Home / Guides / What drives the cost of a new roof
What drives the cost of a new roof
We do not publish a price list, because a figure that does not survive contact with your roof is worth less than no figure at all. What we can do is tell you exactly what moves the number, so you can read the quotes you are holding.
The four things that move it most
Access. A detached house with room for a scaffold on all sides is a different job to a mid-terrace with no side return and a tight street. Scaffolding is a real cost with its own hire period, and a quote that has clearly not allowed for it is a quote that will grow.
Size and pitch. Area sets the materials, pitch sets how long people are safely on the roof and what the scaffold has to be. A steeply pitched roof of the same footprint is more roof and more time.
The covering. Natural slate, hand-made clay, machine-made clay, concrete interlocking and synthetic slate are not close to each other on price, and matching an existing period covering costs more than replacing a 1970s concrete tile.
What is under it. A sound deck is a known quantity. Rotten rafter ends, a failed wall plate, or a roof already recovered once over the original battens all add work that nobody can see from the ground.
What should always be in the figure
Scaffolding, skips and waste, making good, and VAT. Membrane, battens and fixings named rather than described as "like for like". Dry-fixed ridge and verge on a re-roof. Removal of the old covering, not just the new one going on.
If two quotes are far apart, this is usually where the gap is. One has priced the whole job and the other has priced the tiles.
What should never be added afterwards
Scaffolding you were told about after it arrived. Skip hire. A day rate appearing alongside a fixed price. Anything the roofer could have seen from the scaffold on day one.
The only variation that is fair is something genuinely hidden until the roof is open, and even then it should be shown to you, discussed and agreed before the work happens rather than appearing on the invoice.
How to compare three quotes properly
Line them up on what is included rather than on the total. Ask each for the make and type of the covering, the batten specification, whether the ridge is mechanically fixed, what happens to the flashings, and what is excluded. The cheapest quote with the shortest scope is usually the most expensive roof over ten years.
Ask what happens if it rains for a fortnight, and who will actually be on the roof. A number without those answers is not a quote, it is a bid.
And the question behind the question
Most people asking what a new roof costs are really asking whether they need one. Often the answer is not yet. A roof with five or ten years left is not improved by replacing it today, and a proportionate repair plus a maintenance habit is the better use of the money.
Questions
Why will nobody give a price over the phone?
Anyone who does is guessing, and the guess will be revised on site. Send photographs with your enquiry and we can often get much closer before anyone visits.
Does a bigger firm cost more?
Not reliably. What costs more is a quote that has allowed for the whole job, and that is the one you want.