NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database; US Census Bureau ACS 2020 to 2024.
What a Monroe homeowner should ask for in writing
Licensing is required in LA. Louisiana requires a roofing-specific licence classification. Under La. R.S. 37:2156.4(A), on and after 1 January 2026 any person who advertises, solicits, undertakes, offers or submits a price, bid, quote or estimate to construct, modify, repair or maintain any portion of a roofing system on a residential structure worth $7,500 or more must hold the classification of Residential Roofing or Residential Construction. Unusually for this trade, subsection B requires a residential roofing contractor to pass the residential roofing trade examination, so unlike Alabama or New Jersey this is a competency licence and not merely a registration.
Residential roofing is a subclassification of residential construction, and Act 757 of 2026, effective 1 August 2026, added subsection D extending the rule to any residential structure containing no more than four dwelling units. The penalties are real. Under R.S. 37:2163 it is unlawful to act as a contractor without an active licence, and a violation is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $500 per day of violation, or three months in prison, or both. Where an unlicensed person causes harm or damage exceeding $300, the penalty rises to a fine of between $500 and $5,000, or imprisonment with or without hard labour for between six months and five years, or both. R.S. 37:2163(A)(2) separately makes it unlawful for any contractor, licensed or unlicensed, to publish or circulate a misleading or false claim about a person’s licence or classification in any medium, including digital platforms.
Check here: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. Check the classification itself on the board’s lookup, not just that a licence exists, because the statute names two classifications specifically. It is worth knowing that misrepresenting a licence or classification in advertising is itself unlawful in Louisiana under R.S. 37:2163(A)(2), so what a contractor claims about its credentials on its own website is a statement the state can act on.
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 Monroe contractor market
0 certified roofing contractors serve the principal cities of the Monroe, LA 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 4.55. The statistical area had a 2024 population of 221,921, a change of -2.3% against the 2020 census base, per the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates.
How these Monroe rankings were produced
Every contractor in the Monroe, LA 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 4.55. 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. Anything unflattering that research surfaced appears above alongside the rest, and no company bought its position.
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: 2026-10-05. Corrections go to the editor and are actioned on verification.
Monroe roofing questions, answered
Who are the best roofers in Monroe, LA?
No Monroe roofer holds GAF certification with at least five reviews, so The Roofing Brief ranks none. It verified six local roofers on the Louisiana contractors’ licensing register instead: Integrity Roof Systems, Southern Roofing and Vinyl Siding, Ark La Miss Roofing, Rice Roofing and Construction, NELA Roofing and Bayou Roofing, each holding the new Residential Roofing classification. Check any roofer’s classification on the state register before signing, because several long-established Monroe roofers hold only a commercial licence.
How many certified roofing contractors serve Monroe?
0 contractors on the GAF certification registry serve the principal cities of the Monroe, LA statistical area as of October 2026, of which 0 hold President’s Club status.
How much damaging hail does Monroe get?
The Monroe, LA statistical area recorded 116 hail reports of 1 inch or larger and 4 of 2 inches or larger between 2016 and 2025 in the NOAA Storm Events Database. The largest hailstone reported measured 2.5 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 Monroe in the last ten years?
The largest hailstone logged by the National Weather Service in the Monroe, LA statistical area between 2016 and 2025 measured 2.5 inches, reported near Phillips on 9 December 2023. That is hen-egg sized. Two inches is the threshold at which insurers expect functional damage and full replacement claims. Across the decade the metro recorded 137 hail reports. Reported property damage from hail, severe wind and tornado over that decade totalled $265.0 million; flood and winter-storm losses are counted separately and are not included.
When is the worst time of year for roof damage in Monroe?
Severe-weather reports in the Monroe, LA statistical area cluster in April, March, May, on the NOAA record for 2016 to 2025. Booking non-urgent roof work outside those months usually means shorter lead times, because local crews are not simultaneously triaging storm callouts.
Do roofers need a licence in LA?
Louisiana requires a roofing-specific licence classification. Under La. R.S. 37:2156.4(A), on and after 1 January 2026 any person who advertises, solicits, undertakes, offers or submits a price, bid, quote or estimate to construct, modify, repair or maintain any portion of a roofing system on a residential structure worth $7,500 or more must hold the classification of Residential Roofing or Residential Construction. Unusually for this trade, subsection B requires a residential roofing contractor to pass the residential roofing trade examination, so unlike Alabama or New Jersey this is a competency licence and not merely a registration. Residential roofing is a subclassification of residential construction, and Act 757 of 2026, effective 1 August 2026, added subsection D extending the rule to any residential structure containing no more than four dwelling units. The penalties are real. Under R.S. 37:2163 it is unlawful to act as a contractor without an active licence, and a violation is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $500 per day of violation, or three months in prison, or both. Where an unlicensed person causes harm or damage exceeding $300, the penalty rises to a fine of between $500 and $5,000, or imprisonment with or without hard labour for between six months and five years, or both. R.S. 37:2163(A)(2) separately makes it unlawful for any contractor, licensed or unlicensed, to publish or circulate a misleading or false claim about a person’s licence or classification in any medium, including digital platforms.
What should I check before hiring a roofer in Monroe?
Check the classification itself on the board’s lookup, not just that a licence exists, because the statute names two classifications specifically. It is worth knowing that misrepresenting a licence or classification in advertising is itself unlawful in Louisiana under R.S. 37:2163(A)(2), so what a contractor claims about its credentials on its own website is a statement the state can act on.
Easter Sunday 2020 and the licence that followed?
At 10:36 on the morning of 12 April 2020 a tornado touched down in Brownsville-Bawcomville and tracked 8.01 miles through south West Monroe and central and east Monroe to Monroe Regional Airport. NWS Shreveport rated it EF3, with peak winds near 140 mph and a path 300 yards wide. Its survey narrative records the roof of the Masur Museum of Art partly damaged, downtown missed by about a mile, the roof ripped off a two-storey home on South Grand Street, and three roofs torn off on Orchid Drive.
Is Monroe a hard market to find a good roofer in?
Monroe’s worst storm of the decade came on Easter Sunday 2020, when an EF3 ran eight miles through West Monroe and Monroe to the airport and accounted for about 94 percent of all storm damage recorded in the four parishes over ten years. Five years later Louisiana created a residential roofing licence classification, and the state register now shows exactly which Monroe roofers hold it and which do not. That register, not a manufacturer badge, is the credential to check here.
Is wind or hail the bigger risk to a roof in Monroe?
Wind, by a wide margin. The Monroe, LA statistical area logged 356 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports against 116 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 Shreveport, LA, about 100 miles from Monroe
- Best roofers in Jackson, MS, about 110 miles from Monroe
- Best roofers in Baton Rouge, LA, another LA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Lafayette, LA, another LA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Gainesville, GA, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Medford, OR, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Little Rock, AR, also scored, about 153 miles away
- Best roofers in Longview, TX, also scored, about 156 miles away
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 Monroe, LA: 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.