How Much Does a New Roof Cost in Washington State in 2026

The only roof price on this page is national. The Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report puts its asphalt-shingle roof replacement at $31,871 (www.costvsvalue.com) as a U.S. average. Washington roofers averaged $33.11 an hour in May 2025 (U.S.: $27.95), and your bid will carry retail sales tax on the full contract price.

The $31,871 figure is a national average, not a Washington quote

Of the 28 projects the report prices across 119 U.S. markets, two are roofs. Its 2025 national average job cost is $31,871 for asphalt shingles and $51,865 for a metal roof. Those are averages across the report’s sample markets for its own defined replacement project. The pages we could read do not give that project’s roof size or shingle grade, so you cannot scale the number to your house. It is also not a Washington average: the report groups markets by census division, and this page uses only the national line.

© 2025 Zonda Media, a Delaware Corporation. Complete data from the Remodeling 2025 Cost vs. Value Report can be downloaded free at www.costvsvalue.com.

For the national picture by material, see roof replacement cost in 2026 and asphalt shingle roof cost.

What Washington roofers earn (BLS, May 2025)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey counted 5,890 people employed as roofers in Washington in May 2025. Their mean wage was $33.11 an hour ($68,870 a year) and the median was $29.16 an hour ($60,640). For roofers across the United States the mean was $27.95 and the median $26.65. The survey covers wage and salary workers only. Self-employed roofers are left out, and so are the contractor’s overhead, insurance, materials and margin. So this is one input to a bid, not the bid. A wage gap is not a price gap.

Sales tax applies to the whole roofing contract (WAC 458-20-170)

Washington taxes construction work done for a homeowner as a retail sale. The Department of Revenue’s rule defines a “prime contractor” as a person who performs, for consumers, “the constructing, repairing, decorating or improving of new or existing buildings or other structures.” Subsection (4)(a) then says: “Prime contractors are required to collect from consumers the retail sales tax measured by the full contract price.” Ask for the tax as its own line on each bid.

Registration with Labor & Industries (chapter 18.27 RCW)

RCW 18.27.020(1) is one sentence: “Every contractor shall register with the department,” which RCW 18.27.010 defines as the Department of Labor and Industries. The definition of “contractor” names “the installation or repair of roofing or siding.” Bidding or working without registration is a gross misdemeanor.

• Bond. Since July 1, 2024 (Laws of 2023, ch. 213), the bond is $30,000 for a general contractor and $15,000 for a specialty contractor. It had been $12,000 and $6,000.
• Claims. A “residential homeowner” (an owner or lessee who lives, or will live, in the single-family house, per RCW 18.27.010(10)) suing the bond for breach of contract must file within two years after the work “was substantially completed or abandoned, whichever occurred first.” When claims exceed the bond, employee labor is paid first and breach-of-contract claims second. Claimants other than residential homeowners may take no more than one-half of the bond.
• Checking. Look the business up on L&I’s Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business tool. RCW 18.27.100 requires the current registration number on advertising aimed at retail customers.

RCW 18.27.090 lists seventeen exemptions. Among them:

• Work on your own property, or on the home you live in. This one “shall not apply to any person who performs the activities of a contractor on his or her own property for the purpose of selling, demolishing, or leasing the property.”
• Jobs under $500 in total. That exemption is lost if the work “is only a part of a larger or major operation,” if it is divided into contracts under $500 “for the purpose of evasion of this chapter or otherwise,” or if the person advertises as a contractor.

The notice you sign before the crew starts

Under RCW 18.27.114, a contractor on a job of $1,000 or more on four or fewer residential units must hand you a “NOTICE TO CUSTOMER” before work begins. It states the registration number, the bond amount and the registration’s expiration date. It also warns that the bond “might not be sufficient” and that your property “may be liened.” The contractor keeps your signed copy for at least three years. Without proof that it gave you the notice, the contractor cannot bring or maintain a lien claim under chapter 60.04 RCW on that contract. The section does not apply to public-works contracts under chapter 39.04 RCW or to contracts between contractors.

Which building code covers a 2026 reroof

WAC 51-51-003 adopts the 2021 International Residential Code with state amendments. WAC 51-51-008 makes it effective “in all counties and cities of this state on March 15, 2024.” The State Building Code Council’s schedule gives the 2024 codes an effective date of May 3, 2027. RCW 19.27.050 leaves enforcement to “the counties and cities”; one without a building department must contract with another county, city or approved inspection agency.

The same definition names siding, so the registration rules above also cover a siding replacement in Washington. Across the Columbia, Oregon’s roof rules use a license board instead of registration.

Questions Washington owners ask

Does a Washington roofer need a license?

Washington’s rule for roofers is registration with L&I under chapter 18.27 RCW, and the statute names roofing. Check the registration and bond on the L&I verify tool before you sign.

Is sales tax charged on roofing labor, or only on materials?

On the full contract price. WAC 458-20-170(4)(a) measures the retail sales tax the contractor collects from you by the full contract price, and subsection (1)(e) counts “all service activities” in the construction charge.

Can I replace my own roof without registering?

Yes, on your own property or your own residence, unless you do it “for the purpose of selling, demolishing, or leasing the property” (RCW 18.27.090(12)). Code enforcement by the county or city still applies (RCW 19.27.050).