What a Roofing Square Costs in Sacramento
A roofing quote is built on squares, not square feet, and one square equals 100 sq ft of roof surface. Get your square count, pick a system, multiply by its rate. You now have the number yourself, and that bit of arithmetic is the whole reason this site exists.
Squares are roof area, not floor area
A 2,000 square foot house does not have a 2,000 square foot roof. Pitch adds surface area, and so do overhangs, dormers and porch roofs. A single-storey 2,000 sq ft home on a moderate pitch typically lands somewhere around 22 to 26 squares.
That is why nobody can quote you honestly over the phone from your house size alone.
Working out your own estimate
- Take your home's footprint, not its total living area — a two-storey house has roughly half the roof of a single-storey home of the same size
- Add roughly 10–30% for pitch, depending on how steep it is
- Add the garage, porch covers and any additions
- Divide by 100 to get squares, then multiply by the tier rate
Our published prices
Per roofing square (100 sq ft). Your price is your roof’s measured squares times the tier rate, confirmed in writing before any work.
The example uses 25 squares, the median Sacramento home re-roof in county permit records (2022–25). It is an illustration, not your price.
Common questions
How many square feet is a roofing square?
One hundred. A 25-square roof is 2,500 square feet of roof surface. It is an area measure used across the trade, so quotes from different contractors can be compared directly once you know your square count.
Why do roofers quote in squares instead of square feet?
Materials ship that way. Shingles are sold in bundles that cover a third of a square, underlayment in rolls measured in squares, and labour is estimated per square. Pricing in squares keeps the estimate tied to what actually gets ordered and installed.