How Much Does a Roof Cost in Cary, NC? Where to Spend and Save

A new asphalt shingle roof in Cary usually costs between $9,000 and $20,000, and about $15,000 for a typical home. The size of your roof moves the price more than anything else. Pitch and complexity matter too, but much less.

Where your roof falls in that range depends on a handful of things you can’t change and a few choices you can. Some of those choices are good places to save money, and some will cost you more down the road.

What a roof costs in Cary

Those numbers are for a full replacement with properly installed architectural shingles.

The biggest factor is how much roof you have. Roofers price by the square, which is 100 square feet of roof surface, so more roof means more shingles, more labor and more debris to haul away. Your home’s square footage is a rough guide, but it isn’t the same as roof area. A one-story ranch has more roof than a two-story home with the same living space.

Pitch and complexity come next. A steep roof is slower and harder to work on. A roof with lots of valleys, hips and dormers takes more cutting and more flashing than a simple gable roof. Both add to the price, but in our experience they move it far less than size does.

Skylights add about $1,500 each

If your home has skylights, plan on roughly $1,500 for each one. Many skylights in Cary are 15 years old or more by the time the roof needs replacing, and at that age they should be replaced along with the roof. The roof is already open, so the crew can flash the new skylight into the new shingles from the start, and you won’t be paying for a separate skylight job a few years later.

Why roofs cost more than they did five years ago

If you priced a roof five or ten years ago, today’s quotes can be a surprise. Labor and materials have both gone up over the last few years, and materials have gone up the most. Shingles are made with asphalt, which comes from oil, and so are many of the accessories that go on a roof. When oil prices climb, so does the price of a roof, and over the last five years shingles and asphalt-based accessories have gone up substantially.

Diesel matters too. Almost everything on a roofing job arrives by truck. The shingles are delivered to your driveway, and the dumpster for the old roof has to be dropped off and then hauled away. Every one of those trips burns diesel, and that cost ends up in the price of every roof.

Why quotes from different contractors are so far apart

It’s normal to get three quotes for the same roof and see a wide spread between them. Most of that gap comes from labor and overhead.

Labor

Labor is the biggest difference in price between contractors. Some pay their crews as little as they can. Others have experienced crews who charge a premium because they know the work and take more time on the details. Leaks usually start at those details, like flashing, valleys and pipe boots, so this part of the price has a lot to do with how long your roof lasts.

Overhead

The kind of company you hire matters too. Private equity-backed roofing companies and storm contractors that focus on insurance work often carry high overhead. They rely on large sales teams and heavy marketing to keep work coming in, and those costs get passed along to customers. Local companies like On Tops, and many smaller roofers, usually don’t carry the same overhead.

How to know a good price is also a good roof

A lower price only helps if the roof is installed well. Before you compare numbers, look for a company with:

• great reviews, and plenty of them
• a long reputation in the area
• training and certifications
• if possible, a history of good work for your friends or family

Where it’s safe to save: the shingle line

Once you’ve found a contractor you trust, the shingle you pick is one of the easiest ways to adjust the price. The major manufacturers sell a value shingle alongside their mainline architectural shingle.

Manufacturer	Value shingle	Mainline architectural shingle
CertainTeed	Patriot	Landmark
GAF	Timberline Natural Shadow	Timberline HDZ

A value shingle usually saves a couple hundred dollars on a roof. It gives up some of the features of the mainline shingles, such as color choices, algae resistance and warranty coverage. Those features aren’t necessary or important to every homeowner. Installed properly, a value shingle might shave a year off the life of your roof, or it might not change it at all. Our roof replacement guide compares the shingle classes in more detail.

Where not to save: pipe boots and accessories

Skimping on accessories is a bad way to save money. Pipe boots seal the plumbing vents that come up through your roof, and they’re one of the most common places a roof starts to leak. Basic boots usually won’t outlast your shingles. They often fail in 6 to 10 years, while the shingles around them still have plenty of life left.

That makes the trade lopsided. A cheaper shingle might cost you a year of roof life. A cheaper pipe boot can mean a leak and a repair bill within the first ten years. Ask each contractor which pipe boots they plan to use. The roof replacement guide shows a standard rubber boot next to the all-metal boot we recommend.

Choice	Save or spend	Why
Shingle line	Save	Saves a couple hundred dollars, might cost a year of roof life
Pipe boots	Spend	Basic boots often fail in 6 to 10 years
Older skylights	Spend	About $1,500 each while the roof is open
Contractor	Look past price	Labor and overhead drive the gap

Get a ballpark before you call anyone

Roof pricing depends on enough factors that it’s hard to guess from a description. The best way to get a realistic idea before any roofer comes out is to look at real jobs. Our Cary projects show roofs we’ve replaced around town, with the actual price, roof size and shingle for each one. Find a home that looks like yours, similar in size and shape, and you’ll have a good idea of where your roof is likely to land. Our Cary page also lists recent prices from Cary jobs.

When you have that number in mind, you’ll be in a much better position to judge the estimates you get.