Keep looking! Never almost never okay did I say never contract through those home improvement centers...they get my money for lumber and supplies but let their contractors find business elsewhere....my aunt has a 2400 house just like the one you describe with the same square footage...her hi store told her $13,000...for a better architectural shingle she used a licensed roofer she got through a friend's referral and he did it all for $6,000 including the shingles...this was just 2 weeks ago...so that tells you how much they're marking up.

I had an HI store give me an HVAC quote for 1100 sq. feet...for the same trane unit quoted me by a mom/pop HVAC company the HI contractor was charging me $9,800 while the other was $4800...not going to get my money....

Tara

Not really crazy, seeing how shingles are made of asphalt & asphalt made of OIL & OIL has tripled in price in last 6 years.

Just finished getting 50 year roof warranty of 22 square roof with Decra roof. (stone coated Metal roof) quote was 19.5k.

Me, I rather spend the $$$ now that see what oil based roofs cost in 20 or even 30 years. Most asphalt shingle roofs don't last the full 20 years ! The roof offers 120 MPH wind protection. Plus I live near a tree farm & the possibility of a brushfire with global warming & drought is REAL.

I had other contracters tell me 30-35k for my decra roof.
Finally I found an EXPERIENCED LICENSED CONTRACTOR who gave me a real good roof. I feel confindent that this roof with the full Certainteed Ice & water shield he put down will do the JOB for years to come.

Yes, it's crazy, but not surprising. Roofs and replacement windows both seem prone to these high-pressure, inflated-price sales. I don't know why.

The price of shingles is a relatively small part of it. I just redid my roof last September with the (paid) help of some friends. It's a smaller house (about 11 squares)in NE Ohio, and materials came to $720. This was for 30 year architectural shingles, a replacement for a single rotten pine 1x6, a course of ice guard along the bottom edges, a box of coiled roofing nails and some flashing. I was able to re-use the old ridge vent, and another friend donated some leftover felt he had sitting around. I picked up all materials myself, so there were no delivery costs. I also helped do the work. Labor and disposal of the old roof came to less than $1000, including pizza and soda for everyone. Granted, these guys are just doing this on the weekends and their overhead is unusually low; your labor costs would almost certainly be higher.

If you don't have any significant rotting wood, I'd hope you could find someone to do yours for $5k or so -- just a guess.

I just had my roof done yesterday. The house is a front to back split. Approx 1600 sq ft of roof. There were 2 layers of shingles on it. The estimates I got ranged from $3700-$4700. All contractors were licensed and insured and were all going to use the GAF roof system of GAF 30 year architectural shingles/felt/ridge vent/ice guard. The contractor I picked was priced at $4200 or $4000 cash and that included 5 free 4x8 sheets of plywood. Each additional sheet was $60 installed. 8 guys arrived yesterday morning at 7:30am and by 8:45 had the roof stripped of the old shingles. They backed a small dumpster truck onto my driveway right up to the house and most of the stuff went right in. Tarps were placed around the front and rear of the house to protect the house from damage and to catch the shingles thrown off the roof. Upon inspection by myself and the foreman, I agreed to replace another 17 sheets of plywood that were dry rotted. That added another $1000 to the price but I knew the job was done right. I watched the whole process and answered any questions they had. I provided a cooler filled with ice cold bottles of water for them and also let them use my restroom when needed. By 1pm they were finishing up and started the cleanup. They even walked around my property with a magnet on wheels to pick up any nails. By 2:15pm they were gone.

They did remove my gutters so they could wrap the facia boards and I am having new gutters installed at $2.50 a foot.

The final price was $5300 with new gutters and that is from a licensed and insured roofing contractor here on Long Island.

This reminds me of a few months ago when we were getting quotes for our new windows. SeeThruWindows quoted us for 12 standard windows $16,000 for a year $14,000 if we signed in a month and $9,000 if we signed on the spot with a sign in the yard and 2 referrals. Unfortunately we did sign, we did our homework after and canceled within the 3 business days. After checking around we got the SAME quality windows for $3,500. Live and Learn we will do lots of homework before we replace the roof.
Good luck and Shop Around!

Thanks for the responses. We are NOT going to go with this company...I was just completely weirded out about how they came up with their pricing. I don't like the 3 different price thing at all. And how the salesman had to keep calling the office (reminded me of buying a new car, and the salesman has to keep disappearing into his sales manager's office..then comes back with new price). And the voice coming through his cell phone was so loud...you know they intentionally do that so you can hear both sides of the conversation.....so it seems like the salesman sitting in front of you is really going to bat for you for the price. Oh, and the other thing....this company offers financing...at 13.99%! When I mentioned that not only was their pricing outrageous, but their interest rate was nuts too, they dropped down to 8.99%. I don't want to haggle over price....I want to purchase a freaking quality roof at a FAIR price. Our neighbor gave us the names of some Amish men who did their roof and they paid $3,000.00 (their roof is smaller, I expect the Amish men's quote for us will be $4500.00 or thereabouts). We will be contacting them for a quote.

A little word of advice to you all out there.....if your home improvement salesman shows up at your door driving a brand new Hummer......pretend you aren't home!

Are you sure we can't interest you in some windows? A remote tropical timeshare? How about some nice Amway products?

That would be a great price if you can get it done for around $4500 for 24sq of shingles. I would look around your area for a company that has foreign help. They work real cheap and usually get it done faster. You could probably save more money. Just don't ask them if they have insurance. The less you know the better. Definitely don't call an established company that carrys all the necessary insurance and licenses they will be higher. If your really looking for a good price don't go with an established company that offers a warranty you have to find the guys working for beer money or hire guys and pay them under the table. When your price shopping don't worry about the quality of the work just look at the bottom line (PRICE!) Its only a roof anybody could put one on. They do have directions on the back of every shingle bundle. Get a couple friends together on the weekend and just give them a good lunch and some beer if you really want to save some money..Roofing is easy work you should have no problems doing it.
PS.
Please just call a few established roofing company's in your area and get estimates. Just don't look at price. Make sure the company has all the necessary insurance,licenses and get references and call them! Thats one mistake I see people make they don't check the references. Check the Better Business Bureau on all the companies.

The cost for 30 year architectural shingles & materials should be in the $60 to $70 per square range.

Labor cost is obviously quite variable, region to region, as well as company to company, and it depends on the pitch of the roof & number of hips, valleys,etc.

Given you have a ranch w/ a gable & depending on the pitch the labor cost should be in the $75 to $150 per square range.

So you should be able to find a competent roofer to do the job for approximately $200 per square or about $5,000 for your 24 squares.

I suppose I'm somewhat responsible for NEPA's bitter sarcasm, since I introduced sarcasm to the discussion in the first place. Nevertheless, I feel I owe my "buddies" some measure of defense. Both of them have done construction work, including roofing, for decades. They are insured for the work they do, and their craftsmanship is top-notch. On the other hand, sad to say it, I've seen some dismal work done by "established roofing company's [sic]." I do sympathize with anyone struggling to run a legitimate small business, crossing and dotting the regulatory t's and i's, but I find a sense of entitlement rather unattractive.

Are they reroofing over the existing shingles or removing the old shingles? If the roof sheathing is is good shape one can usually reroof over 1 layer of shingles without any problems & it saves filling up the landfills for a few years.

At $14,995 that is $625 per square for basic shingles. That is absurb with or without foreign labor, with or without insurance, & with or without licenses. Depending on the pitch & whether or not you are removing the old shingles this is like a 2 day job with 4 people. That is 64 man-hours. The material cost will be less than $2,000. Assume a 15% overhead to cover licenses, insurance, & other general & administrative expenses. That means the labor being paid out evenly to the 4 people is $167 per hour. If they can keep that up all year that is over $300,000 for each of them.

Yea, I would call that absurb.

In reality, the foreman might be making $30 per hour & whether he is using foreign labor @ a loaded price $10/hour or American labor at a loaded price of $15 to $20/hour is not even relevant to the question of "Is this a crazy price for a new roof?".

It is a crazy price. I'm sure there are credible roofing companies in your area that don't use those sales tactics & will provide reasonable pricing.

jon1270...I wouldn't consider you at fault at all for northeastpa's "bitter" sarcasm. Obviously he didn't get the gist of the posting or else he is an embittered contractor unhappy with the fact that people DO consider price (as well as other factors) when doing home improvements to their home. I definitely am interested in more than the price, that's the reason that I had InstallAmerica out in the first place to give me a quote. I just refuse to be taken for a fool and pay what seemed to me to be a ridiculous rate for a basic roofing job. And even more than their price, it was their SALES TACTICS that I found most unsettling.

mike13... It is a complete tearoff of the old roof, the edges are curled and some shingles are beginning to disappear off the roof itself. We had another quote from a small contractor (no big fancy website, no Hummer and definitely no sales manager on the other end of the cell phone) and his charge is for $200.00 a square plus whatever plywood ($50.00) that might need to be replaced. He is licensed, bonded and insured and the price was the price, with no haggling. He has done a lot of work for my boss and comes highly recommended. He is the one who will be installing our new roof. He didn't ask, but I will let him put his sign in my yard for a specific amount of time while the job is being done, and even afterwards for a bit if he wants. I think that is the courteous thing to do, but I certainly wouldn't want to be strongarmed with a "reduced price" in exchange for advertising (like that other company!)! If all goes well, and I am pleased with the roofing job (and I fully expect to be)....I will tell everyone I know how pleased I am with him and pass on the recommendation.

:) jiggreen

diyourselfer - please email me I live in long island and would love to know who you used.