What Does a New Roof Cost in Middle Georgia and Metro Atlanta?

By Thomas Williams, All American Renovations — CertainTeed ShingleMaster

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Most roofs we replace run $14,000 to $23,000.

That’s an average house — roughly 25 to 30 squares — shingled in CertainTeed Landmark or Landmark Pro. A smaller ranch and a typical two-story both tend to land in there.

Now let me tell you everything that number doesn’t say on its own, including one part I can’t explain.

First, what a “square” is

A square is 100 square feet of roof.

It’s how every roofer prices, and it’s not the same as the square footage of your house. A 2,000 square foot two-story might have a smaller roof than a 1,600 square foot ranch, because the ranch is spread out and the two-story is stacked.

When somebody quotes you a price per square, that’s what they’re counting. Ask how many squares they measured. Two bids built on different square counts aren’t two prices for the same roof.

What moves a roof off that range

Pitch. A steeper roof costs more. Past a certain point a crew can’t walk it — that changes how the work gets staged and how long it takes.

Two stories. Height adds cost for the same reason: setup, staging, and getting material up there.

Layers. If there’s more than one layer of shingles up there, all of it comes off. We give you a price per square for additional layers up front, before we start, so if we open it up and find a second layer you already know what it costs. You’re not finding out on a Tuesday morning with a number you’ve never seen.

Skylights and flashings. Both drive price. Every penetration through a roof is a place water wants in, and every one of them has to be detailed.

Decking. Most average homes need fewer than five sheets of decking replaced, and we cover that cost inside the proposal — it’s already in your number. Past five sheets, it’s priced the same way we handle sheathing on a siding job: shown on the page, priced per sheet, billed on what’s actually used. Going well past five sheets means something serious has been going on up there for a long time.

Drip edge. This one surprises people, so it gets its own section.

Drip edge isn’t an upgrade. It’s code.

A lot of houses around here don’t have drip edge. A lot of homeowners don’t know they’re required to have it.

Georgia’s residential code — the 2018 International Residential Code with Georgia amendments, in effect since January 2020 — says this at section R905.2.8.5:

“A drip edge shall be provided at eaves and gables of shingle roofs. Adjacent pieces of drip edge shall be overlapped a minimum of 2 inches.”

Georgia didn’t amend that section. It reads exactly as written. Enforcement is up to your local building department, and I’m not speaking for any inspector’s office — but that’s what the code book says.

Here’s why it matters to your budget: if your roof doesn’t have drip edge now, adding it is real material and real labor across every eave and rake on the house. A bid that doesn’t mention it either priced it quietly or isn’t planning to install it. Worth asking.

The shingle itself

Most of our proposals show two or three tiers so you can see what the choice actually costs instead of taking my word for which one you want.

CertainTeed Landmark is the baseline architectural shingle and it’s a good roof.

Landmark Pro runs about $1,000 to $1,500 more on a typical job. It’s a heavier shingle with richer colors and a longer algae-streak warranty, and in my experience a heavier shingle lasts longer. (The wind warranty is the same as standard Landmark.) On most houses that’s the upgrade worth having, and it’s a small percentage of the total.

Presidential TL and Grand Manor are a different conversation. These increase the cost of the project significantly — usually close to double, or more. They’re beautiful, and they’re mostly going on large, predominantly luxury homes: lakefront communities, golf course subdivisions. That’s not the only place they belong, but I’ll be straight with you — most customers aren’t going to want to spend the extra for those two lines, and I’m not going to push you toward them.

One warning about shingle names. You’ll hear 25-year, 30-year, 50-year, lifetime. Those are manufacturer warranties against manufacturing defects. They are not life expectancy. They never were. That’s a whole post on its own and I’m writing it, but don’t let anybody sell you a number of years that way.

What’s on the roof besides shingles — and it isn’t optional here

Everything under and around the shingles is CertainTeed too: synthetic underlayment, RoofRunner, ice and water shield in the valleys. The whole system, one manufacturer.

That’s not us being fussy about brands. It’s what lets us offer CertainTeed’s extended warranty as a Shingle Master. You can’t mix and match your way to that coverage.

This isn’t an option on our installs. There’s no cheaper version of our roof. If somebody wants a roof built down to a price, they’ll find it — just not from us.

[PHOTO: synthetic underlayment and ice-and-water in a valley, before shingles go on]

So what’s in the cheaper roof?

Some of it I can tell you, because I see it on tear-offs.

Felt instead of synthetic underlayment. Different product, different performance.

Ridge vent — sometimes installed, sometimes not.

Old flashing reused instead of replaced. This is the common one.

Plumbing boots are the exception, and credit where it’s due — most roofers are replacing those. They need replacing every five to ten years anyway, they cost very little, and it would be ridiculous not to. If you find a bid that doesn’t include new boots, that tells you something.

And here’s the part I can’t explain

I’m going to be honest with you rather than sell you something.

I have seen proposals that include everything we do — the same system, the same components — and come in significantly less. Ours at sixteen thousand, theirs at eleven.

I don’t understand it. I can’t really offer you much of an explanation.

The best theory I have is that they don’t have the experience yet to understand what it actually costs to run this business — insurance on every man, supervision, training, the office behind the crew — and to make enough profit to still be here in eight years when you need the warranty honored. That’s a theory. I don’t know.

I wish I knew the answer. What I’m not going to do is invent one so my number looks better.

Why you can’t see any of this from the ground

Here’s the real problem with roofs, and it’s got nothing to do with price.

You can walk outside and look at your siding. You can see a board that’s swollen, a joint that’s opened up, paint that’s failing. You will notice it, and you’ll call somebody.

Nobody gets up on their roof.

So a roof that was installed wrong looks exactly like a roof that was installed right — from your driveway, for years. I have seen and replaced far more roofs with installation problems the homeowner had no idea were there than I ever have with siding.

And the way most people find out is ten or twelve years into a roof that should have gone twenty to twenty-five, when it’s already failing and it’s already time to buy another one.

That’s not a homeowner’s fault. There’s no way to inspect a roof from the ground, every bid looks about the same on paper, and nothing in the process tells you which one is real. The market doesn’t give you a way to tell. That’s the actual problem, and it’s why I’d rather write all this down than explain it one driveway at a time.

Two more things about roofing specifically

Our roofing labor warranty is 10 years. Our siding labor warranty is 30. Those are different numbers and I’d rather you hear it from me than find it in the paperwork. Different trade, different exposure, different warranty.

Most of our roofs go on as part of a full exterior renovation. We don’t sell many standalone roofs, and I’ll tell you why plainly: there are far more roofers in this area than siding contractors, and plenty of them will put a roof on and clear about $1,500 on a $15,000 to $20,000 job. I don’t know how anybody stands behind a warranty on that margin, but you can throw a dart and find someone who’ll do it cheaper. If price is the only thing driving your decision, you’re not going to hire us for a roof by itself, and that’s fine.

And if you’re reading this because of a storm — whether insurance covers a roof is a completely different question with a completely different answer, and it deserves its own explanation rather than a paragraph here.

What I’d tell you if you called me

• Ask how many squares they measured. Two bids on different square counts aren’t a comparison.
• Ask what’s under the shingles — underlayment type, ice and water in the valleys, and whether it’s all one manufacturer’s system.
• Ask about drip edge specifically. Code requires it. Not every bid includes it.
• Ask what happens if they find another layer, and get the per-square number before you sign, not after.
• Ask what happens if the decking is bad, and how many sheets are already covered in the price.
• Ask whether the flashing is being replaced or reused.
• Ask what the labor warranty is, in years, and get it in writing.

Seven questions. You can ask every one of them without getting on a ladder, and they’ll tell you more about a roofing bid than the price will.