In 2026 a typical asphalt shingle tear-off and re-roof on a 2,000 square foot roof runs about $9,000 to $20,000 nationally, with tile, metal and shake commonly two to four times that, because roofing is priced by the square of roof surface rather than by the square foot of house.
How much it costs to replace a roof is decided by five things: how many squares of surface there are, what goes on them, what has to come off first, how hard the roof is to walk, and what the deck underneath turns out to look like. A square is a roofer's unit, 100 square feet of roof surface, and every bid you get is built out of it even when the bottom line hides that.
The figures below are typical national ranges for 2026 and local bids govern: labor rates, disposal fees, wind and fire code, and the length of the local storm season move them a long way in both directions.
Price per square, by material
These are installed prices, meaning material and labor on a straightforward roof, and they exclude tear-off. A 2,000 square foot house does not have a 2,000 square foot roof: pitch and overhang usually make it 22 to 26 squares, and a steep roof on the same footprint has more surface than a shallow one.
- Three-tab asphalt: roughly $350 to $550 per square. The cheapest thing anyone still installs, and increasingly hard to buy because most manufacturers have shifted the line to architectural.
- Architectural (laminated) asphalt: roughly $450 to $750 per square. The default on most of the country, rated for higher wind and warranted longer than three-tab.
- Metal: roughly $500 to $900 per square for exposed-fastener panels, $1,000 to $2,000 for standing seam. The spread is that wide because the two are different products doing the same job.
- Concrete or clay tile: roughly $900 to $2,500 per square. Tile also weighs enough that an older frame sometimes needs work before it can carry it.
- Wood shake or shingle: roughly $800 to $1,500 per square, and banned or restricted outright in some wildfire jurisdictions.
- Flat and low-slope membrane (TPO, EPDM, modified bitumen): roughly $500 to $1,200 per square. Flat roofs fail at seams and flashings, so a coating is sometimes offered instead of a replacement.
The line items that are not the shingles
Tear-off and disposal commonly runs $100 to $200 per square for one layer, and a second layer roughly doubles it. Some jurisdictions cap the number of layers that may be left on, which forces a tear-off whether the bid wanted one or not.
Decking is the item that turns a fixed price into a variable one. Nobody knows what the plywood or the plank sheathing under a failed roof looks like until it is uncovered, so bids carry a unit price for replacement, commonly $70 to $150 per sheet installed. Read that line before signing: a bid with no decking price is a bid with an argument in it.
Pitch and stories are labor multipliers. Anything over about a 7:12 pitch needs staging and fall protection, and a third story means longer ladder runs and a harder dumpster placement. The same shingles on a two-story steep roof cost meaningfully more than on a single-story ranch.
Permits are usually required for a full replacement. Fees commonly run $250 to $1,000, sometimes calculated off the job's valuation, and an inspection follows. Unpermitted roof work turns up at appraisal and at resale, and it can complicate a later claim.
How to read a roofing bid
A bid worth comparing states the number of squares, the exact product line and its wind rating, the underlayment, whether ice and water shield goes in the valleys and along the eaves, what happens to the flashing, vents, pipe boots and drip edge, the decking unit price, who pulls the permit, how the site is protected, and what the disposal covers. Two bids that differ by thousands usually differ because one of them is reusing flashing and leaving the boots.
Ventilation is the sleeper item. Most manufacturer warranties require the attic to meet a ventilation ratio, so a bid that adds ridge vent or corrects intake is not padding; a bid that ignores it can void the coverage it is selling.
Storm damage, and the two warranties
When the cause is wind or hail rather than age, the roof may be a claim rather than a purchase. Homeowners policies cover sudden damage from a named peril, not wear, and the payout depends on whether the roof is insured at replacement cost or at actual cash value, which subtracts depreciation and leaves an older roof paying a large share of its own replacement. Many policies now put roofs on a payment schedule by age or apply a separate percentage deductible for wind and hail. Read the declarations page for which of those applies before assuming a number, and get the adjuster and the roofer on the roof at the same time if you can.
Two different warranties come with a new roof and people conflate them constantly. The manufacturer warranty covers defects in the material, runs 25 years to limited lifetime, is usually prorated after an initial period, and is void if the product was installed outside the printed instructions. The workmanship warranty covers the installation itself and comes from the contractor, commonly 2 to 10 years. Leaks in the first decade are almost always workmanship, which is the warranty that depends on the company still existing.
Questions people ask
How long does a roof replacement take?
Most single-family asphalt roofs are torn off and reinstalled in one to three days once the crew starts, weather permitting. Tile, metal and slate take longer, and any decking replacement adds time. Scheduling is the slow part: a roofer in a market that just took a hail storm may be booked for months.
Can you put a new roof over the old one?
Sometimes. A single overlay of asphalt over asphalt is allowed in many jurisdictions and codes generally cap the total at two layers. It saves the tear-off cost, hides whatever the deck is doing, adds weight, runs hotter and shortens the life of the new shingles, and it usually shortens the manufacturer warranty as well.
How do you know when a roof needs replacing rather than repairing?
Scattered damage in one area is a repair. Granules filling the gutters, curling or cupping across whole slopes, multiple leaks in different places, daylight through the deck, or an age past the material's rated life point to replacement. An inspection report will note remaining useful life, and insurers increasingly ask for it before writing a policy.