Short answer: As of September 2026, the two highest-scoring roofing contractors in the Salem, OR metro on The Roofing Brief Contractor Score are Dakota Roofing NW (95.0), Roof It All (64.0). 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 2 certified roofing contractors serving the Salem metro on a published, reproducible formula, then researched each of the top two individually to confirm its record. This page ranks two contractors, and that is the finding. Marion and Polk counties hold 443,000 people but only two manufacturer-certified roofers with enough public reviews to assess under this programme’s rules. The certified firms that crowd Salem search results are Portland-area companies, either more than 40 miles away or much closer to Portland, and they are ranked on that page. The gap between the two is the widest in this batch, 95.0 against 64.0. Hail and tornadoes are not what drive roof work in the mid-Willamette Valley, whose NOAA record holds two hail reports and three weak tornadoes in ten years. Ice and trees are. The February 2021 ice storm cost Salem 17.6 per cent of its tree canopy, and in this valley a falling limb is a far more realistic threat to a roof than a hailstone.
What actually ages a Salem roof
Salem’s permit rules are more forgiving than most. The city’s guidance on work exempt from permit, which interprets the Oregon Residential Specialty Code, exempts reroofing where the replacement or repair of roofing and sheathing does not exceed 30 per cent of the required live load design capacity. A reroof permit is required if more than 30 per cent of both roofing and sheathing is replaced, on any structure in a wildfire hazard zone, on townhouses because of their fire-rated roof construction, and whenever integrated solar shingles are installed. The exemption removes the city inspection, not the code: underlayment, flashing and ventilation still have to meet the specialty code, and nobody from the city will check them.
Oregon makes up for it at the licensing end. Every roofer must hold an active Construction Contractors Board licence before doing any construction work, and the CCB’s public search shows the bond, insurance and complaint history behind each number. Both contractors below publish theirs: CCB 209048 for Dakota Roofing NW and CCB 216439 for Roof It All. Look them up before signing. The CCB’s dispute resolution process, and the bond behind it, only help if the contractor was licensed when the work was done.
The convective storm record is close to empty: two hail reports, the larger an inch across at Scotts Mills in September 2023, three EF0 tornadoes and $68,200 in reported damage over ten years, including the October 2017 tornado that flipped two planes at the Aurora airport. Winter is what tests roofs here. The February 2021 ice storm left more than 260,000 people in the region without power and accounted for more than 1,000 acres of Salem’s lost canopy, and the city braced again in January 2024 for its most serious ice since then. Trimming limbs that overhang the roof and treating moss through the long wet season will do more for a Willamette Valley roof than any impact rating.
Two is a thin list, and the reasons are specific. One long-established Salem roofing firm on the certification registry has only four public reviews and falls just below this programme’s five-review floor, and the rest of the certified field that turns up in Salem searches is based around Portland. If you want a third quote, a CCB-licensed roofer without manufacturer certification is a legitimate choice. On a re-roof that falls under Salem’s permit exemption, asking for dated photographs of the deck, underlayment and flashing before the shingles go on is the practical substitute for the inspection you will not get.
The 2 best roofers in Salem, OR
Scored 2026-09-25. The metro mean rating used as the Bayesian prior for Salem is 4.8, across a pool of 2 certified contractors.
| Rank | Company | TRB Score | Certification | Rating (reviews) | Adjusted | In business since | Based in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dakota Roofing NW | 95.0 | President’s Club | 4.9 (159) | 4.876 | 1994 | Salem, OR |
| 2 | Roof It All | 64.0 | Certified | 4.7 (62) | 4.745 | 2017 | Salem, OR |
1. Dakota Roofing NW — TRB Score 95.0
Dakota Roofing NW is based in Salem, OR, in business since 1994, led by Jacob Klindtworth, BBB accredited since 29 April 2026, and holds President’s Club standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: President’s Club (GAF), Oregon CCB 209048. 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 | 35.0 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 15.0 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 10.0 | 10 |
| Total | 95.0 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Accredited since 29 April 2026; lists Oregon CCB 209048. BBB
- Member listing for Dakota Roofing NW. Keizer Chamber of Commerce
- Member listing for Dakota Roofing. Salem Area Chamber of Commerce
What they actually do. Composite shingle, metal and flat roofs for new builds, re-roofs and repairs, plus roof cleaning and moss treatment. Founded in Scio by Richard Klindtworth and moved to Salem in 2021.
Why it ranks here. President’s Club certification with 4.9 across 159 reviews, scoring 95.0: the widest winning margin in this batch, 31.0 points clear of the only other ranked contractor.
Best fit for: Salem and Keizer homeowners who want the top certification tier and a family firm with three decades in the valley.
What we would want clarified. BBB accreditation is very recent, and the company’s Salem base dates from 2021, so its history at this address is shorter than its trading history. 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 (503) 394-2615, 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.
2. Roof It All — TRB Score 64.0
Roof It All is based in Salem, OR, in business since 2017, led by Emilio Flores, BBB profile filed under Hubbard, OR, and holds Certified standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: Certified (GAF), Oregon CCB 216439. 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 | 12 | 35 |
| Adjusted rating | 29.8 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 12.2 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 10.0 | 10 |
| Total | 64.0 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Business profile for Roof It All, Hubbard, OR. BBB
- Customer review profile for Roof It All, Salem. HomeAdvisor
What they actually do. Residential re-roofing and repair across the Willamette Valley, from Portland to Salem, Silverton and McMinnville.
Why it ranks here. 4.7 across 62 reviews with base-level certification, scoring 64.0.
Best fit for: Homeowners wanting a second quote from a CCB-licensed firm that covers the wider valley.
What we would want clarified. The company’s website describes it as headquartered in Portland, its BBB profile lists Hubbard and the certification registry lists Salem, so ask where the crews and warranty service are based. Its 4.7 is below the metro mean of 4.80. 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 (541) 944-3475, 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.
7 severe weather reports in a decade, and why that matters in Salem
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 Salem, OR statistical area over ten years, with the dates, the stone sizes and the towns they landed on. Over that decade the metro logged 2 hail reports, 3 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports and 3 tornadoes. 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 Salem in a decade
| Date | Stone size | Reported near | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2023 | 1.0 in | Scotts Mills | Marion |
| 18 September 2020 | 0.75 in | Sublimity | Marion |
The largest stone on record for this metro fell on 2 September 2023 near Scotts Mills, 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 70 knots, about 81 mph, near Black Rock on 12 January 2021. Asphalt shingles begin lifting at roughly 67 mph when they are correctly nailed, and considerably below that when they are not.
Tornadoes. 3 tornadoes touched down in these counties over the decade, the strongest rated EF0 near Aurora Arpt on 12 October 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 12 October 2017 event near Marion, reproduced verbatim:
The tornado started on Boones Ferry Rd NE, west of the Aurora airport. Greenhouses in the area sustained damage, and the tornado continued to travel east across the airport property. Two planes were flipped at Willamette Aviation Services. The tornado ended near Airport Rd NE.
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 September (4), October (3), January (1). The worst years on record were 2020 (3), 2017 (1), 2018 (1). If you are scheduling non-urgent work in Salem, 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 Salem. Weight your decision toward wind rating, ventilation and flashing detail rather than paying extra for impact-rated shingles.
Three things to confirm before work starts in Salem
Licensing is required in OR. Oregon requires every construction contractor, including roofers, to be licensed by the Construction Contractors Board before doing any construction work for pay. A roofer may hold a residential general or a residential specialty endorsement, so check which one the firm actually has rather than assuming.
Licensure requires pre-licence training and an examination for the responsible managing individual, a CCB surety bond and general liability insurance naming the Board as certificate holder. A residential specialty endorsement limits the scope of work the licensee can take on; a residential general endorsement does not carry that limit.
Check here: Oregon CCB licence lookup. The CCB record publishes complaints, disciplinary actions and enforcement measures alongside licence status, which makes it one of the more informative state lookups in the country.
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.
How many certified roofers Salem actually has
2 certified roofing contractors serve the principal cities of the Salem, OR statistical area, of which 1 hold the top President’s Club tier. The pool carries 221 customer reviews between them at a mean rating of 4.8. The statistical area had a 2024 population of 443,416, a change of 2.33% against the 2020 census base, per the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates.
How these Salem rankings were produced
Every contractor in the Salem, OR 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 2 certified contractors, of whom 1 hold President’s Club standing and 0 Master Elite, against a metro mean rating of 4.8. The top two 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: September 2026. Scoring run: 2026-09-25. Corrections go to the editor and are actioned on verification.
What Salem homeowners want to know
Who is the best roofer in Salem, OR?
Dakota Roofing NW of Salem, OR scores highest in the Salem metro on The Roofing Brief Contractor Score, at 95.0 out of 100 as of September 2026. It holds President’s Club certification with a 4.9 rating across 159 reviews. Highest-scoring is not the same as best fit for your specific job, and the company behind it scores within 31.0 points.
How many certified roofing contractors serve Salem?
2 contractors on the GAF certification registry serve the principal cities of the Salem, OR statistical area as of September 2026, of which 1 hold President’s Club status.
How much damaging hail does Salem get?
The Salem, OR statistical area recorded 1 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 the top two.
What was the worst hailstorm in Salem in the last ten years?
The largest hailstone logged by the National Weather Service in the Salem, OR statistical area between 2016 and 2025 measured 1.0 inches, reported near Scotts Mills on 2 September 2023. 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 2 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 Salem?
Severe-weather reports in the Salem, OR statistical area cluster in September, October, January, 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 OR?
Oregon requires every construction contractor, including roofers, to be licensed by the Construction Contractors Board before doing any construction work for pay. A roofer may hold a residential general or a residential specialty endorsement, so check which one the firm actually has rather than assuming. Licensure requires pre-licence training and an examination for the responsible managing individual, a CCB surety bond and general liability insurance naming the Board as certificate holder. A residential specialty endorsement limits the scope of work the licensee can take on; a residential general endorsement does not carry that limit.
What should I check before hiring a roofer in Salem?
The CCB record publishes complaints, disciplinary actions and enforcement measures alongside licence status, which makes it one of the more informative state lookups in the country.
Is Salem a hard market to find a good roofer in?
This page ranks two contractors, and that is the finding. Marion and Polk counties hold 443,000 people but only two manufacturer-certified roofers with enough public reviews to assess under this programme’s rules. The certified firms that crowd Salem search results are Portland-area companies, either more than 40 miles away or much closer to Portland, and they are ranked on that page. The gap between the two is the widest in this batch, 95.0 against 64.0. Hail and tornadoes are not what drive roof work in the mid-Willamette Valley, whose NOAA record holds two hail reports and three weak tornadoes in ten years. Ice and trees are. The February 2021 ice storm cost Salem 17.6 per cent of its tree canopy, and in this valley a falling limb is a far more realistic threat to a roof than a hailstone.
Is wind or hail the bigger risk to a roof in Salem?
Wind, by a wide margin. The Salem, OR statistical area logged 3 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports against 1 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, OR, about 46 miles from Salem
- Best roofers in Eugene, OR, about 60 miles from Salem
- Best roofers in Bend, OR, another OR metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Medford, OR, another OR metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Santa Maria, CA, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Reading, PA, 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 Salem, OR: The Roofing Brief Contractor Score.” Published September 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.