Roof replacement cost range

Roof size, without waste

Don’t know your squares? The roof squares calculator works it out from the footprint of the house and the pitch of the roof. It shows you two figures: take the one headed Squares, not the one headed With 10% waste. The waste figure is what a roofer orders against, and typing it here would charge you for the waste twice — once in the area and again inside the published per-square price.

Shingle grade

Layers to tear off

How steep is it?

Cut-up roof

Several valleys, dormers, skylights or chimneys. More cutting, more flashing, more time — we add 25%, the middle of the 20–30% the trade guidance quotes.

Planning range — not a quote

15 squares of roof, architectural asphalt (most common)

$8,250 – $23,250

The low and the high of what the published guides support for a roof like this. No waste allowance is added: it is already inside the per-square prices.

Per square, low

$550

Installed, including tear-off and the adjustments below

Per square, high

$1,550

Installed, including tear-off and the adjustments below

There is deliberately no single number here. The top of the range is roughly two and a half to three times the bottom, and the midpoint of a range that wide is not a most-likely price — it is just arithmetic on two other people’s numbers, which is why it is not computed anywhere. A bid anywhere inside this range is plausible; a bid well outside it is worth a question.

What moved the range

Adjustments applied to the published per-square range
Adjustment	Effect
Tear off 1 existing layer Inch Calculator: "an additional $100–$150 per square to have the existing shingles removed". Roof Observations (updated 3 Jan 2026) gives $1–$3 a square foot for removal and disposal, i.e. $100–$300 a square, so the low end is agreed and the high end is theirs. Applied per layer, which probably overstates a second layer a little: some guides put the second layer at $50–$100 a square rather than a repeat of the first	+$100 – $300 a square

Tear-off is a flat cost a square, from the published guides, added to both ends of the range — it is roughly the same labour whatever shingle goes back on top, which is why any figure that charges it as a percentage of the shingle price understates it, and understates it most on the cheapest roof. The pitch and complexity figures are percentages of the whole job, added together and applied to both ends, so they widen the range without pretending to narrow the uncertainty. Those two are our judgement, derived from published labour premiums rather than published themselves, and each is labelled with where it comes from.

Where these numbers come from

Inch Calculator: architectural shingles $450–$1,250 per square installed, before removal. That page is titled "2026 Average Prices" but bylined "Updated Jul 18, 2023", so it is 2023 pricing. Roof Observations (updated 3 Jan 2026) puts architectural at $615 a square including tear-off, inside this band. Manufacturers announced 4–8% increases effective March–April 2026, so the bottom of this band is probably already stale

Tear-off: Inch Calculator states its per-square prices are before removal and gives the adder separately — “an additional $100–$150 per square to have the existing shingles removed”. Jack Gray’s Roof Observations (updated 3 January 2026) puts removal and disposal at $1–$3 a square foot, which is $100–$300 a square. We use $100 at the bottom, where both agree, and $300 at the top, which is theirs.

This is a planning range from published cost guides, not a quote. Only a contractor who has been on your roof can give you a price.
Type in the roof area WITHOUT a waste allowance. These per-square prices are per square of roof, and a contractor's waste is already inside their unit price — adding 10% here charges you for it twice.
The published guides disagree with each other by a factor of three on the cost per square, mostly because of roof size, shingle grade and region. Several are content-marketing sites rather than industry data.
The per-square prices are 2023 figures on a page titled 2026: Inch Calculator's guide is bylined "Updated Jul 18, 2023". GAF, CertainTeed, Atlas, Owens Corning and Tamko all announced 4–8% increases on residential roofing effective March and April 2026, so the bottom of each band is probably already stale.
Tear-off is added as a flat $100 to $300 a square per layer, from the sources, not as a percentage. What it does not cover is what is found underneath: rotten decking, a failed chimney flashing or a structural repair are all extra, and no calculator can see them from here.
The adjustments for pitch and complexity are our judgement, derived from published labour premiums rather than published themselves.
Get three local bids. Use this range to tell whether a bid is in the right postcode, not to argue a contractor down to the bottom of it.

Keep this one

The numbers above are free, now and always, on a tier that takes no card. Paying keeps more jobs live, puts your logo on the estimate, and drops the “Made with RoofParrot” line from the PDF you send.

See the plans — from $42 a seat a month I have a key

The formula

low per square = grade low + $100 per tear-off layer high per square = grade high + $300 per tear-off layer factor = 1 + 0.10 if 8/12 to 10/12 + 0.20 if 11/12 or steeper + 0.25 if cut up low = squares × low per square × factor high = squares × high per square × factor

Squares means roof area, with no waste in it. Published per-square prices are prices per square of roof surface; a contractor’s waste allowance is already inside their unit price. If you came from the roof squares calculator, use the figure headed Squares rather than the one headed With 10% waste — the second is what a roofer orders material against, and typing it here would inflate every figure on this page by that 10%.

The sources behind every figure, and where they disagree

The per-square range comes from published cost guides, not from us. Architectural shingles are quoted at $450 to $1,250 a square installed and three-tab at $425 to $825, both before removal, by Inch Calculator — a page titled “2026 Average Prices” whose own byline reads “Updated Jul 18, 2023”, so treat it as 2023 pricing. Jack Gray’s Roof Observations, last updated 3 January 2026, gives national averages of $560 a square for three-tab and $615 for architectural including tear-off, both inside those bands. That spread is the honest width of the evidence: the guides disagree with one another by roughly a factor of three, mostly because of assumed roof size, shingle grade and region, and several of them are content-marketing sites rather than industry data. GAF, CertainTeed, Atlas, Owens Corning and Tamko all announced 4–8% increases on residential roofing effective March and April 2026, so the bottom of each band is probably already stale.

Tear-off is a flat cost a square, not a percentage. Inch Calculator says its per-square prices exclude removal and gives the adder outright: “expect to pay an additional $100–$150 per square to have the existing shingles removed”. Roof Observations puts removal and disposal at $1 to $3 a square foot, which is $100 to $300 a square. We add $100 a square per layer at the low end, where both sources agree, and $300 at the high end, which is the steeper of the two, and we keep the disagreement on the page rather than averaging it away. Stripping a square of old shingles and skipping it costs roughly the same labour whatever is going back on top, which is why you should be suspicious of any figure that charges tear-off as a percentage of the shingle price: it comes out lowest on the cheapest roof, where the homeowner can least afford the surprise.

The pitch and complexity figures are our judgement, and are labelled that way wherever they appear. They are derived rather than invented: published steep premiums run 15–25% on labour for an 8/12 to 10/12 roof and 30–50% at 12/12 and above, and labour is roughly half an asphalt re-roof, so those reach the total at about 8–13% and 15–25% — we use 10% and 20%. A cut-up roof is quoted at 20–30% in the trade guidance, and Roof Observations says a very complex roof can add up to 50% and that cut-up areas take twice as long per square, so we use 25%. A 7/12 and a 16/12 are not the same job, so they are not charged the same premium here. The multipliers are added together and applied to both ends of the range, which widens the figures without pretending to narrow the uncertainty.

Premium asphalt is the weakest row in the table and the top of it has no direct source. The $525 bottom is RoofCalc.org; Roof Observations puts luxury asphalt at $765 a square. No guide we checked publishes a premium-asphalt ceiling — Inch Calculator has no premium asphalt category at all, and its $800 to $1,430 band is cedar shake, a different material — so the top of that row carries the architectural top of $1,250 and is marked as an extrapolation on the result.

The range is the answer, and there is deliberately no single number to remember instead of it. Averaging a low and a high that differ by a factor of three produces a figure that looks like a prediction, is not one, and is exactly what would get quoted back to a roofer as though it were a price. Two ends you can hold a bid against are worth more to you than one number that is wrong.

Worked example: a 15-square architectural roof

Roof size: 15 squares of roof (no waste added)
Grade: Architectural asphalt
Tear-off: 1 existing layer
Pitch: Under 8/12 — walkable
Cut up: No

The roof area. 15 squares of roof surface, with no waste allowance in it. The roof squares calculator's "Squares" figure is this number; its "With 10% waste" figure is not, and using that one would make every figure below 10% too big.
The published range. Architectural shingles are quoted at $450 to $1,250 a square installed, before removal (Inch Calculator; page titled 2026, bylined "Updated Jul 18, 2023").
Tear-off, as a flat cost a square. One layer adds $100 a square at the low end — Inch Calculator's own figure for removal is $100 to $150 — and $300 at the high end, the top of Roof Observations' $1 to $3 a square foot for removal and disposal.
Low per square. $450 + $100 = $550.
High per square. $1,250 + $300 = $1,550.
Factor. Walkable pitch and not cut up, so 1 + 0 + 0 = 1.00.
Low end. 15 × $550 × 1.00 = $8,250.
High end. 15 × $1,550 × 1.00 = $23,250.
No midpoint. The average of the two figures is about $15,750, and that number is not shown anywhere on the page, nor computed anywhere in the code. It is arithmetic on a range the sources disagree about, not a most-likely price. What you do with the range is hold the bid in your hand against the two ends of it.

$8,250 to $23,250 for a 15-square architectural roof with one layer stripped. A bid inside that range is plausible; a bid well outside it is worth asking about.

Figures from Inch Calculator — cost to replace a roof (titled 2026, bylined Jul 2023); Jack Gray's Roof Observations — asphalt shingle roof cost guide (updated 3 Jan 2026); RoofCalc.org — best roof shingles, premium band (Oct 2023); Universal Supply — March 2026 manufacturer price increases.

Questions

My quote is above the high end. Am I being overcharged?

Not necessarily, and the way to find out is a breakdown rather than an accusation. Structural repairs to the deck, a chimney reflash, several skylights, difficult access, a slate or tile roof, or simply a region the guides under-represent can all put a legitimate price above this range. The guides behind the bands are 2023 pages in places, and five manufacturers raised residential roofing prices 4 to 8 per cent in March and April 2026. Ask what the number covers line by line, get two more bids, and compare the same lines across all three.

Should I just take the cheapest bid?

Get three local bids and read them, rather than sorting them by price. What differs between a cheap bid and a fair one is usually the underlayment, whether ice-and-water membrane goes in at the eaves and valleys, the flashing, the nailing pattern, the warranty and whether the firm is insured. Use this range to see whether all three are in the right territory — not to argue the best of them down to the bottom of it.

What is a square, and how do I find out how many I have?

A square is 100 square feet of roof surface — the unit roofers order and price in. It is not your floor area: the roof is sloped, so it is larger than the ground it covers, and most houses come to 15 to 20 squares. The roof squares calculator on this site works it out from the footprint of the house and the pitch of the roof, and it gives you two numbers. Type in the one headed "Squares". Do not type in the one headed "With 10% waste": that is what a roofer orders material against, the per-square prices here already have a contractor's waste inside them, and using the waste figure inflates everything on this page by about 10%.

Does this include tearing off the old roof and taking it away?

Yes, as a flat cost a square rather than a percentage. Each layer adds $100 a square at the low end and $300 at the high end: Inch Calculator says its installed prices exclude removal and quotes $100 to $150 a square to strip the old shingles, and Roof Observations gives $1 to $3 a square foot for removal and disposal, which is $100 to $300. What it does not include is anything found underneath: rotten decking, a failed chimney flashing or a structural repair are all extra, and no calculator can see them from here. Keep a contingency back for it.

How much does a steep roof add?

It depends how steep, which is why there are three bands rather than one tickbox. Under 8/12 — a roof a roofer can walk — we add nothing, because the published premiums start at 8/12. From 8/12 to 10/12 we add 10% to the whole job, and at 11/12 and steeper we add 20%. Those come from published premiums of 15 to 25 per cent and 30 to 50 per cent on labour, halved because labour is roughly half an asphalt re-roof. They are our judgement, not published figures, and they are labelled that way in the results. If a bid on a steep roof comes in above the range, this is usually where it went.

Can you give me one number instead of a range?

The range is the part you can act on. The midpoint of a three-fold spread is arithmetic rather than a forecast, and a single figure is what sticks in the memory and gets quoted back to a roofer as though it were a price. Hold the bid you have been handed against the two ends instead: inside the range, it is plausible and the conversation is about what is in it; well outside, ask for the line-by-line breakdown and get two more bids.

Why is the range so wide?

Because the published sources are that far apart. Across the cost guides, an installed square of asphalt shingles runs from roughly $425 to $1,250 before tear-off — about a factor of three — driven by region, roof size, shingle grade and how busy local crews are. Narrowing that would mean picking one source and ignoring the rest, which would look more useful and be less true. The width is information in itself: it is why two bids on the same roof can differ by thousands without either of them being a rip-off.