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State guide · Draft

Planning a roof project in Michigan

State rules that apply everywhere in Michigan, what depends on your city, and where to check. This page makes no local price claims. We have not verified Michigan installed-price data.

Contractor licensing

Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) licenses residential builders and maintenance-and-alteration contractors, and roofing is one of the listed trades. LARA's homeowner guidance says to verify a license before hiring. Look contractors up on LARA's site.

Payments and lien waivers

LARA's homeowner guidance advises against paying for a whole job in advance. Tie payments to progress, and pay the company, not an individual. LARA also recommends getting signed lien waivers from the contractor, subcontractors and suppliers.

Winter details

Much of Michigan gets heavy snow and long freeze-thaw seasons. Ask how each proposal handles ice barrier, attic ventilation and flashing. Your locally adopted code sets the minimum. See the asphalt shingle guide.

Commercial roofs and the energy code

LARA lists the 2021 Michigan commercial energy code, effective April 22, 2025. Industry summaries report roughly R-30 continuous insulation above the deck in climate zones 5 and 6 when a low-slope roof is replaced. Confirm the requirement and any recover provisions with your building official. See the TPO guide.

Detroit

Detroit is one of our first example markets. We imported the City of Detroit building-permit export: 47,275 records issued 2019-01-02 to 2026-09-26. Our provisional rules classify 6,070 permits issued since 2021 as roof-only work (replacement, repair, or roof work with unclear scope). That count excludes jobs combined with other work and permits where "roof" only appears next to solar panels or antennas.

These are rule-based classifications, not individually verified. The file has no roof-area field. Its dollar fields are permit estimates, not installed prices, and we do not publish them. See the full breakdown and caveats.

Tools

Michigan city roofing guides

Permit rules and local notes we have checked city by city. All city guides →

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Homes within 60 mi of Toledo or Farmington Hills · Commercial statewide OH & MI

Get a Free Asset Protection Inspection

Before you spend on repairs or a new roof, get a no-cost, no-obligation look at the roof you're worried about.

  • A walk-through of the roof and its problem areas
  • Photos of what was found
  • Straight answers: repair, maintain or replace
What happens if I leave this unchecked?

Leave this unchecked and your request stays with Midwest Roof Calculators: our founder will contact you and do the inspection himself where he can. Check it if you are fine with us passing your request to the independent Ohio and Michigan roofing and exterior contractor that our founder works for, for example when they can get to you sooner or the building needs a commercial crew. How requests are handled.

Free home inspections within 60 miles of Toledo, OH or Farmington Hills, MI. Commercial, church, school, municipal, HOA, condo and multifamily inspections anywhere in Ohio and Michigan. Inspections are done by our founder, Jonathan Blake, or, if you allow it, by the independent roofing and exterior contractor he works for. See disclosures, privacy and SMS terms.

Free · Ohio & Michigan ZIP codes

Roof storm check

See the strongest wind gusts, heaviest rain and heaviest snow recorded near your ZIP code in the last 12 months, plus any active weather alerts.

A weather check, not a roof inspection. Values are modeled for the ZIP code area, not your exact address, and cannot show whether your roof was damaged. Weather history by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0); alerts from the National Weather Service; ZIP locations via Zippopotam.us. Your ZIP is sent to our server and these services only to run the check; we do not store it with any personal information.

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