Labor Costs: Install Metal Roof Over Shingles Pricing

Paychecks are where most of your “install metal roof over shingles” money actually goes, and in Nassau County that usually means labor in the range of $150-$350 per square (100 square feet) on top of your material cost. I’m breaking that labor number into specific tasks-prep, framing or purlins, metal install, and detail work-so when someone asks, “How much does labor cost to install a metal roof over shingles?” you can answer with real numbers and what those numbers cover.

What Labor Really Costs to Install Metal Over Shingles in Nassau County

Labor to install metal over shingles runs between $150 and $350 per square on most Nassau jobs, and that’s per hundred square feet of actual roof area-material is separate. At the low end, you’re probably looking at a simple ranch with a single layer of shingles, good access, and a basic straight-gable roof. At the high end, picture a split-level with multiple dormers, coastal wind zone fastening, two layers of shingles that need some selective tear-off in the valleys, or tight side-yard access where every panel has to come around the house on a ladder. That range covers the crew time, the planning, and the detail work-basically everything a human has to do so metal sits cleanly and safely on top of what’s already there.

The Four Big Chunks Your Labor Dollar Goes Toward

Most of the labor cost to install metal over shingles falls into four buckets: inspection and prep (checking structure, adding ventilation, and leveling shingle high spots); framing or purlins (putting down sleepers or furring strips if your metal type needs them); metal installation (underlayment, panels, and fasteners); and detail work plus cleanup (flashing chimneys, wrapping fascia, installing ridge vents, and getting the dumpster out). Each bucket chews up crew hours in different ways, and I’ve found that homeowners really start to see value when they can picture how much time-and how many guys-each step actually takes.

I’ve priced overlay jobs in Franklin Square, Rockville Centre, Wantagh, and pretty much every corner of Nassau where someone has a cape or a split with decent shingles and wants to avoid the tear-off hassle. The math changes a little town to town-tight yards in Lynbrook or beachfront wind zones in Long Beach add logistics labor-but the four buckets stay the same, and so does the basic question: is paying people to install over shingles actually cheaper than paying them to tear off and start fresh?

Here’s the part most quotes don’t spell out in plain English: labor is where overlay jobs either make sense or fall apart, not material pricing. The metal panels cost what they cost whether you tear off or not. Savings happen because you’re not paying three guys to rip shingles, bag them, haul them down ladders, and fill a dumpster. But if your existing roof needs structural fixes, extra ventilation work, or partial valley tear-off because the decking’s soft, then you’re adding prep labor that eats back into those savings. I’ve walked away from overlay bids where the labor to fix what was underneath would’ve been higher than the labor to just tear off clean and start with known-good decking.

Bucket One – Inspection and Prep Before a Single Piece of Metal Goes On

Once we know the roof is solid enough to carry an overlay, we still have to prep the surface and structure, and that takes crew time most folks don’t expect. First, someone has to get in the attic and check rafters, look for sag, confirm the decking isn’t punky, and make sure you’ve got proper ventilation-because metal over shingles can trap heat if the airflow isn’t right. Then we’re up on the roof pulling test fasteners to see if the shingles are locked down, checking valleys for rot or soft spots, and walking every section to find ridges or bumps that need grinding or shimming before metal goes on. That inspection and surface-leveling work typically runs you four to eight man-hours on a straightforward 1,500-square-foot ranch-so figure one or two people spending half a day, or around $400-$700 in labor, before you even order the metal.

Structural Fixes That Turn “No Tear-Off” Into Partial Tear-Off

The inspection phase is where you find out if “no tear-off” really means no tear-off, or if you’re going to strip sections anyway because the structure underneath isn’t sound. On a 1,500-square-foot ranch with one clean layer of shingles and solid decking, prep might be just the attic check, a few fastener tests, and maybe adding a couple of baffles or a ridge vent-call it six hours total. On a house with two layers of shingles or known leaks, prep can easily double to twelve hours or more, because you’re peeling back sections, sistering rafters, or replacing plywood in valleys before the overlay can even start.

Back on that Bellmore job I mentioned earlier, with the soft valleys, the homeowner was convinced overlay would be cheaper because “there’s no tear-off.” We did the attic check on a humid July afternoon and found sagging rafters under an old bathroom vent and decking that flexed when you stepped near the valleys. I sat at their kitchen table and drew out the labor: tearing off just the valley sections, sistering those rafters, replacing maybe six sheets of plywood, then doing the overlay everywhere else. That partial tear-off and structural fix added about fourteen man-hours-close to $1,200 in labor-which meant the “cheaper” overlay was actually going to cost more in prep alone than a full tear-off quote from another crew that included fixing those problems as part of the strip. I broke down how the labor to safely fix those sections compared to the overlay-only labor, and we ended up recommending full tear-off because the numbers made more sense and they’d have a roof built on known-good structure.

No tear-off doesn’t mean no prep labor.

Buckets Two and Three – Framing or Purlins, Then Laying the Metal

On a 1,500-square-foot ranch in Wantagh with one clean layer of shingles and a simple gable roof, the purlin and underlayment work usually takes about eight to ten man-hours, and the metal panel install adds another twelve to sixteen hours-so you’re in the ballpark of twenty to twenty-six total man-hours for those two steps, which is roughly $1,600-$2,200 of your labor quote. Purlins-or sleepers, or furring strips, depending on who’s talking-are horizontal wood strips screwed down over the shingles to create an air gap and give your metal panels something solid to fasten into. Not every metal roof needs them; some corrugated or ribbed panels can go straight onto underlayment over shingles. But standing seam almost always does, and that purlin install is its own mini-framing job: layout, cutting, screwing every strip on sixteen- or twenty-four-inch centers, checking for level. Then comes synthetic underlayment rolled and lapped, and finally the metal panels themselves-measuring, cutting custom pieces at hips and valleys, scribing around vents and chimneys, and fastening or clipping each panel in the right wind-zone pattern.

During a cold November in Lynbrook, we led a crew installing metal over a single layer of shingles on a simple ranch, and the homeowner was nervous about the labor quote-wanted to know why it wasn’t just “throw metal on and done.” I walked her through each line at her kitchen table: purlin installation was eight man-hours because we were running twenty-four-inch-on-center strips and had to work around two skylights; underlayment added two hours; the standing seam panels took fourteen hours because we had custom trim to bend around an old brick chimney and a weird dogleg at the back roofline. Afterward she told me it was the first time a roofer’s labor numbers actually made sense to her. That line on your estimate-let’s say $2,000 for purlins and panel install on her house-is basically a three-person crew there from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon for two full days.

The purlin step alone usually costs you $50-$90 per square in labor, because it’s careful carpentry work-guys are up there with chalk lines, levels, and impact drivers making sure every strip is straight and hitting solid shingle or decking below. If you skip purlins where you need them, your metal can dimple or oil-can, and you’ll hear every raindrop like a snare drum because there’s no air gap. The underlayment and metal install together run another $100-$200 per square in labor, depending on panel type, roof complexity, and how much custom cutting your roof breaks demand. Standing seam costs more to install than exposed-fastener ribbed metal because you’re clipping panels instead of screwing, and each seam has to be crimped or snapped perfectly or you lose the weather seal.

Now here’s the next thing your crew spends time on: fascia wrapping, drip edge, and all the trim pieces that frame the metal. Those aren’t usually counted in the “panel install” labor because they’re detail work, but they can add another four to eight hours on a typical house-especially if you’re wrapping existing wood fascia with aluminum coil to match the metal, or if your old drip edge is corroded and needs replacement before the new metal edge cap goes on. On that Lynbrook ranch, the chimney trim alone took three hours because we had to hand-bend each piece of flashing to match the old mortar joints and lap it correctly with the metal panels. So on a simple overlay with minimal trim, you might see sixteen to twenty total man-hours for purlins, underlayment, panels, and basic edge trim; on a more complex roof with multiple roof breaks and custom flashing, you’re easily into thirty or thirty-five hours, which pushes your labor from around $1,800 up past $2,800.

Bucket Four – Detail Work, Cleanup, and the Wild Card of Access

On coastal homes-from Atlantic Beach through Long Beach-you’re not just installing metal over shingles, you’re fastening it to survive salt air and steady wind, and that detail work adds labor even when the shingles stay on. Every fastener or clip has to hit the purlin dead-on, you’re using stainless or coated screws to avoid rust, and if you’re in a high-wind zone you might be adding extra fasteners per panel compared to an inland house. Chimney and pipe flashing has to be sealed with coastal-grade caulk, ridge vents need stainless hardware, and sometimes local code wants an engineer’s stamp on the fastening pattern, which means the crew’s working off a specific layout instead of standard spacing. All that caution turns into man-hours-maybe ten to fifteen percent more than the same roof three miles inland-but it’s labor that keeps your metal on the house when the next nor’easter rolls through.

One windy March in Long Beach, we planned an overlay on a beachside bungalow where access was tight-narrow side yard, no driveway, and street parking a block away. Every bundle of purlins, every roll of underlayment, and every metal panel had to be walked in by hand from the truck, carried down a boardwalk, and staged in the backyard. We couldn’t use a boom truck or a conveyor, so everything went up ladders or through a small side gate. The labor hours jumped not because of the metal itself, but because of all that ladder work, careful staging so panels didn’t blow off in the coastal wind, and the extra fastening attention the wind zone required. I still use that project when I’m explaining how location and logistics can move labor costs more than the choice to go over shingles. That bungalow was only about 1,200 square feet, simple gable, one layer of shingles-should’ve been a quick overlay. But the tight access and wind zone pushed the labor from maybe eighteen hours on a normal lot up to twenty-eight hours, adding close to $800 just for walking materials in and working carefully in the wind.

Detail work and cleanup-flashing, fascia, ridge vent install, dumpster haul if you had any tear-off, and final site sweep-typically runs another six to twelve man-hours on a standard Nassau County house. If you’ve got an old brick chimney, you’re cutting and bending custom step flashing and counter flashing, maybe four to six hours right there. If your fascia boards are rotted and need replacing before you wrap them, add another three to five hours. Ridge vent work on a metal overlay usually means cutting a slot in the existing shingles if there isn’t one already, installing baffles, then mounting the vent and capping it with metal ridge-another two to four hours. And cleanup isn’t just sweeping; it’s magnet-rolling the yard for metal shavings and fasteners, bagging scraps, and making sure ladders, staging, and tools are off the property. On a tricky-access or highly detailed house, that detail-and-cleanup bucket can add $600-$1,000 to your labor bill, and most homeowners don’t see it coming because the estimate just says “trim and finish.”

How Do You Use Labor Numbers to Choose Between Tear-Off and Overlay?

The insider move is to ask your contractor to break down how many crew-days each major step represents-inspection and prep, purlins or framing, panel install, and details and cleanup-for both the overlay option and the full tear-off option, then compare. Let’s say your 1,800-square-foot split-level gets two quotes: overlay at $220 per square labor ($3,960 total labor) and tear-off at $280 per square labor ($5,040 total labor). That $1,080 difference sounds like a clear win for overlay, until you see that the overlay includes eight hours of prep to sister sagging rafters and another six hours to add ridge venting that wasn’t there before-fourteen hours that wouldn’t be part of the tear-off prep because the crew would see and fix the rafters during the strip and would add the ridge vent as part of the standard re-deck. Suddenly the real overlay savings is only the tear-off dumpster and haul labor-maybe six to eight hours, or $600-$700-which might not be worth it if the tear-off gives you a brand-new roof with a longer material warranty and no hidden deck problems. Always ask to see the crew-day breakdown and make sure “overlay prep” isn’t quietly including structural fixes that a tear-off would handle as part of the main job.

Think of each major labor line as a crew on your roof for a specific chunk of a day, and ask three things before you pick overlay to “save” money: first, does the overlay labor include fixing things that wouldn’t cost extra if we tore off and fixed them during the re-deck? Second, is my existing roof really one clean layer with solid decking, or are there two layers or soft spots that’ll force partial tear-off and kill the savings? And third, what’s the labor difference in the long run-if overlay costs $1,000 less now but only gives me a fifteen-year material warranty because it’s over old shingles, versus tear-off costing $1,000 more and giving me a thirty-year warranty on new decking, which labor bill is the better bet over the next decade? Those questions turn raw per-square labor numbers into actual value, and they’re the difference between overlay jobs that make sense and overlay jobs that just look cheaper on paper.

Putting It All Together: Labor Estimates You Can Actually Use

If you stand in your yard and count every roof break-dormers, hips, valleys-you see where labor hours add up, because every transition means extra measuring, cutting, and flashing. A straight gable ranch with no dormers might come in at the low end of the labor range, maybe $150-$200 per square, because the crew can run purlins and panels in long, fast rows with minimal custom work. A two-story colonial with three dormers, a hip roof, and a brick chimney is going to push toward $250-$350 per square, because every dormer is a mini-roof with its own valleys and flashing, every hip needs careful panel scribing, and that chimney is a full day of custom metal bending for one guy. The labor per square doesn’t change because the shingles are staying on; it changes because of how much geometry your crew has to navigate to put metal over those shingles.

Here’s a ballpark table showing how Nassau County labor costs typically break down across the four buckets for a moderately complex 1,500-square-foot house-this is fifteen squares of actual roof area, maybe a cape with one dormer and a chimney, one layer of shingles, decent access:

That range shows you a realistic labor spread for a house where overlay actually makes sense-good structure, one layer of shingles, no major access headaches. If your house has two shingle layers, soft decking in spots, or super-tight staging, those hours climb and the per-square cost moves toward the high end or beyond. And remember, that’s just labor; material, permits, dumpster fees if you need partial tear-off, and any structural lumber are on top of those numbers.

When Overlay Labor Really Saves You Money

Overlay labor saves you real money when your existing roof is structurally sound, you’ve got one layer of shingles, access is decent, and your roof geometry is simple enough that the crew isn’t spending half their time custom-cutting panels around dormers and valleys. In those conditions, you’re skipping the eight to sixteen man-hours it takes to tear off, bag, haul, and dispose of old shingles, and you’re skipping the dumpster rental-so your labor bill drops by maybe $800-$1,500 compared to a full tear-off. That’s meaningful savings, and it’s why overlay is popular on ranches and simple capes around Nassau County.

But overlay labor stops saving you money the moment you need structural fixes, partial tear-off in valleys, extra venting work, or extensive detail labor to navigate a complex roof. At that point, you’re paying for prep and detail hours that push your overlay labor close to-or even past-what a full tear-off would’ve cost, and you’re doing it without the benefit of seeing and replacing bad decking or getting the longer warranty that comes with a roof installed over fresh plywood. I’ve had homeowners in Wantagh and Bellmore go with overlay thinking they’d save a thousand bucks, then end up spending almost the same total because the labor to fix what we found underneath ate back all the tear-off savings. The labor numbers only make sense if the starting conditions are right, and that’s why inspection and honest crew-day estimates matter more than just looking at a per-square price and assuming “no tear-off” automatically means less expensive.

What TWI Roofing Brings to Your Nassau County Overlay Project

At TWI Roofing, we’ve been walking Nassau County homeowners through overlay-versus-tear-off labor decisions for years, and we do it with the same kitchen-table honesty I’ve been talking about here. We’ll inspect your attic and roof, pull test fasteners, check your decking, and tell you straight whether overlay labor really saves you money or whether you’re better off with a full strip and fresh start. Our crews know how to install metal over shingles the right way-proper ventilation, solid purlin layout, wind-zone fastening, and detail work that keeps water out and metal quiet. And we break down every labor line in plain English, so you’re never guessing what you’re paying people to do.

Access and details can swing labor more than most folks expect.

We’ve done overlay jobs on beachfront bungalows where staging and wind-zone work added hours, and we’ve done them on simple Lynbrook ranches where the install went fast and clean. Either way, you’ll get a crew-day breakdown that shows you exactly how many people are on your roof and for how long, and you’ll see the cost for each bucket-inspection, purlins, metal install, and details-so you can compare our numbers to any other bid and know what you’re actually buying. If you’re in Nassau County and you’re weighing labor costs to install metal over shingles, reach out to TWI Roofing and let us give you an honest estimate that makes sense on paper and in real life.