Roofing guides · Calgary
Most Calgary asphalt re-roofs are done in one to two days on site. Here is the hour-by-hour of a normal job, the six things that add days to it, and how weather and permits fit into an Alberta schedule.
Written by Johnny Anderson, owner of Mountain Standard Roofing Ltd. · Updated 2026-09-05
Short answer: most re-roofs done in one to two days. A simple Calgary bungalow with one layer of asphalt and sound decking is frequently a single day, driveway to magnet sweep. A typical two-storey with an attached garage is a day and a half to two. That is the honest baseline, and the rest of this guide is about what pushes a job past it.
Homeowners ask how long a roof replacement takes because they are planning around noise, pets, parking and work-from-home calls. So here is the actual sequence, with times, and then the six things that add days.
Trucks and the disposal bin get positioned. We tarp the ground, cover the deck and any landscaping, move the patio furniture, and set plywood over anything that can be dented. The City of Calgary community standards bylaw restricts construction noise, so nothing loud runs before 7:00 a.m. Ladders and roof jacks go up, safety anchors get set, and the crew walks the roof to confirm what the estimate said.
Tear-off. Shingles, underlayment, old flashings, old vents, all of it comes off in sections down to the deck. We strip in sections rather than opening the whole roof, so if the weather turns we are only exposed on one slope. This is the loudest part of the entire job. A 20 square asphalt tear-off produces roughly 4,000 to 5,000 lb of debris, which is the noise you hear hitting the bin.
Deck inspection and repair. Now we can actually see the sheathing. Soft, delaminated or rotten sheets get cut out and replaced, protruding nails get dealt with, and any framing issue gets photographed and shown to you before it gets covered. Then drip edge at the eaves, ice and water shield at the eaves and in the valleys, and synthetic underlayment over the field.
Shingles start. Starter course at the eaves, then the field courses running up the slope, with valleys and penetrations flashed as the crew reaches them. On a bungalow this is often where the roof finishes. On a two-storey, the crew usually gets one or two slopes complete and dries in the rest.
Remaining slopes, then the detail work that separates a good roof from a fast one: chimney and sidewall flashing, plumbing stack boots, new roof and ridge vents, hip and ridge cap, and sealing. Then cleanup, a full magnet sweep of the lawn, driveway, flower beds and street, eavestroughs cleared of debris, bin hauled, and a final walkthrough with photos.
That is the whole job. Two crews of five to seven people, two days, done. What we will not do is compress a two-day roof into one by skipping flashing or reusing old vents.
This is the biggest single multiplier we see in Calgary, and it is common in neighbourhoods built in the 1990s. Shake comes off slower than asphalt because each shake is individually nailed under the course above, the debris is heavier and bulkier so bins fill faster, and there is usually felt interlayment between courses. Then the skip sheathing underneath has to be sheeted over with new plywood or OSB before anything else happens. A shake conversion that would be a two-day asphalt job realistically becomes three to five days. Our cedar shake conversion guide covers the whole scope.
Nobody can see under shingles until they are off. Replacing four or five bad sheets around a chimney adds two or three hours. Re-sheeting an entire roof adds a day or more, because the field has to be complete before underlayment can go on. Calgary rates run $95 to $150 per installed 4x8 sheet, and the reason we put that rate in the written quote is so the day-two conversation is about scheduling, not price.
A second layer of shingles is double the tear-off labour and double the tonnage to the landfill. On a 20 square roof that is typically most of an extra half day, sometimes a full day if it is an old organic-mat shingle that comes off in crumbs rather than sheets.
Up to about a 6:12 pitch a crew walks the roof and production is normal. From 7:12 up they need roof jacks, planks and staging, and everything slows down: material handling, tear-off, nailing, cleanup. Expect 10 to 15 percent more time at 7:12 to 9:12 and 20 to 30 percent above 10:12. Steeper roofs also have more actual surface area than the footprint suggests, so there is simply more roof to install.
Squares are not the whole story. Two houses with identical 22 square roofs can be a day apart on schedule. What eats the time is transitions: valleys, dormers, hips, skylights, chimneys, roof-to-wall junctions, wall-mounted decks, cricket details. Every one of those is hand-cut shingle and hand-formed flashing. A simple gable bungalow is one long run per slope. A Calgary infill with four dormers, six valleys and two skylights is a different animal, and the newer estate homes in Aspen, Cranston and Mahogany with cut-up rooflines are usually a solid extra day.
Alberta weather is the variable we cannot control, and there are three flavours of it. Rain, which stops the job because you do not open a roof over an occupied house with a storm coming. Wind, which past about 40 km/h makes handling full-length shingles and underlayment genuinely unsafe on a two-storey. And cold, which matters more than most homeowners realise. Malarkey’s cold weather technical bulletin defines cold weather application as below 4 C, at which point the self-sealing strip will not activate on its own and shingles have to be hand-sealed with roof cement. That is slower work. Our guide to the best time of year to replace a roof in Calgary gets into why that matters for your schedule.
Calgary sees roughly 107 freeze-thaw cycles a year according to the City’s climate projections, and chinooks mean a January week can swing from unworkable to workable and back. We build float into the calendar in shoulder season for exactly that reason.
Good news for scheduling: a straight like-for-like shingle replacement on a Calgary house generally does not need a building permit. The City’s regulation bulletin RB06-040 lists re-roofing, eavestroughing and flashing among maintenance work that does not normally require one. So there is no permit queue between your signature and your start date on a normal re-roof.
Where a permit does come in, the timeline changes from days to weeks:
Condo and townhouse boards are their own timeline. Board approval, notice to residents and parking arrangements routinely add two to four weeks before a crew ever shows up.
The install is one to two days. The project is longer than the install, and that is where expectations usually get set wrong. A realistic Calgary sequence:
September and October are our busiest weeks of the year in Calgary, because that is when everyone decides they do not want to head into winter on a failing roof. If you want a specific week in the fall, book it in July.
Mountain Standard Roofing handles residential roof replacement across Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane and Okotoks. If only a section has failed, roof repair may be the smarter spend and is usually a same-day visit. Finished work is in the gallery and homeowner feedback is on our reviews page.
Book a free inspection and we will give you a measured scope, a written warranty and a start date we intend to keep. Call (587) 577-6170 or request a quote. Built for the harshest conditions.
Questions homeowners actually ask
How long does a roof replacement take on an average Calgary house?
Most standard asphalt re-roofs are done in one to two days. A simple bungalow with one layer and good decking is often a single day, start to finish, including cleanup. A typical two-storey with a garage runs one and a half to two days. Anything past two days usually means shake tear-off, new decking, multiple layers, steep pitch or a complicated roofline, and we tell you which one before we start.
Do I need to move out or take a day off work?
No. You do not need to be home and you do not need to move out. It is loud, and it is loud directly above your head, so people who work night shift or have a newborn often plan around it. Keep vehicles out of the driveway, take fragile things off the walls in the top floor, and let us know where the dog is.
What time does the crew start and finish in Calgary?
We are typically on site between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. and working until roughly 6:00 p.m. in summer. Long Alberta daylight in June and July is why summer jobs move faster than the same job in October, when we lose usable light by about 6:30 p.m. The City of Calgary community standards bylaw restricts construction noise, so we do not run power equipment before 7:00 a.m. on weekdays.
Can it rain during my roof replacement?
We work around it. Nothing gets opened up if a storm is coming, and any section stripped during the day gets dried in with underlayment before the crew leaves. A passing Calgary shower usually costs an hour. A day of steady rain or a hail warning costs the day, and we reschedule rather than gamble with your attic.
Does a decking replacement add a lot of time?
Swapping a handful of bad sheets adds a couple of hours. Re-sheeting an entire roof, which is normal on a cedar shake conversion over skip sheathing, typically adds a full day or more because the whole field has to be sheeted before any underlayment goes down. That is why we state the per-sheet rate and the likely scope in the quote instead of surprising you on day two.
Do I need a permit, and will waiting for it delay the job?
For a like-for-like shingle replacement in Calgary, generally no. City of Calgary regulation bulletin RB06-040 lists re-roofing, eavestroughing and flashing as maintenance work that does not normally require a building permit, so there is no permit wait for a standard re-roof. Going to a heavier material, adding structure or doing work on a condo or commercial building can require a permit and inspection, and that timeline is measured in weeks, not days.
We measure the roof, count the penetrations, look at the decking and give you a written scope with a start date and a realistic day count. Free on-site inspection, no obligation.
★★★★★ 5.0 out of 5 — 10 Google reviews
Every review below is a verified Google review of Mountain Standard Roofing Ltd. Backed by our 10-year written workmanship warranty. Built for the harshest conditions.
★★★★★
“Mountain Standard Roofing handled my storm damage roof replacement perfectly. They worked directly with my insurance company, handled all the paperwork, and made the entire process stress-free. The crew was professional, efficient, and left my yard clean.”
Nikki Rick — Google review
★★★★★
“John and his team were awesome to deal with. He did my roof and siding and they finished a day ahead of schedule. Not only was the service awesome but the price was much better than competitors.”
Kristoffer — Google review
★★★★★
“The owner John is very communicative and always took time to answer our questions. Our roof was re-done in the agreed timeline and for the agreed upon price. Would highly recommend doing business with Mountain Standard Roofing.”
Ryan Van Boven — Google review