Short answer: As of October 2026 no roofing contractor based in the Lake Charles metro holds GAF certification with five or more customer reviews, so The Roofing Brief ranks none here. Instead this page lists six local roofers we verified individually on the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors register, where since 1 January 2026 any residential roofing job of $7,500 or more requires the Residential Roofing or Residential Construction classification. Three of them hold the new Residential Roofing classification itself, and the oldest has been trading since 1947.
The Roofing Brief searched the GAF certification registry across the principal cities of the Lake Charles, LA statistical area. No roofing contractor based inside the metro clears the evidence floor this ranking applies, which is manufacturer certification plus at least five independent customer reviews, so this page ranks nobody rather than pad a list. What it does instead is set out the contractors we could verify individually against the credential that actually exists here. Lake Charles took two hurricanes forty-three days apart in 2020 and the eye and eyewall of the first passed over the entire metro. What came after matters as much as the storms: Louisiana now requires a specific licence classification for residential roofing, and the state register shows exactly who holds it. That register, not a manufacturer badge, is the credential to check here.
Hail, codes and what they cost a Lake Charles homeowner
Louisiana changed the rules for residential roofing on 1 January 2026. Under La. R.S. 37:2156.4(A), on and after that date anyone who advertises, solicits, offers, bids or performs residential roofing work of $7,500 or more must hold the Residential Roofing or the Residential Construction classification from the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. R.S. 37:2163 makes it unlawful to act as a contractor without an active licence, and separately unlawful for any contractor, licensed or not, to circulate a misleading or false claim about a licence or classification. Ask for the licence number and check the classification on the register yourself.
Two more statutes protect you on an insurance job. R.S. 51:451 bars anyone selling goods or services paid from a property insurance claim from agreeing, without the insurer’s consent, to pay, waive, absorb or decline to collect your deductible, or to rebate any part of it. And Act 239 of 2025, effective 1 August 2025, adds R.S. 40:1730.23(K), which requires any municipality or parish that issues construction permits to permit and inspect one and two family dwellings for roof construction and reroofing against the residential code. The code in force is the 2021 International Residential Code, effective in Louisiana since 1 January 2023, with the 2024 editions due on 1 January 2027.
The convective record is substantial even without the hurricanes. Across 2016 to 2025 Calcasieu, Cameron and Jefferson Davis parishes logged 64 hail reports, 58 at an inch or more and 10 at two inches or more, 135 thunderstorm wind reports and 52 tornado segments. The largest hailstone was 3.00 inches near Vincent and Carlyss on 9 May 2019, when the NWS narrative records that most homes in the area had roof damage; the two Carlyss and Sulphur reports that day carry $46 million of recorded property damage, the whole of the decade’s hail damage. On 10 April 2024 an EF2 tornado crossed near McNeese State University and destroyed the roofs of several homes along Elton Court, and on 27 October 2021 an EF2 near 130 mph caused significant structural damage to around a dozen homes south of Ham Reid Road.
The metro is still smaller than it was before 2020. The Census Bureau puts the three-parish population at 242,975 in July 2024 against an April 2020 base of 254,654, a fall of 4.6 percent, with Calcasieu down from 216,785 to 206,861 and Cameron Parish down 16.8 percent. Cameron’s housing is now the newest in the metro, with a median year built of 2005, because so much of it was rebuilt; the City of Lake Charles median is 1981.
Lake Charles roofers verified on the state licensing register
No roofer based in the metro clears our certified ranking floor, so none is ranked. These six were checked on the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors register, and each holds a classification that covers residential roofing under the 2026 rule; those with the new Residential Roofing classification are marked. They are not scored and we are not recommending them. We checked and left out several others: one Owens Corning top-tier firm whose register entry shows only a commercial roofing licence, firms with suspended licences or registrations, and two firms we could not find on the register at all.
| Company | Verified credential |
|---|---|
| Ferguson Roofing Company, Inc. | Residential licence RL.08033, active to July 2027, with Residential Construction, Building Construction and Roofing and Sheet Metal, Siding classifications; on W. Sale Road, Lake Charles; BBB accredited since 1 July 1978, business started 1947. Its trading name is shared with an unrelated St Louis firm, so do not rely on a web search. |
| Poole Roofing Company, Inc. | Residential licence RL.08431, active to March 2027, holding the Residential Roofing classification plus Roofing and Sheet Metal, Siding; on Highway 384, Lake Charles; BBB accredited since 1 January 1987, business started 1973. |
| Daughdrill General Contracting and Roofing Company, Inc. | Commercial licence CL.17566 first issued 22 August 1983 and residential licence RL.81538 first issued 2 April 1996, both active, with Building Construction, Roofing and Sheet Metal, Siding and Residential Construction; Westlake; BBB accredited since January 2006. |
| R & L Roofing & Siding LLC | Residential licence RL.11545, active to June 2027, holding the Residential Roofing classification plus Roofing and Sheet Metal, Siding; Owens Corning Preferred Contractor at Vinton. |
| Daigle Roofing and Construction LLC | Commercial licence CL.05069 and residential licence RL.05070, both active, with Roofing and Sheet Metal, Siding and Residential Construction; Jennings, Jefferson Davis Parish; Owens Corning Preferred Contractor. |
| Pelican Roofing Company, LLC, Lake Charles office | Residential licence RL.06221, active to October 2027, holding the Residential Roofing classification plus Roofing and Sheet Metal, Siding; Owens Corning Preferred at W. Prien Lake Road, Lake Charles. A Lafayette-area firm with a Lake Charles branch. |
What 3.0 inch hail does to a Lake Charles roof
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 3 counties of the Lake Charles, LA statistical area over ten years, with the dates, the stone sizes and the towns they landed on. Over that decade the metro logged 64 hail reports, 135 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports and 52 tornadoes. Reported property damage from hail, severe wind and tornado over that decade totalled $53.5 million; flood and winter-storm losses are counted separately and are not included.
The biggest hail to fall on Lake Charles in a decade
| Date | Stone size | Reported near | County |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 May 2019 | 3.0 in | Vincent | Calcasieu |
| 9 May 2019 | 2.5 in | Sulphur | Calcasieu |
| 12 May 2024 | 2.5 in | Jennings | Jefferson Davis |
| 12 May 2024 | 2.5 in | Jennings | Jefferson Davis |
| 12 May 2024 | 2.25 in | Jefferson Davis | Jefferson Davis |
| 8 January 2024 | 2.0 in | Chennault Indus Airp | Calcasieu |
The largest stone on record for this metro fell on 9 May 2019 near Vincent, measured at 3.0 inches. That is baseball sized, comfortably past the point where a roof is written off rather than repaired.
Wind. The strongest thunderstorm gust logged in the metro was 93 knots, about 107 mph, near Jefferson Davis on 4 April 2019. Asphalt shingles begin lifting at roughly 67 mph when they are correctly nailed, and considerably below that when they are not.
Tornadoes. 52 tornadoes touched down in these counties over the decade, the strongest rated EF2 near (Lch)Lk Charles Muni on 27 October 2021.
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 4 April 2019 event near Jefferson Davis, reproduced verbatim:
An area just north of Lowry, along Hwy 14 and Hwy 3056, saw several trees blown down or snapped, 5 to 10 homes received roof damage, a telephone pole snapped, several other poles bent, and several garages or outbuildings had wind damage. Estimated winds were 107 MPH and damage was along a path 2.6 miles long and 1.5 mile wide.
That account is the design case for a roof here, and it comes from the agency that recorded it rather than by a contractor selling the repair.
When it happens. Severe weather reports cluster in May (67), April (58), March (22). The worst years on record were 2024 (59), 2020 (31), 2017 (29). If you are scheduling non-urgent work in Lake Charles, 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 Lake Charles. Weight your decision toward wind rating, ventilation and flashing detail rather than paying extra for impact-rated shingles.
Laura and Delta, 43 days apart, and the roofs in between
Hurricane Laura’s eye crossed the coast near Cameron around 1am on 27 August 2020 as a category 4 hurricane with maximum winds of about 130 knots. The National Hurricane Center calls it the strongest hurricane to strike Louisiana since Camille in 1969, and NWS Lake Charles calls it the strongest to strike south west Louisiana since records began in 1851, noting that its eye and eyewall passed over the entire Lake Charles metropolitan area. Gusts reached 133 knots at Holly Beach and 119 knots in Lake Charles, where the airport station recorded 85 knots sustained with a gust of 116 knots.
The damage was on a scale that rewrote the metro. NOAA’s estimate for Laura’s US damage is about $19 billion, $17.5 billion of it in Louisiana, and the NCEI Storm Events entry for Calcasieu Parish alone records $6.0 billion of property damage with gusts of 110 to 145 mph across the parish. The NHC report records the governor’s statement that 10,000 homes were demolished in the state, and the parish entry records twelve indirect deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning, including five in one family in the city of Lake Charles.
Then came Delta. It made landfall near Creole at 6pm on 9 October 2020 as a category 2 hurricane with maximum winds of about 85 knots, only about ten nautical miles east of where Laura’s eye had struck, a little more than a month earlier. The NHC’s language is direct: in south western Louisiana, which was still in recovery from Laura, Delta caused additional damage to homes and businesses, and temporary roofs that were in place were blown away by Delta’s winds. NWS Lake Charles adds that many buildings with roof damage from Laura still had temporary tarping, which was ripped off by Delta.
The narrower claim worth separating from that is about the Army Corps of Engineers’ own blue roofs. A Corps photo caption of 16 October 2020 states that over 95 percent of the homes that received Corps-installed blue roofs remained intact after Delta, and a Corps release of 26 October 2020 reported the 10,000th Operation Blue Roof installation in Lake Charles. Read together with the NHC and NWS statements, the difference is between professionally installed temporary roofs and the general run of tarping, which is a lesson about installation quality that applies to permanent roofs too.
Louisiana’s response sits partly in statute. R.S. 22:1483.1 created the Louisiana Fortify Homes Program, under which the insurance commissioner may make grants to retrofit the roofs of homestead-exempt insurable homes to the IBHS FORTIFIED Roof standard; news reports indicate the June 2026 round is closed, and we could not reach the Department of Insurance to confirm the next one. The other half is the licensing law above. In a market that had to be reroofed almost entirely within a few years, and where both a parish and a city have shrunk since, the register is the best tool a homeowner has to tell a roofer who stayed from one who came for the storm.
Lake Charles in 2020, and the rules since
| Item | Figure or rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Laura landfall | Near Cameron, 27 August 2020, category 4, about 130 knots | National Hurricane Center |
| Laura gust in Lake Charles | 119 knots; airport 85 knots sustained, gust 116 knots | National Hurricane Center |
| Laura property damage, Calcasieu Parish | $6.0 billion | NOAA NCEI Storm Events |
| Delta landfall | Near Creole, 9 October 2020, category 2, about 10 nautical miles from Laura’s landfall | National Hurricane Center |
| Days between landfalls | 43 | NHC; NWS Lake Charles |
| Corps blue roofs intact after Delta | Over 95 percent of Corps-installed roofs | US Army Corps of Engineers, 16 October 2020 |
| Metro population change | 254,654 in April 2020 to 242,975 in July 2024, down 4.6 percent | US Census Bureau Vintage 2024 |
| Licence classification required for residential roofing of $7,500 or more | Residential Roofing or Residential Construction, since 1 January 2026 | La. R.S. 37:2156.4 |
| Contractor deductible rule | Cannot pay, waive, absorb or rebate it without the insurer’s consent | La. R.S. 51:451 |
| Reroof inspection | Required where permits are issued, since 1 August 2025 | Act 239 of 2025 |
Source: National Hurricane Center tropical cyclone reports for Laura and Delta; NWS Lake Charles; NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database; US Army Corps of Engineers; Louisiana Revised Statutes 37:2156.4, 37:2163, 51:451, 22:1483.1 and Act 239 of 2025; Louisiana Uniform Construction Code Commission; US Census Bureau.
How to tell a Lake Charles roofer’s claims from their record
Licensing is required in LA. Louisiana requires a roofing-specific licence classification. Under La. R.S. 37:2156.4(A), on and after 1 January 2026 any person who advertises, solicits, undertakes, offers or submits a price, bid, quote or estimate to construct, modify, repair or maintain any portion of a roofing system on a residential structure worth $7,500 or more must hold the classification of Residential Roofing or Residential Construction. Unusually for this trade, subsection B requires a residential roofing contractor to pass the residential roofing trade examination, so unlike Alabama or New Jersey this is a competency licence and not merely a registration.
Residential roofing is a subclassification of residential construction, and Act 757 of 2026, effective 1 August 2026, added subsection D extending the rule to any residential structure containing no more than four dwelling units. The penalties are real. Under R.S. 37:2163 it is unlawful to act as a contractor without an active licence, and a violation is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $500 per day of violation, or three months in prison, or both. Where an unlicensed person causes harm or damage exceeding $300, the penalty rises to a fine of between $500 and $5,000, or imprisonment with or without hard labour for between six months and five years, or both. R.S. 37:2163(A)(2) separately makes it unlawful for any contractor, licensed or unlicensed, to publish or circulate a misleading or false claim about a person’s licence or classification in any medium, including digital platforms.
Check here: Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. Check the classification itself on the board’s lookup, not just that a licence exists, because the statute names two classifications specifically. It is worth knowing that misrepresenting a licence or classification in advertising is itself unlawful in Louisiana under R.S. 37:2163(A)(2), so what a contractor claims about its credentials on its own website is a statement the state can act on.
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.
The shape of the Lake Charles contractor market
0 certified roofing contractors serve the principal cities of the Lake Charles, LA statistical area, of which 0 hold the top President’s Club tier. The pool carries 0 customer reviews between them at a mean rating of 4.55. The statistical area had a 2024 population of 242,975, a change of -4.59% against the 2020 census base, per the U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2024 estimates.
How these Lake Charles rankings were produced
Every contractor in the Lake Charles, LA 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 0 certified contractors, of whom 0 hold President’s Club standing and 0 Master Elite, against a metro mean rating of 4.55. No contractor cleared the floor, so the alternatives listed above were instead researched individually against Better Business Bureau records, state licence registers and manufacturer directories. Anything unflattering that research surfaced appears above alongside the rest, and no company bought its position.
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: 2026-10-04. Corrections go to the editor and are actioned on verification.
Lake Charles roofing questions, answered
Who are the best roofers in Lake Charles, LA?
No Lake Charles roofer holds GAF certification with at least five reviews, so The Roofing Brief ranks none. It verified six local roofers on the Louisiana contractors’ licensing register instead: Ferguson Roofing Company, Poole Roofing Company, Daughdrill General Contracting and Roofing, R and L Roofing and Siding, Daigle Roofing and Construction, and Pelican Roofing’s Lake Charles office. Check any roofer’s classification on the state register before signing, because residential roofing of $7,500 or more now requires one.
How many certified roofing contractors serve Lake Charles?
0 contractors on the GAF certification registry serve the principal cities of the Lake Charles, LA statistical area as of October 2026, of which 0 hold President’s Club status.
How much damaging hail does Lake Charles get?
The Lake Charles, LA statistical area recorded 58 hail reports of 1 inch or larger and 10 of 2 inches or larger between 2016 and 2025 in the NOAA Storm Events Database. The largest hailstone reported measured 3.0 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 every verified alternative listed.
What was the worst hailstorm in Lake Charles in the last ten years?
The largest hailstone logged by the National Weather Service in the Lake Charles, LA statistical area between 2016 and 2025 measured 3.0 inches, reported near Vincent on 9 May 2019. That is baseball sized, comfortably past the point where a roof is written off rather than repaired. Across the decade the metro recorded 64 hail reports. Reported property damage from hail, severe wind and tornado over that decade totalled $53.5 million; flood and winter-storm losses are counted separately and are not included.
When is the worst time of year for roof damage in Lake Charles?
Severe-weather reports in the Lake Charles, LA statistical area cluster in May, April, March, on the NOAA record for 2016 to 2025. Booking non-urgent roof work outside those months usually means shorter lead times, because local crews are not simultaneously triaging storm callouts.
Do roofers need a licence in LA?
Louisiana requires a roofing-specific licence classification. Under La. R.S. 37:2156.4(A), on and after 1 January 2026 any person who advertises, solicits, undertakes, offers or submits a price, bid, quote or estimate to construct, modify, repair or maintain any portion of a roofing system on a residential structure worth $7,500 or more must hold the classification of Residential Roofing or Residential Construction. Unusually for this trade, subsection B requires a residential roofing contractor to pass the residential roofing trade examination, so unlike Alabama or New Jersey this is a competency licence and not merely a registration. Residential roofing is a subclassification of residential construction, and Act 757 of 2026, effective 1 August 2026, added subsection D extending the rule to any residential structure containing no more than four dwelling units. The penalties are real. Under R.S. 37:2163 it is unlawful to act as a contractor without an active licence, and a violation is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $500 per day of violation, or three months in prison, or both. Where an unlicensed person causes harm or damage exceeding $300, the penalty rises to a fine of between $500 and $5,000, or imprisonment with or without hard labour for between six months and five years, or both. R.S. 37:2163(A)(2) separately makes it unlawful for any contractor, licensed or unlicensed, to publish or circulate a misleading or false claim about a person’s licence or classification in any medium, including digital platforms.
What should I check before hiring a roofer in Lake Charles?
Check the classification itself on the board’s lookup, not just that a licence exists, because the statute names two classifications specifically. It is worth knowing that misrepresenting a licence or classification in advertising is itself unlawful in Louisiana under R.S. 37:2163(A)(2), so what a contractor claims about its credentials on its own website is a statement the state can act on.
Laura and Delta, 43 days apart, and the roofs in between?
Hurricane Laura’s eye crossed the coast near Cameron around 1am on 27 August 2020 as a category 4 hurricane with maximum winds of about 130 knots. The National Hurricane Center calls it the strongest hurricane to strike Louisiana since Camille in 1969, and NWS Lake Charles calls it the strongest to strike south west Louisiana since records began in 1851, noting that its eye and eyewall passed over the entire Lake Charles metropolitan area. Gusts reached 133 knots at Holly Beach and 119 knots in Lake Charles, where the airport station recorded 85 knots sustained with a gust of 116 knots.
Is Lake Charles a hard market to find a good roofer in?
Lake Charles took two hurricanes forty-three days apart in 2020 and the eye and eyewall of the first passed over the entire metro. What came after matters as much as the storms: Louisiana now requires a specific licence classification for residential roofing, and the state register shows exactly who holds it. That register, not a manufacturer badge, is the credential to check here.
Is wind or hail the bigger risk to a roof in Lake Charles?
Wind, by a wide margin. The Lake Charles, LA statistical area logged 135 severe thunderstorm and high wind reports against 58 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 Beaumont, TX, about 56 miles from Lake Charles
- Best roofers in Lafayette, LA, about 71 miles from Lake Charles
- Best roofers in Baton Rouge, LA, about 125 miles from Lake Charles
- Best roofers in Shreveport, LA, another LA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Monroe, LA, another LA metro on the same formula
- Best roofers in Champaign, IL, a metro of comparable size
- Best roofers in Binghamton, NY, 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 Lake Charles, LA: 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.