Quick Answer
How do you price a roofing job?
A simple roofing pricing method: material by the square, loaded crew labor, dumpster and permit, overhead recovery, and the margin divisor that sets the final price.
The short answer
- Price from cost plus target margin, never by matching a competitor's number.
- Job cost is material by the square, loaded crew labor, dumpster, permit and any subs.
- Add overhead recovery from your own books, then divide by (1 − target margin).
- Residential retail roofing usually targets 30 to 40 percent gross margin.
The five pieces of a roofing price
Every roofing price, retail or insurance, is built from these.
- Material: squares of shingle or panel, underlayment, flashing, fasteners, freight
- Labor: crew hours or per-square rate at your loaded cost
- Job extras: dumpster, permit, disposal, crane or lift
- Overhead: your share of office, trucks, insurance and advertising
- Profit: the margin you intend to keep after all of it
Use the divisor, not the markup
Adding 35 percent to a $9,000 cost gives $12,150, which is only a 26 percent margin. Dividing $9,000 by 0.65 gives $13,846, a true 35 percent. That gap is where roofing profit disappears.
Recalculate overhead at least once a year
Overhead recovery gets set once and then insurance, fuel and advertising climb. Divide last year's overhead by last year's revenue and use that rate, not the number you learned five years ago.
Check the price after the job
Compare quoted squares and crew days to actual. If jobs run long or waste runs high, your price is right on paper and wrong on the roof.
Illustration: pricing a 28-square architectural shingle tear-off
- Material, 28 squares plus accessories
- $4,480
- Crew labor at loaded cost
- $3,360
- Dumpster, permit and disposal
- $780
- Overhead recovery at 18%
- $1,551
- Total loaded cost
- $10,171
- Price at 33% target margin (÷ 0.67)
- $15,181
What this tells you: Example numbers, not a quote. Notice that skipping the overhead line would have cost roughly $1,500 of profit on one job.
What you see inside LedgerDude
This is the page you get each month once your books are closed — the numbers behind every answer on this site.
In one sentence
Add up squares of material, crew labor, dumpster, permit and subs to get job cost, add your overhead recovery rate, then divide by one minus your target margin.
Price a roofing job
Put in what one job costs you and the markup you want. We show the price to quote, what you actually keep, and the numbers your books should be watching. Nothing is saved unless you save it.
Shingles, underlayment, flashing, dump fees — everything you buy for this roof.
Crew pay or subcontractor cost for this job, including payroll taxes.
This job's share of trucks, insurance, office and advertising.
How much you add on top of total cost. 35% markup on cost is common.
One square is 100 square feet. Leave at 0 if you do not know.
Total hours all crew members spend on this job.
How many roofs this size you do in a normal month. Used for your monthly targets.
Price to quote
$11,745
Total cost plus your markup.
Profit you keep
$3,045
After materials, labor and overhead.
Profit margin
25.9%
Profit as a share of the price. Healthy roofing work usually lands 10-20%.
Gross margin
38.7%
Price minus material and labor only. This is the number to quote against.
Break-even price
$8,700
Quote below this and the job loses money.
Price per square
$392
Easy way to sanity-check a bid against past jobs.
Numbers your books should track
Profit per square
$102
Compare jobs of different sizes fairly.
Gross profit per crew hour
$76
What one hour on the roof earns you before overhead.
Sales per labor dollar
3.92x
Every $1 of crew pay should bring in $3 or more.
Materials share of price
35.8%
Creeping up? Supplier prices moved and your bids did not.
Labor share of price
25.5%
Rising here usually means jobs are taking longer than you bid.
Overhead covered
$4,545
Gross profit has to cover $1,500 of overhead on this job.
What if costs move?
Slide these to see what happens to this job if material or labor cost changes and your price stays the same.
Now $4,200 instead of $4,200.
Now $3,000 instead of $3,000.
Profit at those costs
$3,045
Same quoted price, new costs.
Profit margin then
25.9%
What the same job would really pay you.
Cost change
$0
Dollars added to or taken off this job.
Your monthly targets
Based on 8 jobs like this one each month.
Revenue to book
$93,960
What you should quote and collect this month.
Overhead to cover
$12,000
Trucks, insurance, office and advertising.
Profit you should keep
$24,360
After all costs and overhead.
Gross profit needed
$36,360
Price minus material and labor, added up.
Jobs just to break even
2.6
Below this, the month loses money.
Crew hours to sell
480 hrs
Make sure you have the crew to cover it.
Take this with you
Download a one-page PDF with your overhead, gross margin and monthly targets. Good for the truck, the bank, or your next crew meeting.
Related answers
Straight answers to the other questions roofing owners ask us.
What is a good profit margin for a roofing company?
Residential roofing should run 30 to 40 percent gross margin and 8 to 12 percent net profit; repair work carries higher margins than full replacements.
How do you calculate overhead and profit in roofing?
Overhead is last year's operating costs divided by revenue, added to job cost. Profit is applied by dividing that total by one minus your target margin.
What KPIs should a roofing company track?
Track gross margin by job, material cost share, close rate, average job size, weeks of cash and days to get paid. Six numbers, once a month.
What is a good profit margin for a contractor?
Most trade contractors should run 25 to 45 percent gross margin depending on how material-heavy the work is, and 8 to 12 percent net profit.
What is labor burden rate and how do you calculate it?
Labor burden is everything an employee costs beyond wages — taxes, insurance, benefits, vehicle and tools — and it usually adds 25 to 60 percent on top of the hourly wage.
Run a different trade?
Questions people ask
Should insurance jobs be priced the same way?
The cost math is the same, but insurance work collects slower and often carries more supplement work, so track it as its own line and forecast its cash separately.
Is ten and ten enough overhead and profit?
Rarely. Most roofing companies carry 15 to 20 percent overhead, so a flat ten percent under-collects on every job before profit is even counted.
How do I price a repair?
Repairs should carry a minimum charge that covers a truck roll plus your target margin. They are usually the highest-margin work in the company.
What does this cost?
One flat monthly price. No hourly bills, no surprises. Founding plans start at $149 a month, and your rate stays locked.
Keep reading
What is a good profit margin for a roofing company?
Residential roofing should run 30 to 40 percent gross margin and 8 to 12 percent net profit; repair work carries higher margins than full replacements.
How do you calculate overhead and profit in roofing?
Overhead is last year's operating costs divided by revenue, added to job cost. Profit is applied by dividing that total by one minus your target margin.
What is labor burden rate and how do you calculate it?
Labor burden is everything an employee costs beyond wages — taxes, insurance, benefits, vehicle and tools — and it usually adds 25 to 60 percent on top of the hourly wage.
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