What a roof replacement costs on the Front Range
Two numbers for the same roof can sit thousands of dollars apart without either bidder being dishonest. They are pricing different work, and at this altitude the difference usually hides in what the sun has already done to the decking and the flashing.
The lines that move the number
Roof area and pitch come first, and on the metro’s 1990s-and-newer two-story stock, the roof is bigger and steeper than the house’s square footage suggests, with valleys and dormers that add cutting, flashing and waste. Tear-off is second: code allows two layers at most, so a roof recovered once before must now be stripped completely, which adds labor and disposal. Decking is the wildcard: nobody knows how many sheets need replacing until the roof is open, which is why an honest quote prices it per sheet instead of pretending to know.
Then the items that separate a complete job from a covering swap: ice barrier membrane at the eaves (required by code in this climate), drip edge, new flashing at chimneys and walls versus reusing the old, and ventilation, the intake-and-exhaust balance that decides how hot the attic runs and how long the new shingles last at this altitude.
Why timing changes the quote
The Front Range roofing season runs roughly April to October, because shingles need sustained warmth to seal. Quotes gathered in late winter, before the season opens, consistently get more contractor attention and more schedule flexibility than quotes requested at the summer peak: same roof, same firms, different position in the queue. On subdivision streets where whole blocks reach replacement age together, quoting a season ahead of your street’s wave is the single easiest money-saver available.
Before you sign, make every bidder answer
- Strip or recover, and is the dumpster inside the price?
- The layer count decides whether this is a strip or a recover, and disposal weight follows from it. Two bids that look alike can differ by an entire tear-off, so get the number the estimator saw rather than the one they expect.
- What rate is written down for a replacement deck sheet?
- Decking condition is invisible until the covering comes off. A per-sheet price turns that unknown into a rate agreed in advance, instead of a conversation held with the crew already standing on the roof.
- New metal at the chimney and walls, or the old metal sealed again?
- New flashing costs more on paper and less over the life of the roof. Sealing over old metal is fast, and it is the leading cause of a first-winter leak on an otherwise sound new covering.
- Is eave ice barrier specified, and how far up the roof?
- Ask for the run in feet. Code sets a minimum measured from the eave, and on a shallow pitch with deep overhangs that minimum can end before the ice does.
- What is actually being done about intake and exhaust?
- “We reinstall the vents” is not a scope. A real answer names the intake, the exhaust and how they balance, and on a house that builds ice every February, that correction belongs in this job rather than a future one.
Next step: How long a roof actually lasts here