2026 local estimate · updated 2026-07-22
Cost to replace a roof in Philadelphia, PA
A typical roof replacement in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area runs $15,792, with most projects landing between $5,864 and $25,720 — about 3% above the national average.
Low
$5,864
Basic materials, simple job
Typical
$15,792
What most people pay
High
$25,720
Premium materials or complex job
What's priced: Full tear-off and replacement on a typical 2,000 sq ft home, asphalt shingles through mid-range materials, installed. Excludes permits, structural repairs found mid-job, and premium upgrades.
Why Philadelphia is more expensive than average
Almost entirely labor. Roofers in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area earn about 5% more than the national mean for the same occupation, per Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data. Because roof replacement is roughly 60% labor, that difference flows straight into the total.
Roofing is the most labor-heavy of these projects. Tear-off, disposal, and installation dominate the bill, and asphalt shingles themselves are comparatively cheap — which is why roofing prices vary more between metros than almost any other home project.
Get a number for your own job
The figures above are for a standard project. Your size, materials, and access will move them. Run your own specification through the calculator, then apply the ×1.048 local labor factor to the labor portion.
Open the roof replacement calculator →Permits for a roof replacement in Philadelphia
Issuing authority: City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I)
Philadelphia's Department of Licenses and Inspections prices a roof covering replacement-only permit at $69, and every permit issued also adds a $3 city surcharge and a $4.50 state surcharge on top of the base fee. For one- or two-family dwellings, the office additionally collects a $25 fee up front that is nonrefundable but gets applied toward the final permit fee.
L&I lists repairs related to regular maintenance separately from a full roof covering replacement, so check with them about which category your specific scope of work falls into before assuming the $69 replacement fee is what applies to your job. Since the $3 city surcharge and the $4.50 state surcharge are added per permit on top of the $69 figure, expect your contractor's permit paperwork to itemize more than one charge even for a routine tear-off and replacement.
When a permit is needed
- “Repairs related to regular maintenance.” — City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, Get a Building Permit (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Fees
- “Roof Covering (replacement only) $69” — City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, Construction Permit Fees (PG_012_INF), Effective January 1, 2025, Rev 2.2026 (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “Roof Covering (replacement only) $69” — City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, Construction Permit Fees (PG_012_INF), Effective October 1, 2026, Rev 7.2026 (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “City surcharge: $3 per permit State surcharge: $4.50 per permit” — City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, Get a Building Permit (retrieved 2026-09-23)
- “For one-or-two-family dwellings: $25 This fee is nonrefundable and is applied towards the final permit fee.” — City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections, Get a Building Permit (retrieved 2026-09-23)
Quoted verbatim; not recalculated.
Nearby metros
- Roof replacement in Allentown, PA — typically $15,654
- Roof replacement in Pittsburgh, PA — typically $15,000
- Roof replacement in Harrisburg, PA — typically $14,586
Compare roof replacement cost across every US metro we cover — the same labor-adjusted model as this page, ranked from most to least expensive, if you want the national picture rather than Philadelphia alone.
Or step up one level: roof replacement cost across Maryland — the average of all 3 Maryland metro areas we publish, which is a coarser figure than Philadelphia and is meant for comparing states rather than budgeting a job.
How we calculate this
We take a national installed-cost range, split it into labor and materials, and scale only the labor half by this metro's actual wage data. That is the whole model — no black box, and reproducible from the figures on this page.
- National range: $5,700–$25,000, from our roof replacement cost data (last verified 2026-07-13).
- Labor share: 60%. An industry rule of thumb, not a measured value — the softest assumption here, which is why we state it rather than bury it.
- Metro labor factor: ×1.048, being the mean annual wage for Roofers in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD divided by the national mean for the same occupation.
- Materials: held at the national level. We vary labor by metro and hold materials at the national level. That is deliberate: shingles, copper, HVAC equipment, and cabinets are nationally traded and priced, and what actually varies locally is freight and sales tax — both small next to the labor spread. We have no metro-level materials index we can defend, so rather than invent one, we vary only what we can source.
Wage source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), metropolitan area estimates, May 2025. A U.S. Government work, in the public domain and free to reuse. Where BLS suppresses wage data for a metro, we publish no page for it rather than fill the gap with an estimate.
Educational estimate only. A real quote for your specific property beats any model, including ours — get at least three.
Related
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to replace a roof in Philadelphia, PA?+
A typical project in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area runs about $15,792, with most falling between $5,864 and $25,720. Of the typical figure, roughly $9,652 is labor and $6,140 is materials. That puts Philadelphia about 3% above the national typical cost of $15,350.
Why is it more expensive to replace a roof in Philadelphia, PA than the national average?+
Almost entirely labor. Roofers in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD area earn about 5% more than the national average for the same occupation, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data. Because roof replacement is roughly 60% labor, that wage difference flows through to the total. Materials are priced nationally and barely move between metros.
What's included in these Philadelphia, PA estimates?+
Installed cost — materials plus labor for a standard project of this type. It does not include permits, which vary by municipality, structural repairs discovered mid-job, or premium upgrades. The range reflects genuine variation in scope and material grade, not uncertainty about the metro. Always get at least three local quotes before budgeting; a real quote for your specific property will beat any estimate, including ours.
How is this different from a national average with the city name swapped in?+
We split the national installed cost into labor and materials, then scale only the labor half using the actual mean wage for Roofers in this specific metro area, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Materials stay at the national level because we have no defensible metro-level materials index — shingles and HVAC equipment are nationally traded, and only freight and sales tax really vary. Where BLS suppresses wage data for a metro, we do not publish a page for it at all rather than fill the gap with a guess.