How we build our cost numbers

What you pay is more than parts plus pay. Here is how we build each part of a price, and where each part comes from.

Last updated Oct 17, 2026

The parts of a price

A roof price has a few parts. Here is each part, where we get it, and if we have it yet.

Overhead and markup are missing for now. So our own totals are called "parts we can price."

We always show them next to a published price for the whole job. One example is the Cost vs Value report^[4]. It is built from pricing data, with the roofer's own prices included^[5].

How we adjust for where you live

Labor changes by state. We take a state's middle pay for the trade and divide it by the U.S. middle pay. We call that the pay score.

The pay data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics^[1]. For roofers, the U.S. middle pay is $26.65/hr^[1].

Permits use the town's own fee list. Materials stay at U.S. prices unless we have a local source.

We never guess a state total. A state row only shows up if a state-level source exists.

What a worker costs on top of pay

Pay is not the whole cost of a worker. Bosses also pay for things like health care and time off.

In building trades, bosses paid $36.13/hr^[2] in pay and $15.84/hr^[2] in benefits per hour worked in mid-2026. That is $51.96/hr^[2] in all^[2].

So benefits add about 43.8% on top of pay. We will use this when we switch labor to hours times pay.

Which sources we trust most

Sometimes sources don't agree. Sometimes we need a rule, not a price. Then we use the strongest source we can find, in this order:

1. Government, laws and building codes. This means state laws, building codes, license boards, county product offices and U.S. agencies. Two examples are the Florida Building Code and the International Residential Code. Two more are the Department of Energy and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2. Trade and license groups. Two examples are the National Roofing Contractors Association and the National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies.
3. Makers. These are how-to guides, product sheets and warranty papers from the company that makes the product.
4. Cost reports and price data. These are published cost reports, pricing data and store prices. We use them for prices, but never for rules.

Every cost page and calculator has a part called "Expert sources we relied on."

It lists the codes, laws and guides we used for that page's rules. It says what each one backs up, and the date we checked it.

Every page needs at least two. Our computer check won't let a page be listed in search without them.

These are public papers we point to. The groups that wrote them have not looked at our site. We never say they did.

How you can check us

Every cost page ends with "Sources & how we calculated this."

It explains the math for that page. It lists every number with a link to its source and the date we checked it. It also links back here.

Each page also shows its "Last updated" date. It has a short note, too. Our prices are estimates from public sources. So get three written quotes, and check the roofer's license with your state.

Checking and dating

• Every number on the site lives in one list, with its source. A page can't show a number that is not on that list.
• A computer check runs on every page when we build the site. Any number with no source stops the build.
• A page can only be listed by search engines if it passes every check. For cost pages, that means cited numbers, questions people ask, at least 60% of its own words, easy reading, and no big overlap with other pages. If not, it is marked "noindex" and left out of the site map.
• Each source shows the time its data covers and the date we last checked it. "Updated" dates only change when the page changes.
• Sample sizes are copied word for word from the source. If a source gives none, we say so.
• Numbers we work out ourselves are marked as our math. They name the numbers they come from.

What we never do

• We never use AI to guess a number. We never make up sample sizes, quotes, experts or reviewers.
• We never claim that a person has looked over or OK'd a page.
• We never change numbers for advertisers or partners.
• We never make copy-paste pages that just swap in a new place name.