Roof repair cost dataset
This is the complete dataset behind the roof repair calculator, at national wage rates. What separates a repair from a replacement is not the material but the shape of the cost: a replacement scales with area and a repair is mostly fixed, so the same crew, van, ladders and invoice are paid for whether the hole is one foot across or twenty. Everything here is built to make that visible. Last reviewed 2026-08-24.
Size, and the rate per square foot
| Area opened | Squares | Trade hours | Per sq ft | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 sq ft | 0.22 | 6.7 | $65.69 | $1,314 |
| 50 sq ft | 0.56 | 7.4 | $27.70 | $1,385 |
| 100 sq ft | 1.12 | 8.7 | $15.65 | $1,565 |
| 250 sq ft | 2.8 | 12.6 | $8.42 | $2,106 |
| 500 sq ft | 5.59 | 19.1 | $6.01 | $3,004 |
| 1000 sq ft | 11.18 | 32 | $4.80 | $4,799 |
⚠️ The rate falls by a factor of 14 across that range, which is the single most useful thing on this page: a quote for a small repair cannot be judged against a per-square-foot figure for a big one. It also means bundling several small repairs into one visit is the cheapest move available to a homeowner, because the fixed part is paid once. A square is 100 square feet, and opened work runs at 2.2 trade hours per square before the pitch factor.
Repair against replace, per year bought
| Roof age | Years left | Repair, per year | Replace, per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | 17 | $80 | $412 |
| 10 years | 12 | $113 | $412 |
| 15 years | 7 | $193 | $412 |
| 18 years | 4 | $338 | $412 |
| 20 years | 2 | $676 | $412 |
The crossover on this reference repair is 18.7 years on a 22-year covering: below it, repairing is cheaper per year of roof bought; above it you are paying to extend a few winters at a rate that would have bought a new roof. The replacement side comes from our roof replacement dataset at the same national wage. ⚠️ Design lives here are declared estimates — 22 years for asphalt and 45 for metal — and a real roof does not read the table.
What is wrong, and what the roof is made of
| Problem | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| A leak | 7.1 | $1,172 |
| Shingles blown off or broken | 4.1 | $1,011 |
| Flashing at a chimney | 7.2 | $1,353 |
| A valley | 8.2 | $1,233 |
| Storm or impact damage | 6.6 | $1,145 |
| A cracked pipe boot or vent collar | 4.6 | $1,076 |
| Covering or pitch | Cost |
|---|---|
| 3-tab asphalt shingles | $1,327 |
| Architectural asphalt shingles | $1,353 |
| Premium or designer asphalt | $1,403 |
| Exposed-fastener metal panels | $1,445 |
| Standing-seam metal | $1,641 |
| 3:12 (low slope) | $1,329 |
| 4:12 (gentle) | $1,331 |
| 6:12 (typical) | $1,353 |
| 8:12 (steep) | $1,385 |
| 10:12 (very steep) | $1,431 |
| 12:12 (45 degrees) | $1,484 |
⚠️ Notice how little the covering moves a small repair and how much the pitch does. Almost nothing on a patch is material; it is hours, and hours are set by how safely and quickly somebody can work on that slope. The line that does move a repair a great deal is the one nobody can price from the ground: rotten sheathing takes this same job from $1,353 to $2,809.
What is shared with the replacement dataset
The price bands for shingles and metal panels, underlayment, ice-and-water membrane, flashing and boots, sheathing and fall protection gear are read at build time from our roof replacement dataset by line-item id rather than copied into this file. If an id ever disappears there, this page fails to build — which is the intended behaviour, because it means the two datasets have stopped sharing a price. What this dataset adds is everything a replacement does not have: a minimum charge, the hours spent finding a leak, and the fact that a new shingle never matches a weathered roof.
Line items
71% of the reference total comes from estimated rather than official figures. The reference repair is 40 square feet of plan — 45 of actual roof at 6:12, or 0.45 squares — of flashing at a chimney on a two-storey roof, with 7.2 trade hours.
| Line item | Unit | Material | Equipment / hr | Trade | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Call-out and minimum charge1 per visit | each | $180 – $480 | — | — | estimated±45% |
| Finding the leak0.5 to 2 hours by how findable the problem is | hour | — | — | Roofers | sourced |
| 3-tab asphalt shingles for the repaired areasquares of repaired area, minimum 0.4 of a bundle | square | $88 – $148 | — | — | estimated±25% |
| Architectural asphalt shingles for the repaired areasquares of repaired area, minimum 0.4 of a bundle | square | $125 – $225 | — | — | estimated±29% |
| Premium or designer asphalt for the repaired areasquares of repaired area, minimum 0.4 of a bundle | square | $200 – $375 | — | — | estimated±30% |
| Exposed-fastener metal panels for the repaired areasquares of repaired area, minimum 0.4 of a bundle | square | $260 – $500 | — | — | estimated±32% |
| Standing-seam metal for the repaired areasquares of repaired area, minimum 0.4 of a bundle | square | $480 – $1,150 | — | — | estimated±41% |
| Underlayment over the opened arearepaired squares × 1.3 for the lap, minimum 0.4 | square | $10 – $24 | — | — | estimated±41% |
| Ice and water membrane in the valleysquares of valley opened, minimum 0.5 | square | $1.80 – $3.60 | — | — | estimated±33% |
| Step flashing, counter-flashing and boots14 linear ft at a chimney or wall, 3 at a pipe boot | linear ft | $6.00 – $19 | — | — | estimated±52% |
| Replacing rotten sheathingsquare feet of sheathing replaced, when the deck is rotten | sq ft | $26 – $65 | — | — | estimated±43% |
| Stripping back, repairing and reweavingfixed hours for the problem + 2.2 per square, × pitch factor × lead factor | hour | — | — | Roofers | sourced |
| Fall protection and access1 per visit | each | — | $130 – $440 | — | estimated±54% |
| Setting up and striking access1, 2 or 3.5 hours by storeys | hour | — | — | Roofers | sourced |
| Removing the debris1 per visit | each | $35 – $140 | — | — | estimated±60% |
The reasoning behind each figure
- Call-out and minimum chargeestimated, ±45%
- Getting a crew, a van and a ladder rack to your house, and the minimum a roofing firm will invoice for turning up at all.
- ⚠️ This is the line that makes small repairs look expensive per square foot, and it is not padding: the drive, the set-up and the paperwork cost the same whether the hole is one foot across or twenty. It is also why bundling several small repairs into one visit is the single cheapest thing a homeowner can do here.
- Emergency and out-of-hours call-outs are dearer than this and are not modelled.
- Finding the leak
- From half an hour on an obvious cracked boot to two on a leak of unknown origin: inspecting from above, checking the loft from below, and where necessary running a hose.
- ⚠️ Water entering a roof runs along the underside of the sheathing and down a rafter before it drops, so the stain on your ceiling is frequently nowhere near the hole. Anyone who quotes a fixed price to fix a leak they have not found is pricing a guess, and the guess is normally wrong in the expensive direction.
- 3-tab asphalt shingles for the repaired areaestimated, ±25%
- Three-tab strip shingles for the patched area.
- Band imported by line-item id from our roof replacement dataset rather than copied, so the two pages cannot quote different prices for the same covering.
- ⚠️ Bought as whole bundles or panels regardless of how little the repair needs. On a small patch you pay for a bundle and most of it goes in the van.
- Architectural asphalt shingles for the repaired areaestimated, ±29%
- Laminated architectural shingles, what most American roofs are covered in.
- Band imported by line-item id from our roof replacement dataset rather than copied, so the two pages cannot quote different prices for the same covering.
- ⚠️ Bought as whole bundles or panels regardless of how little the repair needs. On a small patch you pay for a bundle and most of it goes in the van.
- Premium or designer asphalt for the repaired areaestimated, ±30%
- Premium or designer laminates. Worth checking the line is still made: on an older roof the exact profile may be discontinued, which turns a patch into a visible one.
- Band imported by line-item id from our roof replacement dataset rather than copied, so the two pages cannot quote different prices for the same covering.
- ⚠️ Bought as whole bundles or panels regardless of how little the repair needs. On a small patch you pay for a bundle and most of it goes in the van.
- Exposed-fastener metal panels for the repaired areaestimated, ±32%
- Exposed-fastener metal panels. Panels come in lengths, so a small repair frequently means buying a full panel run.
- Band imported by line-item id from our roof replacement dataset rather than copied, so the two pages cannot quote different prices for the same covering.
- ⚠️ Bought as whole bundles or panels regardless of how little the repair needs. On a small patch you pay for a bundle and most of it goes in the van.
- Standing-seam metal for the repaired areaestimated, ±41%
- ⚠️ Standing seam is the hardest covering on this page to repair. The seams are folded on site and the clips are concealed, so opening a panel in the middle of a run is a specialist job — and a panel replacement often has to run from eave to ridge.
- Band imported by line-item id from our roof replacement dataset rather than copied, so the two pages cannot quote different prices for the same covering.
- ⚠️ Bought as whole bundles or panels regardless of how little the repair needs. On a small patch you pay for a bundle and most of it goes in the van.
- Underlayment over the opened areaestimated, ±41%
- Anything opened up gets new underlayment before it is closed. Imported from our roof replacement dataset by line-item id.
- Priced generously against the patch, because it has to be lapped under the courses above rather than butted to them.
- Ice and water membrane in the valleyestimated, ±33%
- A valley repair that does not put new membrane under it is not a valley repair. Imported from our roof replacement dataset.
- Self-adhered, so the deck has to be clean and dry — which is why valley work does not happen in the rain even though that is when you notice you need it.
- Step flashing, counter-flashing and bootsestimated, ±52%
- Imported from our roof replacement dataset. Priced by the foot of junction being rebuilt, or as a unit on a pipe boot.
- ⚠️ The cheap version of this repair is a bead of sealant over the old flashing. It works for one season and it is what a lot of "roof repairs" actually are. New metal woven into the courses either side is the repair; sealant is a delay.
- Replacing rotten sheathingestimated, ±43%
- Imported from our roof replacement dataset. Cut back to the nearest rafters either side, so the replaced area is always bigger than the rotten area — a 32 square foot patch is one sheet.
- ⚠️ This is the line that turns a small repair into a large one, and it is the one nobody can price before opening the roof. A quote that does not say what happens if the deck is soft is not finished. Ask for a rate per sheet in writing.
- Stripping back, repairing and reweaving
- A fixed allowance for the kind of problem, plus 2.2 hours per square of area opened, all scaled by the pitch factor — a roofer works from staging above 6:12 and the pace drops.
- Repair hours per square are higher than replacement hours per square and always will be: on a re-roof the courses run in one direction with nothing above them, and on a repair everything has to be tucked back under what is already there.
- Increased by 35% on a pre-1978 house, where disturbing painted trim, fascia or soffit brings the job inside the federal lead programme.
- Fall protection and accessestimated, ±54%
- Anchors, harness, lifelines and roof jacks. Imported from our roof replacement dataset, because the equipment does not get cheaper because the job is small.
- ⚠️ 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) applies to residential work at six feet or more, and it does not have a small-job exemption. A crew that arrives to fix one shingle and free-climbs a 8:12 roof is telling you something about how it works on the days you are not watching.
- Setting up and striking access
- One hour on a single storey, two on two, three and a half on three. Ladders, anchors and roof jacks up, and down again at the end of the day.
- On a whole re-roof this is spread over days of work. On a two-hour repair it can be as many hours as the repair itself, which is most of why small roof jobs cost what they do.
- Removing the debrisestimated, ±60%
- The torn-off material leaves in the van rather than in a skip, which is the difference between a repair and a re-roof.
- Also the magnet sweep for nails, which matters more than it sounds if anybody parks or walks barefoot below.
Not included in this dataset
- Interior damage from the leak
- Stained plasterboard, ruined insulation and anything growing are a separate job, and they come after the roof is watertight rather than with it. Our drywall repair and mold pages price those.
- What your insurance will and will not pay
- Policies differ, and the distinction that decides most claims — sudden accidental damage against wear and tear — is a judgement made by an adjuster on your specific roof. This page prices the work; it does not advise on a claim, and it should not be used as one.
- Emergency tarping and out-of-hours call-out
- A roof leaking in a storm at nine at night is a different price from the same roof on a Tuesday morning, and the premium is not a number we can publish honestly.
- Gutters, fascia and soffit
- They fail for the same reasons and often at the same time, but they are their own trade and their own price. Gutter replacement has its own page here.
- Structural repairs to rafters or trusses
- Rotten sheathing is priced here. A rafter that has failed, or a roof that is visibly sagging along its ridge, is a structural question for an engineer before it is a price.
- Matching a discontinued shingle
- On an older roof the exact profile and colour may not be made any more. Sourcing a match, where it is possible at all, is its own hunt and its own premium.
Use the calculator, price a whole new roof, or read the full method.