The Honest Cost of Replacing a Roof

Three estimates come in. One is half the price of the other two. Your first instinct is to take it — and your first instinct, in this case, is almost always wrong. The cheap bid is cheap because something has been left out. Usually it’s the underlayment. Sometimes it’s the flashing. Occasionally it’s the insurance.

What the line items actually mean

A real roof replacement has five rough categories of cost: tear-off and disposal, decking repair, underlayment, the roofing material itself, and labor. The honest contractor itemizes all five. The dishonest one bundles them, so when you ask why the bid is so low, there’s nowhere specific to look.

A roof is one of three things in a house you should never cheap out on. The other two are the foundation and the people you let inside it.

The biggest variable, by far, is decking repair. The contractor cannot know what’s under your shingles until they tear them off. A good bid will include a per-sheet price for replacing rotten decking, with a not-to-exceed cap. A bad bid will quote you a flat number and then surprise-bill you when the rot turns up — which, in a house over twenty years old, it usually will.

Questions to ask before you sign

Ask whether they pull a permit. Ask whether they carry workers’ comp. Ask how they dispose of the old material. Ask whether the warranty is on the labor, the material, or both — and for how long. If any of these answers is a shrug, walk away. The honest answer to every one of these is straightforward, and any contractor who hesitates is telling you something you should listen to.