Pricing by neighborhood — Roofer · San Francisco, CA
| Neighborhood | Low | High | Why the price moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Heights / Russian Hill / Marina | $80 | $135 | Slate restoration, premium TPO/PVC, salt-air corrosion at Marina, hillside rigging, Victorian/Edwardian detailing |
| Sea Cliff / Presidio Heights | $85 | $140 | Coastal salt exposure drives stainless fasteners, copper flashing, frequent slate and tile work |
| Mission / Castro / Noe Valley | $65 | $105 | Victorian flat and low-slope, torch-down modified bitumen and TPO retrofit common |
| SOMA / South Beach / Mission Bay | $70 | $115 | Flat roofs over loft conversions and mid-rise; torch-down, PVC, single-ply membrane |
| Sunset / Richmond | $60 | $95 | 1920s row houses with steep-slope composition shingle, fog-driven moss, drainage upgrades |
| Bernal Heights / Glen Park | $60 | $95 | Mid-tier stock, mix of low-slope and small steep-slope, straightforward access |
| Western Addition / Hayes Valley | $65 | $105 | Victorian flat over corner stores and walk-ups, parapet and drain work common |
| Bayview / Hunters Point / Excelsior / Outer Mission | $55 | $90 | Smaller footprints, modest steep-slope composition, competitive pricing |
Roofer hourly rate by neighborhood in San Francisco, CA. Ranges reflect typical contractor pricing including travel time, building-type access, and local labor density.
How much does a roofer cost in San Francisco?
San Francisco roofers charge $54-$91 per hour for scheduled work, with an average of $73/hr. Most jobs get quoted by the square (100 sq ft) or by the project, not by the hour: TPO single-ply on a flat Victorian runs $9-$16 per sq ft installed, torch-down modified bitumen $7-$13, composition shingle on a Sunset row house $6-$11, slate restoration in Pacific Heights $30-$60. Geography matters: Pacific Heights, Sea Cliff, and Marina sit at the top of the range because of slate and tile stock, salt-air corrosion, and hillside access. Bayview, Excelsior, and Outer Mission sit at the bottom.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the median hourly wage for roofers in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro at $36.28. The gap between that and the $73/hr you actually pay is real and explainable, and the rest of this article walks through where every dollar goes, what permits you actually need, and what to ask when comparing quotes.
SF Roofer Rates by Neighborhood
San Francisco is not one roof market. A Sea Cliff slate restoration with copper flashing and a hillside rigging plan is a different job than a Sunset composition reroof with driveway access, and the price reflects that. The full per-neighborhood breakdown sits at the top of this page; this section explains the why.
The premium for Pacific Heights, Sea Cliff, and the Marina is structural, not arbitrary. The high-end stock concentrates slate, clay tile, and standing-seam copper roofs that almost no crew outside a handful of specialists will quote. Salt-air corrosion at the coastal edge (Sea Cliff, Outer Richmond, Marina, southern Bayview) shortens fastener and flashing life, so contractors spec stainless or copper at a $1-$3 per sq ft premium. Hillside lots add rigging, ladder transport, and Recology coordination that flatter neighborhoods skip.
Comparable cities for cross-reference:
- Los Angeles roofer costs — $49-$81/hr
- San Jose roofer costs — $52-$87/hr
- Sacramento roofer costs — $40-$70/hr
- Seattle roofer costs — $50-$85/hr
SF sits roughly 10-15% above the California metro average, mostly explained by Bay Area cost-of-living and the heavy share of flat/low-slope membrane work in the city’s Victorian and SOMA stock.
SF Roofer Pricing by Building Type
Neighborhood is one axis. Building type is the other, and in San Francisco it usually matters more because the roof geometry varies more than the zip code. A Victorian flat over a Mission corner store is a torch-down or TPO job; a Sunset row house is a steep-slope composition job; a SOMA loft conversion is a single-ply membrane job. Pricing follows.
| Building type | Hourly rate | Why the price moves |
|---|---|---|
| Slate / tile mansion (Pacific Heights, Sea Cliff) | $130-$200 | Slate and copper specialty crews, multi-week schedules, scaffolding and rigging, historic-review compliance |
| Victorian / Edwardian flat (Mission, Castro, Noe, Western Addition) | $85-$135 | Low-slope TPO or torch-down over old built-up roof, parapet repair, multiple layers of tear-off, dry rot common |
| SOMA / South Beach loft (flat over masonry or warehouse conversion) | $90-$140 | Single-ply PVC/TPO with mechanical anchoring, drain and scupper rebuild, downtown access logistics |
| 1920s row house composition shingle (Sunset, Richmond, Bernal) | $65-$100 | Steep-slope asphalt composition, fog-driven moss, ridge vent retrofit, straightforward driveway access |
| Smaller single-family (Bayview, Excelsior, Outer Mission) | $55-$90 | Modest footprints, composition shingle or basic flat, simpler tear-off, competitive pricing |
The flat-roof premium is the SF-specific bit. National averages assume steep-slope composition shingle dominates; in SF the Victorian and SOMA stock pushes flat or low-slope membrane work to roughly 60-70% of the residential market by roof area. Membrane installation requires heat-weld or torch certification, specialty fasteners, and detailed drain/scupper work that adds cost over the shingle-and-staple workflow most national references model.
What Your Billed Hour Actually Covers
The $36.28 BLS wage is take-home pay for the roofer, not what the customer pays. The customer rate of $54-$91/hr covers everything the business needs to legally operate in San Francisco.
Roughly: 50% labor, 13% commercial liability and bonding insurance ($25,000-$50,000/yr per crew in SF because roofing is California’s highest-claim trade and SF has the largest liability awards in the state), 10% vehicle and specialty tools (TPO heat welders, torch-down equipment, slate hooks and cutters, rappel rigging for hillside lots), 10% SF-specific licensing and overhead (CSLB C-39 renewal, the $25,000 contractor bond, Recology disposal at $130-$200 per ton, SFMTA parking permits), and 17% contractor profit margin. Strip any of those out and the business cannot stay open.
This is why the cheapest quote is rarely the right one. A roofer bidding $35/hr or $4 per sq ft on a TPO retrofit is either operating without workers’ comp (roofing’s premium runs 14-18% of payroll, so cutting it is the most common way to undercut), without an active C-39 license (CSLB enforcement runs sting operations on SF jobs), or losing money and about to disappear mid-project.
SF Roofer Permits and What They Cost
San Francisco DBI sits on top of every meaningful roof job, and several layers of California code (Title 24 cool-roof, Chapter 7A wildfire-edge, seismic anchoring at retrofits) sit on top of DBI. Skipping the permit step is the most common way homeowners turn a $20,000 reroof into a $40,000 unpermitted-work disclosure problem at resale.
| Work | Permit / requirement | Typical cost | Lead time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Repair / patch (under 100 sq ft, no structural) | SF DBI Over-the-Counter Roofing Permit | $300-$500 | 1-3 days |
| Full reroof, same material, residential | SF DBI Roofing Permit + Title 24 CF-1R cool-roof | $500-$1,200 | 1-3 weeks |
| Material change (e.g. shingle to tile, or new TPO) | DBI Roofing Permit + structural review if load changes | $700-$1,500 | 2-5 weeks |
| Victorian / Edwardian visible profile change | Historic Preservation Commission review | $400-$1,800 + HPC fees | 4-12 weeks |
| WUI-edge work (Twin Peaks, Mt Davidson, Sutro slopes) | Chapter 7A wildfire-rated assembly (Class A) | + $1-$3 per sq ft | included in main permit |
Your roofer files the DBI permit on your behalf and the fee gets passed through on the invoice. The Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) compliance form (CF-1R) is the line item homeowners most often miss when comparing bids; a quote that doesn’t show it usually doesn’t include it. Historic-district review on visible Victorian roof changes is processed through the SF Planning Department’s HPC; a contractor who claims to skip it on a visible Pacific Heights or Alamo Square roof is bidding work they cannot actually complete.
Common Roofer Job Pricing in San Francisco
These are typical all-in prices, including labor, materials, SF DBI permit fees, Recology disposal, and 1-year workmanship warranty (most manufacturers add 25-50 year material warranty on top). Pacific Heights, Sea Cliff, and SOMA sit at the high end of each range; Bayview, Excelsior, and Outer Mission at the low end.
| Job | Total cost | Labor days | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leak repair / small patch | $400-$1,200 | 0.5-1 | Flashing, vent boot, single shingle patch; +$200-$400 if dry rot |
| Composition shingle reroof (1,500 sq ft Sunset row house) | $14,000-$22,000 | 2-4 | Tear-off one layer, GAF/Owens Corning architectural shingle, ridge vent |
| TPO retrofit (2,000 sq ft Mission Victorian flat) | $20,000-$36,000 | 3-5 | 60 mil TPO over recovery board, parapet flashing, drain rebuild |
| Torch-down modified bitumen (1,200 sq ft SOMA flat) | $12,000-$22,000 | 2-4 | Two-ply SBS, hot-mop or self-adhered base, scupper detailing |
| Slate restoration (per square, Pacific Heights / Sea Cliff) | $3,000-$6,000 / sq | 1-2 / sq | Salvage and replace damaged slate, copper flashing, hand-cut hips |
| Standing-seam metal (mid-size flat or low-slope) | $25,000-$60,000 | 5-10 | Zinc or galvanized steel, custom-panned on site, premium membrane |
| Gutter and downspout replacement | $1,800-$5,500 | 1-3 | Copper $25-$40/lf, aluminum $8-$15/lf, salt-air zones need stainless |
| Skylight installation (one) | $1,800-$4,500 | 1-2 | Velux or Fakro deck-mounted, flashing kit, Title 24 if reflective area increases |
| Full slate or tile replacement (premium mansion) | $50,000-$200,000+ | 10-40 | Pacific Heights / Sea Cliff specialty crew; staging + rigging is half the cost |
The Victorian flat-roof retrofit is the SF-specific story. Most pre-1940 Mission, Castro, and Western Addition flats have 60-100 years of layered built-up roof, gravel ballast, and patched torch-down. A proper TPO or PVC retrofit starts with a full tear-off down to the deck, replaces rotten boards, installs new high-density cover board, and only then begins the membrane install. A roofer offering a $3,000 “TPO overlay” on the same building is putting a new membrane on top of degraded substrate; it will fail in 3-7 years instead of 25-30.
How to Get and Compare San Francisco Roofer Quotes
Three things separate a useful quote from a useless one in SF, and they all come down to specificity.
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Tell the roofer the building age, roof type, and access. “1908 Mission Victorian flat, 1,800 sq ft, currently torch-down with 3 visible patches, second-floor access only, neighbor on north shares parapet wall” gets a meaningful number. “I think my roof needs work” doesn’t. Quotes without an in-person inspection of the roof itself (not just a Google satellite estimate) are not real quotes.
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Ask for an itemized written estimate that breaks out labor days, materials with brand and thickness (60 mil vs 80 mil TPO is a real spec difference; GAF Timberline HDZ vs GAF Royal Sovereign is a real spec difference), tear-off vs overlay, permit fees, dry-rot allowance, and Recology disposal. Verbal estimates grow on the day. Reputable SF roofers email itemized PDFs within 48-72 hours of the site visit. If a roofer will not put it in writing, walk.
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Verify the license, bond, and insurance before you book. Pull the C-39 license number from the California State License Board search and confirm active status, current $25,000 bond, and no recent suspensions. Request a current Certificate of Insurance showing $1M general liability and California workers’ comp specifically listing roofing classification (workers’ comp omissions are the #1 SF roofing scam). Both checks take five minutes and rule out 90% of the contractors who later become problems.
How We Calculated These Prices
The SF roofer hourly rate of $54-$91 starts with the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics median hourly wage for roofers in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metropolitan statistical area: $36.28 as of May 2024. We apply a 1.5x-2.5x consumer multiplier covering business overhead, commercial liability insurance, the California workers’ comp premium for roofing classification (14-18% of payroll, the highest of any trade), CSLB C-39 licensing and the $25,000 contractor bond, vehicle costs, Recology disposal, and contractor profit margin, calibrated against current market quotes from CSLB-licensed C-39 roofers in San Francisco.
Neighborhood-level adjustments reflect access logistics (hillside rigging in Pacific Heights and Russian Hill, parking permits in dense corridors), salt-air corrosion premiums on stainless and copper at coastal edges, and the heavy share of flat/low-slope membrane work in Victorian and SOMA stock. The full formula and source list lives on our methodology page.
Other San Francisco Service Costs You Might Need
Roof work rarely happens in isolation. A reroof on a Victorian flat usually pulls in 2-3 adjacent trades, and getting quotes from all of them at the same time is faster than serial calls.
- SF general contractor costs — when the project includes structural deck repair, dormer changes, or interior ceiling work
- SF carpenter costs — for fascia, soffit, and rafter repairs uncovered during tear-off
- SF painter costs — fresh exterior trim, fascia, and downspouts after the roof goes on
- SF chimney sweep costs — chimney flashing and crown repairs are usually done at the same time as a reroof
- SF stucco costs — for stucco patching where new flashing meets the wall