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Roofing labor runs $150-$300 per square nationally, with heavy regional variation. Northeast and West Coast: $250-$400. South and Midwest: $150-$250. Steep pitch (10/12+) adds 50-100%. Two-story or three-story homes add 10-20%. Cut-up roofs with multiple valleys and dormers add another 15%. This article includes a full regional rate table plus complexity multipliers so you can vet contractor labor line items before signing.
Labour is the largest line on almost every roof, and it is the line that varies most between a rural county and a large metro. It is estimated in hours per square, and those hours swing widely with pitch, tear-off and access.
| Pitch | New deck, no tear-off | One layer tear-off | Two layer tear-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/12 or less | 1.5 h | 2.5 h | 3.5 h |
| 5/12 to 8/12 | 2 h | 3 h | 4 h |
| 9/12 to 12/12 | 3 h | 4.5 h | 6 h |
| Over 12/12 | 4.5 h | 6.5 h | 8.5 h |
A 25-square roof at 6/12 with one layer to strip is roughly 75 crew hours — about two and a half days for a four-person crew, weather permitting.
It tells you whether a job is a two-day or a five-day proposition, which is what you need for scheduling a dumpster, arranging time off, or judging whether a DIY reroof over a long weekend is realistic. It is not a way to test whether a quote is fair — for that, compare three quotes against the same written scope.
Double the professional hours figure for a first roof, and then check the weather forecast against that. The risk on a DIY reroof is not the labour, it is being caught with a stripped roof and rain coming. Strip only what you can dry in the same day.
Roughly 2 to 3 crew hours per square at a walkable pitch with one layer to strip. Above 9/12 that roughly doubles, and a second tear-off layer adds again.
A contractor price is not hours times a wage. It carries general liability, workers' compensation — expensive on roofing specifically — disposal, equipment, overhead, weather risk and years of warranty exposure.
A 25-square roof at 6/12 with one layer to strip is roughly 75 crew hours, so about two and a half days for a four-person crew, weather permitting.
Only up to a point. A roof has a limited number of productive positions; past that extra people wait for material. Four to six is the practical range on a typical residential roof.