For Roofing Contractors: the Evaluator Side of a FORTIFIED Job
We are the independent third party that verifies and documents your installation against the IBHS FORTIFIED standard. We do not install roofs and we are not bidding your work.
Why the evaluator cannot be your crew
FORTIFIED is a voluntary resilience construction standard published by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). It is not a claims service and not a product warranty. The designation is issued by IBHS on the strength of evidence, and the evidence has to come from someone with no stake in the installation — an evaluator who also swung the hammer is not verifying anything.
The 2025 FORTIFIED Home Standard applies to all projects permitted on or after November 1, 2025, and it defines both roles. The standard requires the roof to be installed by a roofer holding current FORTIFIED Wise™ certification through IBHS and listed in the FORTIFIED Provider Directory, and requires the installation to be independently inspected and documented by a certified FORTIFIED evaluator engaged from the start. Miss either role and the roof is not designated, however well it was built. IBHS publishes the current requirements in its 2025 technical documents.
In practice: we cannot verify what we did not see, and the sign-off carries weight with IBHS, the carrier, and your customer because of it.
Where we land in your schedule
A FORTIFIED job is a normal re-roof with documented hold points — the points where the standard's requirements are still visible.
Before tear-off
Engage the evaluator before the first shingle comes off. We confirm the designation level, confirm your FORTIFIED Wise™ certification is current and listed, and agree how the concealed work gets documented.
Deck exposed
Deck attachment and the sealed-deck method have to be verified while they are still visible — once the covering is on, the evidence is gone. Settle at the pre-job call who is on the roof at this stage: your crew photographing to a documentation spec, or us on site before cover.
At completion
Edge details, covering, and vents get checked against the standard, along with product documentation for what you installed. Anything that misses a requirement comes back as a specific correction list, not a verdict.
After you demobilize
We submit the evaluation to IBHS, which reviews it and issues the designation certificate to the homeowner. The designation runs five years and renews with a re-inspection — a separate, later evaluation your crew does not have to stay for.
What the roof actually has to have
At the entry FORTIFIED Roof™ level the requirements cluster around three things — ordinary work done to a tighter spec, not exotic materials.
A sealed roof deck
The deck has to keep water out on its own if the covering is stripped, using one of the sealing methods the standard accepts. It decides what happens inside the house when a covering fails.
Ring-shank nail attachment
Deck attachment is with ring-shank nails on the pattern the standard specifies — not smooth-shank, not staples, not the code minimum. The 2025 update brought inland work in line with the coastal pattern, so the same schedule now applies across the board.
Locked-down edges, rated covering, tested vents
The perimeter is where wind gets its purchase, so the standard calls for wider drip edge and fully adhered starter details rather than the covering manufacturer's minimum. The covering has to carry the ratings the standard requires, and roof-mounted vents have to be tested against wind-driven rain.
For the standard laid out end to end rather than summarized, our founder Mark Goins wrote What Is a FORTIFIED Roof? The IBHS Standard Explained for National Roofing Directory, a roofing trade reference. The requirements underneath it are IBHS's, and IBHS publishes them directly.
Who produces what
You produce
- The installation itself, built to the standard
- Current FORTIFIED Wise™ certification, listed in the FORTIFIED Provider Directory
- Product documentation for the covering, sealing materials, edge metal, fasteners, and vents
- Field documentation of concealed work, taken to spec before it is covered
- Your installer paperwork and the final invoice your customer needs for grant disbursement
We produce
- Independent verification of concealed and finished work against the standard
- The evaluation record and its submission to IBHS
- An itemized correction list when something misses a requirement
- The re-designation evaluation when the five years are up
The question your customer will ask you
Homeowners ask the roofer what a FORTIFIED roof does to their insurance bill, and the roofer is the worst-placed person to answer. The mechanism is safe to explain: carriers file their rates and their wind mitigation credit structures with the state, and where a credit applies it applies to the wind and hail portion of the premium, not the whole bill. The trigger is the IBHS designation certificate — the homeowner hands it to their agent and asks for the credit, and the amount turns on territory, policy form, construction type, and designation level.
What none of that gives you is a number, so do not quote one. Tell the homeowner to ask their agent for a premium illustration with and without the designation, in writing — that is an insurance conversation, not a roofing one. Our insurance page points at the NC Department of Insurance and NCIUA source documents, and the grants page covers the current programs.
Working with NC Fortified
NC Fortified LLC is a veteran-owned FORTIFIED evaluation practice founded in 2021. Mark Goins, founder and Managing Director, is a Certified FORTIFIED Evaluator and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran; Kerri Palmer, M.Ed. runs administrative operations as Business Systems Coordinator. We work with IBHS and the North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association, and the Better Business Bureau accredits the company with an A+ rating.
We cover the entire Outer Banks, Crystal Coast, and southern barrier islands from Corolla to Sunset Beach, plus inland coastal communities from Edenton, Washington, and New Bern to Jacksonville, Swansboro, and Leland. Our listing on National Roofing Directory carries the same details.
Have a FORTIFIED job on the board?
Get the evaluator lined up before tear-off.