How to Price a Roofing Job

Pricing a roofing job wrong hurts twice. Bid too high and you lose the work. Bid too low and you win the job but bleed cash on every square. The goal is a repeatable process that covers your real costs, protects your margin, and still lets you compete. Here is how to build a roofing price from the ground up, with a worked example you can copy on your next estimate.

Step 1: Measure the roof and nail down the scope

Everything downstream depends on accurate measurements. Roofing is priced in squares, where one square equals 100 square feet. Get the total roof area, then add for waste based on the roof shape. A simple gable might need 10 percent waste, while a cut-up hip roof with valleys can run 15 to 18 percent.

Before you price anything, lock down the scope in writing. Tear-off or overlay? How many existing layers? What underlayment, drip edge, ridge vent, and flashing? Are there skylights, chimneys, or satellite mounts? A vague scope is where change orders and arguments start.

Step 2: Price your materials

Build a materials list off the measured squares plus waste. For a standard asphalt shingle job, that typically includes shingles, starter strip, ridge cap, underlayment, ice and water shield, drip edge, valley flashing, pipe boots, nails, and dumpster or disposal fees.

Use your current supplier pricing, not last season's. Shingle and OSB prices move. Call for a live quote on bigger jobs. Always price the full material stack, because the small items add up fast and are the easiest to forget.

• Shingles and cap by the square, including waste
• Underlayment and ice and water shield
• Drip edge, flashing, valley metal, and pipe boots
• Ventilation: ridge vent, box vents, or exhaust
• Fasteners, sealant, and small hardware
• Disposal: dumpster rental and dump fees

Step 3: Calculate labor honestly

Labor is where most roofers lose money, because they price the crew's hourly wage without loading it. Your true labor cost includes wages plus payroll taxes, workers comp, and any insurance you carry on the crew. Workers comp on roofers is high, so a crew that earns 25 dollars an hour can cost you 35 to 40 dollars an hour fully loaded.

Estimate labor by the square, then adjust for the specific roof. A production crew might install 10 to 15 squares a day on an easy walkable roof. That same crew might do half that on a steep, multi-story, cut-up roof with a heavy tear-off.

Factors that push labor up

• Steep pitch requiring roof jacks or harnesses
• Multiple tear-off layers
• Two or three story height and limited access
• Complex roof with many valleys, hips, and dormers
• Detailed flashing around chimneys and skylights

Step 4: Add overhead and profit

Overhead is everything it costs to run the business whether or not this job exists: your truck payments, fuel, general liability insurance, office and software, phone, advertising, and your own salary. If you do not fold overhead into pricing, the profit you think you are making is really just paying your overhead in the background.

A common approach: total your annual overhead, divide by your expected annual revenue, and get an overhead percentage. Many small roofing outfits land somewhere in the 10 to 20 percent range. Add that on top of job costs.

Then apply profit. Profit is what is left after every cost, including overhead, is covered. This is your reward for the risk and the reason to stay in business. Apply it as a markup on your loaded cost, not a wishful discount off a random number.

Step 5: Worked example on a real roof

Say you are bidding a 25 square asphalt tear-off on a moderate gable roof, one layer, walkable pitch.

1. Materials: 25 squares plus 12 percent waste. Assume 375 dollars per square installed material stack including disposal. 25 x 375 = 9,375 dollars.
2. Labor: crew installs roughly 12 squares a day, so about 2 days. Fully loaded crew cost around 2,400 dollars for the job.
3. Job cost so far: 9,375 + 2,400 = 11,775 dollars.
4. Overhead at 15 percent: 11,775 x 0.15 = 1,766 dollars. Loaded cost = 13,541 dollars.
5. Target profit margin of 20 percent: divide loaded cost by 0.80. 13,541 / 0.80 = 16,926 dollars.
6. Round the bid to 16,950 dollars.

That price covers your materials, real loaded labor, the cost of running the company, and leaves a genuine 20 percent profit. If a competitor is at 13,000 dollars, either they measured differently, they skipped overhead, or they are about to lose money. Do not chase a broken number.

Step 6: Avoid these common pricing mistakes

• Pricing labor at raw wage without workers comp and payroll load
• Forgetting waste, disposal, and small hardware in materials
• Treating overhead as invisible instead of a line in the math
• Confusing markup with margin and undershooting profit
• Copying a competitor's price without knowing their scope or costs
• Not building in a contingency for surprise decking or rot

Turn your numbers into a quote that closes

A clean, itemized estimate builds trust and closes faster than a scribbled number on the back of a card. Show the scope, the materials, and the terms clearly so the homeowner understands what they are paying for.

Price with a real process, document your scope, and defend your margin. Do that consistently and you win the right jobs at the right numbers instead of the cheapest ones.