Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, however I recently was informed about a roofing materials price increase that is due to take affect in March 2009. This price increase will not just be here in Massachusetts, it will be across the board throughout the country and it will affect every roofing contractor and homeowner needing a new roof.
According to our main roofing materials supplier, Allied Building Products Corp., a 10% price increase on all asphalt related roofing materials is due in March. Although 10% may not seem like much, this increase comes on the heels of a year that saw asphalt roofing material prices raised by as much as 30%.
Why the increase? Well, if you ask roofing material manufactures such as GAF or Certainteed they will site increased oil prices as the main reason. Oil is one of the main raw materials in asphalt shingles and other roofing materials such as “Ice & Water” barrier and tar paper underlayment. Of course oil also affects how much it costs these manufactures to ship their product across the country.
The installation cost (labor cost), of a new roof has remained relatively unchanged over the last few years and I expect that to stay the same throughout 2009. The reason for this is the large amount of competition in the roofing contractor industry. Roofing is one of the most competitive markets in the construction industry and this fact obviously benefits homeowners, especially in this economy, as far as keeping a check on labor cost. However, roofing contractors have no say in the cost of roofing materials and because the labor costs have already more or less bottomed out, homeowners can expect that any increase in material prices will have to be passed on to you the homeowner.
So the bottom line is that it will soon be costing close to $90 per square of 30-year architect asphalt shingles (1 square = 100 square feet). To put this in perspective, in 2007 these same shingles cost between $62-$67 per square, that’s a huge jump in a short amount of time. Also, the numbers I just mentioned are only for shingles. There are other materials that are involved in a properly done pitched roof such as “Ice & Water” barrier, metal drip-edge, ridge venting, and tar-paper. All told expect to pay between $140-$160 per square just for the materials to do your roof after the latest manufacturer price increases.
Do you need a new roof? You’ve got about a month before it is going to cost you a bit more to have it done. Even if you want to wait until spring to have it installed, you may want to consider signing with a roofing contractor now and having the materials delivered to your house and then installed in spring in order to take advantage of the current prices.
Tags: roofing, roofing cost, Roofing Materials, roofing prices
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Since oil has dropped from $147.00 a barrel last year to just under $50 a barrel this Spring, why is it that roofing shingles made from oil products have gone up? It would seem that they would go down..Frank
I hear you Frank.
Honestly, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of consistency to the different reasons the major asphalt shingle manufactures like GAF, Certainteed and Tamko are siting as reasons for the latest price hike.
Of late, the two main reasons being given are the following:
1.) supply and demand
2.) the latest stimulus plan calls for lots of road work projects which would, of course, eat up lots of asphalt
Are these reasons real or made up by the manufactures? You be the judge. However the fact remains that as of March 1 asphalt shingle prices are up by 10% and I doubt it will be the last price increase this year unfortunately.
Hi Frank.
We are currently putting up a new house. I just wanted to wish all those roofers who will try to pass on costs to the consumer “Have fun in the unemployement line”
With the economy crumbling and the building sector going to hell in a handbasket, I don’t think many people will be able to successfully pass on the cost. The current market isn’t even the same as 6 months ago.. Its worse!