Is LA Fortified Roofing itself a contractor?

No. This site is a free matching service operated by an independent company, not a roofing contractor, not an IBHS evaluator, and not a participant in any state program. The contractor you are matched with quotes the work, does the work, and carries the license and insurance behind it. We are paid a referral fee that never raises your price.

Do I need the LDI approved list if I am not chasing the grant?

The approved list binds grant-funded work only. Outside the grant, any independent Louisiana-licensed roofer can build to the standard, and the IBHS directories are the natural place to check FORTIFIED experience. That said, presence on the LDI list is still a useful signal, since it means the contractor cleared the program requirements.

What if fewer than three approved contractors serve my parish?

The rules anticipate it: the three-bid requirement can be waived where few approved contractors serve an area, per the LDI homeowner rules document. Do not assume the waiver applies to you; confirm it through the program before proceeding on fewer bids, and keep the confirmation in writing with your grant paperwork.

Can the roofer arrange the evaluator for me?

A roofer can recommend evaluators they have worked alongside, and coordination between the two is normal on site. What the rules forbid is the roles collapsing into one: the contractor cannot evaluate their own project, and the evaluator works for you. Hire the evaluator directly, pay them directly, and the independence that makes the designation credible stays intact.

What belongs in the contract before I sign?

The FORTIFIED features as separate line items, since that paper trail feeds the tax credit and makes bids comparable. The license number on the document itself. Who pulls the permit and where. Who coordinates with the evaluator and when they first visit. And a payment schedule that never puts large cash up front.

Hiring a FORTIFIED roofer without taking anyone's word for it

Every requirement in the FORTIFIED standard, the sealed seams, the ring-shank pattern, the edge metal, gets executed or botched by the crew on your deck. Around Lafayette and Baton Rouge the standard is easy to name-drop and, usefully, easy to verify, because two organizations publish who actually holds the credentials, and the grant program adds checks of its own. This page is the verification routine, plus the questions and the warning signs.

Who certifies what

Three distinct parties touch a FORTIFIED project, and the roles never merge. The contractor builds, and can hold IBHS training credentials for the standard. A certified evaluator, hired by you and independent of the builder, documents the work; under the LDI homeowner rules, a contractor may not evaluate their own project. IBHS itself, the standard's author at fortifiedhome.org, issues the designation from the evaluator's file. And to keep our own role plain: this site is none of the three. We are a matching service that connects you with independent, Louisiana-licensed local roofing contractors, and nothing more.

How to verify a contractor

For grant-funded work, the contractor must appear on the LDI approved-contractor list. Check the list yourself; do not accept a screenshot.
For FORTIFIED experience generally, the IBHS directories at fortifiedhome.org list trained professionals. A contractor who talks the standard but appears in neither place deserves harder questions.
Ask for the Louisiana contractor license number and verify it with the state licensing board rather than reading it off the truck.
Ask for certificates of liability and workers compensation insurance sent directly from the insurer, which is routine for a legitimate operation.
When you call references, ask one narrow question: did the evaluator pass the roof on the first visit? It is a cleaner signal than general satisfaction.

The three-bid rule

Under the grant, the rules require at least three bids from approved contractors, waivable where few approved contractors serve an area, per the LDI rules document above. The grant guide places that step in the full sequence. Outside the grant nothing forces three bids, but the practice earns its keep anyway: identical-scope bids are how you learn which numbers are real, and how a stray line item stands out. Scope them identically, same covering, same deck-repair assumptions, same FORTIFIED line items, or the comparison teaches nothing.

Questions that separate practitioners from name-droppers

How will you re-nail the deck, and with what? The standard calls for 8d ring-shank nails in a defined pattern, per the prescriptive requirements document. A practitioner answers in nails and spacing, not adjectives.
How will you seal the deck seams? Listen for a named method, taped seams or a qualifying sealed alternative, not an assurance that underlayment covers it.
What edge metal, and how attached? The standard sets a 26-gauge minimum for drip edge; the answer should include gauge and fastening.
Who handles the designation paperwork, and which evaluators do you usually see on jobs? The right answer describes coordinating with an evaluator while respecting the rule that no contractor evaluates their own work.
Will the bid line-item the FORTIFIED features separately? Yes is the only good answer: it feeds the tax-credit records and makes your three bids comparable. The cost guide shows what those line items should roughly total.

Red flags, described factually

Door-to-door canvassing immediately after a storm, out-of-area plates, and pressure to sign on the spot. Storm-chasing outfits follow damage across state lines and are gone before workmanship questions surface.
A push to sign a contract or an assignment-of-benefits document before your insurer has inspected the damage.
Large cash deposits, or a payment schedule front-loaded ahead of any work.
Paperwork with no local physical address and no license number printed on it.
A claim that the roofer can certify the roof as FORTIFIED themselves. No contractor can; the designation runs through an independent evaluator and IBHS, full stop.

The pattern has a calendar. This corridor has absorbed a run of landfalls, Laura and Delta in 2020, 13 miles and 43 days apart, per AccuWeather, Ida in 2021, Francine in 2024, and each one pulls a wave of unfamiliar canvassers into the affected parishes while adjusters are still booked solid. None of that makes an out-of-town company dishonest by itself. It means the verification routine above matters most in the weeks after a storm, which is precisely when it tends to get skipped.

Permits are the paper trail

A contractor comfortable being permitted and inspected is itself a datapoint, and the permit becomes part of the documentation your insurer and any future buyer will see. In Lafayette, permits run through the Lafayette Consolidated Government Codes Division, 220 West Willow Street Building B, (337) 291-8461. In Baton Rouge, EBR Permits and Inspections handles them through MyGovernmentOnline, (225) 389-3171. Whether a round of the grant is open changes which list binds your hire, so check the current status:

LFHP status as of 2026-07-19: CLOSED between rounds. Louisiana offers a nonrefundable state income tax credit of 100 percent of qualified out-of-pocket FORTIFIED roof expenses, up to $10,000, for projects completed on or after July 1, 2025. Confirm current program terms at ldi.la.gov/fortifyhomes.

Or start from a match instead of a search

Running this verification routine is exactly the work we front-load. Tell us your parish and situation on the contact page or the form below, and we connect you, free, with an independent, Louisiana-licensed roofing contractor experienced with FORTIFIED work. Then run the questions above on them anyway; a good contractor enjoys answering. How the referral fee works, and why it never touches your price, is documented on the how we make money page.