A new roof is one of the largest single jobs on a house, and the headline number hides a lot. Two quotes of the same size can describe very different work: one may strip to the rafters, renew the battens and underlay, and rebuild the lead, while the other may lay new tiles over what is already there. For a full re-roof of a pitched roof, third-party cost guides publish typical UK price bands. House shape and covering move those bands, and several lines are usually missing from a headline figure that are usually missing from a headline figure: scaffold, waste, timber repairs and consents. The figures are national and are not Empire prices. They help you judge a quote, and they do not replace one. Your own number comes after a survey of your own roof.
Typical UK ranges for a full re-roof
The most useful single figure is the range for replacing a whole pitched roof. MyBuilder's new roof cost guide (2026), updated in August 2026, reports typical UK prices in the bands below. Treat them as national bands for an ordinary house, not a listed one.
| Item | Typical UK range |
|---|---|
| Full roof replacement | £5,000 to £12,000 |
| Gable roof, with a ridge | £5,000 to £8,000 typical |
| Hipped roof, with hips | £8,000 to £12,000 typical |
| Roofing labour | £50 to £130 per m² |
| Roofer's day rate | £250 to £300 |
The gap between gable and hipped roofs is worth a moment. A gable roof has two plain slopes and a ridge. A hipped roof falls away on four sides, so it has hips, the sloping outer angles where two slopes meet. Each hip needs tiles cut along the diagonal and a finished line down its length. More cutting, more edge detail and more hours account for the jump of several thousand pounds.
Size matters as much as shape. A one-bedroom cottage and a four-bedroom detached house can both be gable roofs, and they will not cost the same. Roofing labour is quoted per square metre in these guides, so the area of the slopes, not the floor area of the house, is what the labour rate multiplies. A steeper pitch has more roof surface over the same footprint, and it is slower and riskier to work on.
Your fixed price follows the survey. Until then, read these ranges as a way to see whether a figure is in the right territory, and ask what sits inside it.
How the covering changes the total
The covering is the largest material cost and also the choice that is hardest to reverse. Natural slate is the one covering with a sourced installed rate in the guides we use: MyBuilder's slate roof cost guide (2026) reports typical UK figures of £100 to £180 per square metre installed. Within that, Welsh slate typically runs £140 to £180 per square metre and Spanish slate £100 to £130. For a semi-detached house roofed in Spanish slate, the same guide reports £7,000 to £10,000.
We do not have a sourced installed rate for clay tiles, concrete tiles or stone tiles, so none is offered here. Concrete tiles are generally the cheaper end of the pitched coverings and natural stone the dearer, but where your roof falls depends on the tile, the supplier and the quantity. It is priced from the survey. The companion guide to which covering to lay on a new roof compares the options on weight, appearance and heritage rules rather than on price alone.
One principle holds across all of them. A cheaper covering on a roof that needs new battens, underlay and lead is not a saving if the cost of those parts is the same either way. Battens are the timber laths that tiles or slates hang from. Underlay is the membrane stretched across the rafters under the battens; it catches wind-driven rain and condensation. Both are renewed in a proper re-roof, and neither depends on which covering goes on top.
Weight can force approval by itself. Under the Planning Portal's rules, a new covering material that is at least 15 per cent heavier than the current roof covering needs approval, and a heavier covering also means checking the structure can carry it. Moving from a light concrete tile to natural stone could cross that line, which is one reason we match the covering to the roof as it was built.
Scaffold, waste and strip-out
Three lines sit beside the covering on almost every quote: access, removal and disposal. They are easy to overlook and they are not small.
Scaffold
For scaffolding, MyBuilder's new roof cost guide (2026) reports about £1,125 as the typical UK figure. A full re-roof needs a working platform and edge protection on every side, and it stays standing until the roof is finished. On a Bath terrace the cost can differ from the typical figure, because a basement area, a shared pavement or a steep street can make erection slower. We price it from the survey and show it on its own line, so you can compare it with other quotes.
Waste
The same guide gives £100 to £1,000 for waste disposal. The range is wide because the volume varies. A tiled roof on a small house produces a manageable skip load. A heavy stone tile or slate roof on a large house produces much more, and old felt and rotten battens add to it. Anything containing asbestos is a separate matter and is dealt with under its own rules, so it must be identified before work starts. We take the waste away and leave the site clear.
Stripping the old covering
Taking off the old tiles, battens and underlay is labour, and it is part of the labour rate in the cost guides. It also happens to be the stage when the true condition of the roof appears. Slates, tiles and battens come off in a controlled order so that the house is protected at the end of each day, which is why a re-roof is normally done in sections.
If a quote has no line for scaffold or waste, ask where they are. They are either included in a larger figure, or they have been left out and will be added later.
Timbers, flashings and the parts you only see once the roof is open
The parts of a roof that fail quietly are the ones that make a re-roof price move. A roofer standing in the street can see the covering. The rafters, wall plates and battens only show their condition once tiles come off, so a good survey tries to read them from inside the loft first.
Rafters are the angled timbers that carry the covering, and the wall plate is the timber running along the head of the wall that takes their bearing. Water that has been getting in around a chimney or a valley for years often rots the timber nearest the leak, while the rest of the frame is sound. That is why a timber repair is usually local rather than a whole-roof item: a length of rafter sistered alongside, a section of wall plate replaced, a batten run renewed. We will not put a figure on it here, since the published guides give none and the cost turns on what is found.
What we can tell you is how to protect yourself. Ask every roofer to say in writing how extra timber will be dealt with, and at what rate, before the job begins. That way a fixed price stays fixed in the way you expect, and an unexpected rafter is a conversation you have already had.
The metalwork matters just as much. A valley is the inside angle formed by two roof slopes, normally lined with lead. A flashing is sheet lead (or similar metal) dressed over a joint, say at a chimney stack or an abutting wall. On an older house both are generally renewed during a re-roof, since lead left out in all weathers for years is seldom worth refitting. They belong in the price from the start.
Consents and Building Regulations that touch the price
Small repairs and patch re-covering normally escape Building Regulations approval, but only where less than 25 per cent of the total building envelope is affected and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected, according to the Planning Portal. A whole new roof passes both limits, so approval applies. Extra weight can bring approval in on its own, as noted above. The Planning Portal page on re-roofing and the Building Regulations sets out the rules in full.
It also warns that the roof may also need upgrading for thermal performance. That can mean adding insulation during the job, which belongs on the quote as an item in its own right. Better to see it at survey than halfway through the work.
Approval comes either from B&NES building control or via a registered building control approver, one of the private firms that had to join the Building Safety Regulator's register by April 2024. Neighbouring councils such as Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire run their own building control for properties in their areas. We explain which applies to your address and deal with the notification where the work is notifiable.
Bath adds a further layer. The city sits wholly inside a World Heritage Site, with the conservation area taking in about half of it. For a listed house, the covering cannot change until B&NES Council has granted listed building consent. Planning permission does not cover it, and starting work without consent is a criminal offence. Unlisted houses on some streets fall under Article 4 directions, so ask B&NES planning or check its policy map before committing. Applications can need drawings and take time, so ask about both early.
How a survey turns a range into a price
A figure on its own tells you very little. A useful quote sets out the covering by name and origin, the battens and underlay, the lead work, the ridge, hip and verge finish, the scaffold, the waste, and who deals with building control. Verges are the edges of the roof at the gable ends, and they, like ridges and hips, should be fixed mechanically. Ridge and hip tiles need mechanical fixings under BS 5534:2014, with mortar acting as bedding rather than as the fixing.
When two quotes differ, set them side by side and tick off each of those lines. The cheaper one usually leaves something out, or assumes something the other does not. The higher one may have found a problem the first never looked for. For help with that comparison, see our guide to comparing re-roof quotes.
Our free survey turns a typical range into a number. We inspect the slopes and the loft, take photographs of your own roof so you have the evidence in hand, and list the work item by item. A fixed price in writing follows. Where repair will do instead of replacement we say that and price the repair; the dividing line is covered in repair or replace your roof. For a sense of how long the job itself takes, see how long a re-roof takes, and for the full service, our roof replacement page.
Our written guarantee runs for 10 years on the workmanship, and the terms are set out on our guarantee page.