Flat Roofing Calculator 2.1 calculates prices of IB PVC & TPO Roofs, EPDM Rubber & Tar + Gravel roof.

Approximate Roofing project price (press ‘Calculate Roof Price’ button to get results) – Sometimes you will have to wait a few seconds to get the price results.

The results of this calculator may be a little confusing, especially with the recent changes we’ve implemented. Read below about how to interpret and use this price calculator.

This free roofing price calculator is designed to help homeowners estimate roof replacement costs for Flat and Metal Roofing systems, and provides you with an instant roofing cost estimate. Price calculations are base on your house dimensions, roof difficulty and number of roof penetrations.

The roofing price estimate provided by this roofing calculator represents an approximate level of roof replacement cost, which we would charge for roof installation in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Though these prices are localized to New England market, they are comparable to roof prices in other states.

Find IB Roof contractors in your area, outside of New England

We’ve created a list of Roofing Contractors installing IB roofing materials located outside of our service area. We do not endorse any one of these contractors, but they are certified by IB Roof Systems to install IB PVC roofing materials. Before you decide to work with any one of the roofing contractors listed there, we recommend that you do your due diligence – check their references, roofing licenses, insurance certificates, etc.

Progressive roof pricing and Cool Roofing energy savings:

With a new progressive roof pricing algorithm, this roofing calculator will automatically adjust your roofing costs for premiums added by roofing contractors to install smaller roofs.

Roofing calculator will also estimate approximate energy savings derived from installing white* (most energy efficient) IB membrane vs. black rubber (EPDM) or Tar & Gravel/BUR roof.

Roofing Calculator estimates roof prices for these roofing materials:

Now, our roofing calculator will estimate roof prices and estimated annual energy savings for the following types of roofing materials:

IB Flat Roof – PVC flat roofing membrane, designed for residential and commercial flat roofing. IB Roofs are the only flat roofing materials that we install. Roofing calculator provides approximate roof prices that we charge to install IB PVC roofs in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Metal Roofing – We install many types of metal roofs. Our most popular styles are Standing Seam Metal Roofs, and Steel / Aluminum Interlocking Metal Shingles. Roofing calculator estimates approximate prices that we charge to install these metal roofs in MA, CT and RI.

TPO Roofing – TPO is a look-alike product that was made to work in a similar way to PVC roofing, but would cost less. The “cost less” problems are still haunting the TPO roofing industry.

We do not install TPO roofs, but will provide TPO roof repair services in the Metro Boston area.

Rubber Roofing (EPDM) – Rubber roof is the oldest single-ply roof present on the US roofing market. It is popular among roof owners because it is cheaper than PVC and TPO roofs, and roofing contractors like it because it does not require any special (and expensive) equipment to install it (TPO and PVC roofs both require expensive hot-air welding equipment and adequate power source – usually a 8000W+ generator). Despite low cost, rubber roofs are commonly associated with roof leaks caused by seam failures.

We do not install EPDM rubber roofs, but provide rubber roof repair services in the Metro Boston area.

Roofing calculator estimates roof installation costs for EPDM, TPO and tar+gravel roofing that our competition charges in MA, CT and RI. Prices are based on our market research, and will vary depending on a roofing contractor you work with.

All prices are based on the assumption that you hire a fully licensed and insured roofing contractor, employing legal roofers and helpers.


Quick Navigation:

• How roofing cost is calculated – Understanding the roofing price structure and the specifics of our calculator.
• Learn how to use our roofing calculator – If you have questions about how to use our roof calculator, or need to know which info about your roof is required, read this quick user guide.

Help with using Roofing Calculator

Our Roofing Calculator now features NEW fully-functional progressive roof pricing for small residential (under 1000 sq. ft.), regular residential roofs and larger commercial roof (over 3000 sq. ft.) – read more about progressive roof pricing.

Please remember: these prices indicate approximate cost to install a 50-mil white IB Roof, 80-mil IB or the residential IB Traditions Membrane. Above roofing prices DO NOT indicate installation costs of IB DeckShield or flat roof deck/patio with PT wood installation.

Get an IB single-ply roofing membrane installed on your roof – fill out our roofing estimate request and get a free price quote customized to your roof.

Roofing material price updates – Learn why roofing prices fluctuate with movement roofing material costs.

Progressive roof pricing – why smaller roofs cost more per square foot:

Roofing Calculator 2.1 with progressive pricing. First of all, what is progressive roof pricing? It is no secret that most roof (and other construction services) costs are determined based on a few factors, of which, one of the most important ones is the roof size. While we do not want people to think of roofing as a commodity, where prices are determined on per-unit basis, your roof’s size will play a very important role in calculating it’s price.

We have made our calculator as easy to use as possible, while providing you the flexibility to choose different options, such as roof difficulty, insulation thickness and respective r-value, number of chimney / skylight curb flashings, tear-off, etc. These options can be chosen separately. At the same time your roof size determines the base price, to which other options can be added.

The new progressive pricing formula take into account not just the raw size of your roof, but also how big your roof is on a scale which compares really small roofs, average size roofs, and bigger commercial roofs, such as apartment / condo buildings, office buildings, factories, storage facilities, etc. Before the last modification, our calculator would provide a base price of $700 per roofing square, irrelevant of the actual roof – whether it was a large commercial roof, for which $700/sq would be a little too much, or a very small roof, for which the same $700/sq would be too little.

In our first step to progressive pricing (Roofing Calculator 2.0) we broke up small roofs (under 1000 sq. ft.) into three groups, and assigned different premiums to each group. However this created a problem of overlapping prices where a 300 sq. ft. roof would cost more than a 350 sq. ft. roof. This did not make any mathematical sense and created a lot of confusion. Still it was a first and important step to eliminate another confusion which often came up when a client would get one price from our original (fixed pricing) calculator and a different price quote from us, when a roof estimate took place. Now progressive pricing is no longer fixed between roof size range and is based on percentage and size premium or size discount (for commercial size roofs).

Why do smaller roofs cost more? Like in any other job production scenario, each job has certain fixed costs and variable set-up costs. While bigger jobs can compensate for these costs in terms of volume, when a small roof (lets say 400 sq. ft.) is installed, the base price per square foot must go up to compensate for the same fixed costs as a bigger job would have. If per sq. ft. pricing is not increased, the contractor doing the job will not make money or will make little money, or will compensate for additional expenses in cheaper materials and/or lower quality, or both. Do understand, that roofing is an expensive business to run and IB roof is a premium product that comes with a premium installation quality and premium warranties. If your contractor does not make money, they will eventually go out of business and there will be no one to uphold your warranty. Basically businesses need to make money to stay in business.

Let’s now look at a scenario that shows why we charge more for smaller roofs, and how a progressive pricing formula gives you a more accurate roof price estimate:

On a smaller roof the material prices are usually just slightly more that those on a large job, unless it is a custom color, or a specialty drip-edge metal, or some other expensive item that needs to be special-ordered and shipped to your contractor (us for example). While material costs usually are about the same per sq. foot and most of the time we have everything in stock, there are still factors affecting the final price.

For each job, we have to make a certain number of trips to our suppliers, your city/town hall building department, organize all the material deliveries, dumpster delivery in case of a roof tear off, etc. This are usually the same between an average size roof and a small roof.

We also spend the same amount of time getting ready for each job and setting up each job. Usually all prep work takes us 8-10 hours. If the small job takes 16 hours to complete and big job takes 60 hours to complete, the setup time for a smaller job will take 33% of the time while that same setup time for a big job will be only 12% of the entire time spent on the job.

The above example is a simplified version of roofing job production break-down, but it clearly shows why we need to charge slightly more for smaller jobs, to provide you with same great quality of service.

Recent Calculator Changes:

Please note that if you are still receiving last year’s prices, there is a good chance that you will receive a sub-par service, and/or your roofing contractor will use every chance to reduce their costs ( cut corners where ever possible ). No roofing contractor is immune from rising material prices unless they hold a huge inventory (nearly impossible). Therefore, if you get a “great deal” you won’t get a great roof.

Please remember: these prices indicate approximate cost to install a 50-mil white IB Roof, 80-mil IB or the residential IB Traditions Membrane, over an average size home (in a 1000 sq. ft. range). Above roofing prices DO NOT indicate installation costs of IB DeckShield or flat roof deck/patio with PT wood installation.

How to interpret the instant price quote:

We want you to know that your actual installation cost may vary based on the specifics of your roof and your roof difficulty, and the roofing contractor you use – refer to our roofing price guide for more insight on how roofing contractors come up with their prices. Also, you should know that the price for Tar and Epdm roof material greatly depends on the price of OIL, which was trading at its all time high of $147 per barrel in July of 2008. Although oil prices have fallen dramatically since then, the material costs remained the same and in some cases (for asphalt-bases products such as shingles, rolled roofing, built-up roofs, modified bitumen and EPDM rubber) the actually continue to increase – the last major price increase occurred in March 2009 with all the major roofing manufacturers. Since we DO NOT install Epdm or Tar roofs, we provide you with our estimated cost, based on our experience, and polling other roofing contractors who do install rubber roofs. Epdm and Tar roof prices also very from one roofing company to another, depending on each companies costs, overheads, and profit percentage.

Dear visitors, please be aware that the results of our calculator do not always reflect the price quote you are going to receive from us. Our calculator is designed to provide approximate pricing to install a 50-mil white IB roofing membrane on an average size home (1000-2000 sq. ft.). If your roof is small (about 300-400 sq. ft.), then your cost/sq. ft will likely be higher than results from this calculator. This is due to the fact that our set-up costs remain the same, while the amount of work is smaller.

Like-wise, if your roof is large, your cost per sq. foot may be lower, depending on various variables. There is no exact formula on how the price is calculated, as there are too many factors affecting the price of each particular roof, and including them would make our roofing calculator too complicated to use.

Also bear in mind that Specialty Membranes such as IB Traditions for Residential low-slope roofing or 80-mil IB roof will be slightly more expensive compared to standard 50 mil roof.

IB DeckShield or 80-mil membrane assembly with Pressure Treated wood on top for walk-on flat roof decks will be considerably more per sq. ft., compared to results from our calculator. Please refer to our flat roof decks section of our website for explanation of our walkable flat roof assembly for both Deck-Shield and 80-mil with PT or composition deck.

How to use this roof price calculator

Plug in your roof dimensions into the calculator. Make sure you account for any overhangs / soffits, as that may add significant area to you total roof size. If your roof has an odd shape ( ‘L’ shape or similar ) you can divide your roof into virtual ‘rectangular blocks’ and add up all your measurements to get the total square footage. Plug in that number and multiply it by 1. For example: if your roof is 2300 sq. ft., type 2300 x 1 into ‘roof dimensions’ section of calculator.

Use appropriate ‘roof difficulty’ setting to get a more accurate roof price estimation. Although your roof may look simple, roof penetrations like sky-lights, chimneys specialty vents, AC units, etc. take a long time to flash correctly, therefore adding a significant amount to the total roof price tag.

Choose the desired insulation thickness. Insulation makes up a significant part of the total material cost, and in some cases may cost more than the roofing membrane itself. Having good insulating value may seem expensive at first, but it will greatly reduce your energy costs, eventually paying for itself. However, if you already have some insulation, adding more will not have a dramatic effect compared to having no insulation at all.

When comparing prices of IB roof and the cheaper alternatives like Epdm rubber, bear in mind that total roofing cost concept. While IB has higher initial cost of installation, the difference in price will be more than offset by savings in future roof repairs, energy saving, and virtually no maintenance required for the IB flat roof.

When looking at the numbers produced by this calculator, bear in mind, that each roof is different, and your actual cost will depend on your roof’s difficulty level, as well as a number of other factors, such as ease of access, IB membrane thickness and type you choose, insulation thickness, etc.

Relative Roof Difficulty: Please Choose according to how many through-roof penetrations / HVAC units / Skylights / Vent or Hot-stack pipes, etc., are on the roof, as this will make a significant price difference. The more penetrations, the more precision work will have to be performed.

Roofing Material Price Update – June 20, 2008

* IB White Membrane has the highest solar reflectance rate of almost 90%. Energy savings refer to the avoided cost of electricity to operate AC in the summer. Our calculator does not consider the R-value of insulation, as a savings factor. However, the thicker the insulation, the more savings you’ll realize all year round.

** Savings are calculated assuming the electricity rates in Metro Boston area from N-Star, effective April 1, 2007. Going rate then was $0.1875 / kWh, for the consumption of 1000 kWh per month. Electricity rates found in the following report from Hydro Quebec: Hydro Quebec Electricity Rates report – 2007 Your actual rate may vary. To calculate your rate per kWh, look at your last 12 electric bills. Add all 12 statement balances (exclude any previous balances, late fees or other misc. charges not related to your energy use), and divide by the total number of kWh consumed.

Written by Leo - roofer with a vision. Follow Leo on Google+

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