For a 1,500 sq ft single-story house with a one-car garage, the classic LA bungalow footprint, a full roof replacement currently runs about $17,200–$26,300 in asphalt shingles, $27,300–$56,600 in Spanish tile, and $35,400–$53,600 in standing-seam metal. With no attached garage, knock the numbers down a bit: shingles start around $15,900–$22,900.
Quick reference by material
| Material | With 1-car garage | No garage |
|---|---|---|
| Asphalt shingles | $17,200–$26,300 | $15,900–$22,900 |
| Tile reset (existing tile roofs) | $19,200–$29,300 | $17,600–$25,600 |
| Flat / torch down | $17,700–$27,000 | $16,200–$23,500 |
| TPO membrane | $23,300–$35,300 | $21,100–$30,800 |
| Spanish tile | $27,300–$56,600 | $24,700–$49,400 |
| Flat concrete tile | $31,400–$74,800 | $28,200–$65,300 |
| Standing-seam metal | $35,400–$53,600 | $31,800–$46,700 |
Estimates vary by roof size, pitch, and material grade, a steep Craftsman gable and a low-slung cottage won’t price identically even at the same square footage. All figures are built on LA-area rates, so they’ll read higher than the national numbers many cost sites publish for homes this size.
The small-home advantage nobody mentions
Because totals are smaller at this size, upgrading materials costs less in absolute dollars than anywhere else in the market. The jump from shingles to standing seam on this footprint costs roughly a used car, not a new one. If you plan to stay put, that is worth weighing, since the lifetime math on metal works best on long ownership. The same logic applies to stepping up a tile grade.
One caution in the other direction: small jobs still carry every fixed cost a big job does (permit, dumpster, crew mobilization, minimum material orders), so don’t expect a roof half your neighbor’s size to cost half as much. If your bids work out slightly higher per foot than a friend’s larger project, that alone isn’t a red flag.
The old-bungalow wildcards
A large share of LA’s 1,500 sq ft homes date from the 1920s through the 1950s, Craftsman bungalows, Spanish cottages, minimal-traditional postwar houses. Age brings three cost wildcards that matter more on a small-budget project:
- Board sheathing. Pre-plywood roofs were decked with individual boards, often gapped (“skip sheathing”) if the home ever wore wood shingles. Depending on condition and the new material, you may need plywood overlay, priced per sheet, discovered at tear-off.
- Layer count. Ninety years leaves room for multiple past re-roofs. If two layers are already up there, code requires tearing off both, adding labor and disposal.
- Original tile worth saving. Many Spanish cottages still carry their original clay tile. If yours does, a tile reset, new underlayment beneath your existing tiles, at $19,200–$29,300 is often the smartest money on this list.
Ask every bidder to state their per-sheet deck repair price and confirm how many existing layers they’ve assumed. On a small job, an unpriced surprise moves the total by a bigger percentage.
If your home is bigger than this, step up to the 2,000 sq ft breakdown, or see the full LA cost guide for the whole market at a glance.
Figures on this page are informational estimates based on regional pricing data and automated roof measurements. They are not quotes or bids. Actual pricing requires an on-site inspection by a licensed contractor.