Roofing Estimate Template

What goes on a roofing estimate

A roofing estimate has two jobs. It has to be specific enough that a homeowner or property manager can compare it against two other roofers, and complete enough that nothing on the roof becomes an argument later. The first job is the reason for the job-specs strip under the header. Measured squares, pitch, layers to tear off, the roof system and the color are what customers line up side by side. The second job is the reason the line items are grouped by phase.

• Tear-off and deck prep: removing each existing layer, disposal, and a decking allowance for the damage you cannot see yet.
• Roof system: shingles, underlayment, ice and water shield, starter, and hip and ridge cap.
• Flashing, ventilation and permits: drip edge, wall and chimney flashing, pipe boots, ridge or box vents, and the permit and inspections.

Anything the customer might add, such as gutters or a full redeck, goes in the optional-items table, priced but outside the total. The customer can add it without you rewriting the estimate.

How to measure a roof for the estimate

Roofing is priced by the square: 100 square feet of roof surface. The trap is that a plan or a ground measurement gives you the footprint, and a pitched roof has more surface than its footprint. Multiply each plane’s plan area by its pitch factor, √(1 + (rise ÷ 12)²):

The Roof Takeoff sheet does this per plane. It then turns the eave, rake, ridge, hip, valley and wall lengths into what you actually order. Starter and drip edge run along eaves plus rakes, cap covers ridges plus hips, and ice and water shield covers two courses at the eaves plus a 3-foot strip in each valley. There is one step flashing piece for every shingle course along a wall. Every coverage figure is an editable assumption, because bundles per square and feet of cap per bundle vary by product. Check the wrapper. If you work from an aerial measurement report, enter its plane areas with the pitch at 0.

Pricing a re-roof line by line

Price tear-off by the number of layers. A second layer is more labor and more dumpster weight, and the takeoff sheet estimates the tonnage so the disposal line is not a guess. Keep waste inside your shingle unit price rather than inflating the customer’s square count. Build every unit price from cost on the Unit Price Builder: material, plus labor hours at your fully loaded rate, plus consumables, then overhead, then profit as a margin on price rather than a markup. A 15% markup on cost is only a 13% margin. To see how shingle prices have moved since your last bid, check the roofing material price trend.

The completed example is a 28.4-square, two-layer tear-off in the Denver hail belt, re-roofed with Class 4 impact-resistant shingles. Tear-off and deck prep come to $3,951, the roof system to $14,577.60, and flashing, ventilation and the permit to $2,715. That is $21,243.60 in total, or about $748 per square all-in. There is no tax line because the roofer pays tax on materials and includes it in the prices. The 30% deposit is $6,373.08, due on acceptance to order material.

The decking allowance, and what happens after tear-off

The deck is the one part of the roof nobody can price with certainty before the shingles come off. Write the uncertainty into the estimate. Include a fixed number of sheets in the price, state the per-sheet price beyond that, and promise photos. Everything else found after tear-off, such as rotted fascia or a damaged chimney, gets written up as a change order and signed before the work is done. When the roof is finished, bill the balance on an invoice that references the estimate number and lists any approved changes.

Estimate, quote or proposal?

For most residential re-roofs, this customer-facing estimate is the whole sale: a price, the terms and a signature. On a commercial re-roof bid to a GC or building owner against drawings and specs, build your cost on the construction estimate worksheet and send a bid proposal with inclusions, exclusions and alternates instead. Our page for roofing contractors covers how that commercial work runs in BuildWorkPro, from the bid through pay applications.

Common mistakes on roofing estimates

• Pricing the footprint instead of the roof. Even a 6/12 pitch adds 12% to the area.
• One tear-off price regardless of layers. The second layer is real labor and real tonnage.
• No decking allowance. Without one, every rotted sheet becomes a negotiation on the roof.
• No valid-until date. Shingle prices move, and an open-ended estimate can be held to old ones.
• Leaving out ventilation and flashing. They are where leaks start, and where a cheaper competitor’s estimate is usually thin.