North Carolina vs South Carolina FORTIFIED Roof Grants

Same standard, different programs

North and South Carolina both reward FORTIFIED roofs, and both rely on the same IBHS standard and the same independent evaluation. But the money comes from different places, under different rules. A homeowner who reads about one state's grant can easily apply the wrong rules to a home in the other.

North Carolina: grants through the Beach Plan

In North Carolina, the wind pool itself runs the grant. NCIUA's Strengthen Your Roof program pays toward a FORTIFIED roof for qualifying homes in its coastal territory — up to $10,000 on the Outer Banks and barrier islands and $6,000 in intercoastal areas. Our North Carolina grants page covers the requirements and the order of steps, and the NC FORTIFIED Roof Program covers eligibility in depth.

South Carolina: grants through the Department of Insurance

In South Carolina, the grant comes from the Department of Insurance, not the wind pool. SC Safe Home offers three award types; the largest, Resilient Mitigation, requires a roof that meets both SC Safe Home's retrofit guidelines and the IBHS FORTIFIED Roof standard. Awards depend on household income: up to $7,500 for households at or below 80% of area median income, and a $6,000 matching grant above that.

South Carolina's grant also has its own eligibility tests — 11 counties, owner-occupied single-family primary homes, adequate insurance and no prior damage — and it opens in short application rounds.

The wind pools work differently too

North Carolina's NCIUA both insures coastal homes and runs the grant. South Carolina's SC Wind Pool (the SC Wind and Hail Underwriting Association) only insures. It lists a 5% credit for SC Safe Home certification, but it has nothing to do with awarding grants, and its territory covers parts of just five counties. Read SC Wind Pool vs SC Safe Home.

What stays the same across the state line

• The IBHS standard. A FORTIFIED Roof is built to the same IBHS requirements in both states.
• The evaluation. In both states, an independent IBHS-certified FORTIFIED evaluator documents the roof during installation and submits it to IBHS. Without that, there is no designation — and no FORTIFIED grant.
• The order of operations. In both states, the grant approval and the evaluator come before the old roof comes off.

Before you rely on any grant number

Confirm four things: your state, the agency that runs the program, the exact program name, and whether a round is open now. Then line up your evaluator early. We place homeowners on both sides of the line with licensed, certified and insured FORTIFIED evaluators — see our North Carolina and South Carolina pages.