How Do You Price A Roofing Job?

For roofers who want a number they can stand behind before they leave the driveway.

Updated July 26, 2026 · Written for Canadian trades

The Short Answer

Price a roofing job by measuring the roof in squares, then costing shingles, underlay, flashing, disposal and labour for each square. Add access and pitch difficulty, then your overhead and margin. Quote the total, not an hourly rate.

General Information, Not Advice

Every rate in the worked example is illustrative, not a quote or a market price. Material and labour costs vary by supplier, city and season, and the sales tax that applies depends on your province — an Alberta job is GST only, other provinces are not. Price from your own supplier and crew numbers, and confirm your tax and permit obligations for the jurisdiction you're working in.

Measure The Roof First

Roofing is priced by the square — 100 square feet of roof surface. Take the footprint, apply the pitch multiplier, then add waste for hips, valleys and starter courses. Every number after this one depends on getting the square count right.

Walk the roof or measure it from aerial imagery, then confirm the layer count. A tear-off of two layers is a different job from a tear-off of one, and it is the single biggest surprise on a roofing invoice.

Squares of roof surface, after the pitch multiplier
Number of existing layers coming off
Linear feet of ridge, hip, valley and eave
Penetrations: stacks, vents, skylights, chimneys
Access: driveway, drop zone, and where the bin goes

Add Waste Before You Cost Anything

Waste is not padding, it is material you will physically cut off and throw in the bin. A simple gable roof with long uninterrupted runs wastes very little. A cut-up hip roof with four valleys, three dormers and a chimney wastes a great deal, because every valley means cutting shingles on an angle and every cut leaves an offcut.

Most roofers carry a standard allowance for a simple roof and a higher one for complex work, then adjust for starter and ridge cap separately. Whatever your numbers are, apply them consistently and write them into your pricebook. The roofer who guesses waste per job is the roofer whose margin moves for no reason he can name.

Simple gable, long runs — lowest waste
Hip roofs — more waste, every course meets a diagonal
Valleys, dormers and skylights — the biggest driver of offcuts
Steep pitch — slower production as well as more surface area

The Costs Roofers Forget

Material and labour are the easy part because you can see them. The money leaks out of the line items people leave off the quote and then absorb.

Disposal is the classic one. Old shingles are heavy, bin rental and tipping fees are real, and a two-layer tear-off can double it. After that: permits where your municipality requires them, plywood replacement you cannot see until the old roof is off, steep-assist or staging on a roof your crew cannot walk, and the cost of getting material onto the roof at all if a boom truck cannot reach.

Plywood is worth special attention because it is the classic mid-job surprise. Put a unit price for sheathing replacement on the quote up front, with a stated allowance. Then the conversation on tear-off day is a signature on a change order rather than an argument about who is paying — that is the single cheapest thing you can do to protect a roofing job's margin.

Tear-off, bin rental and tipping fees, scaled by layer count
Plywood or sheathing replacement, priced per sheet on the quote
Permits, where required
Steep-assist, staging or a boom truck for access
Cleanup, magnet sweep and haul-away

A Worked Example

Here is the method carried through on a 1,800 square foot two-storey with a single layer coming off. Every rate below is illustrative — they are the numbers from the sample quote elsewhere on this site, not a claim about what roofing costs in your market. Substitute your own supplier pricing and your own crew rate; the structure is the part to copy.

Tear-off and disposal of one layer at $1.15 a square foot comes to $2,070. Four sheets of half-inch plywood at $68 is $272. Ice and water shield over 400 square feet at $1.35 is $540. Architectural shingles across the full 1,800 square feet at $4.75 is $8,550. Crew labour of 24 hours at $95 is $2,280. Cleanup and haul-away, $275.

That totals $13,987 before tax. On an Alberta job you would add GST on the marked-up price — not on your cost — and ask for a deposit against it. The important discipline is that overhead and margin are already inside those rates or added as a stated percentage on top, never buried in the labour line.

Tear-off & disposal, 1 layer — 1,800 sq ft × $1.15 = $2,070
Plywood sheathing ½″ — 4 sheets × $68 = $272
Ice & water shield — 400 sq ft × $1.35 = $540
Architectural shingles — 1,800 sq ft × $4.75 = $8,550
Roofing labour, crew — 24 hrs × $95 = $2,280
Cleanup & haul-away — $275
Subtotal — $13,987, before tax and before any deposit

Overhead And Margin — And Why Markup Isn't Margin

Overhead and margin go on top of your costed total as a percentage, not folded into your labour rate. Hiding them inside labour means that the first time you sharpen a quote to win a job, you give away margin without seeing it happen.

This is also where the most expensive arithmetic mistake in the trades lives. Markup and margin are not the same number. A 30% markup on cost is a 23.08% margin on price — you are keeping about $23 of every $100 you bill, not $30. Quote enough jobs on that confusion and you will be busy all season and short at the end of it. The quote margin calculator on this site shows both numbers side by side for whatever figures you put in.

Decide what margin the job has to earn, then work backwards to the markup that produces it. Not the other way around.

Quote A Total, With The Exclusions Written Down

Give the homeowner one number for the finished job, then list what is not in it — deck repair beyond a stated allowance, structural work, and anything hidden under the old roof. Write the unit price for extra sheathing on the quote so the conversation on tear-off day is a signature, not an argument.

Homeowners compare totals, so present a total. Your estimating still has to run on units underneath, because that is the only way you will know afterwards whether the job actually made what you thought it made.

Follow-Ups

What People Ask Next

How Many Squares Is An Average House Roof?+

Most detached houses land somewhere between 20 and 35 squares of roof surface once pitch and waste are counted. Measure it — the footprint of the house is never the area of the roof, and a steeper pitch means more surface over the same footprint.

Should A Roofing Quote Be Priced Per Square Or As A Total?+

Build it per square so your costing is honest, then present it as one total for the finished job. Homeowners compare totals; your estimating has to run on units. If you only ever record the total, you can never work out which jobs actually made money.

What Should A Roofing Quote Exclude?+

Anything you cannot see until the old roof is off: rotten sheathing beyond your stated allowance, structural repair, and chimney or masonry work. Name them and put a unit price beside each, so the extra becomes a signed change order rather than a dispute.

How Do You Handle Plywood Replacement Found Mid-Job?+

Price it on the original quote — a per-sheet rate plus a stated allowance — then write a change order for anything beyond the allowance before the sheets go on. Agreeing the rate while the customer is still choosing you is far easier than agreeing it while your crew is standing on an open deck.

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