Roofing Material Prices This Year, and Why It Matters

Roofing materials cost more this year than last, but less than the noise suggests. The federal Producer Price Index for prepared asphalt and tar roofing products sits at 372.301 for July 2026 against 359.364 a year earlier, a rise of 3.6%. Lumber rose 10.1%. On a typical mid-size asphalt job the labour side, built from a $26.65 median roofer wage, runs roughly $6,700 to $10,000 before materials.

Key points

• Prepared asphalt and tar roofing and siding materials rose 3.6% over the twelve months to July 2026, from index 359.364 to 372.301 (BLS PPI series WPU1361).
• Lumber rose 10.1% over the same period, from 264.248 to 291.019, meaning decking replacement inflated almost three times faster than shingles.
• The national median roofer wage is $26.65 an hour in the 2025 BLS OEWS survey, with the middle half of the trade earning between $22.24 and $31.44.
• Applying a 2.5x burden and overhead multiplier, an assumption rather than a measured figure, that median wage bills at about $66.63 an hour.
• A 3.6% material rise on a $5,000 allowance is about $180 a year, which is smaller than most people expect and smaller than the spread between two honest bids.

What is the source of these numbers, and what is not?

Every wage and index level on this page comes from two federal series and nothing else. We do not survey contractors, collect quotes, inspect properties or maintain a price database. What we do is take the wages the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures, apply arithmetic you can see and argue with, and show you where the answer becomes guesswork.

The Producer Price Index numbers are index points on a 1982 = 100 base. They are not dollars and cannot be turned into dollars. An index level of 372.301 does not mean a square of shingles costs $372. It means producer prices for that category are 3.72 times their 1982 level. The only legitimate use of these numbers is direction and rate of change, which is exactly what this article does with them.

What do roofers get paid per hour?

The 2025 OEWS survey gives the following national figures for roofers, SOC code 47-2181.

Measure	Hourly wage
25th percentile	$22.24
Median	$26.65
Mean	$27.95
75th percentile	$31.44
First-line construction supervisor, median	$38.42
Roofers employed nationally	135,490

Read the percentiles as the shape of the trade, not as a good-to-bad scale. A crew member at $22.24 may be a second-year installer on a straightforward tear-off. A $31.44 roofer is more likely a lead handling flashing, valleys and penetrations. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for roofers covers what the job involves and what entry into it requires.

Why is the billed rate two to three times the wage?

Because the wage is what lands in the worker’s bank account, and it is not what the hour costs the business. On top of it sit payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, which is expensive in roofing because falls are expensive, general liability insurance, the truck and its fuel, tools and their replacement, the office hours spent quoting and scheduling, a warranty reserve for callbacks, and profit.

The working assumption used throughout this article is a multiplier between 2 and 3, with 2.5 as the middle case. State it plainly: this is an assumption, not a measured figure. No federal series publishes contractor burden rates. If a contractor tells you their multiplier is 2.2 or 2.9, they know their business better than a national average does.

Here is what the multiplier does to each wage tier.

Wage tier	Wage/hr	At 2.0x	At 2.5x	At 3.0x
25th percentile	$22.24	$44.48	$55.60	$66.72
Median	$26.65	$53.30	$66.63	$79.95
Mean	$27.95	$55.90	$69.88	$83.85
75th percentile	$31.44	$62.88	$78.60	$94.32
Supervisor	$38.42	$76.84	$96.05	$115.26

The spread between the cheapest and dearest cell, $44.48 against $115.26, is 2.6 times. That is before anyone has argued about materials. It is the single largest reason two quotes on the same roof differ.

How much labour does a roof replacement take?

The hours below are stated assumptions, not measured data. They describe a straightforward asphalt shingle tear-off and replacement on a walkable pitch with reasonable access. Crew of four plus a working supervisor, which is the common shape for residential work.

The build-up for a mid-size roof, line by line:

Line	Working	Value
Crew size	4 roofers	4
Days on site	2	2
Hours per day	8	8
Total roofer hours	4 × 2 × 8	64
Roofer wage (median)	from OEWS	$26.65/hr
Raw roofer wage cost	64 × $26.65	$1,705.60
Supervisor hours	1 × 2 × 8	16
Supervisor wage	from OEWS	$38.42/hr
Raw supervisor wage cost	16 × $38.42	$614.72
Total raw wage cost	$1,705.60 + $614.72	$2,320.32
Burden and overhead multiplier	assumption	2.5
Billed labour	$2,320.32 × 2.5	$5,800.80
Material allowance	assumption, 2026 prices	$5,000.00
Total	$5,800.80 + $5,000.00	$10,800.80

Change the multiplier and nothing else, and the total moves from $9,640.64 at 2.0x to $11,961.00 at 3.0x. That $2,320 swing on one assumption is worth remembering when a contractor’s number surprises you.

What does it cost for a roof my size?

This is the table to scan. Find the row closest to your roof and read across. All rows use the median $26.65 roofer wage, the $38.42 supervisor wage, a 2.5x multiplier, a crew of four plus one supervisor, and eight-hour days. The material allowance scales with roof size at $2,500 per crew-day, which is itself an assumption and the number you should replace with a real quote figure as soon as you have one.

Roof size	Crew-days	Roofer hrs	Sup. hrs	Raw wages	Billed labour @2.5x	Materials	Total
Very small (garage, porch)	0.5	16	4	$580.08	$1,450.20	$1,250	$2,700
Small (under 1,200 sq ft)	1	32	8	$1,160.16	$2,900.40	$2,500	$5,400
Small-mid	1.5	48	12	$1,740.24	$4,350.60	$3,750	$8,101
Mid (1,600-2,000 sq ft)	2	64	16	$2,320.32	$5,800.80	$5,000	$10,801
Mid-large	2.5	80	20	$2,900.40	$7,251.00	$6,250	$13,501
Large (2,400-3,000 sq ft)	3	96	24	$3,480.48	$8,701.20	$7,500	$16,201
Large, complex	4	128	32	$4,640.64	$11,601.60	$10,000	$21,602
Very large / multi-structure	5	160	40	$5,800.80	$14,502.00	$12,500	$27,002
Very large, cut-up roof	6	192	48	$6,960.96	$17,402.40	$15,000	$32,402

Raw wages per crew-day work out at (4 × 8 × $26.65) + (1 × 8 × $38.42) = $852.80 + $307.36 = $1,160.16. Every row is that figure multiplied by crew-days.

How much does the answer move if my assumptions are wrong?

Two axes matter most: which wage tier your crew sits in, and what multiplier the business runs. Below is the mid-size two-day job, 64 roofer hours plus 16 supervisor hours, with a fixed $5,000 material allowance, swept across both.

Roofer wage tier	@2.0x	@2.5x	@3.0x
25th pct, $22.24	$9,075	$10,094	$11,113
Median, $26.65	$9,641	$10,801	$11,961
Mean, $27.95	$9,807	$11,009	$12,210
75th pct, $31.44	$10,254	$11,568	$12,881

Working for the top-left cell: (64 × $22.24) + (16 × $38.42) = $1,423.36 + $614.72 = $2,038.08 raw. Times 2.0 = $4,076.16 billed labour. Plus $5,000 materials = $9,076.16, rounded to $9,075 for the table.

The full spread across the grid is $9,075 to $12,881, a difference of $3,806 or 42%. Every cell in that grid is a defensible price for the same roof. If two bids land inside this range, neither is necessarily wrong and you are choosing on other grounds.

What has a year of material inflation actually cost you?

Apply the 3.6% asphalt roofing rise and the 10.1% lumber rise to the same material allowances, and the answer is smaller than the headlines imply for shingles and larger for anything structural.

Material allowance	July 2025 equivalent	July 2026 at +3.6%	Increase	Same budget at lumber’s +10.1%	Lumber increase
$1,250	$1,206	$1,250	$44	$1,328	$122
$2,500	$2,413	$2,500	$87	$2,657	$244
$3,750	$3,620	$3,750	$130	$3,986	$366
$5,000	$4,826	$5,000	$174	$5,313	$487
$7,500	$7,239	$7,500	$261	$7,969	$730
$10,000	$9,653	$10,000	$347	$10,626	$974
$15,000	$14,479	$15,000	$521	$16,515	$1,515

The 3.6% figure comes from 372.301 divided by 359.364, which equals 1.0360. The lumber figure comes from 291.019 divided by 264.248, which equals 1.1013. Both are from the BLS Producer Price Index.

Read the last two columns as the decking risk. A tear-off that exposes rotten sheathing pulls you out of the 3.6% world and into the 10.1% world, and the size of that jump is why decking should never be buried inside a base price.

Reverse the calculation: what would justify a $20,000 quote?

If you have a $20,000 bid on a mid-size roof and want to know what has to be true for it to be honest, subtract and divide.

• Assume $6,000 in materials. That leaves $14,000 in labour.
• At a 2.5x multiplier, $14,000 in billed labour is $5,600 in raw wages.
• At the $26.65 median wage with a supervisor on site one hour in five, the blended raw rate is about $29.00 an hour. $5,600 ÷ $29.00 = 193 hours.
• 193 hours across a crew of four is roughly 48 hours each, or six full days on site.

So a $20,000 quote on a mid-size roof implies about six crew-days, three times the two days assumed above. That is defensible for a steep, cut-up roof with multiple valleys, several penetrations, difficult access or a second layer to strip. It is not defensible for a simple gable roof on a walkable pitch. The question to put to the contractor is not “why so much” but “how many crew-days is this, and why that many”. A padded bid rarely survives that question.

When is this estimate wrong?

Often, and here are the specific ways.

Pitch and difficulty. A walkable pitch and a steep pitch are different jobs. Steep work needs staging, harnesses and slower movement, and the hours in every table above assume neither. Two days becomes three or four.

Access. A house you can back a truck up to and a house on a narrow lot with landscaping to protect are different jobs. Carrying material and hauling debris by hand adds hours the tables do not carry.

Tear-off layers. Stripping one layer and stripping three are different jobs. Every additional layer adds tear-off time and disposal weight.

Disposal. None of the totals include dumpster rental or landfill tipping fees. These are real, separately invoiced, and vary by county.

Permits and inspections. Not included anywhere above. Municipal, variable, and sometimes with a required mid-job inspection that costs a day of schedule.

Code upgrades. Ice and water shield requirements, ventilation minimums, drip edge rules and fastener patterns are set locally and can add material and labour that a national wage figure cannot see.

Decking. Every total assumes sound sheathing. It is only visible after tear-off. Lumber’s 10.1% rise makes this the most expensive surprise available.

Season. Roofing has a season. Peak-demand months and emergency winter work do not price like a scheduled job in a slow month, and the OEWS annual wage figures average across all of it.

Emergency call-out. A tarp at 9pm after a storm is not an hour of scheduled labour and does not price like one.

Regional wage variation. The figures here are national. OEWS publishes metro-level data, but the only geography supplied for this article is the United States as a whole. A national median cannot tell you what a roofer earns in your specific metro, and the difference can be substantial. Treat every number here as a starting point to be adjusted, not a local price.

Two things people get wrong

“Material prices are exploding, so I should wait.” Asphalt roofing materials rose 3.6% in twelve months. On a $5,000 allowance that is $174 a year, or about $15 a month of delay. Meanwhile the spread between the cheapest and dearest defensible bid on the same roof was $3,806 in the grid above. Shopping the bid is worth roughly twenty times more than timing the market. If the roof is leaking, waiting costs far more than either.

“A cheaper quote means a cheaper crew.” Not necessarily. Look at the cross-condition grid: a 25th-percentile crew at a 3.0x multiplier bills $11,113, while a 75th-percentile crew at 2.0x bills $10,254. The more expensive crew produced the cheaper bid. Price differences reflect overhead structure at least as much as they reflect who is on the roof. A contractor with a large office and a big warranty reserve charges more for the same labour, and sometimes that reserve is worth paying for.

How do I read a real quote against these numbers?

Ask for these lines separately. A quote that shows them is one you can check. A quote that shows a single number is one you cannot.

• Labour, with crew size and days on site stated. This is the line that maps to every table above.
• Materials, by type and quantity, with shingles, underlayment, flashing, drip edge and fasteners distinguished.
• Tear-off and disposal, with the number of existing layers stated and dumpster cost shown.
• Decking replacement, priced per sheet as a conditional item with an allowance and an overage rate. Given lumber’s 10.1% rise, get this number in writing.
• Permits and inspection fees, at cost.
• Flashing and penetrations, counted. Chimneys, vents, skylights and valleys are where roofs leak and where hours go.
• Warranty, with the material warranty and the workmanship warranty stated separately and their durations named.

The single question that exposes a padded bid: “How many crew-days is this, and how many people per day?” Multiply their answer by $1,160 in raw wages per crew-day, apply a 2.5x multiplier, and see whether the labour line they quoted is anywhere near it. A contractor who has costed the job answers immediately. One who has picked a number and worked backwards will not.

What to check before you sign

Confirm the crew-day count in writing and check it against the size table above. Confirm the decking overage rate per sheet, because that is the line most likely to move. Confirm who pays for the permit and who schedules the inspection. Confirm that disposal is included and not billed later at weight. Confirm the workmanship warranty length in years and what voids it. Confirm the contractor carries workers’ compensation, because roofing falls are the reason that insurance is expensive and an uninsured crew on your roof is your exposure.

Then check the total against the two grids on this page. If it sits inside the $9,075 to $12,881 band for a mid-size roof and the itemisation holds up, you have a normal quote. If it sits well outside, the crew-day question will tell you whether the job is genuinely harder than average or the number is padded. Either way, you now have the arithmetic to ask.

Read next

• What Roof Replacement Labor Actually Costs in Phoenix
• Lumber Prices and What They Do to a Deck Quote
• DIY vs Pro Painting: What Your Own Time Is Worth
• Drywall Repair Cost: Where the Money Actually Goes

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