What does it cost to reshingle a 1,500 sq ft house?
The number in the question is floor area, and roofs are not priced by floor area. That gap is the reason two 1,500 square foot houses on the same street can get quotes thousands of dollars apart and both be fair.
A 1,500 square foot house in Macomb County generally sits in the lower half of our published asphalt replacement range of $9,000 to $18,000. The single biggest variable is whether it is a ranch or a two story, because a 1,500 square foot ranch carries roughly twice the roof of a 1,500 square foot colonial. Pitch, layer count, and how cut up the roof is move it from there, and a free inspection settles it.
01 /Floor area is not roof area
A 1,500 square foot ranch puts all of its living space on one level, so the roof has to cover the entire footprint. Add slope and overhangs and you are usually somewhere around 18 to 22 squares of roof surface.
A 1,500 square foot two story stacks that same living space, so the footprint is closer to 750 square feet and the roof covers half as much ground. Once slope is factored in, that is often 9 to 12 squares. Same house size in the listing, half the roof.
Online cost estimators that ask only for house square footage cannot know which of these you have. That is why their output can be off by a factor of two on a real Macomb County house.
02 /What moves it inside the range
After roof area, three things do most of the work. Layers: if there are already two layers of shingles up there, the Michigan Residential Code section R908.3.1 does not allow a re-cover, so a full tear-off is the only legal path and disposal goes up. Pitch: steeper roofs are slower and require more safety setup. Complexity: valleys, dormers, chimneys, and skylights each add flashing work and cut-waste that a flat rectangle of roof does not.
Decking is the wildcard nobody can price from the driveway. Rotten sheathing is only visible once the old roof is off, which is why an honest quote states a per-sheet rate for replacement rather than pretending the question will not come up.
03 /What the number includes
At our published pricing, a replacement covers tear-off and disposal, underlayment, ice barrier at the eaves where code requires it, drip edge, flashing, ridge and ventilation components, labor, magnetic cleanup, and the permit. Financing is available subject to approval, and as an illustration only, a $13,500 roof works out to about $178 per month on a 10 year term at 9.9% APR.
You can put your own numbers in on the cost calculator and see the same ranges we publish.
Every factor that moves the number, with the published tables, lives in the full Macomb County cost guide.
The follow-up questions
Usually yes, because a ranch puts its entire living area under one roof plane while a two story stacks it. A 1,500 square foot ranch commonly carries roughly twice the roof surface of a 1,500 square foot two story, and roofing is priced by roof surface. The two story can claw some of that back if it is steep or complex enough to slow the crew down.
It is uncommon on asphalt. The upper end of the $9,000 to $18,000 range is generally larger roofs, roofs with multiple existing layers to remove, very steep or very cut-up roofs, or jobs where significant decking has to be replaced. A straightforward 1,500 square foot house usually lands in the lower half.
We can give you the published range, which is on this page and on our pricing sheet, and we can narrow it over the phone once we know whether you are a ranch or a two story and roughly how old the roof is. We will not commit to your exact number until we have measured it and looked at the condition, and that inspection is free with no obligation.
- Michigan Residential Code 2015, section R908.3.1 Roof Re-cover: a re-cover is not permitted where the existing roof already has two or more applications of any type of roof covering. up.codes: MRC chapter 9
- National Roofing Contractors Association, technical guidance for steep-slope roof systems. nrca.net
- Macomb Roofing Pros published price table: the county-wide ranges this site commits to in writing. macombroofingpros.com/roofing/