A full multi-family roof replacement in San Antonio usually takes two to six weeks and moves through six stages: inspection and scope, estimate and contract, permit, tear-off, installation, and a final inspection with cleanup. The work is almost always done on an occupied building, so a good contractor phases it one section or wing at a time, gives tenants written notice two to four weeks ahead, sets work hours, and sweeps for nails twice a day. Cost runs roughly $20,000 to $100,000 or more per building, or about $4 to $16 per square foot installed, and it tracks the roof’s square footage and material far more than the number of units. The accurate number, and the realistic schedule, both come from an on-site measurement. BH Roofing replaces apartment and multi-family roofs across San Antonio and plans the whole project around your tenants.
If you own or manage an apartment building, “how much does it cost” is only half the question. The other half, the one that actually keeps property managers up at night, is how a re-roof happens while people are living under it. A full multi-family roof replacement in San Antonio usually takes two to six weeks and runs through six stages, and the good ones are planned so tenants keep their parking, their access, and most of their patience.
Here’s the actual process, a realistic timeline, how the work gets phased around occupied units, and where the cost lands. For the full dollar breakdown by material and square foot, we keep that in a companion guide and link it below so this page can focus on how the project runs.
How does a multi-family roof replacement actually work?
A re-roof on an apartment building isn’t one big event, it’s a sequence. Knowing the stages is what lets you plan around it instead of reacting to it. It starts with an inspection, where the contractor measures the roof, checks the deck and drainage, and writes an itemized scope. From there you get an estimate and sign a contract, the contractor pulls a permit, and only then does anyone climb up to start tearing off the old roof. Tear-off and installation are the loud, visible part, and they’re usually done section by section. The job closes with a cleanup, a nail sweep, and a final inspection.
Here’s how those stages line up, and what each one means for your residents.
| Stage | What happens | Typical duration | Tenant impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Inspection & scope | Roof measured, deck and drainage checked, itemized scope written | 1 to 2 days | Minimal (roof access only) |
| 2. Estimate & contract | Itemized bid, material chosen, schedule set | A few days to 2 weeks | None |
| 3. Permit | Contractor pulls the city permit for the replacement | 1 to 10+ business days | None (runs in the background) |
| 4. Tear-off | Dumpsters and lifts staged, old roof removed in sections | Days to a couple of weeks | Noise, parking, dumpsters |
| 5. Installation | New system, flashing, and drainage installed section by section | Bulk of the schedule | Noise during work hours |
| 6. Final inspection & cleanup | Nail sweep, debris haul-off, city and manufacturer sign-off | 1 to 2 days | Minimal |
The point of seeing it laid out is that only stages four and five really touch your tenants, and both can be phased. The planning stages happen before anyone notices a thing.
How long does it take to replace a multi-family roof?
Two to six weeks is the honest range for most San Antonio properties, and where you land depends on size and how the work is phased. A standard 20-unit building often takes about a week of actual roofing. A large complex with multiple buildings can run several weeks to a few months, because the crew completes one building or wing before moving to the next. Phasing the work that way adds calendar time, but it’s what keeps the whole property from being a construction zone at once.
Two things stretch the timeline. The first is weather, since San Antonio’s spring and fall storms can pause tear-off (you never want an open roof when rain is coming). The second is what the tear-off uncovers: rotted decking or a hidden second layer adds days. A good contractor builds a little slack into the schedule for both instead of promising a date they can’t hold. If timing is flexible, the milder spring and fall months are the easiest on the crew and the building, which we get into in our guide to the best time for roof replacement in San Antonio.
How do you replace the roof without making tenants move out?
You don’t move them out. A multi-family re-roof is done on an occupied building, and the whole craft is in limiting the disruption. The main tool is phasing: the crew works one section, wing, or building at a time, so only a handful of units sit under active work on any given day. That preserves parking and quiet for everyone else and gives residents an unaffected place to be.
Communication is the other half. Tenants should get written notice two to four weeks before work starts, spelling out the dates, daily work hours, expected noise, and any parking changes. On bigger projects, a 90-day heads-up, a 60-day schedule, and a 30-day final-logistics notice keeps everyone ahead of it. Crews sweep for nails twice a day, stage dumpsters where they block the fewest cars, and keep to reasonable hours. The replacement still involves real noise and a few weeks of mess, but nobody should be packing a bag over it.
Whether to do a property all at once or in phases comes down to size and your tenants. Most owners replace buildings under about 40 units all at once to get it over with, and phase anything larger, or any property with a lot of work-from-home residents, elderly tenants, or tight parking. The material you’re putting back on matters here too, and we compare the options in our guide to the best roofing materials for apartment buildings.
What does a multi-family roof replacement cost, and what drives it?
Most multi-family roof replacements in San Antonio land between $20,000 and $100,000 or more per building, or roughly $4 to $16 per square foot installed. The single biggest driver is the roof’s square footage, not the unit count, so two buildings with the same number of apartments can price very differently. Material is the next lever, from modified bitumen and TPO on flat roofs to architectural shingle or standing seam metal on pitched ones.
After size and material, the cost movers are the building itself: tear-off of the old roof, a two-story or taller building that needs lifts, steeper pitch, rotted decking found during tear-off, and San Antonio’s multi-family code requirements. Because this page is about the process, we keep the full per-square-foot and per-building math, by material, in our companion guide to the average cost of roofing a multi-family property. The one constant is that a real number comes from measuring your actual roof, never a national average.
Plan your multi-family re-roof with BH Roofing
A multi-family roof replacement is as much a logistics project as a roofing one, and the contractor who plans the phasing, the permits, and the tenant notices is the one who keeps it from going sideways.
BH Roofing replaces apartment and multi-family roofs across San Antonio, from flat TPO and modified bitumen to architectural shingle and standing seam metal. Our team measures the roof, pulls the permits, schedules the roof replacement in phases around your residents, and hands you an itemized estimate with the timeline spelled out.
Call BH Roofing at (210) 267-9029 for a multi-family roof assessment and a real schedule for your property.
