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What a new roof should cost in 2026

9 min readPublished August 26, 20263 cited sources

Roof pricing is quoted per square (100 sq ft), not per square foot of floor space. Here is how the math works and what each line item should say.

Ranges only mean something once the project is scoped

Answer nine questions about your home — footage, stories, pitch, material, protection type, access and timing — and the estimator turns these benchmarks into a range for your house, with each line item's source attached.

Open the cost estimator

How roofers price a roof

Roofing is sold by the square — 100 square feet of roof surface. A 2,000 sq ft single-story ranch with a moderate pitch usually has about 22-26 squares of roof, because the slope adds area on top of the footprint.

2026 national ranges

| Material | Installed cost / sq ft | Typical 25-square roof | | --- | --- | --- | | 3-tab asphalt | $4.50 - $7.00 | $11,250 - $17,500 | | Architectural asphalt | $5.50 - $9.00 | $13,750 - $22,500 | | Exposed-fastener metal | $7.00 - $12.00 | $17,500 - $30,000 | | Standing-seam metal | $12.00 - $20.00 | $30,000 - $50,000 | | Cedar shake | $12.00 - $20.00 | $30,000 - $50,000 |

Run the roofing estimator to apply your own pitch, stories, layers and region to these ranges.

What must appear as separate lines on the quote

1. Roof area in squares, and how it was measured 2. Number of layers being torn off 3. Underlayment type (synthetic vs felt) 4. Ice-and-water shield, and how far up the slope it runs 5. Ventilation: ridge vent length and soffit intake 6. Flashing: chimney, walls, valleys, pipe boots, skylights 7. Decking replacement priced per sheet, with an estimated count 8. Disposal, permit and final magnet sweep 9. Workmanship warranty length, separate from the manufacturer warranty

The two numbers that blow budgets

Extra layers. Each additional layer of old roofing adds roughly $1.00-$2.00 per square foot in labor and disposal.

Rotten decking. Nobody can see it until tear-off. A fair contract names a per-sheet price ($70-$130) rather than "decking replaced as needed at time and materials."

Sources

Every figure in this guide traces back to one of the following. Where a range comes from our own benchmark set, the underlying quotes were collected from homeowners and contractors.

  1. 1.Roof replacement cost data — HomeGuide (accessed 2026-08)
  2. 2.New roof cost breakdown — Angi (accessed 2026-08)
  3. 3.Cost vs. Value report, roofing replacement — Remodeling (accessed 2026-08)