Conservatory roof replacement in Bognor Regis

A leaking or clouded roof is not always a dead one; the verdict depends on the sheets, the seals and the frame beneath them.

A conservatory roof tells you it is failing in plain ways. Polycarbonate sheets cloud and turn yellow, the roof bars drip, green growth creeps in behind the glazing seals, and the room swings between too hot in July and too cold to sit in by November. None of that means the whole roof has to come off. The first job on any conservatory roof replacement in Bognor Regis is to decide which of three situations you are in, and we do that from inside and outside, with photographs of your own roof, before a price is mentioned.

1.1 Signs the roof has reached the end

Polycarbonate is the lightweight plastic sheeting fitted to many older conservatories. HomeBuilding gives a typical lifespan of around 10 years and the Eco Experts say 10 to 15, so a roof fitted a long time ago is probably living on borrowed time. Past that point the sheets craze and yellow, the cells inside fill with algae and moisture, and the closure strips along the sheet ends stop sealing. Glass lasts far longer than plastic, but the gaskets and tapes around it do not, and a glass roof that leaks is rarely leaking through the glass. It is leaking at a glazing bar, the ridge or the wall junction.

1.2 Repair, new panels or a new roof

If the sheets are sound and one seal or one junction has failed, a repair is the right call and the smallest job that fully cures the fault. If the sheets are tired but the bars and frame are straight and dry, new sheets or new glass on the existing frame gives you a fresh roof for much less. We recommend a full replacement, with new bars and often a different roof type, only when the framework is rotten, bowed or corroded, or when you want a warmer room that you can use in winter. An experienced roofer reads those signs quickly on site, and we show you the photographs behind every one of them.

Wind and rain driven off the sea make a poor seal show itself sooner, and gales will find a loose cap or a slipped sheet on any exposed plot. Many conservatories also sit under a tree or beside a boundary, so leaves and bird mess collect in the valleys and gutters and hold water against the seals. Our page on a leaking conservatory roof sets out how we tell a repair from a replacement in more detail.

A new roof is only as good as the frame carrying it and the junction where it meets your house.

Two parts of a conservatory decide whether a new roof lasts: the frame under it and the join at the house wall. A roofer who quotes without looking at either is guessing. We check both at the survey, from inside and from a ladder or tower, and photograph what we find, because the answer changes the work and the price.

3.1 Can the frame take the new roof?

Plastic and aluminium conservatory frames were often designed around a light polycarbonate roof. Fit glass or a tiled roof and the load rises sharply, and a frame that was fine under plastic can flex, open its joints or fail to support the extra weight. For a heavier covering the Planning Portal advises checking with a structural engineer or surveyor before work starts, and says approval is needed where a new covering adds 15 per cent or more to the weight of the roof covering. We look at the base frame, the corner posts, the ring beam or eaves beam and the fixings, and we say plainly if a frame will not carry what you want.

3.2 uPVC, aluminium or timber frames

The frame material changes what we look for. uPVC frames can bow under load and often carry steel reinforcement inside, so we look for where the reinforcement stops. Aluminium is strong for its weight and takes a glass roof well when the sections are in good order. Timber frames can take a heavy roof, but any rot in the eaves beam or bars has to be cut out and made good first. A frame that has moved leaves gaps no new roof can seal, and that is a repair we price before the roof.

3.3 The lead at the house wall

The line where the conservatory roof meets your brickwork is the usual leak. Old roofs were often sealed here with sealant or a thin flashing strip that has cracked or pulled away. The lasting fix is lead, set into a groove cut in the brickwork, dressed down over the roof, then pointed. Royston Lead's brochure lists code 4, at 1.80 mm, and code 5, at 2.24 mm, as suitable for flashings, and we choose the code to suit the length and exposure of the run. Sealant on its own is a holding measure, not a repair.

Where the wall behind the junction is brick or render, we also check that the groove is cut cleanly and that the masonry behind it is sound. A damp patch on the house wall above the conservatory is a clue that water is getting behind the flashing. Moisture inside the roof build matters too, and roofers work from BS 5250, the standard that governs how moisture is controlled in a building.

Conservatory roof prices turn on size, frame condition, the roof type and how easily a scaffold or tower can reach it.

You will see wide price ranges for a conservatory roof because the work varies so much. Checkatrade gives an average of around £10,000 to replace a conservatory roof, within a spread of £6,300 to £18,225 or more set by size and material. Treat any figure online as a guide and a written quote after a survey as the real number. We keep our prices good and fair, and the quote you receive is one total price, not a menu of options.

5.1 What moves the price

Size comes first, because a bigger roof means more material and more days. The type of roof comes next: polycarbonate is the lightest on the pocket, glass costs more and a solid tiled roof, with its insulation, ceiling and Building Regulations work, costs more again. Then the frame. If the bars or base frame need repair or replacement, that is a bigger job than a roof swap. Then access: a single-storey conservatory can often be reached with ladders or a tower, but a roof joined to a two-storey house may need scaffold, and the lead at the wall then becomes a high-level job.

5.2 Labour rates and small repairs

Checkatrade gives roofers' rates as around £35 to £45 an hour or £280 to £360 a day, so a one-day job and a three-day job end up a long way apart on price. For a leaking wall junction on its own, it lists lead flashing repairs at £50 to £70 a metre, excluding VAT. A repair costs a fraction of a new roof, and where everything else on the roof is in good order, it is the job we recommend.

5.3 VAT, scaffold and licences

See whether VAT, charged at the standard 20 per cent, is inside any figure you are given, and whether scaffold is too. Checkatrade's scaffolding guide, with a table last updated in October 2026, gives around £1,000 a month for a detached bungalow and around £875 a month for a two-storey semi-detached house. A scaffold on the public highway needs a licence under the Highways Act, from the highway authority. West Sussex County Council asks for 10 working days' notice, and its fee for one month is £266.

A low conservatory roof quote that leaves out the wall junction, the gutter or the waste disposal often grows later. We tell you what the survey found and what the quote covers, so you can compare like with like. Our page on what a conservatory roof costs goes into the figures in more depth.