Pre-loaded with roofing trade overhead defaults. Enter your job costs — get your exact bid price and profit margin.
For insurance restoration roofing, many contractors price to Xactimate pricing rather than a markup model — but always verify your true margin against actual costs before accepting an insurance scope.
Roofing is one of the most physically demanding and financially risky trades in construction. Workers' compensation premiums for roofing are among the highest of any trade — typically 25–40% of wages in most states, compared to 8–15% for interior trades. This alone drives overhead significantly higher than contractors new to the trade often expect. Roofing markup benchmarks run 20–40% on direct costs, with specialty work (metal roofing, slate, green roofing) commanding 35–50%.
Weather risk, decking condition uncertainty, and material price volatility make contingency especially important in roofing bids. Most experienced roofing contractors include 8–12% contingency as a baseline on residential re-roofs, and 10–15% on commercial jobs where unexpected substrate issues are common. Unused contingency becomes additional profit — but failing to include it and hitting a problem means the loss comes straight out of your pocket.
If your workers' comp rate is 30% of wages and you have three roofers at $28/hr average, your workers' comp cost alone is $8.40/hr per worker — $25.20/hr across the crew before any other burden. On a 200-hour job with a three-person crew, that's $5,040 in workers' comp that must be in your bid. Many roofing contractors who struggle with profitability simply haven't accounted for this correctly in their overhead rate.
| Project Type | Typical Markup | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Residential shingle re-roof | 25–40% | Standard work, weather/decking risk |
| Metal roofing (standing seam) | 35–50% | Specialty, higher material, fewer competitors |
| Flat / TPO / EPDM commercial | 20–30% | Competitive, substrate uncertainty |
| Insurance restoration | 10% O + 10% P | Xactimate pricing, adjuster negotiation |
| Slate / tile specialty | 40–55% | High skill, specialty materials, limited competition |
| Roof repair / patching | 40–60% | Small job overhead, minimum charge |
A large segment of roofing work is insurance restoration — hail, wind, and storm damage claims. These jobs are typically priced to Xactimate software line items, and insurance adjusters apply the standard "10 and 10" rule: 10% overhead and 10% profit on top of line-item costs. Before accepting an insurance scope, always verify that the Xactimate pricing covers your actual material costs (which may have changed since the software was last updated) and that the O&P is sufficient for your overhead structure. Many roofing contractors supplement with supplements — change orders for items the adjuster missed — to bring total compensation in line with actual cost.