Metal Roof vs Shingles: The Same House, Priced Both Ways
Almost every comparison of metal and asphalt is built on somebody's assumptions. This one is not. The Cost vs. Value Report priced the same three thousand square feet of roof both ways in the same edition — tear-off included, hip roof, one scope. Here is what it found, what it did not measure, and which of the two questions that number can settle.
Figures from the Cost vs. Value Report.
The comparison with no assumptions in it
Most comparisons of metal and asphalt are arguments dressed as arithmetic. Somebody assumes a service life for each covering, assumes a maintenance cost, discounts it back, and produces a winner. Change one assumption and the winner changes with it.
There is one comparison that does not work that way. The Cost vs. Value Report priced both coverings in the same edition and the same year, on the same job: a hip roof of three thousand square feet, tear-off to bare sheathing included, national average. One house, one scope, priced twice.
The asphalt project came to $31,871. The metal project came to $51,865. Spread over the same number of squares, that is $1,062 per square against $1,729 per square.
So on the report's own scope the metal job runs 1.63× the asphalt one, and the gap between them is $19,994.
| Same report, same year, same scope | Asphalt shingle | Metal |
|---|---|---|
| Benchmark job cost | $31,871 | $51,865 |
| Per square | $1,062 per square | $1,729 per square |
| Recouped at resale | 67.5% | 50.1% |
Those figures carry no assumption of ours. They are one publisher's numbers on one defined scope, and the arithmetic between them is division you can repeat on paper. That is the whole reason to start here rather than with a lifetime cost model: everything after this point involves a judgment, and this part does not.
What they are not is a quote for your house. The scope is a particular one, the figures are national averages, and neither of them knows the shape of your roof, how hard it is to reach, or what your local market charges this month. Read them as the size of the gap, not the size of your bill.
Calculator
Your roof, by the numbers
Measurements
Measure the outside of the walls at ground level. This assumes a simple gable roof; hips, dormers and valleys add area and hours.
Labor
2025 U.S. national mean for roofers. Substitute your state's figure — see sources.
Ventilation
The International Residential Code (R806.2) allows the 1/300 ratio where a Class I or II vapor retarder is installed in Climate Zones 6-8, or where 40-50% of the vent area sits in the upper portion of the attic. Verify the edition your jurisdiction has adopted. See Step 6.
Where the roof is
Your total
| Your roof | — |
| Benchmark rate | — |
| Benchmark rate per square | — |
| Benchmark total for your roof | — |
| of which field labor, our model | — |
| of which everything else | — |
Area
| Plan area including overhang | — |
| Roof surface area | — |
| Roofing squares | — |
| Squares to order (with waste) | — |
Materials your quote should list
| Shingle bundles | — |
| Ice barrier at eaves | — |
| Underlayment (remaining field) | — |
| Drip edge | — |
| Starter strip | — |
| Ridge cap | — |
| Roofing nails | — |
Tear-off and disposal
| Old roofing weight | — |
| Dumpster size | — |
Attic ventilation required
| Attic floor area | — |
| Net free vent area required | — |
| at the ridge (upper) | — |
| at the eaves (intake) | — |
Labor
| Labor-hours | — |
| Crew days | — |
| Direct wages | — |
| + burden | — |
| Labor as billed to you | — |
What the calculator above prices, and what it does not
The calculator above prices the shingle side. That is worth saying plainly, because a page titled for a comparison ought to admit which half of it the tool actually models.
Put your own dimensions in and you get an asphalt job: roof area, squares, a regional benchmark rate and a benchmark total. At the default inputs that is 15.0 squares at $975 per square, which comes to $14,652 for the East North Central division — a grouping that comes from the US Census Bureau's divisions rather than from any market boundary.
For metal we have the national benchmark and nothing underneath it. The Cost vs. Value Report publishes regional figures for the asphalt project, and we did not find the same regional breakdown for the metal one. We are not going to scale the metal number by the asphalt region factors to manufacture it, because that would look like data and would not be data.
If you live in a market where roofing runs well above or well below the national average, the asphalt side of this page can follow you there and the metal side cannot. The spread between the report's highest and lowest regional roofing figures is 1.43×, which is wide enough that a national metal figure could sit a long way from a real metal bid in either direction.
So use the calculator to build an asphalt baseline you can defend line by line, and treat the metal figures on this page as the shape of the difference rather than the amount of it.
Resale is where the two separate, and not the way the sales pitch says
The Cost vs. Value Report tracks a second number alongside cost, and it runs in the opposite direction from the way metal is usually sold.
For each project it estimates the share of the job cost that comes back as resale value. The asphalt project recouped 67.5%. The metal project recouped 50.1%. That is a gap of 17.4 percentage points, and it falls against the more expensive covering.
Be careful about what that share is. It is an estimate of value at resale set against what the job cost, produced by the same publisher that produced the cost figure. It is not money in your pocket, it is not a statement about your particular house, and a high recouped share does not make a roof better. If you are not selling, the number has no bearing on your decision at all.
Two more things about it are worth holding onto. The share is set against the job cost, so a project that costs more has to add more value simply to hold the same percentage; a lower share does not mean a metal roof adds less value in dollars, it means it adds less relative to what it cost. And the estimate is for a sale, which means it assumes a buyer who prices the roof the way the report's estimate expects them to. In a neighborhood where metal is unusual, a buyer may not price it at all.
What it does do is put a figure against a common sales line. If someone tells you a metal roof pays for itself when you sell, this is the number to put in front of them and ask what they are working from. The answer may be a local market where metal is ordinary and expected, which is a fair argument. It should not be a vague appeal to resale in general, because the one published estimate we have says the opposite.
What the extra money actually buys
Strip out the arguments that need a crystal ball and there is still a real list of things the extra money buys. Every item on it is something you can ask about, and the answers are documents rather than opinions.
The panel and its finish. Standing seam, exposed fastener and stone-coated products are different systems at different prices, and the coating is a separate specification from the metal under it. Ask which system is quoted, what the coating is, and ask for the panel warranty and the finish warranty, and whether they are one document or two.
How the system handles movement. Metal systems differ in how the panels are held down and how they are allowed to move, and that difference is where a lot of the price and most of the risk sit. Ask the contractor to show you the manufacturer's detail drawings for the ridge, the valleys, the eaves and every penetration on your roof, and ask which of those details their crew has built before.
The deck underneath. Both coverings need a sound deck, and a tear-off is the only moment anyone will see yours. Ask what happens if the sheathing turns out to be bad: the allowance, the rate beyond it, and whether you get photographs before the extra work starts. Ask that question of a shingle bid too, but ask it harder here, because the panels are ordered to a measurement and a delay costs more.
The crew. A company that installs shingles every week may install metal a few times a year. That is not a reason to rule anyone out, but it is a reason to ask how many of these systems they have put on, and to ask for addresses you can drive past and look at.
One thing worth settling before any of this: whether a panel can go over your existing shingles. Ask your local building department, and ask the contractor which written requirement they are working from. Do not settle it from a brochure. The answer changes the tear-off line in the quote, which is one of the larger numbers on it.
The lifespan argument, and why this page will not make it for you
The argument you will hear most is that metal lasts longer, so it costs less per year, so the higher price is not really higher. This page is not going to make that argument for you, and the reason is simple: we could not source a service life for either covering that would hold for every product and every climate.
The closest thing that exists is InterNACHI's life expectancy chart, which gives 40 to 80 years for a metal roof and 30 years for architectural asphalt shingles. The chart says of its own figures that they are guidelines under normal wear and recommended maintenance, not guarantees, and the metal range is wide enough to prove the point: divide the same price by the bottom of that range and by the top, and you get two different answers to the cost-per-year question from one source.
What gets quoted instead is a warranty term, and a warranty term is a contract, not a prediction. It says what the manufacturer will do, for how long, under stated conditions, with stated exclusions. Which conditions and which exclusions apply to the product you are quoted is answered only by that product's own warranty, and this page does not carry it. Two products with the same headline number can carry very different obligations underneath it.
So when the cost-per-year argument comes up, ask for the document rather than the number. Ask for the written warranty for the specific product being quoted, and read what it covers, what it excludes, whether it is prorated, whether it transfers if you sell, and what has to be true about the installation for it to hold at all.
Then make the comparison yourself if you want to make it. We are not going to hand you a lifetime figure we cannot source, and you should be wary of anyone who hands you one without saying where it came from.
The assumptions, stated plainly
Some of what is on this page is published and some of it is ours, and the two are listed separately here so nobody has to work out which.
Published, and named beside each figure: both benchmark job costs, both per-square figures, both recouped shares, and the regional spread, all from the Cost vs. Value Report on its own defined scope; the regional grouping, from the US Census Bureau's divisions; and the roofer wage figures, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Arithmetic on published figures, and checkable by hand: the multiple of 1.63×, the gap of $19,994, and the difference of 17.4 percentage points. Each is one operation on two numbers that both come from the same report.
Our own assumption, and adjustable in the calculator above: the waste allowance, the labor hours per square, the crew size, the labor burden, and the overhead and profit percentages that sit behind the asphalt estimate. Those are defaults we chose rather than measurements we took.
One boundary is worth drawing sharply. The two benchmark totals are published figures on a published scope, and the multiple between them is division. Everything you might do next with those numbers — deciding what a roof is worth to you, guessing what a buyer will pay for it, weighing a finish you like against one you do not — is judgment, and no figure on this page settles any of it. The numbers are here to keep the judgment honest, not to replace it.
And here is what we do not have, stated as plainly as the rest: no regional figures for metal, and no sourced service life for either covering. Where a page cannot answer something, saying so is more useful than filling the space.
Questions to take to the contractor
The first three apply to any roofing bid. The last three only matter if metal is actually on the table.
- What is the measured roof area, and what did you apply to the footprint to get it? Ask for the sketch the area came from, with the planes on it.
- Is the tear-off to bare sheathing, and what happens if you find bad deck? Ask for the allowance, the rate beyond it, and photographs before the extra work starts.
- Which parts of this price are driven by area, and which by the roof's shape? Valleys, hips, ridges and penetrations are priced by length and count, not by squares.
- Which metal system is this, and what is the coating? Ask for the panel product and the finish specification as separate lines, with their warranties as separate documents.
- How does this system handle expansion, and what are the details at the ridge, the valleys and the penetrations? Ask to see the manufacturer's drawings for the transitions your roof actually has.
- How many of these systems has this crew installed, and where can I go and look at one? A company that installs metal regularly will answer this immediately.
Related on this site
Other pages on this site that take a quote apart the same way:
Sources and method
- Regions — the nine divisions are the US Census Bureau’s standard divisions, and your state is mapped to its division automatically. census.gov
- Cost benchmark — Zonda, Cost vs. Value Report 2025 (38th annual edition), published through the Journal of Light Construction. National average job cost for the scope summarized above; the nine US Census division figures from the same edition are used to scale it. Figures read from the publisher on 31 August 2026. jlconline.com/cost-vs-value
- Roofer wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, SOC 47-2181, 2025 annual, national, all industries. State-level figures are published in the same dataset. bls.gov/oes
- Metal roofing benchmark — Zonda, Cost vs. Value Report 2025, published through the Journal of Light Construction. Project: Roofing Replacement, Metal — 3,000 square feet of prefinished standing-seam metal over a rectangular hip roof, tear-off to bare sheathing included, with an ice-barrier membrane at the perimeter, synthetic underlayment over the deck, matching drip edge, gable trim and vented ridge, and custom flashing at two average-size skylights. The asphalt shingle project in the same edition uses the same 3,000 square foot scope, which makes the two directly comparable. Figures read from the publisher on 31 August 2026. jlconline.com
- Service life estimates — International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, InterNACHI's Standard Estimated Life Expectancy Chart for Homes. The chart states that its figures were determined through research and testing under regular recommended maintenance and normal wear, not extreme weather, neglect or abuse, and that they should be used as guidelines only and not relied upon as guarantees or warranties. A separate chart exists for Florida and the surrounding coastal region. No edition date is printed on the page. Figures read from the publisher on 2 September 2026. nachi.org/life-expectancy.htm
- Square — 100 sq ft, the standard unit of measure in the roofing and siding trades.
- Pitch factor and areas — derived from the Pythagorean theorem and plane geometry. Verifiable by hand.
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