Crew hours per square: the number that sets a re-roof price
Materials per square barely move from one roof to the next. Hours do. In the example, $207.75 of materials per square becomes $238.91 with the 15% markup, while 4.36 crew hours per square at $69 is $300.84. Labour is the bigger line, and it is the one owners guess.
If a cut-up roof with valleys and dormers takes 5.25 hours a square instead of 4.36, the same 20 squares go to $14,289.24, or $714.46 a square. Quote that roof at the easy-roof number and you hand away about $1,375 of crew time.
The 4.36 also includes hours nobody sees on the deck: the climb to measure before quoting, follow-up calls, driving the crew in each day and a rain day spent re-tarping. Leave those out and your hours per square look better than they are.
Getting the square count right before you price
A square is 100 sq ft of roof surface, so the count has to come from the roof, not the house footprint. A steeper pitch adds surface over the same footprint, and overhangs add more. Measure on the roof or buy an aerial report, then round up.
Count the extra layer too. A second layer of old shingles under the first adds a lot of tear-off time, so it belongs in the hours per square or on a written change order. Rotten decking sheets work the same way: price a sheet or two in the materials and put anything beyond that in writing.
A 10-square garage roof next to a 30-square house
The dumpster, permit and measurement report total $735 and are paid once, whatever the size. That is why the price per square moves with the roof:
| Roof | Price | Per square |
|---|---|---|
| 10 squares | $6,868.43 | $686.84 |
| 20 squares (example) | $12,913.66 | $645.68 |
| 30 squares | $18,958.88 | $631.96 |
A small roof that shares a crew day with a dumpster swap is not cheaper per square to do. If you quote small roofs at your big-roof rate, the fixed costs come out of profit. On a 2-square repair the calculator shows $1,016.12 a square, a good reminder to clear the dumpster and permit boxes when they do not apply. The $450 minimum covers the smallest call-outs.
Why the spreadsheet's version of this roof is $14,599
Roofing crews carry heavy workers' comp, so $69 an hour is the example roofer's number, not a standard one. Put your own crew, insurance and trucks into the true hourly rate tool, or see how the example reaches $68.55 on the roofer hourly rate page.
The spreadsheet then charges the truck, trailer, hoist and nailers by their own running hours, adds waste on shingles, a small cushion and markup on the dumpster and permit, and lists each material from a price list. It also prints a customer quote and logs whether the roof made money. That is why its version comes to $14,599, about $730 a square, instead of $12,913.66. The roofing pricing guide walks through that full quote line by line.
Use this page for a fast check while you are still on the driveway. Use the spreadsheet for the quote you sign.