Awards & Recognition | WeatherShield Roofing Myrtle Beach

GAF is the largest roofing manufacturer in North America, and GAF Certified Plus™ is the tier they reserve for contractors who have been vetted, trained, and held to an ongoing performance standard. It is not a sticker you buy. It is a credential GAF grants only after verifying licensing, insurance, installation track record, and completion of factory training — and they review it annually. Across the full GAF contractor universe, only roughly the top 3% carry Certified Plus™ or higher credentials. Weather Shield Roofing LLC is one of them for the Myrtle Beach / Horry County market.

The qualification threshold is deliberately strict. GAF requires contractors to: hold active state licensing, maintain general liability insurance and workers’ compensation, complete GAF Master Select Training, and pass GAF’s internal background checks. Annual recertification is not a formality — if a contractor lets insurance lapse, lets training expire, or accrues negative customer complaints, GAF revokes the tier. That’s why the list changes every year, and why checking a roofer’s current tier on the GAF site (not a screenshot in their ad) matters.

For homeowners, the practical benefit is enhanced warranty access. GAF Certified Plus™ contractors can register their installations under the GAF System Plus Limited Warranty, which extends material coverage well beyond the standard shingle-only manufacturer warranty and adds workmanship coverage for a specified period. Non-certified contractors can install the same GAF shingles — but they cannot register the enhanced warranty, because GAF will not accept system warranties from installers they have not trained and vetted. In practice, this means the difference between a 10-year material-only warranty and a decades-long workmanship-and-materials system warranty often comes down to whether the installer is GAF Certified Plus™ or higher.

We list our live GAF profile on our GAF Certified Contractor page and on our certifications page. You can also verify WeatherShield directly in the GAF contractor directory at gaf.com. The GAF Master Elite tier sits one level above Certified Plus™ and is held by roughly 2% of US roofers — you can confirm any GAF contractor’s current tier directly at gaf.com using the contractor search link above.

Weather Shield Roofing LLC was named Best of BusinessRate 2025 in the Roofing Contractor category. BusinessRate is a local business recognition program that evaluates contractors on verified customer reviews, complaint resolution records, licensing status, and insurance documentation. Unlike pay-to-play “best of” lists, the BusinessRate methodology is driven by verifiable third-party inputs, not editorial opinion.

The Best of BusinessRate 2025 badge appears on our website footer and on the printed invoices and estimates we hand to homeowners during consultations. It is recognition specific to the Myrtle Beach / Grand Strand market for the 2025 award cycle. Being named ahead of better-known regional competitors — in a year when the Grand Strand saw significant storm-driven roofing demand after Debby — was a meaningful moment for a young company that only opened its doors in 2022.

Beyond the headline awards, there is a floor of industry standards every legitimate roofer should clear. We list ours here so homeowners can check each one individually — and so you can ask any other contractor the same questions before you sign a contract.

• GAF Certified Plus™ (active). Our current GAF tier is Certified Plus™, which covers the System Plus warranty. The next tier up, GAF Master Elite (held by roughly 2% of US roofers), unlocks the Golden Pledge warranty — you can confirm any contractor’s current GAF tier directly on GAF’s contractor search.
• SC Contractors’ Licensing Board — Licensed. Our license is issued by the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation and can be verified at LLR.SC.GOV. We provide the license number on any estimate; don’t hire a roofer who won’t put it in writing.
• Fully Insured. We carry general liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage for every crew member. Certificates of Insurance are available on request before a project begins. Every subcontractor we engage is required to carry their own workers’ comp before stepping on your property — without that, a worker injured on your roof could file a claim against your homeowner’s policy.
• OSHA-Compliant Safety Program. Our crews are trained on OSHA fall-protection standards (29 CFR 1926 Subpart M), use tied-off harness systems on all steep-slope work, and follow documented jobsite housekeeping protocols. Safety is tracked on every project.
• IBHS FORTIFIED Awareness. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety runs the FORTIFIED Roof program, a coastal-specific upgrade standard proven to reduce hurricane claim severity. We install to FORTIFIED specifications where homeowners request it — SC Safe Home grant funding is available for qualifying projects.
• Horry County Permitting Compliance. Every roof replacement we complete is pulled as a permit through the appropriate Horry County or municipal building department, inspected, and signed off before we consider a job complete. Unpermitted roofing work can void homeowner insurance and create resale issues — we don’t cut that corner.

The full credentials list with benefit details is on our certifications page. For warranty specifics, see the roof warranty guide and our written guarantees.