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The Top 8 Pricing Questions That Other Roofers Don’t Want To Talk About

1. What factors drive a roofing price up?

Obviously, the size of a roof is a major factor when it comes to pricing. Bigger roofs cost more. A roof that is 2 or 3 stories high will also cost more than a 1 story roof because it takes longer to complete. The same is true for a more complex roof and/or a steep roof. For example, the 3,000 square foot roof with just 2 slopes will cost about 10% less than the 3,000 square foot roof with 10 slopes.

2. Why are some roofing companies so cheap?

A big reason is that they do not carry proper roofing insurance, especially Workmans Compensation. This leaves their customers vulnerable to a major lawsuit if any of the workers get injured on their property. In extremely rare cases homeowners have actually lost their homes due to a lawsuit from a worker being fatally injured while working on their property. Using low end materials on the roof, usually the underlying components not the shingles, is another reason some companies are so cheap. Not properly training or fairly paying their installers is also a contributing factor to being so cheap. The sneakiest factor is that many low ball bidders end up tacking on several additional costs during the installation process. Things like chimney flashing, ridge vents and additional layers of old roof shingles.

3. Why are some roofing companies so expensive?

The companies that are 2 or 3 times more expensive than the cheap guys have a few reasons for their sky high prices. They typically spend a ton of money on lead generation. Due to their pricing structure they close a very small percentage of their overall leads which drives their acquisition costs sky high. They need to pay the sales staff a very high commission in order for them to be willing to stay at a company where they only make a sale around 10% of the time. That many no’s can be pretty discouraging.

4. Where does Busy Beaver Roofing fall on the pricing spectrum?

I will use a recent example of a client with a 30 sq or 3,000 square foot roof to help illustrate what is happening in our local market and where we stand. The client got 4 estimates ranging from $19,700 up to $53,250. Busy Beaver Roofing did the project for $25,860.

5. What is the lifetime cost vs the initial cost of your roof?

In the example above, if the cheap roof installation needs to be replaced in 8 years due to poor workmanship, then the roof would have cost you $2,462 per year. If your Busy Beaver roof comes with a 50-year warranty on the materials AND the workmanship, then that roof would cost just $517 per year. Nobody really wants to replace their roof. The only thing worse than buying a roof is buying a roof for the same house twice! In 2025 28% of the roofs we replaced were 8 years old or newer. They were all due to poor workmanship from the previous roofing company.

6. Can you finance a roof and if so, how does it work?

You should require that your roofing company offers financing even if you don’t intend to finance your roof. If a roofing company offers financing that means that at least 1 bank is comfortable enough to finance their projects. They have gone through some level of vetting by the lender. Busy Beaver Roofing has great financing option with payments as low as $199 per month. The approval process is simple and the terms are very good with single digit interest rates and no prepayment penalties.

7. What are the historical pricing trends for the roofing industry?

For decades the roofing industry would have an annual material price increase in January and labor would go up slightly each year as well. Then 2020 happened and everything has changed. Due to labor and supply chain issues we incurred 5 price increases during 2020. When the manufacturers realized that there was no downturn in sales they decided to stick with that pricing model. This has resulted in roof pricing going up 55% nationally from 2020 to 2025 with no signs of slowing down. A $15,000 roof in early 2020 is now around $24,000 in early 2026.

8. Is it worth hiring Busy Beaver Roofing to replace my roof?

We are not always the right fit for a roofing project. For instance, if you are a house flipper or even just selling your own home in the next couple of years then you may prefer working with one of the less expensive companies in our market. If you are under the assumption that all roofs are created equal and that all roofing companies are the same then you may prefer to work with a different company. If, however, you want to work with a company that believes in complete transparency through the entire roofing process, including pricing, then we may be a great fit!