Guide / Roofing quotes, United States

Is my roofing quote too high?

Toshikatsu Oga / September 27, 2026

Why the total tells you nothing
The five kinds of lines
Step 1: labor hours times a loaded wage
Step 2: shingles against the import chain
Step 3: overhead on top of labor that is already loaded
Step 4: the permit line
Step 5: the lines with no benchmark
Warning signs in the wording, not the numbers
What to ask the contractor, in one message
Questions
Sources

You cannot tell from the total, and neither can anyone else. A roofing quote is five kinds of lines: labor, materials, permit, disposal and overhead. Two of them can be checked against public data (labor hours against BLS wage statistics with a state DOT loading, shingles against the Census import chain), one can be checked against a city's exemption list, and two have no public benchmark at all. In Austin, TX, the checkable numbers are $43.34 to $59.83 per loaded crew hour and about $82 to $89 per square of shingles. The steps below work for any U.S. quote; the local wage changes with the metro area.

Why the total tells you nothing

Homeowners compare totals because that is what the last page of every quote shows. But two quotes for the same roof can differ by thousands of dollars for reasons that have nothing to do with fairness: one counts 26 squares and the other 30, one includes a tear-off and the other assumes an overlay, one carries the permit fee and the other leaves it to you. Until the lines are lined up, a lower total may simply be a smaller job.

The reverse is also true. A quote that looks high in total may be honest line by line and simply thorough. The only way to know is to take it apart, and a contractor who will not give you the parts is telling you something before you have checked a single number. The Federal Trade Commission's advice is to get multiple estimates, in writing, each describing the work, the materials, the completion date and the price (FTC, How To Avoid a Home Improvement Scam).

The five kinds of lines

Kind	Typical wording	Public benchmark
Labor	Labor, installation, crew, "3 men 3 days"	Yes: local wage statistics with a state DOT loading
Materials	Shingles, 26 squares, architectural, 30-year	Yes, as a floor: import value, wholesale margin, contractor markup
Permit	Permit, permit fee, city fees	Yes, partly: the city's exemption list and fee schedule
Disposal	Tear-off, dumpster, haul-away, dump fees	No
Overhead	Overhead and profit, O&P, markup, general conditions	Not directly, but it overlaps the labor loading

Accessories such as underlayment, flashing, drip edge, ridge vents and ice barrier are materials, but they have no public import record specific enough to price, so the report treats them like disposal: get the product names and quantities and look them up at retail yourself.

Step 1: labor hours times a loaded wage

Find the crew size and the number of days, or the stated hours. Multiply workers by days by eight to get crew hours. Then multiply by the loaded wage for your metro area. For Austin, TX the BLS May 2025 wage for roofers is $24.08 mean and $33.24 at the 90th percentile (BLS OEWS); the TxDOT loading for labor markup and for insurance and taxes is 25% plus 55% on base wages, or 1.80 (TxDOT Item 9). That gives $43.34 to $59.83 per crew hour. A three-person crew for three days is 72 hours and a labor reference of $3,121 to $4,308.

If the labor line is well above the 90th percentile figure, ask what is in it. Common honest answers: steep pitch, multiple layers, a small crew of highly paid specialists, or accessories folded into labor. Common evasive answers: "that's our rate." If the quote gives no crew size and no days, ask for them before you do anything else.

Step 2: shingles against the import chain

Find the squares (one square is 100 square feet of roof) and the product. If the product sheet gives a weight per square, use it; architectural shingles are often around 240 pounds per square, which is 108.86 kilograms. The Census import record for asphalt roofing (HS 6807.90.0010) gives a landed duty-paid value of $0.4667 per kilogram for January to July 2026 (Census IMDB 2026-07); the wholesale gross margin for roofing distributors is 28.35% (Census AIES 2024); state DOT rules allow a contractor materials markup of 15% to 25% (Caltrans, FDOT, TxDOT). The chain gives $0.749 to $0.814 per kilogram, about $82 to $89 per square.

This is a floor. Freight to your street, the brand you chose and any extra distributor tier sit on top, so expect the shingle line to be above it. What you are looking for is a line so far above that none of those three explain it. If your squares are in doubt, our guide on how many squares your roof is shows the pitch-factor arithmetic.

Step 3: overhead on top of labor that is already loaded

The DOT loading in step 1 already includes a labor markup and the insurance and taxes a contractor pays on wages. If a quote adds a separate "overhead and profit" of 15% or 20% across every line, and the labor line is already at or above the loaded rate, the same costs are being recovered twice. That is not necessarily wrong, because a contractor is free to price as they like, but it is a fair question: what does the overhead line cover that the labor rate does not? Our report marks this as an overlap with the reference markups and prints the sentence to ask.

Step 4: the permit line

Check whether your city requires a permit for the work at all. Austin, for example, exempts asphalt shingles replacing asphalt shingles on houses up to three stories, outside the Wildland-Urban Interface conditions (City of Austin, Work Exempt from Building Permits). Where a permit is needed, the fee is on the city's published schedule and the contractor should pass it through at cost and show you the receipt. A round-number permit fee on a job that needs no permit is a line to ask about.

Step 5: the lines with no benchmark

For tear-off, disposal and accessories, the check is not a number but a quantity. Ask how many squares the tear-off is priced on and how many layers are coming off; the squares should match the shingle line. Ask for product names on underlayment, flashing and vents so you can look them up. Ask whether disposal is a dumpster rental plus tipping fees or a flat charge. None of this tells you the line is fair; it tells you whether it was priced or guessed.

Warning signs in the wording, not the numbers

"This price is only good today." Sales made at your home over $25 carry a three business day right to cancel under the FTC Cooling-Off Rule (16 CFR Part 429). A price that expires tonight is a technique to stop you comparing. See what to do when the price is only good today.
"We'll take care of your deductible." In Texas that is a Class B misdemeanor for the contractor under Business and Commerce Code Section 27.02 (Tex. Bus. & Com. Code 27.02), and several other states have similar rules. See can a roofer waive my deductible in Texas.
A large deposit before any material arrives. The FTC says not to pay the full amount up front, to check with your state or local consumer agency about down payment limits, and lists asking for everything up front or cash only among the signs of a scam (FTC, How To Avoid a Home Improvement Scam).
No written contract, or a contract with no line items. Nothing above can be checked without one.
"Licensed and insured" with nothing to look up. Texas has no state license for roofers; the TDLR does not administer one, and the RCAT program is voluntary (RCAT, licensing). Ask for the insurance certificate instead, and call the insurer to confirm it is current.

What to ask the contractor, in one message

Send the contractor a short, specific list. Crew size and days behind the labor line. Squares and product name behind the shingle line, and the waste percentage included. Squares and layers behind the tear-off. The jurisdiction and receipt behind the permit. What the overhead line covers that the labor rate does not. A contractor with a good reason for each number answers in a minute. A contractor without one changes the subject.

If you would rather not do the arithmetic, upload the quote and we do it, with every source and formula printed beside every number and the questions written out in a letter you can forward. We are paid by homeowners only and take no fee from contractors. Check a quote from $39, or run the free Quick Estimate first.

Questions

How do I know if a roofing quote is too high?

Not from the total. Split it into labor, materials, permit, disposal and overhead. Check labor hours against the local BLS wage with a state DOT loading, check shingles against the import and distribution chain as a floor, check the permit against the city's exemption list, and get quantities and product names for the lines that have no public benchmark.

What is a fair labor rate for a roofer?

Public data give a reference, not a fair rate. For Austin, TX it is $43.34 to $59.83 per loaded crew hour, from the BLS May 2025 metro wage for roofers ($24.08 mean, $33.24 at the 90th percentile) times the TxDOT loading of 1.80. Other metro areas use their own BLS wage.

Should overhead and profit be a separate line?

It can be, but if the labor line is already at or above the loaded rate, a separate overhead line recovers the same costs twice. Ask what the overhead line covers that the labor rate does not.

Which parts of a roofing quote have no public benchmark?

Tear-off and disposal, underlayment, flashing, vents and similar accessories. For those, check quantities against the shingle line and ask for product names rather than a number.

Do roofers need a license in Texas?

There is no state license. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation does not administer one, and the RCAT licensed roofing contractor program is voluntary. Ask for the contractor's insurance certificate and confirm it with the insurer.

Sources

Every figure above links to the public record it comes from. The wage, import, margin and markup figures are the ones our reports use, published as USCCDB v1.0 under CC BY 4.0. Statutes and city pages are quoted as published on September 27, 2026; check the source for changes.

How we work: HORIZON SHIELD is paid by homeowners only. We take no referral fee, listing fee or commission from any contractor, distributor or insurer, so the only way we earn is by finding what is in the quote. Every report prints the source and the formula beside every number, and a sha256 receipt so the contractor can confirm the report was not altered. About the service.