What's a realistic price to reroof a Calgary townhouse unit?

Reroofing a Calgary townhouse unit typically runs $4,000 to $14,000, but where your job lands depends heavily on one question you need to answer before calling a roofer: who actually owns the roof?

Ownership Changes Everything

In a condominium corporation, the roof is almost always common property, meaning the condo board arranges and pays for the work through the corporation's reserve fund, not individual unit owners. If your townhouse is part of a condo corp, your first call is to your property manager or board, not a roofing contractor. If you own a freehold townhouse with no condo corporation, you control the roof and hire directly.

Assuming you are responsible for the roof, here is what shapes the price.

Roof size and complexity. A townhouse unit covers less roof area than a detached house, often 400 to 700 square feet of actual roof surface, but the roofer measures the slope, not the floor plan. Steeper pitches add labour. End units often have more exposed flashing and edge detail than interior units.

Tear-off and decking. Stripping the old shingles runs roughly $1 to $4 per square foot. If the plywood or OSB sheathing underneath is soft or rotted from ice-dam moisture, expect about $65 to $130 per sheet to replace it. Calgary's freeze-thaw cycle, averaging around 128 cycles a year, is hard on decking near the eaves.

Material choice. Standard architectural shingles run about $5 to $8.50 per square foot installed. Class 4 impact-resistant shingles cost roughly 10 to 20% more, and given that Calgary sits in what the City describes as Canada's hail alley, they are worth asking your insurer about: the Insurance Bureau of Canada says a majority of insurers offer discounts of up to 50% for hail-resistant materials.

Eave protection. The National Building Code requires a self-sealing membrane or equivalent to extend at least 900 mm up the slope and to a line at least 300 mm inside the inner face of the exterior wall. On a townhouse that has seen ice dams, this is not optional.

Shared walls and access. Interior units may have limited staging space, which can add time and cost. Confirm with your contractor how they plan to protect the neighbouring units during the job.

On permits: like-for-like re-roofing in Calgary, replacing asphalt shingles with asphalt shingles, does not need a building permit under the Alberta Permit Regulation. Switching to a different material type is a different matter, and the City of Calgary should be your first check before signing anything.

What a solid quote should spell out: the measured roof area in squares, the tear-off and disposal cost, a per-sheet decking allowance beyond an included number of sheets, the exact shingle product and its warranty, eave protection and underlayment, all flashings and vent boots (new, not reused), start and completion dates, a payment schedule, and the contractor's prepaid contracting licence number. Before any deposit changes hands, look up that licence on Service Alberta's online registry and ask for a WCB-Alberta clearance letter.

If hail damage is involved, contact your insurer before authorizing any work. The adjuster's scope and your roofer's inspection report should be compared side by side before you commit to a contract.

Start with your insurer if there is storm damage, or with a roofer for a free on-site measurement if this is a planned replacement; either way, having a written scope in hand before you sign anything is what keeps the final bill predictable. The request form on this site sends your job details to local Calgary roofers who can quote your specific unit.