Nobody can give a fair roof price without seeing the roof, and that includes this page. What it can do is show where the published numbers sit, so a quote landing on your doormat does not come as a shock in either direction.
Every figure below comes from a national cost guide and carries its date. They describe the UK as a whole. Which? warns that its ranges run high for London and the South East, HomeBuilding finds labour dearer in the same region, and Kent belongs to it. None of these are our prices. Ours are worked out from a survey and arrive as one written total.
Read the table as a map of the ground, not as a bill. The paragraphs after it explain why the ranges are so wide and where the guides contradict one another.
Why ranges are wide
What moves a roof price
Two roofs that look alike from the road can cost very different amounts. Size is the obvious driver, but pitch, access and the state of what lies underneath matter just as much. A steep roof needs more scaffold and more care. A terrace without rear access means materials travel through the house or over the top. Rotten battens or damaged rafters discovered after the covering comes away bring extra work that nobody could see from the ground.
- The covering chosen: concrete tile, clay tile, natural slate or a single-ply membrane on a flat roof. Single-ply means one factory-made sheet laid across the deck instead of layers built up on site.
- The share of the roof being tackled, and how complicated the edges are, since valleys, hips, dormers and chimneys all add detail.
- Scaffold, which depends on height, the length of the elevations and the street outside.
- The state of the timbers, underlay and ventilation beneath.
This is why the survey has to come ahead of any price. The same list of features is what gets checked and written down on the day, and each one changes the work in a way a table cannot capture.
Repair or replace
Repair rates and the 3m² limit
For small repairs, Checkatrade's June 2026 guide gives rates per square metre: concrete tiles £90 to £120, clay tiles £110 to £160, natural slate £150 to £220 and EPDM rubber £120 to £170. EPDM is a synthetic rubber membrane used on flat roofs. Ridge tile repairs are £50 to £70 per metre. Those rates are exclusive of VAT and apply only up to a maximum of 3m² of repair, so a whole slope cannot be priced by stretching them.
The guides also separate small jobs from big ones. MyJobQuote's 2026 repair average is around £650, and its storm repairs start at around £300. Its £1,200 and upward band covers extensive storm damage, a different thing from a few lifted tiles after a gale.
Emergency call-outs are a separate case again. MyJobQuote puts a typical call-out at £150 to £300, which the guide says may cover attendance and inspection, not mending the roof. The proper repair is priced once the weather lets the roof be examined.
Two views of one job
Why guides disagree on a new roof
Replacing a whole roof is where the published numbers disagree most. Which? sets the cost of stripping and recovering a typical three-bedroom home at £7,000 to £21,000, ex VAT. HomeBuilding gives £10,000 to £15,000 for a 65m² semi in plain concrete tiles, and adds that Welsh slate might reach £18,000. MyJobQuote's average sits lower, at around £5,250. The surveys cover different houses, materials and years, so no single one is the answer.
For a slate roof, MyJobQuote's average is around £7,800. For a conservatory roof, MyJobQuote gives £3,200 to £6,000 and The Eco Experts gives £2,300 to £6,000 (29 April 2024). Where two sources differ, trust neither as a quote. Use both as a rough bracket.
A big gap between your quote and a guide is a reason to ask what each one covers, not a reason to panic.
Left off the table
Jobs priced after a survey
Some jobs turn so much on the building that they sit outside the table. Scaffolding, roof cleaning, chimney repointing, spray foam removal and commercial roofing priced by area all depend on the building. Day rates for a roofer vary too much to mean anything on their own.
These are priced after a survey. What sets each one is the height of the building, the access, the amount of material and the state of what lies underneath. If your quote covers one of these, ask it to say plainly whether scaffold and VAT form part of the total.
The standard VAT rate is 20 per cent, so a figure marked ex VAT rises by that on a homeowner's bill from a VAT-registered roofer.
Putting it to use
Comparing quotes sensibly
Citizens Advice suggests gathering at least 3 written quotes from separate traders ahead of a decision. Check what each one includes before looking at totals: the same covering, the same area, the same treatment of old timbers. A cheaper-looking total that omits the scaffold is not cheaper at all.
The page on what a roofing quote should include lists the points to check. Asking for a deposit is covered in the roofer deposit guide, and VAT on roofing work explains the 20 per cent. When you are ready, you can ask for a written quote and the survey comes first.