Roofing
Roofing Pricing Calculator
Set a roofing price from full job cost and the margin you intend, with the risk the job carries priced in.
Result
Overhead and margin are taken as shares of the selling price, which is why the cost is divided rather than multiplied. Adding 15% to cost does not produce a 15% margin. Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Crew days rather than hours, since roofing is scheduled and weathered in days.
- Material at landed cost including delivery and any crane or hoist.
- Risk allowance for deck condition and weather delay.
Where this one goes wrong
Pricing roofing at the same margin as low-risk trade work. Roofing carries weather delay, fall risk, high insurance and scope that genuinely changes once the covering is off. The margin has to reflect that rather than match a general contractor's.
Questions
About this calculator
Should weather delay be priced in?
It should at least be planned for. A crew stood down is paid and produces nothing, and a season of lost days is a real cost that has to be recovered across the jobs that do run.
How do I compete with a much lower quote?
By making the inclusions visible. Roofing quotes vary mostly by what they exclude, and a customer shown the difference in deck allowance, flashing and disposal can compare properly.
Flat price or allowances?
Flat for what is visible, allowances for what is not. Pretending the deck condition is known is how a fixed price becomes an argument.
The formula
price = direct cost / (1 - overhead% - margin%)
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How to use this calculator
- Labour cost ($). Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $3,900.
- Other direct costs ($). Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%). Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 15%.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to price to quote, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Labour cost | $2,600 |
| Materials cost | $3,900 |
| Other direct costs | $0 |
| Overhead rate | 22% |
| Target net margin | 15% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Price to quote main result | $10,317 |
| Direct cost | $6,500 |
| Overhead recovered | $2,270 |
| Net profit | $1,548 |
| Gross margin | 37.0% |
| Markup on direct cost | 58.7% |
Quote $10,317 to cover $6,500 of direct cost, recover $2,270 of overhead and leave $1,548 of net profit. That is a 58.7% markup on cost.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only labour cost, this is what happens to price to quote. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Labour cost ($) | Price to quote |
|---|---|
| $1,300 | $8,254 |
| $1,950 | $9,286 |
| $2,600 example above | $10,317 |
| $3,900 | $12,381 |
| $5,200 | $14,444 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Labour cost ($)
- Burdened: wages plus tax, insurance and the vehicle, not the hourly wage.
- Materials cost ($)
- A money amount, starting at $3,900.
- Other direct costs ($)
- Permits, disposal, equipment hire, subcontractors.
- Overhead rate (%)
- Overhead as a share of revenue. Work it out from last year's accounts.
- Target net margin (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 80, starting at 15%.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Price to quote | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Direct cost | A money figure. |
| Overhead recovered | A money figure. |
| Net profit | A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Markup on direct cost | A percentage. |
What this cannot see
Material quantities assume a clean rectangular plane and the waste factor you enter. Valleys, hips, dormers, penetrations and a steep pitch all raise real waste, and a tear-off frequently uncovers decking that was not in the quote.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.