What Is The Average Cost of A New Roof In the Seattle Area?

The trite answer is: a lot more than they used to! The average home re-roof in the greater King-Pierce-Kitsap area, going from a basic composition roof to another of like kind and quality, will usually range somewhere between $15k-$30k¹. But there are a lot of factors that will modify this, read on for some of those!

Here Are Some Of The Basics:

Size Matters. Of Course!

If your home is a rambler and all on one level, usually your roof will cost more than if you have a 2 or 3-story house. Why? With a rambler, all of your living space and garage floor space has a roof, with a pitched slope and overhangs. With a multi-story home, the roof might cover two floors at the same time. Also, you may have an outbuilding like a garage, or a workshop, that also needs to be included.

Some roofers will charge based on “price per square” but that is a very crude metric. It also gives an indication they don’t go more than skin-deep with their work. That said, I’ll show some ballpark averages, so you get the gist. Note: a roofing “square” is 10ft by 10ft, or 100 sqft.

Access

Some projects have great access. That means a supplier can use a truck-mounted conveyor belt to load up the roof. It also means the removal of your old roof goes smoother, because debris can be dropped directly into the dumpster.

When access is challenging, there’s extra labor to load supplies onto the roof and/or extra labor and property protection needed to ground-drop the old debris and then wheelbarrow it around to the front. Time is money.

How Steep Is Your Roof?

That makes sense, right? If you’ve got a shallow pitch to your roof where it’s walkable, then the labor cost will be far less than if you’re working on a church steeple. Roof Pitch is done in ratios rather than degrees, because that’s how framers think. For example, 10 degrees might be referred to as a 2:12 pitch– for every 12 inches horizontal, there are 2 inches vertical. A 45-degree roof pitch would be 12:12, and so on.

Roof Type

Let’s narrow it down to roof type. In this case, there’s what you have now, and then what you want to have installed. Here are some of those types:

1. Asphalt fiberglass laminated composition shingles (most common) – typically ranges between $6-$8 per square ft.
   1. Strip shingle / 3-tab shingle roofing
   2. Builder-grade basic comp shingle roofing
   3. Deluxe, thicker composition shingle roofing
   4. Premium, special designs. Like CertainTeed Presidential TL and Owens Corning Woodmoor roofing
2. Metal Roofing – typically around $12-$16 per square ft with remove / replace.
   1. Stamped Metal Roofing
   2. Standing Seam Metal Roofing
   3. Corrugated Metal Roofing
   4. Barn / Agricultural Metal Roofing panels with exposed fasteners
3. Cedar Shake / Shingle Roofing – typically ranges between $18-$25 per square foot.
   1. Cedar Shingles are often used on walls, sometimes on expensive roofs
   2. Medium Cedar Shakes, treated and raw
   3. Heavy Cedar Shakes, treated and raw
4. Tile Roofing
   1. Concrete Tile Roof – typical cost varies more widely. Roughly $15/sqft
   2. Clay Tile Roof – premium grade, quarried and freighted in. $35-$40/sqft range
   3. Slate Tile Roofing
5. Flat Roofing – thetypical range is $10-$18 per square foot
   1. Tar, built-up roofing (BUR), gravel top, torchdown roofing
   2. Single-ply membrane, like PVC / TPO / EPDM Roofing
   3. Specialty walking deck membranes like Dec-tec or Global Dec-K-Ing covered patio waterproof roofing, often with rails
6. Specialty Roofing Products – too broad a range to estimate
   1. DaVinci (plastic) Composite Roof Tile
   2. Copper Roofing
   3. Rubber Tile Roofing

These can be in many combinations of existing roofs vs. what you want to replace it with. All have a different labor factor for difficulty and installer skill level. Generally, the most common fit is comp shingle to comp shingle. That’s where the average range above comes into play. With the other combinations of roofing, there are some wrinkles:

Roof Decking

Roof decking is the base that your roof is installed on. It’s typically plywood. Sometimes, it’s something else that used to be acceptable before building codes were created:

1. Shiplap
2. Dimensional lumber/planks
3. Tongue & groove car decking
4. Skip Sheathing

Manufacturers of roofing products have specific requirements for the type of nail base that is allowed for the new roof to be in compliance. Plywood pretty much works universally as a roof deck for any type of roof. If you want an asphalt composite shingle, you need plywood to have a warranty that is honored on your roof; or OSB – oriented strand board is a legal substitute often used by cheap builders. So, if you have one of the above four existing roof decks: you’re out of luck. In addition to the cost of replacing the roof, you also need to install new wood as roof decking. This will often add $4k-$12k, depending on the size of the project. Ouch!

Carpentry And Specialty Needs

If you’re fortunate, you won’t have any structural defects and no rotten wood or mold to address.

But in this rainy Seattle area, with how wet it is, usually there’s some hidden damage to fix. Importantly, we are a licensed, bonded & insured GENERAL contractor. That means we are licensed to do repairs beyond just the roof covering itself. If you have:

1. Rotten framing
2. Rotten eaves, fascia, soffit
3. Rotten siding
4. Mold
5. Ventilation² defects
6. Changing the design or framing of your roof
7. Adding skylights
8. Rain Gutters
9. Chimney repairs

The thing is, we can actually do that stuff, where a specialty “roofing only” contractor can’t touch it³. All of these things will modify your budget from hundreds to tens of thousands based on the extent of the work.

Is Insulation Needed?

With some roof systems, adding insulation is optional.

In other systems, like assemblies with no attic (think Flat Roof assemblies), adding more insulation may be required under current building codes.

The Bottom Line? It Depends.

That’s why our process is to come out and let you interview us. We can go over what you might like and what you might not, plus what your budget is, and what we can accomplish within it. We are here to help you make an informed choice of your options, do a meticulous, detailed inspection, and give you a price for your roof project that fits your needs.

3rd party sites:

1. https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/roofing-replacement-asphalt-shingles
2. https://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=296-200A-016
   1. (44) “Roofing”—A contractor in this specialty installs and repairs materials common to the industry that form a water-tight, weather-resistant surface for roofs and decks, including all accessories, plywood, coping, flashing, valleys, gravel stops, and roof insulation panels above the roof decks. The work is completed using the following materials: Asphaltum, pitch, tar, felt, glass fabric, urethane foam, metal roofing systems, flax, shakes, shingles, roof tile, slate, or any other roofing, waterproofing, weatherproofing, or membrane material(s) or a combination thereof. Also includes roofing-related architectural sheet metal. (This specialty does not allow for structural repair of trusses, beams, or joists.)
3. https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/WARC2018P1/chapter-8-roof-ceiling-construction#WARC2018P1_Pt03_Ch08_SecR806