How to Price a Roofing Job in 6 Simple Ways

Knowing how to price a roofing job for a customer and generating a profit are both crucial components of being a roofing contractor.

However, when estimating the total roofing job cost, many businesses end up making a couple of mistakes.

One common error is undercharging for a roofing job, which reduces profitability and causes cash flow issues.

According to statistics, 90 percent of contractors underprice the job and, in turn, undercut their revenues.

The other mistake that businesses make is overcharging for the roofing job. This frequently leads to clients choosing a less pricey competitor or being unable to pay for the service on time.

This is why companies that price their roofing jobs accurately close more sales and see consistent growth in revenue.

To help you price a roofing job, we have compiled six easy ways that you can follow.

Let’s dive in!

6 Simple Steps to Price a Roofing Job without Under or Over Charging

1. Determine the scope of work

You should offer a suitable estimate before submitting a quote to a customer for a roofing job. First, examine the complexity of the work in terms of how much time, effort, and expenses it will require. To do that, there are a few measures you should take when pricing roofing jobs.

Make sure you talk to the customer and understand what they want. Find out if they want just a few shingles or if there is a bigger issue. 

If there is, then you should go to the job site and inspect the work area by yourself. Addressing problems with synthetic roof underlayment can rapidly evolve into expensive and time-intensive projects. Therefore, it is crucial to precisely assess the severity of these issues before making any commitments. You must also take thorough notes regarding the work that needs to be done while you’re there.

Once you’ve identified what type of roofing job your client needs you to do for them, survey and measure the roof to ensure you have accurate numbers to work with. 

You should also consult with the town’s building inspector and become acquainted with the building codes to verify that no forbidden materials are used.

2. Take accurate measurements

When it comes to measuring, you must determine the dimensions of the necessary shingle squares as well as the roof itself. You must estimate the roof pitch and take into consideration any sloping edges. 

It is also important to consider both sloped and flat roofs when determining how much to bid on a roof.

To determine the square footage of a residence with a flat roof, the first step is to analyze and measure the exterior of the building while you are on the ground. 

Once done, divide the home’s square footage by 100 to determine how many 100-square-foot sections you will need to cover. In most cases, three shingle packages cover one square foot.

For pitched roofs, you must account for the slope by determining the measurement of the roof pitch. Then, at a 90-degree angle, measure upwards to see whether portions of the roof reach over that length. 

Assume the roof pitch is 12 feet and the rise is 5 feet. A pitch to slope ratio of 5:12 indicates that a pitched roof will require approximately 25 percent more shingles than a flat roof.

You must avoid spending more money than you will make and try to stay within your budget. To do that, you should round up the number of shingle bundles to one or two numbers less. This will help you to plan for waste and help reduce it. 

If you follow this advice, you won’t need to purchase any additional shingles even when you are running a little low on cash.

3. Material costs

Material costs are perhaps the most difficult to determine because pricing changes according to availability. For instance, there are various roofing materials available, including solar panels, rubber, metal, stone-coated steel, and even shingles with live plants.

To calculate your material costs, check with your supplier before providing the customer with an accurate estimate, regardless of the type of materials they want you to use or the style you advise them to choose.

This action is required for two reasons. First, ensure that the supplier has enough material for the work. Second, you must obtain the best pricing estimate from the supplier in order to provide the most accurate quote to the client.

Other roofing costs for items to be considered when calculating the material expenses are tools, nails, underlayment, flashing, screws, and vents.

4. Labor costs

Now that you’ve determined your material expenses, it’s time to calculate your labor costs. This can be done quite easily as it is a simple procedure.

To determine labor costs, first, you need to calculate the number of labor hours required for the job. Then, multiply that figure by the number of roofers who will be on the task to meet your estimated labor hours.

Next, you must consider factors such as prospective worker’s compensation, hourly wage, and taxes when calculating your hourly cost. Once you have those two figures, multiply them to meet your estimate for labor costs.

You should also keep in mind that the hourly figure differs from state to state. So, if your company expands, remember to keep a reasonable yet competitive pricing.

After determining your total labor cost, you have to calculate your overhead costs.

5. Overhead costs

Overhead costs, which include office rent, insurance, uniforms, roofing tools, and bookkeeping, are an unavoidable part of every construction job. To earn a profit on roofing jobs, your roofing estimate must include the ones mentioned above and other expenses as well.

You can calculate your overhead costs in four simple steps:

• Do a weekly calculation of the overhead costs
• Tally the number of hours of work every week.
• Divide the hours by the overhead costs to get an hourly wage estimate
• Multiply the hourly wage estimate by the number of working hours

6. Determine your markup

Everything you’ve read up till now will help you make a profit on your roofing jobs if you do them effectively. However, determining a markup for each of your jobs will assist you in increasing your profitability.

To get the appropriate markup, you must first decide how much profit you want to make on your specific roofing job.

Many factors influence this decision, including what your customers are willing and able to pay, what your competitors are offering, and overall pricing trends in the industry.

Now, suppose, even after following the above steps to price your roof job accurately, a customer objects to the pricing or is unable to pay. 

What should you do in such a case?

Let’s find out!

How to Answer Customer Objections to Roofing Job Pricing?

Even if you are not undercharging or overcharging your clients, you might face pricing backlash. This could be true if you have recently upped your prices after previously undercharging for your services for a long time.

Here’s how you can counter client objections and deliver value to your customers while charging a fair price for your services:

1. Establish quality of work as a selling point

Many pricing issues come as a result of customers’ misunderstanding what they are paying for. However, as a contractor, you understand the expense of quality work and how it can benefit the client when the job is done well.

Making this clear to your clients will boost their interest in paying for your quality services. Ensure that you take the time to review the job you’re proposing, how it will suit your customer’s needs, and what your employees will need to do to accomplish the task. 

Using a presentation or making a flyer to give to your clients might assist in emphasizing the plan even more.

2. Offer multiple methods to accept payment

Some clients might be hesitant to agree to a roofing job cost because they cannot bear the entire roofing costs upfront. However, offering multiple payment methods will make your clients feel more at ease using your roofing services.

You can accept payment for your services via credit and debit cards using electronic payment processing methods. When compared to writing a check, many customers find it easier to pay using a credit card. This expedites payment to your company as well.

Another great strategy to reduce pricing complaints is to provide financing options. This gives your clients the option to borrow the amount they need for the job (in case they don’t have it) rather than paying the entire cost upfront.

Avail FieldCamp to Scale Your Roofing Business!

We hope this blog was helpful, and now you know how to price a roofing job correctly and safely and bid roofing jobs. But to manage and scale your business even further, you need a digital tool in your arsenal.

This is where FieldCamp comes!

FieldCamp is one of the industry’s best field service scheduling software for roofing business companies as well as other service business firms.

Its robust scheduling and dispatching software allows you to assign jobs to your field techs and dispatch them to the job location according to their schedule.

Our reliable software also enables you to store data such as client information, job descriptions, job locations, and photos of jobs. It also allows you to create error-free invoices with automation and send them to your clients anywhere.

So what are you waiting for?

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