Question · Roof cost
How much does a new roof cost?
Nobody can answer this from a web page, and the sites that try are quoting a house they have never seen. What can be explained honestly is what the number is made of, so you can read any estimate you are handed and tell whether it is a fair one.
Schank Roofing · Scottsbluff, Nebraska · Updated 2026-09-30
What the price is actually made of
Six things move the number, and between them they explain almost every difference between one quote and another.
- Size, measured properly
- Roofing is priced by the square, a hundred square feet of roof surface. A sprawling single-storey house can carry more roof than a two-storey house with more rooms in it.
- Pitch and access
- A steep roof is slower and needs more safety equipment. So does a house a truck cannot get near, or one with landscaping that has to be protected.
- How cut up it is
- Valleys, dormers, chimneys and skylights all take time and all need flashing. A plain gable and a complicated roof of the same size are different jobs, and the complicated one is where leaks start.
- How many layers come off
- Tearing off two layers costs more than one, in labour and in disposal. An inspection settles this before you get a number rather than after work starts.
- The decking underneath
- Soft boards have to be replaced and nobody can see them until the roof is off. An honest estimate prices this per sheet up front.
- The material
- We install Malarkey. Impact-resistant lines such as Highlander AR cost more than standard architectural, and metal is a different conversation again.
Why we will not print a price
A published price is either meaninglessly wide or quietly wrong, and both end the same way: the number changes once somebody is standing on your roof. That conversation is worse than having no number at the start.
The inspection and the written estimate are both free, so finding out what your roof actually costs costs you nothing. That is a better answer than a range copied from a national average that has never seen western Nebraska.
What a written estimate should itemise
- Tear-off or layover, and how many layers are coming off.
- The exact material and line, not just a brand name.
- What underlayment, and where ice and water shield goes.
- How flashing is handled at every wall, valley and penetration.
- How replacement decking is priced per sheet, agreed before anyone finds any.
- The payment schedule, and what triggers each stage.
- Who cleans up, and whether they sweep for nails.
Two quotes are only comparable once you know all of that. A cheaper number is usually cheaper for a reason, and the reason is nearly always one of the lines above.
What can change the number after work starts
Honestly, one thing: the decking. Everything else is knowable from the outside, which is why it belongs in the estimate rather than in a surprise.
If boards turn out to be soft they have to be replaced, and a good estimate already tells you what that costs per sheet. You should also get photographs of it, because you are paying for something you will never see again once the new roof is on.
We are not the cheapest in the Panhandle, on purpose. The cheapest quote here usually belongs to whoever is leaving after the season.
How to compare two quotes properly
- Line the scopes up first. Tear-off against layover is not the same job.
- Check the material line, not just the brand.
- Ask each one how decking is priced, and get the answer in writing.
- Ask for photographs of your roof and what in them drives the recommendation.
- Check registration and insurance certificates, and look at the dates.
- Then, and only then, compare the totals.
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