How Much Does a New Roof Cost in Vermont in 2026
For a Vermont reroof the closest measured cost is regional. New England shingle roofs averaged $35,701 to replace, says the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com), whose sample holds no Vermont city. Roofers here earned a $27.08 mean hourly wage in May 2025 (U.S.: $27.95). Jobs over $10,000 need an OPR-registered contractor.
Three sample cities, none of them in Vermont
Zonda Media builds the report from 28 remodeling projects priced in 119 markets. The New England division that Vermont belongs to is sampled in Boston, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and Portland, Maine. Burlington, Rutland and Brattleboro do not appear.
Asphalt-shingle replacement: $35,701 to do, $22,346 back at resale, a 62.6% recoup. The U.S. average for the same project is $31,871. Metal replacement: $56,282 to do, $21,904 back, 38.9%. U.S.: $51,865.
These cost the report’s own project definitions; the captured pages give neither the roof’s square footage nor the shingle grade.
© 2025 Zonda Media, a Delaware Corporation. Complete data from the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report can be downloaded free at www.costvsvalue.com.
Mean below the U.S., median above it
The Bureau of Labor Statistics put Vermont’s roofing payroll at 210 people in May 2025. Their mean wage, $27.08 an hour ($56,330 a year), trailed the $27.95 national mean. The median ran the other way: $28.39 an hour ($59,040) against $26.65 for the U.S. Self-employed roofers are not in these numbers, and pay is only one component of what a bid charges.
Registration with OPR once the job tops $10,000
26 V.S.A. chapter 106, added by 2021, No. 182 (Adj. Sess.), effective July 1, 2022 according to its history note, requires a person to register with the Office of Professional Regulation “prior to contracting with a homeowner to perform residential construction in exchange for consideration of more than $10,000.00, including labor and materials.” Roofing is named in the definition, which covers a dwelling or a building with four or fewer units. The legislature’s 2025 and 2026 lists of acts affecting the statutes show no change to the chapter.
Section 5502 exempts six groups:
- an employee working within the scope of employment for a registered business;
- a professional engineer, licensed architect, or tradesperson licensed, registered or certified by the Department of Public Safety, acting within that credential, or a business whose work is done primarily by or under the direct supervision of such exempt employees;
- delivery or installation of consumer appliances, audio-visual, telephone or computer network equipment;
- landscaping;
- work on a structure not attached to a residential building;
- emergency work, provided the person applies for registration within a reasonable time afterward.
A registrant must carry liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate (§5509(a)). Check a name on OPR’s Find a Professional page. OPR itself says it cannot investigate “the quality of work,” seek restitution or mediate disputes.
The written contract and the deposit ceiling in §5509
A registrant must sign a written contract before taking a deposit or starting work when labor and materials are estimated above $10,000. The contract states estimated start and finish dates, a description of the work and materials, how changes will be approved, and one of three price terms: a maximum price; time and materials with a cap; or time and materials with no cap. Amendments must be in a signed writing.
With a maximum price or a capped time-and-materials deal, the down payment may be “up to one-half of the cost of labor to the consumer, or one-half of the price of materials, whichever is greater.” With uncapped time and materials, the deposit is whatever the parties negotiate.
Home improvement fraud, rewritten in June 2026
Vermont’s crime of home improvement fraud, 13 V.S.A. § 2029, defines home improvement to include work on “roofs.” Act 165 of 2026 (signed June 18, 2026, effective on passage) reworded it: the offense now covers a person who knowingly enters into a contract, agreement or change order of $1,000 or more with an owner (or several totaling $2,500 or more with different owners) and knowingly does one of four things:
- promises performance the person “does not intend to perform or knows will not be performed, in whole or in part”;
- misrepresents a material fact about the contract terms or the property’s condition;
- uses an unfair or deceptive act to get you to sign or modify the deal;
- during a declared state of emergency, charges more than twice the average price for related goods or services, where the increase is not attributable to added costs.
Anyone convicted goes on the Attorney General’s Home Improvement and Land Improvement Fraud Registry.
Fire-safety rules skip the owner-occupied house; the energy standard does not
The Division of Fire Safety’s construction rules under 20 V.S.A. § 2731 apply to “public buildings.” Section 2730(b)(1) leaves out “An owner-occupied single-family residence, unless used for a purpose described in subsection (a) of this section.” One of those purposes is renting rooms or units, so a roof on a rental house falls under the state rules, while the same roof on your own single-family home does not.
Energy is different. Under 30 V.S.A. § 51(b), “Residential construction shall be in compliance with” the Residential Building Energy Standards, and § 51(a)(3) counts “additions, alterations, renovations, or repairs to an existing residential building” as residential construction. Covered buildings are one- and two-family dwellings and multifamily housing of three stories or less; hunting camps are excluded. What a reroof must meet is set in the Public Service Department’s rule.
Vermont roofing questions
My roof bid is $9,800. Does the roofer have to register?
Not under chapter 106: the trigger is “more than $10,000.00,” labor and materials together. The §2029 fraud law still applies from $1,000.
How big a deposit can a registered roofer take on a $20,000 fixed-price job?
Half of the labor cost or half of the materials price, whichever is greater, under §5509(c)(1).
I rent out the other half of my duplex. Do the fire-safety rules cover it?
Yes. A building where people rent accommodations is a public building under § 2730(a)(1)(D), and using any portion that way makes the whole building one.