On an asphalt roof, labor is the biggest line — typically 35 to 45% of the total, more than the shingles. Which means the variables that move labor move the quote more than any material decision you make.
Bare installation labor, on a tear-off job, generally falls between $150 and $350 per square. Tear-off and disposal sit on top of that, usually another $75–$150 per square per layer — which is the whole argument for and against roofing over.
Typical US figures. Metropolitan labor rates run at the high end and beyond; rural rates below.
What actually moves it
Pitch is the big one. Up to about 6/12, a crew walks the roof and works at normal speed. From 7/12 they slow down. From 8/12 up, roof jacks, planks or fall arrest are required, and productivity drops sharply.
| Pitch | Typical labor multiplier |
|---|---|
| 3/12 – 6/12 | 1.0 (base) |
| 7/12 – 8/12 | 1.15–1.25 |
| 9/12 – 10/12 | 1.3–1.5 |
| 12/12 and above | 1.6–2.0 |
You cannot change your pitch, but you can know it before the quote arrives, and it explains most of the gap between a quote you expected and the one you got. How to measure it from the ground or the attic takes ten minutes.
Stories. A second story is not twice the work but it is more: every bundle is carried higher, the dumpster is further from the tear-off, and staging costs time at both ends of the day. Expect 10–20%.
Roof shape. This is the one that surprises people. A hip roof with three dormers, two valleys and a chimney has the same square count as a plain gable of the same footprint and takes far longer, because every one of those features needs flashing — and flashing is the slow, skilled, leak-critical part of the job.
Access. Somewhere to put a 20-yard dumpster within reach of the roof edge is worth real money. A narrow side yard, a neighbour's fence, or landscaping that has to be boarded over all add hours.
Per-square versus per-hour
Roofing crews price by the square because the work is measurable and repetitive. Hourly pricing on a roof is a warning sign — it moves all the schedule risk onto you, and the schedule risk on a roof is weather.
What should be hourly, or at a stated unit rate, is the work nobody can quantify before tear-off: replacing rotten sheathing. Get that as a per-sheet rate in writing, typically $70–$150 per 4 × 8 sheet installed. A contract without it is a contract with an open number in it.
Where the crew size shows up
A five-man crew on a 20-square simple gable is a one-day job: tear off in the morning, dry in by mid-afternoon, shingle out by evening. A two-man crew on the same roof is three days, and each of those nights is a night the roof is under tarps.
Faster is not just more convenient. A roof that is torn off and dried in the same day is exposed for hours; one that takes three days is exposed for two nights, and a single storm in that window costs more than the whole labor difference.
Ask how many people will be on the roof and how many days. The answer tells you more about the quote than the shingle brand does.
Doing the tear-off yourself
It is the one part of the job with no license requirement and real savings — typically $75–$150 per square. It is also the hardest physical work in residential construction, and it comes with a hard deadline: the roof must be dried in before the day ends.
If you tear off and the crew is not there to dry in, you own the consequences. Most contractors will not warranty work over a deck they did not strip, because they cannot certify what was underneath.
The honest version: worth doing on a single-story, single-layer, simple gable if you have three fit people and a firm start time from the roofer. Not worth doing on anything else.
Comparing two quotes
Divide each total by the square count. If the contractors disagree on the square count, that is the first thing to settle — work it out yourself first, because a 15% difference in measured area is a 15% difference in price that has nothing to do with either crew.