Flat Roof Replacement in Richmond Heights

EPDM at $5 to $9 a square foot and TPO at $6 to $12, and on normal residential additions either will do the job if the detailing is right. What matters far more here is the upstand height and the drainage, because both have to work with snow sitting on the roof rather than rain running off it.

Not in itself -- water that clears within a day or two is normal. Water still there a week later is a seam being tested continuously. In winter it is worse than that, because ice over an outlet means the roof has no drainage at all until it thaws.

In Greater Cleveland, most houses between 1,500 and 2,500 square feet cost $10,000 to $14,500 for a full replacement in architectural asphalt, with the wider local range running $8,500 to $21,000. Per square foot that is $3.50 to $8.00, with architectural product typically $5.00 to $6.70 and basic three-tab at the bottom of the range. Costs in this corner of the state sit a little above the Ohio average, which reflects labor rather than materials.

Architectural asphalt typically gives 20 to 30 years in Ohio and three-tab 15 to 20, but in the snowbelt the honest figure sits toward the lower end of both. What shortens it is not age but the melt-refreeze cycle at the eaves: a roof that dams every winter is being worked on from the bottom up, season after season. A well-ventilated roof with proper ice barrier coverage on this shore will outlast a badly detailed one of the same age by years.

On Greater Cleveland rates a 1,500 square foot roof works out at roughly $5,250 to $12,000 depending on product and complexity, and most land nearer $10,000 once tear-off, ice barrier and a permit are included. One frequent source of confusion: 1,500 square feet of FLOOR is not 1,500 square feet of roof. Pitch, overhangs and dormers commonly make the roof area a third larger, which is why quotes can look inexplicably far apart.