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I live in a 22 year old townhouse with a pitched roof. We recently got a lot of rain, and a day or so later I noticed that the ceiling in one of the bedrooms appears slightly damp. Most of my neighbors have already replaced the roof on their homes, so I knew it was just a matter or time before I would have to as well. Can anyone give me a ball-park estimate on what this will cost?
It will depend on the size of your townhome (square footage of the roof) and also your area, etc, etc. When I owned a townhome, it was approx. $4K - 5K for a new roof, but that figure was before the economy sank. I don't know about now.....
Thanks - I figured about $5,000 or so. I have been wanting to upgrade my kitchen - had to put it off last year because I had to replace my HVAC system. Looks like I'll have to put it off again. Sigh.
What somebody elses roof cost does not mean squat. It is about like asking how high is UP.
Here is a way to do your own estimate.
Get a price for a bundle of the shingles you like at your local home center.
Estimate the square feet in your roof. How long is the roof, the dimensions on each side, convert all that into approximate number of square feet in the roof as a total sum.
Divide that by 100, gives you the number of "Squares" in a roof, One square = 100 square feet.
Multiple that by 3, three bundles of shingles will do a square.
Multiple that by the price of your bundle of shingles gotten at the home center. Gives you the material cost of the shingles to do your roof.
Multiple that number by .25, add that to the cost of the shingles. This gives the cost of other materials, felt, nails, etc required. Add this to the cost of the shingles. This is about the material costs for your job as a good estimate tool for your area. Few normal houses will exceed $1000.00 all the materials. Most good contractors never pay retail, they will get their supplies at some wholesale costs, so you will be above the material costs by some margin.
You can gauge the total job cost by simply multiplying the material costs by some factor. It will vary if the roof is being stripped and completely redone. Figure 3 times the material costs, you are getting a fairly good bargain as a total price. Divide any real quote from a roofer by your estimated material cost to guage his markup numbers.
Roofers are like all contractors, they charge what the local market might bear. The wild card in any roofing job is not the total square footage but how much cutting in installation might be required. Hip roof, Roofs with valleys, any strange level or whatever roof out of the norm will get a much higher quote price for the same number of bundles of shingles installed. Same with ease of access and general conditions, height, etc. Roof's on difference houses with the same footage of shingles can get wide variations in price based on the other factors. Two houses next to each other with the same number of bundles of shingles but of very different roof design will get different total cost quotes. The more complicated roof with more cutting, additional handling will be a higher cost roof.
Start with understanding your own roof as a material cost, learn to estimate that, judge any real quote in those terms, understand the factors that may cause it to be wildly out of the norm.
Insurance costs in some markets may have a huge affect on the total costs, final quotes might be 15 times the materials costs. You have to shop around. Understand exactly what is being offered in the quote. Always have the your own material cost guessimate as some basis for understanding what is being said.
I live in a 22 year old townhouse with a pitched roof. We recently got a lot of rain, and a day or so later I noticed that the ceiling in one of the bedrooms appears slightly damp. Most of my neighbors have already replaced the roof on their homes, so I knew it was just a matter or time before I would have to as well. Can anyone give me a ball-park estimate on what this will cost?
$225 to $300 per square is the going rate for roofing
$225 to $300 per square is the going rate for roofing
busta
Great is that for a roof stripped or not? What quality shingle? Pretty much useless in the real World.
A bundle of shingle is floating something in the $16 to $27 a bundle range, depending on what one wants to buy. So some wild guessimate range is not telling you much. Has to be tied far more firm to a product specific to a particular type shingle. Must be able to compare apples to apples. Must tie it too the actual work required, is the job being stripped or going over the top?
The variation factors will throw you wildly outside any ball park method in many, many houses.
The only way to know for sure is to get some local quotes. Expect them to vary a lot, contractor work load also has a huge influence. The guys without work tend to bid cheaper, those chock-a-block tend to bid higher. The method I gave before is one way of getting a sanity check in any situation, depending if you are always talking the same shingle, with the same quality / life ratings. Area of the country and labor rates are the other huge wild card. Along with the amount of regulation any contractor must endure. Costs can be wildly all over the lot depending on just area of country, urban, rural, permit required or not, method of disposal, etc. etc.
Enough so that the same basic job might be $1800 in one situation and $15,000 in another; lowest quote available. Some number given in a forum on the Web is about useless.
We are now getting to the Golden Era. Fall is busy season for all contractors. Jobs cost more in the Golden Fall period. Expect to pay a premium just based on time of year and demand. Everybody wants the roof replaced before winter.
Your neighbors who got theirs done in spring may not be a good estimate for what yours might cost in fall. Asking the neighbors if they have identical roof(s), might be one place to start, but also understand the time of year it was done. Would be interesting to see if the same contractors bidding an identical roof, in the same area, in different time periods come out being in the same cost order. I might hazard a guess they will not. Be also interesting to see what their quote price range does based on time of year in this economy.
Fall the contractors always get better prices in climates with winter coming. They count on it.
If you can wait till next year, sign up for the work in maybe the Xmas holiday period, then you tend to get the best price available for any given contractor. Maybe not have the work done then but get in line with your ticket punched.
Even the pitch of the roof can make a difference in soct as some new homes have very steep pitch is causes labor cost to go way up. Then there is the valleys and type etc.Valleys on very low pich roof require chages alos such a the new sealer underlayment which again cost more.
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Do your own estimate this way.............
