RoofCostLab
Roofing cost calculators that show their math — real material prices, real crew hours, and every assumption written out so a homeowner can check it.
Most roofing cost sites give you a number and hide the model behind it. RoofCostLab does the opposite: it publishes the material quantities, the crew hours, the labour rates and the assumptions, then shows the figure those inputs produce. Estimates are built from published 2026 retail material pricing and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data adjusted for burden and overhead, with state selection to account for regional wage variation. Seventeen calculators cover replacement cost, pitch and squares, material-specific pricing for metal, flat, cedar shake, slate and tile, and components including gutters, sheathing, trusses, rafters, ventilation and snow load.
The editorial position is the engineering spec. If the promise is 'calculators that show their math', then the math has to be a first-class data structure, not a formula buried in a component — every calculator exposes its inputs, its rates and its intermediate steps, and the methodology pages are generated from the same source the calculators run on. That is also what makes the content defensible: the site states plainly that results are planning figures, not binding quotes.
- 01Making a cost model transparent enough for a homeowner to audit
- 02Keeping calculators and published methodology from drifting apart
- 03Accounting for regional labour cost variation across US states
- Calculation model as structured data, not formulas inside components
- Methodology pages generated from the calculator source of truth
- BLS wage data adjusted for burden and overhead, keyed by state