How Much Does a New Roof Cost in Montana in 2026
The closest published average is regional. The Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com) puts an asphalt-shingle replacement at $28,475 across its Mountain-division sample, which has no Montana city. Montana roofers’ median wage, $28.38 an hour (BLS, May 2025), is above the U.S. median. Since January 1, 2026, roofing has been licensed work under Title 37, chapter 45.
A Mountain-region average with no Montana market in it
The report’s Mountain page lists eight sample cities: Albuquerque, Boise, Idaho Falls, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Reno, Salt Lake City and Tucson. Billings, Missoula and Bozeman are not among them. So $28,475 is the 2025 average job cost of the report’s defined asphalt-shingle roof replacement project in those eight markets, and $46,579 is the same average for its metal-roof project. The report’s national averages for the two projects are $31,871 and $51,865. For resale, the Mountain sample recouped 71.7% of the asphalt job’s cost and 54.3% of the metal job’s. None of this is a Montana bid.
© 2025 Zonda Media, a Delaware Corporation. Complete data from the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report can be downloaded free at www.costvsvalue.com.
Labor is one input into a bid. In its May 2025 estimates the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 370 wage-and-salary roofers working in Montana. Their mean pay was $27.41 an hour ($57,010 a year), a little under the U.S. mean of $27.95 ($58,140). Their median, $28.38, beat the U.S. median of $26.65. Self-employed roofers are outside that count, and a wage is not what you pay per square.
HB 239 turned contractor registration into a license
The 2025 Legislature replaced the registration program in Title 39, chapter 9 with Title 37, chapter 45 (Ch. 644, Laws of 2025, effective January 1, 2026). Section 37-45-102 names roofing outright: a construction contractor includes a firm that undertakes “the installation or repair of roofing or siding.” Under 37-45-201, a business “may not engage in business as a construction contractor without a current license” from the Department of Labor & Industry. The department’s notice to registrants says existing registrations converted to licenses automatically on January 1, 2026.
Section 37-45-104 carves 24 kinds of work and workers out of the licensing chapter, each with its own conditions. Before accepting a roofer’s claim that one of them applies, read the full list in the statute.
Why a homeowner should look the license up: 37-45-202 says a person who hires a contractor “licensed under this chapter on the date of the contract is not liable as an employer” for workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, or wages for that contractor, its employees, or its subcontractors. Search by name in the state’s licensee lookup. Under 37-45-204, a city or county may not issue its own contractor license for the same purpose, though it may still charge a general business license fee, and the section does not limit local authority over contractors the chapter does not require to be registered.
A roofer who knocks: Montana’s personal solicitation law
If a seller contacts you by phone or in person away from its place of business and you agree to buy, Title 30, chapter 14, part 5 applies once the price is over $25. Under 30-14-504 you may cancel “until midnight of the third business day after the day on which the buyer has signed,” by written notice; a mailed notice counts when it is deposited in the mailbox. The seller must hand you a cancellation notice (30-14-505), and until it does, the three days do not start. After a cancellation the seller has 10 days to return your payments (30-14-506).
The law does not cover a sale in which you already knew the seller’s name, business and product before the pitch; one you initiated; a minor delivering and selling newspaper subscriptions; an insurance policy; or a sale over $5,000 that is not for personal, family or household purposes (30-14-502). Cancellation is also barred where goods “cannot be returned to the seller in substantially the same condition” (30-14-504(5)). A telephone sale may be canceled any time before you sign.
Impact-rated shingles and the 2025 insurance statute
House Bill 136 (Ch. 105, Laws of 2025) added 33-24-110, in force since October 1, 2025 under the default date in 1-2-201. It says an insurer “may provide a benefit or a premium reduction” for preventative measures, and among wind and hail measures it lists “using an industry-approved resistant roof shingle”; among fire measures, “noncombustible roofing or coating.” The word is “may”: the statute sets no discount and requires none. An insurer that does give one “must include the benefit or premium reduction in writing.”
Check the policy’s roof terms too. In an April 2023 column, the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance warned that “once a roof reaches 10 to 15 years old, hail damage to the roof may be paid at ‘Actual Cash Value’ rather than ‘Replacement Cost Value'” under some policies.
Houses under five units sit outside the state building code
Section 50-60-102(1)(a) says the state building code does not apply to “residential buildings containing less than five dwelling units,” farm or ranch buildings, or private garages, “unless the local legislative body by ordinance or resolution makes the state building code applicable.” The energy-conservation provisions are the exception in 50-60-102(5). The Building Codes Program adds that local enforcement programs “must be certified” by it. So the permit question for a reroof goes to your city, county or town.
Montana homeowners ask
Does a one-person roofing outfit need the new license?
Not if it has no employees: 37-45-104(24) exempts it. But the 37-45-202 employer-liability shield applies only to a contractor licensed under the chapter.
I signed at the kitchen table. Can I back out?
Yes, until midnight of the third business day after signing, if the sale began with an in-person or phone solicitation and none of the 30-14-502 exceptions applies.
Must my insurer discount an impact-resistant shingle?
No. Section 33-24-110 lets an insurer give a benefit for a resistant shingle; it does not order one.