How Contractors Price a Roof Replacement
Roofers quote by the square: 100 square feet of roof surface. A cost guide's per-square-foot price folds three things together: the shingles and underlayment, the crew's time, and the contractor's overhead and margin. Only one of those, labor, changes much from one New Hampshire town to the next.
The published numbers
HomeGuide's roof replacement guide gives architectural asphalt shingles at $4 to $6 per square foot installed, and separately says "Roofing labor costs $1.50 to $3.00 per square foot or $150 to $300 per square on average". Tear-off is extra: "The cost to tear off a roof is $1 to $5 per square foot for labor to remove the old material".
So on a 2,000 square foot roof (20 squares), the national range is $8,000 to $12,000, of which $3,000 to $6,000 is labor.
Worked example: Manchester-Nashua vs the Seacoast
Roofers in the Manchester-Nashua wage area earn a median $27.68 an hour against $26.65 nationally, an index of +3.9%. In the Boston-Cambridge-Newton area, which BLS uses for Rockingham and Strafford counties, it is $31.90, or +19.7%.
| 2,000 sq ft, architectural | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| National | $8,000 | $12,000 |
| Manchester-Nashua area | $8,100 | $12,250 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton area | $8,600 | $13,200 |
| Manchester-Nashua with tear-off | $10,200 | $22,600 |
Tear-off nearly matters more than the town: at $2,100 to $10,400 it can add a third to the price. A quote that says "overlay" (new shingles over old) skips it, where code and the existing roof allow.
What moves a quote outside the range
- Pitch and access. Steep roofs need staging and slow the crew; that is labor, so it scales with the local wage.
- Decking. Rotten sheathing found during tear-off is usually priced per sheet on top of the quote.
- Metal instead of asphalt. HomeGuide's metal range is $5 to $16 per square foot, wide because it spans corrugated panels to standing seam. See metal roof cost.
Town-by-town figures, with each town's permit fee, are on the roof replacement cost page, for example Manchester and Portsmouth. Comparing written bids is covered in how to compare contractor quotes.
Sources
- HomeGuide: Roof replacement cost (Nov 7, 2025) — installed prices, labor, tear-off.
- O*NET OnLine, Roofers, New Hampshire local wages — BLS 2025 wage data.
- BLS, May 2025 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Definitions.
Questions
How much of a roof price is labor?
HomeGuide puts roofing labor at $1.50 to $3.00 per square foot and architectural shingles at $4 to $6 installed, so labor is about half the installed price before tear-off.
Is tear-off included in the per-square-foot price?
Not in the figures used here. HomeGuide lists tear-off separately at $1 to $5 per square foot, and it is all labor and disposal.