Short answer: As of October 2026, the five highest-scoring roofing contractors in the Kennewick-Richland, WA metro on The Roofing Brief Contractor Score are Eminent Roofing Inc (95.2), Black Diamond Roofing & Construction Inc (90.2), Royal Roofing Inc (76.4), PowerMax Roofing (72.3), BN Covered Exteriors Inc (71.0). 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 9 certified roofing contractors serving the Kennewick metro on a published, reproducible formula, then researched each of the top five individually to confirm its record. The Tri-Cities has the quietest storm record of any metro on this site: three hail reports and nine severe wind reports across an entire decade, with zero recorded property damage on every one of them. Nothing falls on these roofs. They die of heat instead, and the research on how that happens contradicts what most roofing companies will tell you. Washington, meanwhile, runs the most checkable contractor system in the country: every registration below was pulled from the state’s own live record, with the bond amount, the insurer, the expiry, and any lawsuit or infraction against it. One of the five carries five satisfied infractions.
What actually ages a Kennewick roof
There is almost no severe weather here to specify a roof against. Across 2016 to 2025 Benton and Franklin counties logged three hail reports and nine severe thunderstorm and high wind reports, with no recorded property damage on any of the twelve events, and the largest hailstone in the entire decade measured one inch. For comparison, Lubbock logged 272 hail reports in the same period and Weld County, Colorado, 431. If you have moved here from a storm market, the instinct to buy an impact-rated shingle is the wrong instinct: nothing in this record justifies paying for impact resistance, and the money is better spent on ventilation and on the quality of the installation.
Washington’s contractor registration is the strongest consumer tool in this programme, and it is worth using. Every construction contractor must register with the Department of Labor and Industries, carry a surety bond and hold liability insurance, and L&I publishes a live public record showing the registration number and status, the bond amount and surety company, the liability insurer and limit, the effective and expiry dates, the recorded owners, any lawsuits filed against the bond and any infractions issued. That is more than any state licence board in this programme publishes. Note also that the general contractor bond rose from $12,000 to $30,000 on 1 July 2024 under RCW 18.27.040, and that change is visible in four of the records below. Separately, Chapter 19.186 RCW applies specifically to roofing and siding contractors, requiring an itemised written contract, giving a three business day rescission right on financing, barring work before that period expires, and providing that anyone taking an assignment of the contract takes it subject to all the homeowner’s defences.
Permitting is ordinary and the codes are the Washington State Building Code. Pasco’s building permit fee is value-based, starting at $50 for a project valued between $1 and $10,000 under its municipal code plus the state surcharge. We could not obtain published fee bases for Kennewick or Richland, whose fee pages refused our requests, so confirm those with the city directly. The one local code point we could source and which genuinely matters here is Kennewick’s limit on roofing layers: the city applies the residential code rule restricting a roof to two layers of covering, so if your house already carries two the job is a tear-off whether you budgeted for one or not.
The climate figures that do matter are about dryness and heat rather than storms. Kennewick records 74.5 days a year with measurable precipitation, which is roughly a fifth of the year, and snowfall normals across the Tri-Cities are low and patchily observed, with Richland at 6.4 inches. That combination of intense summer sun, very low humidity and a wide daily temperature swing is what ages a roof here, and the mechanism is better documented than most contractors realise. The spotlight below sets out what the building-science literature actually says, because the usual explanation offered to homeowners is wrong in an interesting way.
The 5 best roofers in Kennewick, WA
Scored 2026-10-01. The metro mean rating used as the Bayesian prior for Kennewick is 4.911, across a pool of 9 certified contractors.
| Rank | Company | TRB Score | Certification | Rating (reviews) | Adjusted | In business since | Based in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eminent Roofing Inc | 95.2 | President’s Club | 5.0 (154) | 4.978 | 2020 | Richland, WA |
| 2 | Black Diamond Roofing & Construction Inc | 90.2 | President’s Club | 4.8 (268) | 4.817 | 2003 | Richland, WA |
| 3 | Royal Roofing Inc | 76.4 | Master Elite | 4.7 (247) | 4.736 | 2002 | Pasco, WA |
| 4 | PowerMax Roofing | 72.3 | Certified | 5.0 (128) | 4.975 | 2022 | Pasco, WA |
| 5 | BN Covered Exteriors Inc | 71.0 | Certified | 4.9 (315) | 4.902 | not published | Richland, WA |
1. Eminent Roofing Inc — TRB Score 95.2
Eminent Roofing Inc is based in Richland, WA, in business since 2020, led by Hector Manuel Torres Jr and Hector Manuel Torres Sr, both recorded as members on the state registration, Not accredited, A+ rating, and holds President’s Club standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: President’s Club (GAF), Washington L&I registration EMINERI804KD, ACTIVE, verified on the state record, James Hardie certified installer (company claim). 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 | 39.1 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 13.1 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 7.9 | 10 |
| Total | 95.2 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Registration EMINERI804KD, UBI 604561717, General construction contractor, status ACTIVE from 5 May 2020 to 11 May 2028, with a $30,000 Lexon Insurance Company bond and $2,000,000 of liability cover through Obsidian Specialty. No lawsuits against the bond and no infractions.. Washington State Department of Labor and Industries contractor registration
- Rated A+ though not accredited, at the Richland address.. BBB business profile
What they actually do. Residential roof replacement and repair, and exterior work including James Hardie siding.
Why it ranks here. The top score in the metro on a clean 5.0 across 154 reviews, and the strongest state record on this page: an active L&I registration with no lawsuits against the bond and no infractions, and $2,000,000 of liability cover, which is double the $1,000,000 carried by every other contractor here. Its bond stands at the current $30,000 level.
Best fit for: The default first call in the Tri-Cities, and the deepest insurance cover of any firm in the metro.
What we would want clarified. It is the second-youngest business here, registered with the state only in May 2020, and its record carries one late-renewal lapse in 2022, since cured. Its BBB profile is not accredited. Its GAF standing and its Tri-City Herald award are both self-reported, because GAF’s directory and the awards site refused our requests, so we could not confirm either independently. 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 (509) 537-7640, 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. Black Diamond Roofing & Construction Inc — TRB Score 90.2
Black Diamond Roofing & Construction Inc is based in Richland, WA, in business since 2003, led by Josh Shupe, President, with fourteen further owners and members recorded on the state registration, Not accredited, A+ rating, and holds President’s Club standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: President’s Club (GAF), Washington L&I registration BLACKDR972PC, ACTIVE, verified on the state record, Malarkey Roofing Products certified (company claim), Owens Corning certified (company claim). 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 | 32.7 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 14.6 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 7.9 | 10 |
| Total | 90.2 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Registration BLACKDR972PC, UBI 602330555, General construction contractor, status ACTIVE from 3 October 2003 to 3 October 2027, with a $30,000 North River Insurance Company bond and $1,000,000 of liability cover through CM Vantage Specialty. No lawsuits against the bond and no infractions.. Washington State Department of Labor and Industries contractor registration
- Rated A+ though not accredited.. BBB business profile
What they actually do. Residential and commercial roof replacement and repair.
Why it ranks here. The longest continuously registered contractor in the metro, active with the state since 3 October 2003, which is 22 years without interruption, and President’s Club certification with 4.8 across 268 reviews. Its state record is clean of both lawsuits and infractions. It is also the only firm here claiming Malarkey certification, a manufacturer whose products are specified for exactly this kind of high-UV, wide-swing climate.
Best fit for: Homeowners who want the longest verified registration history in the Tri-Cities, or a Malarkey rather than a GAF system.
What we would want clarified. Its record shows two short bond cancellations, in 2019 and 2022, each reinstated within days, which is worth noting but is not an infraction. Its L&I registered address in Richland differs from the West Richland address on its BBB profile. Fourteen further owners and members are recorded on the registration, so ask who is actually running the job. Its manufacturer certifications are company claims we could not verify. 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 (509) 943-7663, 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.
3. Royal Roofing Inc — TRB Score 76.4
Royal Roofing Inc is based in Pasco, WA, in business since 2002, led by Rigoberto Hernandez and Elfega Guzman Ramirez, both recorded as owners on the state registration, Not accredited, A+ rating, and holds Master Elite standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: Master Elite (GAF), Washington L&I registration ROYALRI85235, ACTIVE, verified on the state record. 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 | 24 | 35 |
| Adjusted rating | 29.4 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 14.4 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 8.7 | 10 |
| Total | 76.4 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Registration ROYALRI85235, UBI 602779764, General construction contractor, status ACTIVE from 25 June 2015 to 25 June 2027, with a $30,000 Old Republic Surety bond and $1,000,000 of liability cover. No lawsuits against the bond. Five satisfied infractions issued in 2022 under RCW 43.22.435, totalling $2,800.. Washington State Department of Labor and Industries contractor registration
- Rated A+ though not accredited, at the Pasco address.. BBB business profile
What they actually do. Residential and commercial roof replacement and repair.
Why it ranks here. Master Elite certification with 4.7 across 247 reviews, a long trading history recorded by the BBB from 2002, and an active state registration with a $30,000 bond and no lawsuits filed against it.
Best fit for: Homeowners who weigh a long local record and are satisfied, having read the infraction history above, that the matters are closed.
What we would want clarified. Its state record carries something no other contractor on this page has, and it is the reason to read this entry carefully. Washington L&I shows five infractions issued against this registration in 2022 under RCW 43.22.435, totalling $2,800, relating to composition roofs on manufactured homes where corrections were not made. All five are recorded as satisfied, meaning the penalties were paid and the matters closed. We report them because Washington publishes them and a homeowner comparing contractors here is entitled to the same information the state holds; they are three years old and resolved, and the firm’s registration has remained active throughout. Separately, its state registration dates from 2015 while the BBB records the business from 2002, and it publishes no manufacturer credential outside GAF and has no website of its own. 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 (509) 547-8475, 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.
4. PowerMax Roofing — TRB Score 72.3
PowerMax Roofing is based in Pasco, WA, in business since 2022, led by Bryant Roberto Perez and Araceli Perez, with Christian A Rebolledo Vicente, all recorded as members on the state registration, Not accredited, A+ rating, and holds Certified standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: Certified (GAF), Washington L&I registration POWERR*761MU, ACTIVE, verified on the state record. 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 | 39.0 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 12.7 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 8.7 | 10 |
| Total | 72.3 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Registration POWERR*761MU, UBI 604925658, General construction contractor, status ACTIVE from 31 July 2024 to 31 July 2028, with a $30,000 Nationwide Mutual bond at that level from the outset and $1,000,000 of liability cover through Cincinnati Specialty. No lawsuits against the bond, no infractions and no lapses.. Washington State Department of Labor and Industries contractor registration
- Rated A+ though not accredited, at the Pasco address.. BBB business profile
What they actually do. Residential roof replacement and repair.
Why it ranks here. A clean 5.0 across 128 reviews, and the cleanest state record on this page in absolute terms: no lawsuits against the bond, no infractions, and no lapses of any kind since registration, with the bond set at the current $30,000 level from the outset rather than carried up from the old $12,000 minimum.
Best fit for: Homeowners who want an unblemished state record and are comfortable with a young firm.
What we would want clarified. It is much the youngest business here, registered with the state only on 31 July 2024, so there is little history behind the perfect record. Its BBB profile records the business from 2022, two years before the state registration, which is worth asking about. It holds base-tier GAF Certified status rather than Master Elite, publishes no manufacturer credential outside GAF, and its BBB profile is not accredited. 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 (509) 492-7287, 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.
5. BN Covered Exteriors Inc — TRB Score 71.0
BN Covered Exteriors Inc is based in Richland, WA, led by Nicholas Scott Nordquist and Brian Wayne Patterson, both recorded as owners on the state registration, and holds Certified standing on the GAF certification registry.
Certifications held: Certified (GAF), Washington L&I registration BNCOVCE764J5, ACTIVE, verified on the state record. 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 | 36.1 | 40 |
| Review corpus depth | 15.0 | 15 |
| Metro proximity | 7.9 | 10 |
| Total | 71.0 | 100 |
Independently corroborated:
- Registration BNCOVCE764J5, UBI 605422754, General construction contractor, status ACTIVE from 26 April 2024 to 26 April 2028, with a $30,000 Nationwide Mutual bond and $1,000,000 of liability cover through AmTrust. No lawsuits against the bond and no infractions.. Washington State Department of Labor and Industries contractor registration
- GAF lists BN Covered Exteriors Inc of Richland, WA in its residential contractor directory.. GAF contractor directory
What they actually do. Residential roofing and exterior work.
Why it ranks here. Rated 4.9 across 315 reviews, the second-deepest customer record in the metro, with a clean state registration carrying no lawsuits and no infractions, and both owners named on the public record.
Best fit for: A second quote alongside the leaders, from a firm with a clean state record and a substantial review base.
What we would want clarified. It has no Better Business Bureau profile at all, so there is no independent complaint or accreditation record to weigh against its registry rating. It publishes no founding year and we could not establish one. Its state registration dates only from April 2024. It holds base-tier GAF Certified status, and an Oregon construction contractor number appears in its materials that we did not verify against the Oregon register. 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 (509) 371-9700, 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.
13 severe weather reports in a decade, and why that matters in Kennewick
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 Kennewick-Richland, WA statistical area over ten years, with the dates, the stone sizes and the towns they landed on. Over that decade the metro logged 3 hail reports, 9 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports and 2 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 Kennewick in a decade
| Date | Stone size | Reported near | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 May 2017 | 1.0 in | Acton | Benton |
| 28 May 2019 | 1.0 in | Benton City | Benton |
| 21 May 2016 | 0.75 in | Benton | Benton |
The largest stone on record for this metro fell on 4 May 2017 near Acton, 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 63 knots, about 73 mph, near Plymouth on 30 May 2020. 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 Kennewick Vista Arpt on 21 May 2016.
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 30 May 2020 event near Plymouth, reproduced verbatim:
A major severe weather event by Pacific Northwest standards occurred over central and northeast Oregon and southeast Washington on May 30th. A powerful upper level storm system moved across the area during the afternoon and evening helping to trigger severe thunderstorms. The airmass was unusually unstable for this area of the country with surface dewpoints well into the 60s. With strong upper level winds in place the stage was set for numerous fast moving intense storms through the afternoon and early evening. Numerous reports of damaging winds were received across southeast Washington as the storms moved through.
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 May (9), June (3), March (1). The worst years on record were 2020 (7), 2017 (3), 2016 (2). If you are scheduling non-urgent work in Kennewick, 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 Kennewick. Weight your decision toward wind rating, ventilation and flashing detail rather than paying extra for impact-rated shingles.
What actually kills a roof in a desert, and why it is not ultraviolet light
Ask a roofing company why shingles fail in a sunny climate and you will almost always be told it is UV. The building-science literature says that is not the main mechanism. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory review of roofing-material weathering puts it directly: for a well-designed shingle, ultraviolet photo-oxidation is not likely to be very important, because the mineral granules absorb most of the incident ultraviolet light before it reaches the asphalt. The granules are not decoration. They are the shield.
What does destroy the asphalt is heat, through a two-stage process the literature calls diffusional ageing. Heat first promotes the diffusion of lower molecular weight oils out of the bulk of the asphalt. The asphalt that remains, stripped of those oils, becomes harder and more brittle, and then cracks. The rate at which that happens is governed by Arrhenius kinetics, which has a consequence worth sitting with: it is not unusual for reaction rates to double with a temperature increase as small as 10 degrees Celsius. A dark roof in Pasco in July is not ageing a little faster than the same roof in Seattle. It may be ageing at several times the rate.
The second mechanism is movement rather than peak temperature. Temperature changes, whether gradual or sudden, such as a rain shower on a hot day, cause stresses from differential thermal expansion. A high-desert climate with a wide daily swing between hot afternoons and cold nights works a roof mechanically every single day of the year, in a way a damp temperate climate does not. NIST’s 2026 work on the long-term durability of asphalt shingle roof covers studies exactly this degradation over service life.
Two practical consequences follow, and the second is specific to this metro. First, ventilation is not a comfort feature here, it is a life-extension measure: the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association warns that where insulation or radiant barriers prevent heat dissipating from under the shingles, heat buildup in the assembly may accelerate weathering and reduce the life of the roof, and it sets the code minimum net free ventilating area at one square foot per 150 square feet of attic floor, reducible to one per 300 with a balanced system. Second, and this is the Tri-Cities finding: ARMA’s technical bulletin on applying shingles in hot weather warns that if the self-sealing strip has been affected by dust or other contamination, the shingles may not seal properly. In a dry, dusty, wind-blown valley, shingles that sit on a roof unsealed because dust has blinded the adhesive strip are a real failure mode, and it is one that shows up as wind damage years later. Ask when the roof was installed, how the sealant strips were protected, and whether the installer hand-sealed where the strips did not take.
Why the usual explanation is wrong, and what the research says instead
| The common claim | What the building-science literature finds |
|---|---|
| Ultraviolet light destroys the shingle | Granules absorb most incident UV, so photo-oxidation is not the dominant mechanism in a well-designed shingle |
| Heat just makes it hotter up there | Heat drives oils out of the asphalt, leaving it hard and brittle; reaction rates can double for a 10 degree Celsius rise |
| Peak summer temperature is the problem | Daily thermal cycling causes differential expansion stresses, so the swing matters as much as the maximum |
| More insulation is always better | Where insulation or radiant barriers stop heat dissipating under the shingles, weathering accelerates and roof life falls |
| Shingles self-seal automatically | Dust or contamination on the sealant strip can stop shingles sealing properly, which in a dusty valley is a live risk |
Source: Berdahl, Akbari, Levinson and Miller, Weathering of Roofing Materials: An Overview, LBNL-59724; NIST, Long-Term Durability of Asphalt Shingle Roof Covers, 2026; Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association Residential Asphalt Roofing Manual and hot-weather application bulletin.
Three things to confirm before work starts in Kennewick
Licensing is required in WA. Washington requires every contractor to register with the Department of Labor and Industries, and registration requires both a surety bond and general liability insurance. Speciality contractors including roofers must carry a $15,000 bond.
Insurance minimums under RCW 18.27.050 are $200,000 public liability plus $50,000 property damage, or $250,000 combined single limit. The bond is continuous, and if it lapses the registration suspends automatically until cover is restored.
Check here: Washington L&I Verify a Contractor. L&I’s verification tool shows existing claims against a contractor’s bond, which is the single most useful and most overlooked check in Washington.
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 Kennewick actually has
9 certified roofing contractors serve the principal cities of the Kennewick-Richland, WA statistical area, of which 2 hold the top President’s Club tier. The pool carries 1,230 customer reviews between them at a mean rating of 4.911. The statistical area had a 2024 population of 319,428, a change of 5.21% against the 2020 census base, per the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates.
How these Kennewick rankings were produced
Every contractor in the Kennewick-Richland, WA 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 9 certified contractors, of whom 2 hold President’s Club standing and 2 Master Elite, against a metro mean rating of 4.911. The top five 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: October 2026. Scoring run: 2026-10-01. Corrections go to the editor and are actioned on verification.
What Kennewick homeowners want to know
Who is the best roofer in Kennewick, WA?
Eminent Roofing Inc of Richland, WA scores highest in the Kennewick metro on The Roofing Brief Contractor Score, at 95.2 out of 100 as of October 2026. It holds President’s Club certification with a 5.0 rating across 154 reviews. Highest-scoring is not the same as best fit for your specific job, and the four companies behind it score within 24.2 points.
How many certified roofing contractors serve Kennewick?
9 contractors on the GAF certification registry serve the principal cities of the Kennewick-Richland, WA statistical area as of October 2026, of which 2 hold President’s Club status.
How much damaging hail does Kennewick get?
The Kennewick-Richland, WA statistical area recorded 2 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 five.
What was the worst hailstorm in Kennewick in the last ten years?
The largest hailstone logged by the National Weather Service in the Kennewick-Richland, WA statistical area between 2016 and 2025 measured 1.0 inches, reported near Acton on 4 May 2017. 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 3 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 Kennewick?
Severe-weather reports in the Kennewick-Richland, WA statistical area cluster in May, June, March, 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 WA?
Washington requires every contractor to register with the Department of Labor and Industries, and registration requires both a surety bond and general liability insurance. Speciality contractors including roofers must carry a $15,000 bond. Insurance minimums under RCW 18.27.050 are $200,000 public liability plus $50,000 property damage, or $250,000 combined single limit. The bond is continuous, and if it lapses the registration suspends automatically until cover is restored.
What should I check before hiring a roofer in Kennewick?
L&I’s verification tool shows existing claims against a contractor’s bond, which is the single most useful and most overlooked check in Washington.
What actually kills a roof in a desert, and why it is not ultraviolet light?
Ask a roofing company why shingles fail in a sunny climate and you will almost always be told it is UV. The building-science literature says that is not the main mechanism. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory review of roofing-material weathering puts it directly: for a well-designed shingle, ultraviolet photo-oxidation is not likely to be very important, because the mineral granules absorb most of the incident ultraviolet light before it reaches the asphalt. The granules are not decoration. They are the shield.
Is Kennewick a hard market to find a good roofer in?
The Tri-Cities has the quietest storm record of any metro on this site: three hail reports and nine severe wind reports across an entire decade, with zero recorded property damage on every one of them. Nothing falls on these roofs. They die of heat instead, and the research on how that happens contradicts what most roofing companies will tell you. Washington, meanwhile, runs the most checkable contractor system in the country: every registration below was pulled from the state’s own live record, with the bond amount, the insurer, the expiry, and any lawsuit or infraction against it. One of the five carries five satisfied infractions.
Is wind or hail the bigger risk to a roof in Kennewick?
Wind, by a wide margin. The Kennewick-Richland, WA statistical area logged 9 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports against 2 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 Yakima, WA, about 71 miles from Kennewick
- Best roofers in Spokane, WA, another WA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Seattle, WA, another WA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Columbus, GA, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Roanoke, VA, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Boise, ID, also scored, about 230 miles away
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 Kennewick, WA: 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.