How Much Does a New Roof Cost in Kentucky in 2026

For a Kentucky roof, the closest sourced price is a national one: the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com) averages $31,871 for its asphalt-shingle reroof. Kentucky roofers earned a mean $24.37 an hour in May 2025, versus $27.95 across the U.S. (BLS). If insurance is paying, KRS 367.622 lets you cancel until midnight of the fifth business day after the insurer’s written notice that all or part isn’t covered.

Two national benchmarks and one Kentucky wage

Zonda Media’s 2025 report surveys 119 U.S. markets. For metal roofing its national job cost is $51,865, with a resale value of $25,972, or 50% recouped. The asphalt project’s resale value is $21,501, 68% of cost. Neither is a Kentucky average, and the report pages cited here do not describe the roof size or materials behind either project.

In May 2025 the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 1,080 roofers on Kentucky payrolls, excluding the self-employed. Their median wage was $22.57 an hour, compared with $26.65 nationally. That is pay, not a price per square, and it is one line in a contractor’s bid.

No state roofing license, and HB 150 did not change that

A 2026 House bill, HB 150, would have created new sections of KRS Chapter 198B to “establish licensing for roofing contractors under the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction.” Its last recorded action is “01/14/26: to Licensing, Occupations, & Administrative Regulations (H).”

When insurance proceeds pay for the roof: KRS 367.620 to 367.628

These sections began in 2012 as a roofing-contractor law. The 2025 amendments (Ky. Acts ch. 15, effective June 27, 2025) widened them to any “contractor” doing a “real estate goods or services contract,” meaning work “expected to be paid from property, casualty, or property and casualty insurance proceeds.” That covers commercial as well as residential property. SB 153 (Ky. Acts ch. 54, signed April 8, 2026) amended them again, and its changes apply to contracts entered into on or after July 15, 2026.

The five-business-day cancellation

Under KRS 367.622(1) you “may cancel the contract prior to midnight of the fifth business day after the person has received written notice from the insurer that all or part of the claim is not a covered loss.” Hand delivery, postage-prepaid mail to the contract address, fax or email all count, and any written wording showing you no longer intend to be bound is enough.

Before signing, the contractor must give you its mailing address, phone number and, where it has them, fax and email. It must also give you two boldface statements, one on the cancellation right and one saying the contract cannot assign your policy benefits in violation of KRS 304.20-105, plus a detachable “NOTICE OF CANCELLATION” form (KRS 367.624).

Deposits and refunds

KRS 367.626 bars advance payments until the cancellation period has expired and requires any payments or notes to be returned within ten days of a cancellation. A contract that was cancelled, or that carries a price that breaks KRS 367.374 (the ban on grossly excessive prices under a Governor’s emergency order), cannot be enforced against you, and no cancellation fee is owed. The exception: a contractor that did repair work or “emergency goods or services,” defined as a response to “a sudden, unexpected occurrence that poses a clear and imminent danger,” authorized under the contract, may collect “a reasonable and customary amount.”

What the contractor may not do

On insurance-paid work, KRS 367.628(2) forbids a contractor or its representative to:

1. damage the property, or get someone else to, in order to enlarge the job or win the contract;
2. offer to pay or rebate any part of your deductible or of the claim money as an inducement to buy;
3. grant an allowance or discount against its fee;
4. give you or your representative anything worth more than $100, such as a bonus, coupon, credit, gift, prize or referral fee;
5. have a financial tie to a public adjuster, appraiser, or anyone specializing in claim settlement, non-construction estimates, insurance or supplements;
6. solicit or provide contracts for such people, for services outside its own scope of work;
7. file a mechanic’s lien against you for charges above what the insurer pays or is expected to pay.

Separately, KRS 367.628(1) bars contractors from negotiating your claim or marketing themselves as insurance or claims specialists or as affiliated with an insurer. They may still write an estimate and confer with the insurer’s representative after you file. Damaging a roof to enlarge a claim is also a fraudulent insurance act and first-degree criminal mischief (KRS 367.628(3)). A court may award double actual damages plus attorney’s fees, and the Attorney General may seek $5,000 per violation (KRS 367.627).

After a declared emergency: KRS 367.379

This 2026 section applies only if the Attorney General issues an order for an area covered by a state-of-emergency declaration. Roofing, siding, water-mitigation and tree-removal businesses working there must then register with the Attorney General and post the certificate at each job site, unless the Attorney General has found that a local government there imposes stricter emergency registration or licensure, in which case the local rules replace the state registration. For 90 days after the declaration they may not solicit in person without the owner’s prior approval. Visits the owner requests, public advertising, and phone or digital contact remain allowed.

Code and permits under 815 KAR 7:125

The Kentucky Residential Code makes the 2015 International Residential Code, with Kentucky’s 2018 amendments, “the mandatory state residential building code” for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses. The regulation was last amended effective 12-3-2024. It also says: “Permits, inspections, and certificates of occupancy shall not be required for a single-family dwelling unless required by local ordinance.” For a single-family house, then, a reroof permit is needed only where a local ordinance requires one.

Kentucky owners ask

Can the roofer cover my deductible?

No, if insurance proceeds are expected to pay for the job. Paragraph (2)(b) of KRS 367.628 rules that out.

I signed in June 2026. Which version applies?

The 2025 text. SB 153’s changes to KRS 367.620 through 367.628 reach contracts entered into on or after July 15, 2026. The 2025 text did not include the boldface assignment-of-benefits notice, the ban on marketing as a claims or insurance specialist, items 5 and 6 of the list above, or the criminal consequences in KRS 367.628(3).

Does a Kentucky roofer need a state license?

No state roofing license exists. The 2026 bill to create one did not get past committee.

Related pages: roof replacement cost nationally, metal roof pricing, the Kentucky property tax system, closing cost calculator.

© 2025 Zonda Media, a Delaware Corporation. Complete data from the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report can be downloaded free at www.costvsvalue.com.