Checking a Contractor's Estimate of Roof Replacement Cost

You find yourself in the unenviable position of requiring a new roof and you want to be able to check a contractor's bid for the roof replacement cost. How do you do this?

A roof replacement cost will depend on several variables, one of which is what the current roofing material is. Is it composite? Are you replacing a flat roof? 

Generally that will be tar and gravel or rolled roofing material. Is it a slate roof? Each type of material has a different cost associated with it. For a pitched roof generally an asphalt shingle will be the cheapest to replace.

The next thing to determine the roof replacement cost is the roof size. What size is it? You can roughly calculate your roof size if you know the square footage of your house and can either guess the pitch or slope of your roof, you can get a fairly accurate guess of the roof. You can also ask the contractor the pitch of the roof. Or you can check some of the home improvement write for us blog to know more about the roof replacement cost, ideas etc

Or the other way is to get up on the roof and measure it yourself. This way you can figure out what the material will cost. Since you know the square footage you can figure out the number of squares the contractor will require.

What you cant estimate or check on the contractors estimate is the amount of labor they will use to replace the roof. This is where you will have to depend on getting at least three bids from three different roofing contractors. Then you can compare what each one is charging for their labor.

Other parts of the roof cost for replacement are how difficult is the terrain where the house sits. If it is rocky or rough there will be additional labor costs and perhaps delivery costs. The same is also true if you are in a remote location.

Some municipalities require permits or licensing. These may add to the cost of the roof. Also if they have special requirements for the materials like adding fire retardants that will add to the cost.

Things have changed over the years as city officials have become more aware of the cost of wild fire or other fire damage to house structures. So they have made new regulations in many areas of home repair or replacement. If you have all the parts of the formula you can check the estimate for the roof replacement cost.