What does roof work cost in the UK? A guide to typical prices

Repairs sit at the bottom of the cost scale, but the spread is wide. At the low end are small, accessible jobs such as replacing slipped tiles from a ladder. The high end covers repairs that need scaffolding, new lead or a section of roof stripped and relaid.

Checkatrade works by the square metre and by covering, and states that VAT is not in its numbers. The table below is its version from June 2026.

Other repairs are charged by length. In the same Checkatrade guide, re-bedding ridge tiles and mending lead flashing each run at £50 to £70 per metre. For chimney lead, MyJobQuote, last updated on 22 September 2026, gives £150 to £250 for patching and £350 to £460 for replacing the lot, rising to £700 to £920 when a scaffold is needed.

Where a repair stops being a repair

When slipped tiles are a symptom of tired nails or battens across a whole slope, patching stops making sense. Our roof repairs page explains how we choose between a small fix and a bigger one, and the roof repair cost guide looks at the repair figures in more depth. A paid inspection is a separate matter. Checkatrade gives about £260 for a roof inspection and around £210 for a drone survey, plus VAT, and the report that follows is useful when you are buying a house or keeping a record of the roof.

A new roof is the biggest bill, and the published figures vary with the source. Checkatrade, in a guide marked as updated in October 2026, says the UK average is around £8,000, with most jobs between £4,000 and £19,000. For a three-bed semi it gives about £12,000. A hipped roof costs more than a gable of the same size.

The shape of the roof matters, because it changes the amount of work in the same footprint. Checkatrade's replacement table, which it heads as plus VAT and dates October 2026, reads:

A hip roof slopes at the ends as well as the sides, which means more ridge, more hip tiles and more cutting. A gable roof has upright end walls and fewer awkward junctions. A flat roof costs less as a whole, but it brings its own expense in falls, edges and the membrane.

What moves the figure inside the range

Size comes first. After that come the covering, the count of chimneys, dormers and valleys, how sound the timbers prove when the old covering comes off, and how easily a crew can reach the roof. A bungalow on a wide plot is easier to reach than a tall terrace. Our roof replacement and new roofs page describes the work, and the survey photographs show what a quote rests on. A job near the bottom of the range usually has a small, simple roof and good access, while a job near the top tends to have a large or complicated roof with awkward access.

The covering is the largest single choice on a pitched roof. Natural slate costs more than concrete tile, both to supply and to lay, and the cost guides show it. Checkatrade's slate table, dated September 2026, puts a slate roof at £160 to £210 per square metre, with an average of £184 per m². It gives Spanish slate, a less costly import, at £95 to £125 per m².

The extra cost for slate buys a longer life. CORC puts well-kept slate at 100 years and more, whereas Marley expects concrete tiles to give around 60 years, though that carries no warranty of longevity. Those are typical lifespans, not promises, and they depend on the fixing, the maintenance and the exposure of the roof. Our slate roofing page explains where slate earns its higher price and where tile does the job as well.

Ridges, hips and the fixing method

The fixing method moves the price as well. The 2014 revision of BS 5534 no longer accepts a mortar bed alone for ridges and hips, which now take a screw or clip as well. Checkatrade gives a dry ridge, with capping clipped or screwed to a dry-fix system, at around £800 for a semi-detached house. A ridge re-bedded in mortar and nothing more can look cheaper on paper, but the capping then relies on the very thing the standard no longer accepts, so a sound price includes the fixings.

Matching adds cost. New tiles beside old ones can stand out for years, and reclaimed slates or tiles in the right size and shade take longer to source than modern ones.

Flat roofs have their own price points. The Less guide, last updated in March 2026, puts small flat roof repairs at £150 to £500. For a full flat roof, Checkatrade gives £2,800 to £7,500 plus VAT. Checkatrade adds that re-felting a garage costs around £1,000 to £2,000, with an average of £1,500.

The membrane matters. Torch-on felt, EPDM rubber and GRP fibreglass behave differently and last different lengths of time. Less gives torch-on felt 10 to 20 years, GRP 25 to 40 years and EPDM 30 to 50 years. A longer life costs more to buy and tends to cost less per year, but only if the deck beneath is sound and the roof drains properly.

Falls decide whether a flat roof lasts

Standing water is the sign to watch. BS 6229:2025, which replaced the 2018 edition in December 2025, keeps a minimum finished fall of 1:80, and roofers usually design steeper, around 1:40, so water still runs off the finished roof. A repair that leaves water ponding is likely to fail again, which is why the lowest-priced patch can turn out to be the dearest option. Replacing the membrane on a flat roof is also renovation under Part L, which can bring insulation into the job and add to the bill.

Conservatory roofs sit in a category of their own. Checkatrade gives an average of around £10,000 to replace one (March 2026). A solid replacement roof on a conservatory is building work in its own right and needs Building Regulations approval, so the price should allow for that. See our page on flat roofing for how we assess the deck and the falls before quoting.

Access can swing a bill by more than the repair itself. A ladder reaches a bungalow eave, but a tall house needs a tower or full scaffolding, and the hire may then outweigh the repair it serves. Checkatrade's scaffolding figures, last updated in October 2026, come to about £875 a month for a semi with two floors, £800 for a terrace, £1,000 for a detached bungalow and £1,200 for a detached house. Scaffolding for a chimney is around £660 per week. In its roof replacement guide, Checkatrade puts scaffolding at £700 to £1,300.

The scaffold licence

Section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 requires a licence for scaffolding that obstructs the highway. The highway authority issues it, and the roofer you hire can confirm who handles the paperwork. In West Sussex the monthly charge is £266 and the notice period is at least 10 working days. Across the border, Hampshire County Council sets a lead time of ten clear working days and charges £211.90 for the first two weeks. If a job can wait, that lead time belongs in the plan, and if a quote for a street-facing scaffold says nothing about a licence, ask.

Compare quotes on what each includes. A price that leaves out the scaffold is not really lower if scaffolding appears later as an extra. Some repairs can be done using a mobile tower, roof ladders or a cherry picker, while others cannot, and the height, the pitch and the people passing below decide which.

Our guide to scaffolding for a roof repair sets out when each method suits.

Labour is the last building block. Checkatrade gives roofers' rates at around £35 to £45 per hour or £280 to £360 per day, with slate roofers at the same daily figure. Short jobs commonly attract a call-out minimum, since the journey, the ladders and the clear-up take the same time whatever the size of the repair.

VAT is added afterwards. The standard rate is 20 per cent, and some of the guides above state that their figures exclude it, so a £1,000 repair becomes £1,200 once VAT is added. Ask each roofer whether the figure you are given has it in. VAT can also vary on mixed jobs: under VAT Notice 708/6, installing specified energy-saving materials is zero-rated from 1 May 2023 to 31 March 2027, after which the rate reverts to 5 per cent, but whether insulation in a re-roof qualifies turns on the way the whole job is supplied. We explain how it applies on your quote.

What the quote should contain

When the survey is complete, the written quote names one total for the work described, and it comes with pictures of the roof itself. The pictures and the description let you judge whether the price is good and fair. If rotten timber turns up once the covering is off, any extra is agreed in writing before the work goes ahead.

Our answer on VAT on roofing goes through the rate in more detail, and the roofer day rate page covers the labour figure.