See what Which?, HomeBuilding and MyJobQuote each say a full roof replacement costs, why the figures differ so widely, what sits behind the South East premium, and what to check when a quote lands on the mat.
A natural first question is what the average cost of replacing a roof in the UK comes to. The reply is that published guides disagree, and by a wide margin. Which? prices the job at £7,000 to £21,000 ex VAT for a three-bed home. MyJobQuote, in October 2026, puts a new roof at around £5,250. Those two figures sit a long way apart, and the gap is explained by what each one measures.
The sections below set out each source with its date and what it describes, then look at why the numbers differ, how the covering changes the long-run cost, and what to check in any quote you receive. All the figures below are typical ranges published by third-party guides. We have added no price of our own, and none of them should be scaled up or down to estimate a particular roof.
Kent is one of the South East counties, and Which? and HomeBuilding both put that region at the dearer end of the country. Bear that in mind when you hold a national figure up against a quote for a house in Thanet or the towns around it. Our roof replacement service describes how a job is run from survey to scaffold-down.
The published figures, side by side
Three guides cover a full replacement, and each describes a slightly different roof. Reading them together is more useful than picking one.
| Source | Dated | Figure | Describes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which? | Nov 2025 | £7,000 to £21,000, ex VAT | Three-bed house |
| HomeBuilding | Sep 2025 | £10,000 to £15,000 | Three-bed semi, plain concrete tiles |
| HomeBuilding | Sep 2025 | Up to £18,000 | Same house, Welsh slate |
| MyJobQuote | Oct 2026 | Around £5,250 | New roof, no house stated |
The HomeBuilding range sits inside the Which? range, which is reassuring, but the MyJobQuote figure falls below both of them. Two things stand out. First, the Which? range is very wide, with the top at three times the bottom, so a figure inside it says little until the roof is surveyed. Second, the HomeBuilding range is narrower because it describes one house type: a three-bedroom semi of about 65 m² with plain concrete tiles. For Welsh slate on the same house HomeBuilding says the figure might reach £18,000.
Quoting a range from each source, not an average of the three, keeps the reading fair. The figures describe different houses on different dates, and blending them would give a number no guide ever published.
MyJobQuote also has a page for slate roofs, which it puts at around £7,800 in October 2026. That is its own figure for slate, so it is not directly comparable with the HomeBuilding slate number, which is for a particular house.
Where the Which? figure comes from
Which? built its figures from a survey of 11 traders in November 2025. The prices cover labour and materials but leave out VAT. That last point matters. The standard VAT rate is 20%, so a quote drawn up on the same basis would be higher once VAT is added, and a quote that includes VAT is not comparable with the range until you know which side of VAT it falls.
Which? expects readers in the South East to land towards the top of its range, and Kent falls inside it. HomeBuilding agrees, saying labour is dearer around London and the South East.
What the Which? figure does not do is name a covering, a roof area or a pitch. A three-bedroom house can mean a compact end-of-terrace or a wide detached house, and the roof area on those two is very different. The range stretches to take in all of them, so the sensible reading is as an outer frame, not an expected price.
It also covers a straightforward replacement. A roof with several dormers, a hip and valley layout, a lot of lead or rotten timbers beneath the covering sits outside what a general range can predict. That is the reason the survey comes before any total, and why the quote is written after it, as one price.
Why the sources disagree
The gap between about £5,250 and £21,000 is not an error. It is the result of different questions being asked, different dates and different samples. The things that move the price of a given roof are well known.
- roof area, which follows house size and the number of slopes
- the covering chosen, whether slate, clay or concrete
- the shape, including hips, valleys, dormers and chimney stacks, each needing hand-cut work and lead
- the condition of the timber under the covering, which is only fully seen once the old roof is off
- access and the scaffold, which depend on the street and the height
- disposing of the old covering, which varies with its quantity and type
- whether VAT is included in the figure being read
Treat any item on that list as a reason a quote might differ, not as a charge you should expect to see written out. The total is the thing to compare.
Scaffolding, waste removal and the other parts of the job are priced after a survey. Nobody can read them off a table, because each one depends on the house and the access.
The date matters as well. HomeBuilding's figure is from September 2025, Which? from November 2025 and MyJobQuote from October 2026. Material and labour prices move, and a year-old guide can already be out of step with a quote written for your own roof today.
Covering and lifespan: cost against years
A cheaper covering is only cheaper if it lasts. HomeBuilding publishes typical lives for the common coverings, and they are ranges, not promises for any particular roof. A warranty term is not a lifespan either, so do not read one as the other.
| Covering | Typical life |
|---|---|
| Welsh slate | 100+ years |
| Spanish slate | 75 to 100 years |
| Reclaimed Welsh slate | 50 to 80 years |
| Clay tile | 60 to 80 years |
| Plain concrete tile | 40 to 50 years |
Set against the cost ranges above, the pattern is plain. Slate costs more on the day and runs the longest. Concrete tile costs less and has the shortest life of the group. Clay sits between them. Marley is careful to say that its concrete tile life figure does not amount to a guarantee or warranty, which is a fair reminder that these are typical figures. A longer life spreads the price of a roof over more years, which is the fairer way to compare two coverings, though only as a rough guide.
The BRE figure of a minimum life expectancy of 60 years is for clay tiles only, as Marley reports it, and should not be applied to concrete. Which covering is right for a house also depends on pitch, exposure and the look of the street, which is for the survey rather than a table. If you plan to stay in the house for thirty years or more, the life of the covering matters more than the day-one price; if you may sell soon, a sound, tidy roof is what a buyer's surveyor wants to see.
Checking a quote against these figures
When a quote arrives, put it beside the ranges above, then ask what it includes. A figure that is far below the others is not automatically a bargain, and a figure at the top is not automatically padded. Both need explaining.
- Is the figure one total, or does it list items that leave the total unclear?
- Is VAT in the total, and is it charged at the standard 20%?
- Does it include the scaffold, including any highway licence?
- Does it include taking the old covering away and the skip?
- Does it say which covering, which underlay and which batten size?
- Does it say what happens if rotten timber is found under the old roof?
Get more than one written quote for the same roof, and give each firm the same description of the work, so the answers can be compared. Ask whether the ridge line, valley gutters and flashings are included too, since those details are easy to leave vague. Keep the chosen quote and any photos with the house papers; a later buyer or a surveyor may ask what covering is on the roof and when it was laid.
The written quote we give is one total price, set once the survey is done and you have been shown photos of your roof. Where something under the old covering changes the work, you hear about it before anything is added.
When a repair costs less than a replacement
Replacing everything makes sense once the covering is failing across the roof, but plenty of problems are smaller. The published repair figures show how large the gap can be.
- Which? prices swapping one to six damaged or absent tiles at £75 to £400, ex VAT.
- Which? puts a new ridge tile at £80 to £300, ex VAT.
- MyJobQuote puts replacing roof tiles at around £215 and an average repair at around £650 in 2026.
- MyJobQuote puts a ridge job at £225 to £550.
These are typical UK ranges, again from different guides with different bases. They sit well under the cost of a new roof, and for a localised fault they are the right first answer. A replacement earns its place when slates or tiles are failing across the slope, when fixings have corroded, or the timber battens and sheet underlay below have given out.
That is why the survey comes first. We look at the whole roof, say which of the two it needs, and give the reason. If a repair is the better buy, we tell you so, because a roof that needs two ridge tiles does not need a new covering.
For the cost of a replacement in the South East in particular, see our page on new roof costs in the South East, and for the cost of staging a job, our guide to paying for a new roof in stages.
