Short answer: As of October 2026, the one highest-scoring roofing contractors in the Saginaw, MI metro on The Roofing Brief Contractor Score are Herbert Roofing & Insulation (88.0). Every one holds a manufacturer certification that can be verified independently, every rating below has been corroborated against at least one source outside the certification registry, and no company paid to appear here.
The Roofing Brief scored 1 certified roofing contractors serving the Saginaw metro on a published, reproducible formula, then researched each of the top one individually to confirm its record. Saginaw is an old-house city: its median home was built in 1949, and nearly 40 percent of its houses predate 1940. In Michigan that matters, because the state’s residential code bars a third layer of roofing, so a house that has been re-covered once needs a full tear-off, and every new shingle roof needs an ice barrier. Michigan licenses everyone paid to reroof. Only one certified firm with five or more reviews appears in the directory for Saginaw, so one is ranked, and three licensed local roofers are listed for comparison.
Wind, terrain and the Saginaw housing stock
Michigan requires a licence from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs for residential construction, alteration or repair with an aggregate contract price of $600 or more, which takes in essentially every paid roofing job; only an owner working on their own home is exempt. Roofers hold either a Residential Builder licence or a Maintenance and Alteration licence with the roofing classification, after a 60-hour prelicensure course and a state exam. Licences are searchable on the state’s public register, which shows the type, number, dates and status.
Michigan has no statute aimed at roofers and insurance claims of the kind Iowa or Colorado have. The general protection is the Home Solicitation Sales Act, which lets you cancel a sale of more than $25 agreed at your home before midnight on the third business day. So the written contract, the licence and the contractor’s insurance carry most of the weight.
The code is strict on reroofs. The 2015 Michigan Residential Code is still in force, the 2021 edition having been stayed by the Court of Claims in July 2025. Its section R908.3.1.1 bars re-covering a roof that is water soaked or deteriorated, that is slate or tile, or that already has two or more layers of any covering. Its statewide table requires an ice barrier on every shingle roof, from the eave to at least 24 inches inside the wall line and 36 inches on steep pitches. The City of Saginaw sits in the 35 psf snow load zone, and prices permits on job value: about $229 on a $12,000 reroof.
Storms are modest by Midwestern standards: across 2016 to 2025 Saginaw County logged eight hail reports, the largest two inches near Brant Township in September 2021, 62 thunderstorm wind reports and two EF0 tornadoes. When wind damages a roof here it is usually by bringing a tree down on it. Water has done more harm: in the May 2020 flood that followed the Edenville and Sanford dam failures, 148 buildings in the county suffered major damage. The city has a 15.5 percent vacancy rate, against 9.6 percent countywide.
The one certified roofer ranked in Saginaw, MI
Scored 2026-10-06. The metro mean rating used as the Bayesian prior for Saginaw is 4.7, across a pool of 1 certified contractors.
| Rank | Company | TRB Score | Certification | Rating (reviews) | Adjusted | In business since | Based in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Herbert Roofing & Insulation | 88.0 | President’s Club | 4.7 (506) | 4.7 | not published | Saginaw, MI |
1. Herbert Roofing & Insulation — TRB Score 88.0
Herbert Roofing & Insulation is based in Saginaw, MI, led by Jason Herbert, President; Hala Herbert, co-owner, Not accredited; B- rating; two complaints closed in three years, and holds President’s Club standing on the GAF certification registry.
| Score component | Points | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Certification tier | 35 | 35 |
| Adjusted rating | 28.0 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 15.0 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 10.0 | 10 |
| Total | 88.0 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Herbert Roofing and Insulation Inc holds Residential Builder Company licence 262300190, issued March 2023 and expiring May 2029; Jason Herbert has held an individual residential builder licence since January 2010.. Michigan LARA licence register
- Not accredited, B- rating, business start February 1985, two complaints closed in three years.. BBB business profile
- Jason Herbert bought the business from his father in 2008; it runs offices in Saginaw, Midland, Harbor Springs and Traverse City.. Company about page
What they actually do. Residential shingle replacement and repair, commercial flat roofing, inspections and attic insulation.
Why it ranks here. Saginaw’s established roofer: headquartered on Dixie Highway, family-run across two generations, with President’s Club certification, a 4.7 across 506 reviews and an active Michigan builder licence. It also handles attic insulation, which matters on the city’s older houses.
Best fit for: Older Saginaw houses where a tear-off, insulation and ventilation should be planned together.
What we would want clarified. BBB rates it B- and not accredited, with two complaints closed in three years; we could not see the complaints or the reasons for the rating, so read its BBB file before signing. Its founding year is 1973 by the company and 1985 by BBB. It runs four offices across Michigan. Certification tier and reviews are unverified. 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 (989) 754-8000, 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 licensed roofers serving Saginaw
Only one certified firm is ranked here. These three hold active Michigan licences covering roofing, on the state register. They are not scored and we are not recommending them. We checked and left out others: one whose published licence is inactive and covers no roofing, two whose local licences have lapsed, and one with 28 BBB complaints in three years.
| Company | Verified credential |
|---|---|
| C & L Ward Bros. Co. | Michigan Maintenance and Alteration licence 2104056611 with roofing among its classifications, held since 1980; top tier in Owens Corning’s network at its Bay Road showroom; BBB accredited since 2010. A windows-first remodeller. |
| Brown Home Improvement Roofing | Michigan Residential Builder licence 2102209147; based in Burt, Albee Township, Saginaw County; BBB accredited since 1997 at A+, no complaints in three years. |
| Yeager Roofing LLC | Michigan Residential Builder licence 2102197194, held since 2010; a residential roofing specialist on Midland Road in Saginaw; BBB not accredited and not rated. |
The 62 wind reports that shape a Saginaw 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 Saginaw, MI statistical area over ten years, with the dates, the stone sizes and the towns they landed on. Over that decade the metro logged 8 hail reports, 62 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports and 2 tornadoes. Reported property damage from hail, severe wind and tornado over that decade totalled $254,000; flood and winter-storm losses are counted separately and are not included.
The biggest hail to fall on Saginaw in a decade
| Date | Stone size | Reported near | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 September 2021 | 2.0 in | Brant | Saginaw |
| 12 September 2021 | 1.75 in | Saginaw | Saginaw |
| 12 September 2021 | 1.75 in | Chesaning | Saginaw |
| 11 August 2023 | 1.0 in | Oakley | Saginaw |
| 12 September 2021 | 1.0 in | Verne | Saginaw |
| 14 September 2021 | 1.0 in | Birch Run | Saginaw |
The largest stone on record for this metro fell on 12 September 2021 near Brant, measured at 2.0 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 61 knots, about 70 mph, near Fenmore on 17 June 2017. Asphalt shingles begin lifting at roughly 67 mph when they are correctly nailed, and considerably below that when they are not.
Tornadoes. 2 tornadoes touched down in these counties over the decade, the strongest rated EF0 near Chesaning on 15 May 2025.
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 17 June 2017 event near Fenmore, reproduced verbatim:
Pockets of damage observed roughly along a 12 mile southwest-northeast path. Estimated 100 trees snapped or uprooted, otherwise just lots of minor tree damage. Structural damage to outhouse. A couple old barns collapsed or destroyed. Large uprooted tree landed on deck of a house. One house suffered roof damage. A garage door was caved in, leading to walls of garage buckling. Damage to house awning.
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 (20), August (15), September (11). The worst years on record were 2021 (21), 2020 (18), 2025 (6). If you are scheduling non-urgent work in Saginaw, 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 Saginaw. Weight your decision toward wind rating, ventilation and flashing detail rather than paying extra for impact-rated shingles.
An old-house city in a two-layer state
The City of Saginaw’s median home was built in 1949, against 1968 for the county. Of the city’s 21,063 housing units, 8,347, or 39.6 percent, were built in 1939 or earlier, and another 2,334 in the 1940s. More than three-quarters are single detached houses, so the roofing market here is mostly steep-slope work on individual older homes.
Old houses have often been re-covered before, which is where Michigan’s code bites. Section R908.3.1.1 of the 2015 Michigan Residential Code, still in force, bars a new layer over a roof that already has two or more applications of any type of covering, over a water-soaked or deteriorated one, and over slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile. On a house that has been overlaid once, the next roof must be a full tear-off down to the deck, which exposes the sheathing and often the need to replace it.
Every new shingle roof in Michigan needs an ice barrier. The state’s code answers yes for the whole state, and section R905.1.2 requires two layers of underlayment cemented together or a self-adhering membrane from the eave to at least 24 inches inside the exterior wall line, extended to 36 inches along the slope on roofs of 8:12 or steeper, the steep pitches common on pre-war houses.
The city’s housing has a further pressure: 15.5 percent of its units are vacant, against 9.6 percent across the county. Unmaintained houses next door mean more falling limbs and more water problems for the occupied houses around them.
For a Saginaw homeowner the questions follow directly. How many layers are on the roof now? If it is two, the quote should be a tear-off. Does the quote include an ice barrier to the code’s extent, and what happens if the deck boards are rotten? And is the contractor’s Michigan licence active on the state register?
Saginaw’s old housing and the Michigan code on a reroof
| Item | Figure or rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median year built, City of Saginaw | 1949 | ACS 2020 to 2024, B25035 |
| Homes built 1939 or earlier, city | 39.6 percent | ACS 2020 to 2024, B25034 |
| Vacancy rate, city | 15.5 percent | ACS 2020 to 2024, B25002 |
| Re-cover over two existing layers | Not allowed; tear-off required | 2015 Michigan Residential Code R908.3.1.1 |
| Ice barrier | Required statewide on shingle roofs | 2015 Michigan Residential Code R905.1.2 |
| Ground snow load, City of Saginaw | 35 psf | 2015 MRC Table R301.2(5) |
| Permit fee on a $12,000 reroof | About $229 | City of Saginaw fee table |
| Licence threshold | $600 or more, owners on their own homes exempt | MCL 339.2403 |
| Code in force | 2015 MRC; 2021 code stayed since July 2025 | Court of Claims stipulated order |
| Cancellation of a home-solicited sale | Three business days | MCL 445.112 |
Source: US Census Bureau ACS 2020 to 2024 via Census Reporter; 2015 Michigan Residential Code; MCL 339.2401 to 339.2404b and 445.111 to 445.112; Michigan LARA licence register; Home Builders Association of Michigan on the 2021 code stay; City of Saginaw permit fee table; NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database and NWS Detroit narratives.
How to tell a Saginaw roofer’s claims from their record
Licensing is required in MI. Michigan requires a licence from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs for any residential construction, alteration or repair with an aggregate contract price of $600 or more. Roofers may hold either a Residential Builder licence, which covers roofing, or a Maintenance and Alteration Contractor licence with the roofing classification.
Applicants must complete a 60-hour state-approved prelicensure course and pass the state licensing exam. A Maintenance and Alteration licence is limited to the trade classifications its holder has passed, such as roofing; a Residential Builder licence covers residential construction as a whole.
Check here: Michigan LARA builder and M&A licence lookup. The $600 threshold means anyone paid to reroof a house in Michigan needs a licence; only an owner working on their own home is exempt. Look the contractor up on the state register and check that the licence is active and, for a Maintenance and Alteration licence, that it carries the roofing classification.
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 Saginaw market behind this ranking
1 certified roofing contractors serve the principal cities of the Saginaw, MI statistical area, of which 1 hold the top President’s Club tier. The pool carries 506 customer reviews between them at a mean rating of 4.7. The statistical area had a 2024 population of 187,714, a change of -1.27% against the 2020 census base, per the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates.
How these Saginaw rankings were produced
Every contractor in the Saginaw, MI 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 4.7. The top one were then 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.
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: 2026-10-06. Corrections go to the editor and are actioned on verification.
What Saginaw homeowners want to know
Who is the best roofer in Saginaw, MI?
How many certified roofing contractors serve Saginaw?
1 contractors on the GAF certification registry serve the principal cities of the Saginaw, MI statistical area as of October 2026, of which 1 hold President’s Club status.
How much damaging hail does Saginaw get?
The Saginaw, MI statistical area recorded 7 hail reports of 1 inch or larger and 1 of 2 inches or larger between 2016 and 2025 in the NOAA Storm Events Database. The largest hailstone reported measured 2.0 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 the top one.
What was the worst hailstorm in Saginaw in the last ten years?
The largest hailstone logged by the National Weather Service in the Saginaw, MI statistical area between 2016 and 2025 measured 2.0 inches, reported near Brant on 12 September 2021. 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 8 hail reports. Reported property damage from hail, severe wind and tornado over that decade totalled $254,000; flood and winter-storm losses are counted separately and are not included.
When is the worst time of year for roof damage in Saginaw?
Severe-weather reports in the Saginaw, MI statistical area cluster in June, August, September, 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 MI?
Michigan requires a licence from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs for any residential construction, alteration or repair with an aggregate contract price of $600 or more. Roofers may hold either a Residential Builder licence, which covers roofing, or a Maintenance and Alteration Contractor licence with the roofing classification. Applicants must complete a 60-hour state-approved prelicensure course and pass the state licensing exam. A Maintenance and Alteration licence is limited to the trade classifications its holder has passed, such as roofing; a Residential Builder licence covers residential construction as a whole.
What should I check before hiring a roofer in Saginaw?
The $600 threshold means anyone paid to reroof a house in Michigan needs a licence; only an owner working on their own home is exempt. Look the contractor up on the state register and check that the licence is active and, for a Maintenance and Alteration licence, that it carries the roofing classification.
An old-house city in a two-layer state?
The City of Saginaw’s median home was built in 1949, against 1968 for the county. Of the city’s 21,063 housing units, 8,347, or 39.6 percent, were built in 1939 or earlier, and another 2,334 in the 1940s. More than three-quarters are single detached houses, so the roofing market here is mostly steep-slope work on individual older homes.
Is Saginaw a hard market to find a good roofer in?
Saginaw is an old-house city: its median home was built in 1949, and nearly 40 percent of its houses predate 1940. In Michigan that matters, because the state’s residential code bars a third layer of roofing, so a house that has been re-covered once needs a full tear-off, and every new shingle roof needs an ice barrier. Michigan licenses everyone paid to reroof. Only one certified firm with five or more reviews appears in the directory for Saginaw, so one is ranked, and three licensed local roofers are listed for comparison.
Is wind or hail the bigger risk to a roof in Saginaw?
Wind, by a wide margin. The Saginaw, MI statistical area logged 62 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports against 7 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 Flint, MI, about 30 miles from Saginaw
- Best roofers in Lansing, MI, about 58 miles from Saginaw
- Best roofers in Ann Arbor, MI, another MI metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Detroit, MI, another MI metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Midland, TX, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Coeur d’Alene, ID, 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 Saginaw, MI: 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.