Roof Replacement Cost Calculator — By Material, Size & Pitch

Searching for new roof cost, the cost of roof replacement, or what it costs to replace a roof? All three describe the same job priced above — a full tear-off and new roof, not a repair or overlay.

The figure above is national. For labor adjusted to your metro's wages, see roof replacement cost by city.

2026 Roof Replacement Cost by Material

Full tear-off and replacement, installed, for a typical 2,000 sq ft home — whole-job totals as the sources report them, not a per-square-foot rate. National average estimate for 2026. Your own roof area depends on footprint and pitch; use the calculator above for a figure priced from it.

Flat/TPO figures are HomeGuide's 2026 sourced total for a typical flat roof (retrieved 2026-07-13) — this page prices pitched roofs; if your roof is flat or low-slope, use the Flat Roof Cost Calculator for the full membrane comparison (BUR, EPDM, TPO) and lifespan detail.

Roof Replacement Estimate: What Contractors Actually Quote

A written roof replacement estimate bundles tear-off, disposal, underlayment, materials, flashing, and labor into one line — it is not the same as a per-square-foot material price. For a typical 2,000 sq ft home, that all-in estimate runs $5,700–$25,000: $5,700–$12,000 for asphalt shingles, $10,000–$40,000 for standing-seam metal, $10,500–$62,500 for concrete or clay tile, and $22,000–$70,000 for natural slate. If your roof only needs patchwork rather than a full tear-off, check the Roof Repair Cost Calculator first — most contractors will quote a repair the same way, itemized rather than lump-sum.

What a real estimate itemises

A quote you can actually compare breaks out, at minimum: squares of roof area and the pitch it was measured at; number of existing layers to tear off; underlayment type; ice-and-water shield coverage; drip edge and flashing; ridge vent or other ventilation; disposal; and the warranty split between material and workmanship. A single lump sum with none of that is not an estimate you can hold anyone to.

Comparing two quotes like for like

Check the stated squares first. If two roofers quote different areas for the same roof, one of them has measured the footprint rather than the pitched surface, and the cheaper number is not cheaper — it is smaller. Then check layers, shingle line (a manufacturer’s builder-grade and architectural lines carry the same brand name and very different prices), and whether decking replacement is priced per sheet as a contingency or assumed at zero.

What usually is not in the number

Decking replacement discovered after tear-off is the most common change order — ask for the per-sheet rate up front rather than after the roof is open. Chimney and skylight flashing, gutter removal and re-hang, permit fees, and structural repair for sagging are frequently excluded too. For a line-by-line walkthrough of contractor pricing generally, see how to read a contractor’s quote.

Roof Replacement Cost Per Square

Roofers price jobs by the square — 100 sq ft of roof area — not by the square foot, so a per-square price is simply the per-square-foot price times 100. These are the same installed rates the calculator above prices from:

All-in installed rates — materials, underlayment, flashing, labor, tear-off of one layer, and disposal. Asphalt grades are Modernize’s 2026 figures, which that source publishes in both units ($4–$8.50 per sq ft, or $400–$850 per square); concrete tile sits inside the $7–$25 per sq ft range HomeGuide and This Old House publish for tile (2026); the standing-seam metal row is our own estimate and is not yet tied to a per-square-foot source. Squares are counted on the sloped roof surface, not the footprint — a 2,000 sq ft single-storey home at standard pitch has about 22.4 squares of roof, not 20. For regional price adjustments, use the Roof Cost Per Square Foot Calculator.

What's included — and what's extra

Cost drivers & material lifespan

• Size & pitch. Roofs are priced by the square (100 sq ft) of sloped surface, so a steeper roof costs more because there is literally more of it — a standard 5/12–7/12 pitch covers about 12% more area than the footprint beneath it, and a 12/12 pitch about 41% more.
• Stories. Height adds labor rather than area — taller homes need more ladder, staging, and fall protection, which is why a second storey adds about 15% to the labor line and a third about 30%.
• Material. The single biggest lever — asphalt is cheapest, slate/premium tile the most.
• Tear-off layers. Removing two old layers costs more than one.
• Complexity. Valleys, dormers, skylights, and chimneys all add flashing and labor.

Lifespan: 3-tab asphalt 15–20 yrs, architectural 25–30, metal 40–70, tile 50+, slate 75–150. A pricier material that outlasts two asphalt roofs can be cheaper per year.

Weighing a specific material rather than the mix above? Metal and tile price differently enough from the blended figures here to warrant their own numbers — see the metal roofing calculator or the tile roof calculator. And if you don't yet know your roof's square footage — the input every estimate here starts from — measure it first with the roof area calculator.

Roof Replacement Cost by Roof Footprint

"What does a 1,800 sq ft roof cost?" and "what about 1,000, 1,200, 1,500, 1,700 or 2,700?" are the single most common size questions this page gets asked, and the honest answer depends on which square footage the question means. Every number below prices the home's footprint — the ground-floor area under the roof, which equals the listing or tax-record living area only for a one-story house — not the roof surface itself, because that is how the calculator above takes its own input. A roof always covers more area than the footprint beneath it once pitch is accounted for; at the calculator's standard pitch default (5/12–7/12, geometric midpoint 1.12x) a 2,000 sq ft footprint becomes 2,240 sq ft of actual roof, and every row below applies that same 1.12x before pricing architectural asphalt shingles at $4.00–$8.50 per sq ft of roof area — the same Modernize-sourced band the calculator prices from, at 1 story and 1 old layer torn off.

Standard pitch (5/12–7/12), 1 story, 1 existing layer torn off — the calculator's own default job. Metal, tile and other materials scale the same way; run your exact footprint and material through the calculator above rather than interpolating between rows. If you only know the footprint and not the roof area, the Roof Area Calculator converts one to the other for your actual pitch instead of the standard-tier assumption used here.

The relationship is close to linear because the cost per square foot barely changes with size — a 2,700 sq ft home does not cost 2.7x a 1,000 sq ft home's rate, it costs 2.7x its area, at essentially the same $4.00–$8.50 installed band. That is why the table is worth checking against a quote directly: a bid that is dramatically cheaper per square foot than every row above usually means a different scope (no tear-off, single layer of the cheapest shingle grade, no permit) rather than a better price for the same job. Non-asphalt materials scale by the identical multiplication — take the per-sq-ft band for metal, tile or slate from the material table further up this page and multiply by the roof area column here, the same arithmetic this table already performs for architectural asphalt.

Roof Replacement Cost by House Size (Living Area)

Listings quote living area, but a roof covers the footprint, and a two-story house packs the same living area under half the roof. The table below divides living area by the number of stories to get the footprint, applies the calculator's standard-pitch multiplier (1.12x) to get roof area, adds the two-story labour premium from the stories table below, and prices it with the same per-square-foot bands the calculator uses: 3-tab at $3.50–$5.00 and architectural at $4.00–$8.50 per sq ft of roof (Modernize installed-cost figures, retrieved 2026-08-07).

Assumption: footprint = living area ÷ stories, standard pitch (5/12–7/12), 1 old layer torn off. An attached garage or roof overhang adds area that this table does not apply. Two-story rows include the same access premium as the stories table further down (labour share only). To see what pitch does to roof area, use the Roofing Squares Calculator; for a per-square-foot breakdown by material, use the Roof Cost Per Square Foot Calculator.

What Tear-Off & Disposal Costs, By Itself

"Roof tear off cost" is a different question from "roof replacement cost" — tear-off is the demolition and disposal of the old roof, priced separately from new materials and installation labor, and it is a real line item you can isolate on any quote. In this calculator's own cost model, tear-off and disposal is a fixed 26% share of the installed price, applied once per old layer removed: zero for bare deck or new construction, once for a single existing layer, and doubled for two layers (the model's own tear-off multiplier — see the "Tear-Off & Disposal" line the calculator breaks out above). For a 2,000 sq ft home at standard pitch (2,240 sq ft of roof), here is what that 26% share comes to by material, for one old layer versus two:

Tear-off is 26% of the installed price per layer removed, on the same 2,240 sq ft roof area and the same installed bands the material table above prices from — not a separate estimate. A second layer roughly doubles the demolition line without changing the materials or labor lines, which is why two-layer tear-offs cost noticeably more even when the new roof itself is identical. Not sure how many layers your roof has? A contractor can usually tell from the attic or a small pry-up at the edge; assume one unless you know otherwise, since that is this calculator's own baseline.

Tear-off and disposal is also the line most often shorted on a lowball bid, because it is the part of the job that produces no visible improvement — a homeowner cannot see "correctly disposed of the old shingles" the way they can see a new roof, so it is tempting for a contractor to skip a dumpster and haul debris in a pickup instead. Ask specifically whether disposal is included and where the debris goes; a written answer here is one of the five places quotes for the same job legitimately diverge (see how to read a contractor’s quote for the other four), and it is the one line item that can double on its own without a single new material or labor-hour being added to the job.

Cost by Roof Pitch and by Number of Stories

Pitch and stories move the price through two completely different mechanisms, and pricing them separately answers two distinct questions this page gets asked directly — including "4/12 pitch" roof cost and a "2 story house" roof cost. Pitch changes the amount of roof: a 4/12 falls inside this calculator's Low tier (2/12–4/12), which covers about 3% more area than the footprint, while a steep 8/12–10/12 roof covers roughly 25% more. Stories change the labor, not the area: a second story adds ladder, staging and fall-protection time — about 15% more labor — and a third adds roughly 30%, while the roof area itself is unchanged. The two tables below hold everything else at the calculator's default job (architectural asphalt, 2,000 sq ft footprint, 1 tear-off layer) so only the one variable in each table's heading moves.

Both tables price the same 2,000 sq ft footprint and the same architectural asphalt band as the calculator above; only pitch (top table) or stories (bottom table) changes. If you don't know your roof's pitch, the Roof Pitch Calculator works it out from a rise-and-run measurement, and the Roofing Squares Calculator converts any footprint and pitch straight into squares if you want to skip the table and price your own roof directly.

The two mechanisms compound rather than add, because pitch multiplies the area and stories multiply the labor share of the price on top of it. A very steep (11/12–12/12), three-story architectural asphalt roof on the same 2,000 sq ft footprint prices at roughly $12,388–$26,324, well above either single-variable table alone — the pitch table's very-steep row assumes 1 story, and the stories table's 3+ row assumes standard pitch, so a roof with both needs both adjustments applied together rather than read off one table in isolation. That compounding is exactly what the calculator above computes automatically when you set both inputs; the tables here exist to show why the number moves the way it does, not to replace running your own combination through it.

Repair or replace?

Repair when the roof is under ~15 years old and the problem is localized — a few missing shingles, a single leak, flashing around one penetration. Replace when it's near end of life, leaks in multiple spots, the deck is sagging, or you see daylight/rot in the attic. If a repair would cost more than ~30% of a replacement on an old roof, replace.

Brands, hiring & warranty

Shingle brands: GAF, Owens Corning, and CertainTeed dominate asphalt; each offers a premium "system" warranty when a certified contractor installs all matched components.

Questions to ask — and red flags:

• Are you licensed, insured, and manufacturer-certified?
• Is tear-off, decking inspection, and permit included — and what if you find rot?
• Get three quotes. Beware storm-chasers, big upfront deposits, and door-to-door pressure.

Warranty: separate the material warranty (25 years to lifetime) from the workmanship warranty (contractor, typically 2–10 years). Manufacturer "system" warranties need certified installation and registration to unlock.

Frequently Asked Questions