How much does a residential shingle roof cost?

DIY vs contractor

The very first question you need to answer is if you are going to install your roof by yourself (and hopefully with some friends), or if you are going to look for a professional roofing contractor.

Going it alone will potentially save you a lot of money, but the question to ask is what are you sacrificing by doing that?

Doing it yourself

If you do it yourself, say goodbye to any type of workmanship warranty. If anything goes wrong, it’s on you. Plus, it might affect your roof insurance.

How much is your time worth? It’s not just scraping the old shingles off and installing new ones. It’s the round up of materials, tools, and supplies, in addition to storing them somewhere until you’re ready to go.

As much as you like to think that you can do everything yourself, you’re going to need help. Now you have to round up some friends to help you. That means calling around and seeing who’s available on that very specific weekend that you plan to do it on.

If you have enough room to safely store everything, the next step is getting everything up on your roof. That in itself is no easy task.

After a few hours of scraping the old shingles off, obviously depending on the size and design of your roof, comes the pre-install preparation.

The next question is if you’re going to replace eavestroughs, ventilation, and other home exteriors?

After all of that, don’t forget that you still must put the new shingles on.

Hiring a contractor

If you decide to hire a Winnipeg roofing contractor to install your roof, be prepared to shop around and do your due diligence.

One of the first things to know is whether your potential contractor is licensed and insured. Ask for multiple references from each serious contender.

*Remember: Just because you buy the most expensive shingles or other roofing material, doesn’t mean it’ll last if it’s not installed properly.

The bonus of hiring a roofing specialist is that you should get warranty on their workmanship, in addition to the sheer amount of time you’ll save.

The cost difference

Obviously, doing it yourself will cost less on the surface. The first question is how much less? The second question is if it’s worth it.

As a rule of thumb, once you figure out the cost of your materials, add anywhere from 40% to 150% to get a rough idea of how much more it’ll cost you to hire a contractor.

Quality of roofing materials

With home supply stores coming up with new materials, styles and designs all the time to keep the market fresh, you really have a huge variety of roofing materials to choose from.

Not only do you have to choose the type of roofing material, such as asphalt shingles or rubber shingles, but then you have to look at the pricing tier based on the quality of each brand and/or model.

Figuring that out is a very personal and subjective decision. It’s what you can afford combined with what you want aesthetically.

One thing for consideration is what type of warranty each brand has. Some shingles will have a warranty of ten to fifteen years, while others will be guaranteed for life (which is usually defined as the length of time the original owner of a single family detached residence owns the property where shingles are installed).

Roof size and slope

The bigger and more sloped your roof is, the more it’s going to cost you. Perhaps, this is something to keep in mind either when constructing or buying a new home.

Most roofing estimators will already have a base figured out for size and slope, and then adjust accordingly for each individual project.

How easy or hard is the job anticipated to be

One thing to do is take a walk around your house and observe.

What do you see?

Is one side of your house really tight against a neighbor?

Do you have a pool close to the wall of a house where waste can fall into and create a problem for your liner?

How easy is it going to be for final clean up? Are their bushes or just grass?

Are there multiple existing layers that the roofers will have to extract?

What other obstacles can you see that would increase the job complexity?

The small details to consider

There’s a multitude of other things to consider – things that you may easily overlook.

The industry standard for shingles is four nails per shingle. Say you want a little more protection. If you find a contractor that does six nails per shingle, that’ll cost you a bit more in material and labour.

Another factor is the underlayment and other accessories. Are you installing new ventilation as well?

Does your contractor charge a single amount for waste, or do they charge by quantity?

If you happen to have a few layers that they need to dispose of, and they charge by waste quantity, that’s going to add to your final price tag.

Are you going to add ice & water shield, as well as drip flashing?

Do you know the condition of what’s underneath your existing roof?

You probably don’t. Make sure to account for replacement costs for any board replacements or structural repairs.

Adding up the shingle roof cost

Once you’ve gone through the above factors and decided on your materials and what not, the next thing to do is figure out, realistically, what the final price tag will be.

In our research of this article, here is a baseline price that you can adjust accordingly:

As this article is written in 2017, for future years add 3% to 5% to adjust for inflation.