How much does a roof replacement cost in North Texas?
For a typical single-family house in the DFW area in 2026, an architectural asphalt shingle replacement generally runs somewhere between $9,000 and $22,000, with most landing in the middle of that. Impact-resistant shingles add roughly 10 to 25 per cent. Metal is usually two to three times an asphalt roof. Those are market ranges rather than a quote: size, pitch, layers, decking condition and the complexity of the roof move the number more than the shingle choice does.
Roofs are priced by the square, not the square foot
A roofing square is 100 square feet of roof surface. A 2,000 square foot house does not have 2,000 square feet of roof: pitch adds surface, and overhangs, dormers and porches add more, so the same house might be 24 or 30 squares depending on its shape.
That is why two houses with identical listed square footage get different quotes, and why an over-the-phone price is worth so little. The measurement is the first real number in the job, and it is taken off the roof or off aerial imagery rather than off the tax record.
The five things that actually move it
Pitch. Anything over about 7/12 needs staging and slows the crew down, and steep roofs carry a labor premium that can be 20 per cent or more.
Complexity. Valleys, hips, dormers, skylights, chimneys and multiple roof planes all mean cutting, flashing and waste. A simple gable roof over the same area is materially cheaper than a cut-up one.
Layers. A second layer of shingles doubles the tear-off and the disposal. Some houses have three.
Decking. Nobody knows what is under there until the old covering is off. A good estimate names a price per sheet rather than pretending the answer is zero, and on most roofs it is a handful of sheets rather than a whole deck.
Material. Asphalt at the low end, impact-resistant asphalt above it, then synthetic, luxury systems like F-Wave, and metal at the top. The gap between a mid-range and a premium shingle on a whole roof is usually smaller than people expect.
Impact-resistant shingles and the insurance discount
Class 4 impact-resistant shingles are rated against a steel ball dropped from a set height, and in a hail corridor they earn their premium more often than not. Many Texas carriers offer a premium discount for a Class 4 roof, sometimes in the range of 10 to 30 per cent of the wind and hail portion of the policy.
Whether that pays back depends on your carrier and your premium, so the honest version is: ask your agent what the discount would be on your policy before you decide, because it is the only number in this calculation that is specific to you.
Where the cheap quote is coming from
A quote well below the others is usually explained by one of a few things: an overlay instead of a tear-off, a builder-grade three-tab shingle instead of an architectural one, reusing flashings and pipe boots rather than replacing them, no decking allowance, or no permit.
The useful move when comparing bids is to make them line up. Ask each contractor for the square count, the shingle line and rating, whether the price includes new flashings, valley metal and drip edge, the decking rate, and what happens to the debris. Two quotes that look 20 per cent apart often turn out to be quoting two different jobs.
Related questions
Does insurance pay for an old worn-out roof?
No. Policies cover sudden damage from a covered peril such as hail or wind. Age, wear and deferred maintenance are the homeowner’s, whichever carrier you are with.
Is it cheaper to overlay than tear off?
Up front, yes, by a few thousand. It also hides the decking, traps heat against the new shingles, voids some manufacturer warranties, and leaves you paying to remove two layers next time.
How long should a new roof last here?
Architectural asphalt is generally 20 to 30 years in North Texas, though hail rather than age is what usually ends one. Metal runs 40 to 70, synthetic 25 to 40.
