Los Angeles County, California
Roof Replacement in Los Angeles
A roof that is finished shows it in several places at once, not in the one spot you keep patching. Here is what that looks like on shingle, on tile, and on the flat section over the back addition, and what replacing each runs here.
Free, and there is no obligation to go ahead.
- Free roof inspection
Someone comes out, gets on the roof, and tells you what they find.
- The price in writing
A written quote before anyone starts, with nothing to sign on the day.
- Licensed roofers
The roofer who turns up holds a current California license.
- Across Los Angeles County
From the Valley and the foothills to the Westside and the South Bay.
A composition shingle re-roof on a typical Los Angeles house runs $9,000 to $25,000. Tile is different: the tile itself rarely fails, so lifting sound tiles and relaying them over new underlayment is often the right answer and costs less than starting again.
Most roofs in Los Angeles don't fail dramatically. They get old, and one October the rain finds a way in. If you're patching the same roof every winter, replacement is usually the cheaper answer over the next ten years. Here's how to tell whether you're at that point, what it tends to cost here, and what to sort out first.
We work on roofs across Los Angeles County, from the Valley to the South Bay. Tell us what's going on and we'll get a roofer out to look at it. They get on the roof, walk it, and give you a written quote. It's free, with no obligation.
Composition re-roof$9,000 to $25,000
Tile lift and relay $12,000 to $30,000. New tile throughout $25,000 to $60,000. Flat and low-slope $12,000 to $30,000. Taking solar off and putting it back adds $4,000 to $10,000. Full breakdown on the costs page.
How to tell a roof is done
One leak is usually a repair. Failed flashing around a chimney, a cracked tile, a vent boot dried out after twenty summers. That's a half-day job, not a re-roof. The signs that the roof itself is finished are different, and they show up together.
- Composition shingle:granules collecting in the gutters, shingles curling at the edges or brittle enough to snap when lifted, bald patches where the mat shows through. Once a roof is shedding granules across whole slopes, patching just moves the leak.
- Tile:the tile is usually fine. What fails is the underlayment beneath it. Look for leaks in several unrelated spots, tiles slipping out of line, ceiling stains nowhere near a vent. If a roofer lifts a few tiles and the felt underneath is gray and cracking, the clock has run out.
- Flat and low-slope:blisters, seams that have opened up, a surface that feels soft underfoot, water still sitting days after rain. Soft decking is the serious one. That's rot, and it means the leak has been going longer than you thought.
- From inside:daylight through the attic boards, sagging between rafters, damp insulation.
The other test is arithmetic. If repairs run a few thousand every couple of years and the roof still won't hold a season, that money is better spent on replacement.
Why so many LA roofs are due right now
The median home in Los Angeles County was built in 1965, and about 44% of homes in the City of LA predate 1960 on the Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey five-year estimates. Most of that stock has been re-roofed once, much of it in the 1990s. A composition roof laid in 1994 with a thirty-year shingle on it has done its work.
That's the most common replacement in the county by a distance: a 1950s house, re-roofed once in the nineties, going into another rain season on a roof that's out of time. Nothing has gone wrong exactly. It's finished.
Rain season runs October to March, and that's when everyone calls at once. If you already suspect the roof is marginal, the easy time to deal with it is late spring or summer, when schedules are open.
What roof replacement costs in Los Angeles
These are ballpark ranges for LA County. Estimates, not quotes. Pricing moves with the size and pitch of the roof, how many old layers come off, whether the decking underneath is sound, access, and how many chimneys, skylights and valleys are involved. Only a roofer who has been up on your roof can give you a real number.
Composition shingle
The volume material, and what most tract housing wears. You see it all over the Valley and the South Bay, and on the 1950s stock in Torrance. Roughly $9,000 to $25,000 for a typical single-family roof, most jobs in the middle of that. Architectural shingle costs more than three-tab and lasts longer, which is usually worth the difference.
Tile
Spanish and concrete tile runs through Pasadena, Glendale, San Marino, Hancock Park, Silver Lake and Palos Verdes. Two very different jobs hide under the word "tile." A lift and relay typically runs $12,000 to $30,000. Sound tiles come off, new underlayment goes down, then the same tiles go back on. It's the right call more often than people expect. New tile throughout is more like $25,000 to $60,000 and up. If your tiles are in decent shape, ask about a relay before pricing new ones.
Flat and low-slope
Mid-century houses, hillside modern, duplexes. TPO and other single-ply membranes, modified bitumen and cap sheet systems generally run $12,000 to $30,000 on a house-sized roof. Drainage work adds to that, and it's money well spent. That means adding or moving drains and scuppers, and building up crickets so water has somewhere to go. Plenty of LA houses are a mix, with tile at the front and flat over the back addition. A good quote prices the two separately.
The solar question
Panels have to come off before a roof can be replaced, then go back on. Removal and reinstall commonly runs $4,000 to $10,000 depending on the size of the array and who handles it. Sometimes that's the solar company, sometimes we coordinate it.
Which makes the rule of thumb simple. If the roof is 15 years or older, replace it before the panels go on. Doing the roof first costs nothing extra. Doing it afterward means paying for the removal twice. If you already have panels on an aging roof, price both together instead of waiting for a leak to force the timing.
Permits
Replacing a roof needs a permit. In the City of LA that's LADBS. Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank and the other independent cities run their own building departments, with their own fees and inspectors. The contractor pulls it. A roofer who suggests skipping the permit is telling you something useful. There's an inspection at the end, and that paperwork is worth keeping for resale.
Fire zones and what a Class A assembly means
If the property sits in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone, the California Wildland-Urban Interface Code applies. Those zones cover the foothills, the canyons, and the Palisades and Eaton burn areas. The part people miss is that the requirement is a Class A roof assembly, not a Class A shingle. The rating is earned by the whole build-up: the covering, the underlayment beneath it, and how edges and penetrations are detailed. A Class A shingle over the wrong underlayment isn't a Class A assembly.
Chapter 7A also covers ember-resistant vents and non-combustible gutters, since embers landing in a gutter full of dry leaves are a common way a house catches. If you're rebuilding after the fires, raise it in the first conversation. It changes the specification and the price, and you want that in the written quote.
What happens when you call us
Tell us the address, roughly what the roof is, and what's prompting the call. A licensed roofer who works on that kind of roof comes out at a time that suits you, and we turn up when we say we will. Free inspection, and a written quote before anyone starts.
Ask for the CSLB license number of the roofer standing on your roof and look it up yourself to check the classification and status. We hand it over without fuss. Then they walk the roof, take measurements, and price the job off what's actually up there.
Read the quote line by line before you sign. Ask what happens if the decking underneath turns out to be rotten, and what that does to the price. We'll put the answer in writing.
The offer
$500 off a new roof, 10% off any repair
Start online and it is attached to your request, with nothing to remember.
- We get on the roof, and into the attic if that is where the answer is
- You get photographs of whatever we find
- The price in writing, with nothing to sign on the day
Where this comes up most
Where we work
Across Los Angeles County
Tell us what is going on
A description is enough to start. We will come out, look at the roof properly, and give you the price in writing.