Hip and gable costs
Hip roof or gable roof: which costs more to re-cover?
The short answer
A hip roof usually costs more to re-cover than a gable roof of the same size. Checkatrade's October 2026 guide gives typical UK ranges, before VAT, of £9,250 to £18,000 for a hip roof and £7,000 to £16,250 for a gable roof. The gap comes from extra hip lines, more cutting and more ridge work. The written quote after a survey fixes the real figure.
How hip and gable roofs differ, why one takes longer to cover, and which details on your own house decide the price.
Two shapes, two sets of edges
A gable roof has two sloping sides that meet at a ridge, the line along the top. At each end the wall rises to a triangle called the gable, and the roof finishes at a verge, the tiled edge running up the slope. A hip roof is sloped on every side. In place of a gable wall, two more slopes meet the first pair at hips, the angled lines running from the ridge down to the eaves.
That difference decides the work. A gable roof has one ridge and two verges. A hip roof has a ridge, four hips and no verges, and every hip is a junction where tiles from two slopes have to meet neatly. Most houses have one or the other, sometimes both on different parts of the building.
Neither shape is better or worse for weather. The choice came from the original design, so the question is rarely which to have, just what the one you own costs to re-cover.
What typical UK guides say
Checkatrade's roof replacement guide, updated October 2026, lists typical UK ranges in a table headed plus VAT: £9,250 to £18,000 for a hip roof and £7,000 to £16,250 for a gable roof. The ranges overlap, which is a reminder that size and covering matter as much as shape. A small hipped bungalow can cost less than a large gabled house.
On the same page, Checkatrade gives £2,800 to £7,500 for a flat roof, and puts a three-bedroom semi at around £12,000. Those are national guide figures, not ours. What you pay on your own street will turn on the house, the covering and the access.
Ask each roofer whether the figure includes VAT and scaffold. Checkatrade gives scaffold at £700 to £1,300 on a roof replacement, and says its roof repair costs are exclusive of VAT. A figure with those left out can look much lower than one with them in. Our guide on the cost of a new pitched roof sets out the wider range.
Why a hip roof takes longer
The extra cost comes from labour and detail more than from the roof area. On each hip, tiles meet at an angle and have to be cut to fit. Cutting takes time, and a tile with a long angled cut has to be fixed securely. Along the hip itself sit hip tiles, which are bedded or dry-fixed, and a hip iron at the bottom stops them sliding. Our page on rebedding hip tiles and fitting hip irons explains that detail.
Hip roofs also have more junctions where two slopes meet, so more lead, valley or soaker work may appear where an extension joins. A soaker is a small lead sheet, bent to shed water at a wall junction.
Set against that, a hip roof has no verges to point or fix. In some builds this offsets part of the extra time. It does not close the gap in the national guides, but it explains why a given hipped house can come in nearer a gabled one than the table suggests.
Where a gable roof adds cost
Gable roofs save on hip cutting but have their own costs. The verge needs care, since wind catches the edge of the tiles first. Verges bedded only in mortar can crack and drop over time. A mechanically fixed or dry verge is the modern answer, and it adds material and fixing to the job. The method suits the cost question too, and our dry verge cost answer covers that.
Gable ends can also carry barge boards or fascias, which sit at the roof edge and sometimes need renewing while the roof is open. If the gable wall is damp or the brickwork under the verge is weathered, that repair comes with the job.
Some gabled houses are far larger than they look from the front, with a long roofline and a big back slope. Area is still the main driver of cost on either shape, so measure that first before comparing hip and gable figures.
What decides your price
Several things change the figure more than shape. The covering is the first: slate, clay and concrete cost different amounts to supply and lay. Roof size, pitch and the number of dormers, chimneys and valleys come next. Access matters too. A terrace needs less scaffold than a detached house with a long drive, and a tight street can add delivery time.
What the survey finds under the tiles also moves the cost. Rotten battens, torn underlay or damaged rafters add work that nobody can see from the ground. Our survey comes with photographs of each problem and a verdict ahead of any price: a repair, a holding patch or a full re-cover. Where a repair will hold, we price only that.
After that survey the quote is written, at one total. It is the only number that applies to your roof. Our pitched roofing page explains what re-covering involves, and cut roof or trussed roof covers the frame beneath, which can also change the work.
Related questions
Hip and gable cost queries
Is a hip roof more expensive than a gable roof?
In national guides, yes: Checkatrade's October 2026 table gives higher typical ranges for hips. On a particular house the gap depends on size, covering and access, so the written quote is the only reliable comparison.
Do hip and gable roofs need different tiles?
Both use the same field tiles, but hips need hip tiles and a hip iron, and gables need verge tiles or a dry verge system. They all sit inside the single written total.