What a re-roof in Ontario has to comply with

The statewide layer

State-level requirements sit underneath everything above. They are included because more than one of them is commonly misstated, and because a homeowner who knows them can tell a careful quote from a careless one.

The right to cancel

A home improvement contract can normally be cancelled within three business days, and within five if the buyer is a senior citizen. Where the contract is to repair or restore residential damage from a disaster or a declared state of emergency, that window is seven business days.

It exists precisely because of what happens in a neighbourhood after a storm. Nothing has to be signed on a doorstep, and if something was, the clock above is the reason to read it again tonight rather than tomorrow.

Tear-off waste and where it goes

CALGreen’s 65 per cent diversion requirement for construction and demolition waste attaches to additions and alterations that increase a building’s conditioned area, volume or size. A straight re-roof does none of those, so the state mandate generally does not reach it.

Local ordinances frequently do, and the state code expressly lets a city be stricter. Plenty of cities capture roofing through their own construction and demolition rules by permit valuation, which can mean a deposit and a diversion report on an ordinary house. Ask the city before the skip is ordered rather than after.

Licensing, deposits and what has to be on the paperwork

Roofing is the C-39 classification with the Contractors State License Board. The minor-work exemption that lets very small jobs be done unlicensed rose to $1,000 at the start of 2025, but it does not apply to work that requires a permit — and a re-roof requires a permit. The practical rule is therefore simpler than the statute: a re-roof needs a licensed contractor, whatever it costs.

Deposits are capped by statute at $1,000 or ten per cent of the contract, whichever is smaller, unless the contractor carries a blanket performance and payment bond with the board. Going over it is a misdemeanour, and in a declared disaster area the court must impose the maximum fine — which says something about how often it is tried after a storm.

Every licensed contractor is required to put the licence number in all advertising, and in contracts, subcontracts and bids. An advertisement without one is itself a signal. The board's own register will confirm a number in under a minute, and it is worth the minute.

Fire classification: what is actually required, and where

Every ordinary re-roof has to meet at least a Class C fire-retardant covering. That floor applies to new roofs, to repairs and replacements, and to any existing building where over half the roof area is replaced inside a year.

The highest classification, Class A, is pulled in by fire hazard severity zoning or wildland-urban interface designation, and by local ordinances that reach further. Over most of south Orange County the answer ends up being Class A — but it gets there through the zoning and the city, not through a blanket state rule, so it is a question to settle for your address.

One citation to watch for: since 1 January 2026 the wildfire provisions are their own volume, the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code at Title 24 Part 7. It absorbed what used to be building code Chapter 7A and residential code section R337. Anyone still quoting Chapter 7A is quoting a superseded document.

The deductible, and the California version of the warning

California does not have a roofing-specific statute prohibiting a contractor from covering your deductible, in the way Texas and Florida do. That is not permission. The mechanism is what makes it illegal: a contractor who bills the insurer for the full amount while collecting less than the full amount from you has submitted a claim containing a false statement of material fact, and knowingly presenting a false or fraudulent insurance claim is a felony under Penal Code section 550, carrying prison terms and fines up to $50,000 or double the amount of the fraud.

And the homeowner is a party to the arrangement, not a spectator. It is worth being blunt because the offer is made constantly after storms and is nearly always dressed up as a favour.

What a wildfire-zone roof actually has to include

In a mapped fire hazard zone the requirements reach well past the covering, and they are the details that separate a compliant roof from a cheap one. Embers, not flame fronts, are what destroy most houses in a wildfire, and every one of these requirements is about closing a gap an ember could get through.

• A roof assembly meeting Class A when tested to ASTM E108 or UL 790
• On profiled tile, bird stops at the eaves and hip and ridge caps mudded in, so there is no open end for embers to enter
• Valley flashing of at least 0.019 inch (26 gauge) corrosion-resistant metal, over a mineral-surfaced cap sheet at least 36 inches wide
• Noncombustible gutters and downspouts, with an approved means of stopping leaves and debris collecting in them
• Vent screening of noncombustible corrosion-resistant mesh, no finer than 1/16 inch and no coarser than 1/8 inch