Serving ZIP codes: 48103, 48104, 48105 and surrounding areas.
Same-day quotes from top carriers. General Liability, Workers’ Comp & more — coverage built for Ann Arbor contractors.
Tell us your trade, location, and coverage needs. 60 seconds.
Our brokers shop 10+ top-rated carriers and return the best rate for Ann Arbor.
Bind coverage online. Certificate of insurance delivered same day.
Ann Arbor's roofing market runs on two engines that never idle: the University of Michigan's $2.4 billion annual capital program and a dense stock of century-old residential housing stretching from Burns Park to the Old West Side Historic District. When U-M breaks ground on another research facility along Fuller Road or renovates one of its 31 million square feet of campus buildings, roofing subcontracts follow — and those contracts demand ironclad insurance certificates before a single bundle of EPDM membrane leaves a truck. Meanwhile, the residential corridors between Packard Street and Washtenaw Avenue are filled with Craftsman bungalows and Victorian-era homes whose original slate or built-up tar roofs are long overdue for replacement with modern TPO or modified bitumen systems. The city's thriving tech and life sciences sector — anchored by companies like Domino's Farms corporate campus on Plymouth Road and the sprawling SPARK Central innovation district downtown — keeps commercial reroof demand steady on mid-rise office and R&D buildings. Add the Huron River watershed neighborhoods susceptible to ice dam damage every winter and the periodic spring hailstorms that sweep through Washtenaw County, and you have a roofing environment where a single storm can generate 40 to 60 simultaneous insurance restoration claims. For roofing contractors operating across Ann Arbor's university, commercial, and residential sectors, commercial insurance is not a back-office formality — it is the credential that keeps you on bid lists, protects your crew on OSHA-regulated job sites, and covers the completed-work liability that can surface months after a job is finished.
Every policy we source includes the core coverages required by Michigan law and demanded by general contractors and property owners:
Complete the form below or call us directly — a licensed broker responds within minutes.
Roofing contractors in Ann Arbor operate under a layered licensing and permit framework administered at both the state and local levels. At the state level, Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) requires roofing contractors to hold a Residential Builder License or Maintenance and Alteration Contractor License (Roofing Specialty) for residential work, and a Residential Builder or applicable commercial contractor credential for commercial projects. Applications, renewals, and disciplinary records are managed through LARA's Bureau of Construction Codes. Locally, all roofing work in the City of Ann Arbor requires a permit issued by the Ann Arbor Building Safety Services Office, located in City Hall at 301 E. Huron Street. Permit applications must include a certificate of insurance naming the City of Ann Arbor as an additional insured, and inspections are coordinated through the same office. For projects in unincorporated Washtenaw County, the Washtenaw County Building Inspection Department issues permits and enforces the Michigan Residential Code and Michigan Building Code. A contractor caught operating without a valid LARA license or without a current certificate of insurance faces stop-work orders, civil fines up to $5,000 per day under Michigan's Occupational Code, and personal liability for any damage claims that would otherwise have been handled by a carrier — a financial exposure that has ended multiple Ann Arbor roofing businesses outright.
Ann Arbor's housing stock creates a risk profile unlike any generic suburban roofing market. The Old West Side and Kerrytown neighborhoods contain hundreds of homes built between 1890 and 1940, many with original slate roofing, complex multi-gable configurations, and aging underlayment that deteriorates faster than homeowners expect. When a roofing contractor tears off a century-old slate system and installs modern architectural shingles without properly addressing the underlying deck rot — common in Ann Arbor's humid summer climate — the resulting water infiltration claim can run $60,000 to $110,000 once interior finishes, structural repairs, and mold remediation are included. These are precisely the completed-operations scenarios that undercapitalized roofing contractors without adequate CGL limits cannot survive. On the commercial side, the University of Michigan's continuous capital program creates both opportunity and concentrated liability. The U-M Health System's expansion projects along Fuller Road and East Medical Center Drive involve multi-story structures where rooftop EPDM and TPO membrane systems are installed over occupied, mission-critical hospital and research spaces. A membrane seam failure over an active operating suite or laboratory does not just create a water damage claim — it triggers business interruption exposure and potential regulatory scrutiny that can push total losses past $500,000. Contractors without proper completed-operations coverage and adequately high aggregate limits are essentially self-insured on these projects. Washtenaw County's ice storm history adds a third dimension: contractors who perform emergency repair work following December and January freezing events often work under time pressure on ice-coated surfaces, dramatically increasing the fall exposure for workers and the liability exposure for adjacent property — especially in the dense residential blocks surrounding the U-M Central Campus.
Ann Arbor's climate sits in USDA Hardiness Zone 6a, producing roofing-specific hazards that appear in insurance claims year-round. Winter brings average annual snowfall of 48 inches and repeated freeze-thaw cycles that drive ice dam formation along the eaves of steep-pitch residential roofs throughout the Old West Side and Burns Park neighborhoods — a condition that forces meltwater under shingles and generates interior damage claims that arrive on roofing contractors' desks months after installation. Spring hailstorms moving northeast through Washtenaw County are documented annually, with events in 2018 and 2021 producing verified hail above 1.5 inches in diameter across Ann Arbor's south and east sides, triggering mass storm-restoration workflows. Summer thunderstorm wind events regularly exceed 60 mph, testing wind uplift ratings on commercial TPO and modified bitumen systems at low-slope office buildings throughout the Plymouth Road and Eisenhower Parkway corridors. Contractors who cannot document ASTM D3161 Class F or FM 1-90 wind uplift compliance on installed systems face denied warranty claims and direct liability when systems fail in subsequent storms.
Ann Arbor's general contractors, property management firms, and municipal clients impose some of the most demanding COI requirements in southeastern Michigan. University of Michigan Procurement Services requires roofing subcontractors to carry minimum $1,000,000 per-occurrence CGL, $5,000,000 umbrella, $1,000,000 commercial auto CSL, and statutory workers' compensation — with U-M named as an additional insured on all policies using a blanket endorsement. The City of Ann Arbor's Building Safety Services Office requires proof of GL coverage before issuing any roofing permit, and city facilities projects managed through Ann Arbor's Systems Planning Department typically require $2,000,000 GL aggregate minimum. Local commercial property management firms overseeing the Briarwood Mall corridor and South State Street office parks routinely require 30-day notice of cancellation endorsements and completed-operations coverage maintained for three years post-project. Washtenaw County public school roofing contracts — including projects through Ann Arbor Public Schools' facilities department — require contractors to carry a surety bond of no less than 100% of the contract value in addition to standard insurance certificates.
“They actually knew the difference between GL and commercial auto. Got both bundled and the savings were real. My Ann Arbor GC required a $2M limit and they had it ready same day.”
“Needed a certificate in 2 hours for a job site in Ann Arbor — got it in 45 minutes. The broker called to confirm everything was correct before sending. Five stars, no question.”
“Three quotes in one call, chose the best rate, had my policy documents that afternoon. Saved $95 a month compared to renewing my old policy. Highly recommend for Ann Arbor contractors.”
Your standard commercial general liability policy includes completed-operations coverage within the Products and Completed Operations aggregate, but the University of Michigan's standard subcontractor agreement requires that aggregate to be maintained at $2,000,000 minimum — and most U-M campus building projects require total liability limits of $5,000,000, which means you need a commercial umbrella stacked above your primary CGL. More importantly, U-M's contracts often require completed-operations coverage to remain in force for three years after project completion, so confirm with your broker that your policy renews this coverage each year rather than expiring at project close. A roofing contractor who lets coverage lapse after finishing a Fuller Road medical building reroof is personally exposed to any water-intrusion claims that surface in year two or three — a scenario that has resulted in six-figure out-of-pocket judgments for Ann Arbor contractors.
Carriers underwriting Ann Arbor roofing accounts treat ice dam remediation as a higher-hazard operation than standard reroof work because it involves working on ice-coated, often steep-pitch surfaces under emergency time pressure — conditions that statistically produce more workers' compensation fall claims than controlled installations. If more than 20% of your annual revenue comes from emergency ice dam removal or winter storm repair work, be transparent with your broker so your policy is properly classified; misclassifying this work as standard roofing maintenance can result in a carrier voiding coverage on a winter fall claim. Additionally, any interior water damage repairs you perform as part of ice dam remediation — removing wet insulation, replacing drywall — may require a separate general contractor or remodeling classification on your CGL, which Michigan LARA's licensing framework treats as a distinct scope from roofing specialty work.
Storm surges in Washtenaw County expose three insurance gaps that Ann Arbor roofing contractors consistently overlook. First, your CGL aggregate limit resets annually, not per-storm — if you're running 40 active jobs and a completed-operations claim from a rush installation surfaces while you're mid-surge, that claim draws from the same aggregate as your active job liability, potentially exhausting limits before the season ends. Second, temporary tarp and emergency repair work performed before a homeowner's insurance adjuster approves the full scope creates a gray zone: if that tarp fails and causes additional interior damage, carriers may dispute whether it's covered under your CGL or the homeowner's policy, particularly if you didn't document pre-existing damage conditions with photos and written sign-off. Third, using day-labor crews or uninsured subcontractors to handle surge volume — a common shortcut in Ann Arbor's tight labor market — transfers their workers' comp exposure directly onto your policy and can trigger a mid-term audit surcharge that dramatically increases your annual premium after the storm season ends.