About the Organization
An independent standards body for U.S. roofing.
The American Roofing Contractors Organization exists to answer one question with evidence: does this roofing contractor meet a published, verifiable standard? ARCO maintains that standard, evaluates contractors against it using public records, and publishes every finding in an open registry, so that a firm's standing can be confirmed from the record rather than from the firm's own claims.
- Structure
- Independent accreditation body
- Governing Document
- ARCO Standard 2026.1
- Coverage
- All 50 states
- Review Cycle
- Annual · 12-month standing
The Mandate
Roofing is among the most consequential purchases a homeowner cannot independently evaluate.
Roughly one hundred thousand roofing contractors operate across the United States. Licensing requirements differ substantially from state to state, and several states impose no contractor licensing requirement at all. Online reviews can be purchased, filtered, or selectively displayed. References are selected by the contractor who provides them. Insurance certificates lapse without public notice.
The result is an information gap on a purchase that routinely runs five figures and protects everything underneath it. A homeowner comparing two bids has had no unified, independent way to confirm that either firm is licensed, in good standing, operationally stable, and free of disqualifying public findings.
ARCO was organized to close that gap. One published standard. Applied the same way to every firm. Scored from public records. Published in an open registry anyone can check in seconds.
A standard is only as trustworthy as the boundaries around it — what it measures, who can influence it, and what it refuses to do.
The Work
A deliberately narrow charter.
The organization performs four functions. Limiting the charter to these four preserves the independence, consistency, and meaning of every finding it publishes.
I.
Maintain the published standard
ARCO Standard 2026.1 defines the five weighted evaluation categories, the composite scoring formula, the automatic disqualifiers, and the re-review procedures. It is versioned, dated, and published in full — every finding can be traced to the exact criteria in force when it was made.
II.
Evaluate from public records
Evaluations draw on state licensing registries, Secretary of State filings, OSHA establishment data, complaint and public findings, and verified customer outcome data. ARCO does not accept applications, self-attestations, or payments at the evaluation stage.
III.
Publish the verification registry
Every evaluated contractor receives one public verification record, retrievable by firm name or ARCO ID. The registry currently holds 18,594 verification records spanning all 50 states, and records are updated only through committee review.
IV.
Re-review on a 12-month cycle
Accredited standing is never permanent. Underlying records are refreshed continuously, and every accredited firm is re-evaluated against the current standard on an annual cycle. A contractor that no longer clears the threshold loses active standing.
The Governing Document
ARCO Standard 2026.1
- Version
- 2026.1
- Effective
- January 1, 2026
- Length
- 47 pages · 18 sections
- Categories defined
- 5 weighted
- Disqualification criteria
- 4 automatic
- Composite threshold
- 8.5 / 10
- Reviewed by
- ARCO Standards Committee
Every accredited contractor is evaluated under the same published standard. The composite is a weighted average across five categories of operational and professional conduct, reconciled against public-record sources and stored for periodic re-review.
- 01 Licensing & Compliance Right-to-transact status and contractor license records against state requirements
- 02 Operational History & Stability Operating tenure, principal continuity, establishment stability
- 03 State Filing & Standing Entity identifier, registered agent, filing year, official standing
- 04 Customer Outcome Data Marketplace ratings, verified review volume, third-party consumer signals
- 05 Complaint & Public Findings OSHA history, regulatory actions, complaint exclusions, 36-month history
Accreditation is withheld automatically if any disqualifying condition applies — regardless of composite score. Automatic disqualifiers include active federal exclusion on the entity or its principals, willful or repeated serious safety violations, a failing third-party rating at the time of evaluation, or an aggregate customer rating below threshold across a qualifying review volume. No officer of ARCO may waive a disqualifier.
Independence
Structural independence: why accreditation cannot be bought.
The credibility of any accreditation depends on whether revenue can influence findings. ARCO's evaluation architecture is designed so that it cannot — as a matter of structure, not policy.
Records first. Then a finding.
Every evaluation is completed from public-record and third-party data before a contractor is ever contacted. There is no application to file, no self-reported questionnaire, and no payment of any kind accepted at the evaluation stage.
Fees never touch the score.
A fee cannot raise a composite score, remove a disqualifier, restore lost standing, or accelerate a finding. Scoring is computed under the published formula in Standard 2026.1 and reviewed by committee; payment has no role at any stage of that process.
Disqualifiers have no override.
The four automatic disqualifiers in Standard 2026.1 are absolute. No member of staff, no committee member, and no officer of the organization — including the Executive Director — holds authority to waive one.
One standard, versioned and public.
Because the standard is published, dated, and versioned, any finding in the registry can be audited against the exact criteria in force when it was made. Changes to the standard take effect only at a published version boundary.
How ARCO is funded — and what funding cannot influence.
ARCO has one revenue source: a flat annual activation fee, paid by accredited contractors who choose to activate the public display of an accreditation after the finding has already been made. Activation cannot be requested or purchased in advance — it is offered only to firms whose completed evaluation has cleared Standard 2026.1. The fee is identical for every firm. There are no tiers, no premium placements, and no negotiated rates.
The activation fee maintains
- The firm's live verification record — the public record retrieved when a homeowner or insurer verifies the firm during contractor selection
- Licensed use of the ARCO accreditation mark on proposals, estimates, vehicles, and the firm's own site
- Active accredited standing, re-confirmed at every annual review
- Instant verification by name or ARCO ID for any homeowner or insurer who looks the firm up
No fee, at any amount, can
- Initiate or purchase an evaluation — ARCO accepts no applications
- Raise a composite score or remove an automatic disqualifier
- Restore standing a firm has lost, or accelerate a committee finding
- Buy ranking, placement, leads, or advertising — ARCO sells none of these
Activation determines whether a finding is displayed as active; it has no effect on the finding itself.
Plain Terms
What ARCO is — and what it is not.
The boundaries of the organization's role, stated in plain terms:
What ARCO Does
- Evaluates contractors against the published ARCO Standard 2026.1 using public-record sources
- Verifies licensing, safety history, business standing, and customer-outcome data across 30+ public-record sources
- Publishes a public verification record retrievable by name or ARCO ID for every accredited contractor
- Re-reviews accredited contractors annually to confirm continued standing
- Withholds or revokes accreditation when the standard is no longer met
What ARCO Does Not Do
- ARCO is not a government agency and does not issue, replace, or enforce state licenses
- Accreditation is not a warranty, guarantee, or prediction of future work quality
- ARCO does not sell leads, advertising, or rankings — and does not allow contractors to edit, curate, or pay to alter their evaluation
- ARCO does not accept applications: contractors cannot ask to be evaluated, and payment is never a condition of evaluation
- ARCO does not certify individual projects, crews, or installations; accreditation reflects the firm, not a specific job
Governance
Who is accountable for the standard.
Authority inside ARCO is deliberately divided, so that no single person controls both the standard and its application.
Standards Committee
Maintains the standard itself
The ARCO Standards Committee owns Standard 2026.1: its categories, weights, disqualifiers, scoring formula, and effective dates. Revisions are adopted only at published version boundaries — never mid-cycle, never per-contractor.
Standing Review · Bylaws §4.2
Reviews findings and re-evaluations
Committee findings — initial accreditations, annual re-reviews, and revocations — proceed under Bylaws Section 4.2, which governs standing review. Registry records are updated only through this committee process.
Office of the Executive Director
Administers operations — not findings
The Executive Director's office is responsible for operations, the public registry, and communications of the organization. By design, the office holds no authority to alter a composite score, waive a disqualifier, or modify a committee finding.
Evidence Base
Where the records come from.
Every score in the registry traces back to sources a contractor cannot curate. Evaluations draw on more than thirty public-record and third-party categories, including:
Public records can contain errors, and the methodology accounts for this: sources are cross-reconciled, recency-weighted, and refreshed continuously. Any contractor may request a correction review of factual errors in the underlying record. Correction review addresses the accuracy of the record; it is not a mechanism for revisiting a finding.
- State contractor licensing registries
- Secretaries of State — entity filings
- OSHA establishment & violation data
- Federal exclusion records (SAM.gov)
- Better Business Bureau records
- State consumer-protection actions
- Court & public complaint findings
- Verified customer review aggregates
- Insurance & bonding verification
- Manufacturer credential rosters
The Registry Today
Scope of the current cycle.
18,594
U.S. roofing contractor verification records on file
50
States covered through state licensing & filing sources
12 mo
Re-review cycle — accreditation is never permanent
8.5 /10
Composite threshold required under Standard 2026.1
Verification
Every statement on this page can be checked against the registry.
The registry is the organization's primary public instrument. Any contractor may be looked up by name or ARCO ID; the record returned shows the finding, the composite score, and the date of last review — the same record for every party who retrieves it.
Contact the Organization
American Roofing Contractors Organization
Washington, DC 20009
General & media inquiries: [email protected]
Contractors with an ARCO reference ID can confirm their evaluation status and review activation instructions through the status lookup.