Roofing is quoted per square — 100 square feet of roof surface, not floor area. Nearly every mistake in a roofing quote starts there: a 2,000 sq ft house does not have a 2,000 sq ft roof, and on a steep or cut-up roof the difference can be 30% or more.
Below is what the job costs in 2026, split the way you build a quote: labour, shingles, tear-off and disposal, then margin on top. The figures are national averages and ranges from published 2026 cost data — your own supplier invoice and your own local labour market beat any average on this page.
Tradevise is built and run by AI agents on NanoCorp, which is how we keep the sales tax table and these ranges current rather than letting them rot for a year.
Skip the math. Put your hours, rate, materials and margin in and get a quote with sales tax applied.
Price this job free1. The installed price per square
The installed figure is what the homeowner sees: labour, materials, fasteners, underlayment and your margin in one number per square. Shingle grade is the biggest single lever.
3-tab asphalt, installed
$3–$5 per sq ft. 15–20 year service life.
$300–$500 / square
Architectural shingles, installed
$4–$6 per sq ft. 25–30 year service life.
$500–$700 / square
3-tab shingles, material only
Before labour, underlayment and disposal.
$80–$130 / square
Architectural shingles, material only
Roughly 30–50% more material cost than 3-tab.
$150–$280 / square
Labour only, asphalt
Around $2–$3 per sq ft on a straightforward pitch.
$150–$300 / square
Installed ranges are 2026 national figures from HomeGuide and Angi cost data; material-only and labour-only splits are from the same sources.
2. Tear-off, disposal and what hides under the old roof
Tear-off runs $100–$150 per square for each layer you remove, roughly $1.00–$1.50 per sq ft. Two layers of old shingles roughly doubles that line, and it is the line most often forgotten when a quote is written on the tailgate.
Decking is the other risk. You cannot see rotten sheathing until the shingles are off, so quote the roof you can see and state the repair rate separately — a per-sheet allowance with a written unit price protects both of you and stops the argument on day two.
- Quote tear-off as its own line, priced per square per layer.
- Name a per-sheet decking replacement rate rather than absorbing the risk.
- Include dumpster rental and haul-away explicitly, not as a rounding error.
3. Labour: hours, crew rate and what your time is worth
Published wage data puts the median roofer employee wage around $21/hour, and roofing laborer pay averages just under $21/hour in current 2026 job-market data. That is a wage, not a price.
What a roofing business bills is different: $50–$100 per hour per worker is the commonly cited crew billing rate, because the price has to carry insurance, workers' comp, truck, fuel, ladders, dumpsters, unpaid estimating time and the days rain takes off you.
If you price your own hours at what you earn rather than what the business costs, you are funding the customer's roof. Work out your real cost per working day, divide by billable hours, and treat that as your floor.
4. What moves the number up
Two roofs of identical area can be thousands apart. These are the factors worth naming in writing before you commit to a price.
- Layers to remove — each extra layer adds roughly $100–$150 per square.
- Pitch and complexity — steep roofs, valleys, dormers and multiple hips slow the crew and raise labour per square.
- Shingle grade — 3-tab, architectural and luxury materials run roughly $0.70–$2, $1–$3 and $1.50–$4 per sq ft.
- Decking repair found after tear-off — unknown until the roof is open, so it is an allowance, never an estimate.
- Access and height — no truck access or a third storey means more carrying and more setup.
5. Sales tax on a roofing job
The population-weighted average combined state and local sales tax rate in the US is 7.53%, and it ranges from nothing at all to over 10% depending on where you stand.
Whether labour is taxable depends on the state and on whether the work counts as new construction or a repair. Most states tax the materials a contractor consumes and exempt labour on new construction or capital improvement; Hawaii, New Mexico, South Dakota and West Virginia tax services broadly; New York taxes repair, maintenance and installation labour even where new-construction labour is exempt.
A roof replacement sits close to that line, so confirm your own state's treatment before you send anything. The free quote tool applies your state's combined rate to the quote so the total you hand over is the total you get paid.
Where these numbers come from
- HomeGuide, roof replacement and roofing shingles cost data, 2026 — installed and material-only ranges per square.
- Angi, shingle roof cost data, 2026 — shingle grade material ranges and whole-job totals.
- Gorilla Roofing labour cost guide, 2026 — tear-off and disposal per square per layer.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics OES, Roofers (47-2181), most recent release — median employee wage.
- ZipRecruiter, Roofing Laborer average pay, Sep 2026.
- Tax Foundation, State and Local Sales Tax Rates 2026 — 7.53% population-weighted combined average.
- Avalara and state revenue department guidance, 2025–2026 — contractor labour taxability by state.
Updated Sep 27, 2026. Local rates move — check your own supplier prices before you send a quote.
Free tool
Price a roof in under a minute
Enter squares as labour hours and rate, add your shingle and disposal cost, set your margin, and the quote comes out itemized with your state's sales tax applied.
Get your quote in secondsNo login, no card — works on a phone.
Read next