How much does lead flashing repair cost?

The chimney is where most lead flashing work is done, and MyJobQuote has the clearest figures. Its guide, last updated on 22 September 2026, is built from quotes given by UK tradespeople to homeowners on its platform. It puts a patch repair at £150 to £250 and a full replacement at £350 to £460 if no scaffolding is needed. Where scaffolding is required, the full replacement rises to £700 to £920.

The patch is a small job. MyJobQuote says it usually takes one to three hours. A full replacement of the lead takes three to five hours, and the scaffold adds a few hours more to put up and take down. These are national averages for a normal chimney, and they include labour and materials.

A tradesman quoted in the same guide calls a patch the shorter-lived option, good for a few years of dry weather. That is the trade-off in the price: a patch costs less now and may be repeated, while a full replacement costs more and is meant to be done once.

Not all flashing is at a chimney. Along a wall, a dormer or a bay, the work is priced by length. Checkatrade's roof repair guide, updated in October 2026, with a table dated June 2026, gives lead flashing repairs at £50 to £70 per metre. It states that all its costs exclude VAT, which has to be added.

A run of flashing along a short abutment might therefore sit near the low end of what you pay for a chimney patch, and a long wall will cost more in proportion. The same guide puts roofers' day rates at around £280 to £360, and MyJobQuote gives £200 to £300 a day for chimney flashing work, so a job that takes a day sits somewhere in that range before materials and access.

Those two guides use different bases, and neither is a quote. They show scale. Our lead roofing cost guide has the wider picture for sheet lead.

The jump from £460 to £920 in the chimney figures is nearly all access. Chimney flashing is up at the ridge line, beyond what a ladder can safely reach. Scaffold or a tower is the sensible way to reach it, and the cost is carried by the job.

In Checkatrade's scaffolding guide, a two-storey semi comes to about £875 for a month, and a chimney about £660 for a week. The scaffold for a single flashing is therefore often a large share of the bill, and it is shared more evenly when other work is done at the same visit. It is worth asking whether the chimney, the ridge and the gutters can be done together while the scaffold is up, so the cost is spread.

Poles on the pavement need a highway licence, and our scaffold licence in West Sussex answer explains how it works. Find out whether the scaffold is counted in any price you are given, as it is often the biggest part.

Beyond access, several things move the figure for your own roof.

• The extent of the damage. A lifted edge costs less than lead that has split along its length.
• The wall behind it. Crumbling brick or pointing has to be made good before new lead goes in.
• The code of lead. Heavier sheet costs more by the metre.
• The number of details. A chimney with a back gutter and stepped sides is more work than a simple apron.

MyJobQuote notes that more extensive leadwork means higher material and labour costs, and that damage to the chimney itself can add further requirements. Someone has to look to know which applies, so we survey before we price. Our guide to lead flashing shows what each part is, which helps when you read a quote.

When you have a figure, three checks are worth making. First, is it a total price for the whole job? Second, does it include scaffolding, if scaffolding is needed? Third, does it include VAT? Many published ranges leave VAT out, and Checkatrade says so plainly in its repair table, so add it before comparing. A figure that sounds low may simply be missing one of those items.

It is also reasonable to ask what the roofer saw. A photograph of the faulty flashing, taken at the survey, is what the verdict and the price rest on. We send those with the quote and recommend a patch where a patch will hold, and a renewal where it will not.

The survey is followed by our written quote, which carries one total you can hold up against the national ranges above. Our lead roofing and leadwork page shows the rest of what we do with lead.