Every roofing company gets asked the same first question: what does a new roof cost? It is a fair question and it deserves a real answer, which is this — the price is decided by six things, and nobody can assess more than one of them from the street.
Here is what actually moves the number, in roughly the order it matters.
1. Size, measured in squares
Roofing is priced by the square — a 10x10 foot area, or 100 square feet. A roof is almost always larger than the footprint of the house, because it includes overhangs and every slope. This is the single biggest driver, and it is also the one homeowners most consistently underestimate.
2. Pitch and access
A low-slope roof can be walked. A steep one needs staging, harnesses, and more time per square, and it costs more for the same area. Access matters just as much: a house on a flat lot in Hixson with room for a dumpster in the driveway is a straightforwardly cheaper job than a home on Signal Mountain or Missionary Ridge where material has to be carried and there is nowhere to stage.
3. What is under the shingles
This is the one that cannot be known until the tear-off starts, and it is the reason honest quotes include a stated allowance for decking rather than a silent assumption. If the sheathing is sound, it stays. If it is soft, delaminated, or rotted around a chimney or valley, it has to be replaced — and covering bad decking with new shingles is how you end up paying twice.
Ask any contractor how decking replacement is handled in their price. A good answer is a per-sheet rate agreed up front. A bad answer is silence, because that becomes a conversation on day two when your roof is already open.
4. Layers to tear off
Removing two layers of shingles costs more than removing one, in labour and in disposal. It also frequently signals other problems: a roof that was overlaid once was usually overlaid to avoid dealing with something.
5. Material
Three-tab shingles, architectural shingles, and standing seam metal are three different price tiers with three different service lives. In this climate architectural shingles are the default for most homes for a reason — they handle heat and wind better than three-tab and cost a fraction of metal. Metal makes sense on the right house, and on the wrong one it is money spent on a spec nobody will notice.
6. The details that do not show from the driveway
Flashing, underlayment, ice and water shield, drip edge, and ventilation are where the difference between a cheap roof and a good one actually lives. Every one of them can be skipped or downgraded without the finished roof looking any different from the ground — which is exactly why cut-rate quotes tend to be cut-rate in those specific places.
Why we do not publish a price range
Because a range wide enough to be honest is too wide to be useful, and a range narrow enough to be useful would be wrong for most homes. What we do instead is come out, get on the roof, measure it, look at the decking and the ventilation, and give you a fixed written price before anything starts. That inspection is free and it does not come with a pitch.
If your roof turns out not to need replacing at all, we will say so — a repair is often the right answer, and telling you otherwise would be the fastest way to lose a customer for good.
