How much do roofers charge per day in the UK?

Two national cost guides give figures you can use as a yardstick. They are typical UK ranges and not Skyline prices, and they differ a little, which is normal for guides built on different samples.

MyBuilder's same guide gives labour for a replacement at £50 to £130 per square metre, which shows how different a per-metre figure looks from a per-day one. Whether a rate includes VAT is worth checking on any quote, since the Checkatrade figures above exclude it.

Treat the two sources as a band rather than a single number. A rate near the low end may reflect a simple job; one near the top may reflect awkward access or specialist skill. It is also worth remembering that a published range is an average of many different jobs in many different places, so your own street can sit above it or below it.

A day rate suits a small task with unknown scope, such as a morning's patching or lending a hand on someone else's site. Most roofing is easier to price as a whole: the roof is measured, the covering is chosen, and the number of days follows from the size and the access.

A fixed price helps you as much as it helps the roofer, and it is the normal way a roofing job is offered to a homeowner. You know the total before work starts, and a slow day on site does not turn into your extra cost. It also removes the opposite worry, where a firm asks for more days because the weather or a hidden fault got in the way. The quote from Skyline follows the survey and is one total, so there is no sum for you to do with a day rate. If a job turns out larger than the survey showed, for example when rotten timbers are found once the old covering comes off, the next step is a conversation about the change in writing, before more work is done.

A roofer's day is only part of the cost. The rest arrives as other things you pay for.

• Materials. Tiles or slates, battens, underlay, lead, fixings, membrane and adhesive, none of which is in the rate.
• Scaffolding. MyBuilder's scaffolding guide gives about £850 to £1,200 for a standard two-storey house, and for many jobs it is the largest single item beside the covering.
• Waste. MyBuilder's replacement guide puts disposal at £100 to £1,000, depending on the quantity removed.
• More than one pair of hands. Many roofing jobs need several people on site, so the rates multiply quickly.

The more of these a quote takes in, the more it tells you. Find out whether VAT and scaffolding are inside the total before you compare any two prices.

Here is where the figure helps. If a two-person repair is quoted as one day and costs a few hundred pounds, that sits comfortably with the published rates once materials are added. If a straightforward job is priced as though it takes a week, ask what the time covers. If it is priced for a fraction of a day at a fraction of the rate, ask what has been left out.

Do not force the arithmetic. Two roofs of the same area can take very different times, since a steep slope, a chimney or a stack of valleys slows everything down. Access, height, the covering and the condition underneath all move the days needed, and only a survey settles them. Our page on what a roofing quote should include lists the questions to ask, and roofing costs in Swindon gathers the sourced figures in one place.

A large gap between your quote and the published figures is a reason to ask questions, not to assume a mistake. A listed building, a steep roof or a tight street can all raise the cost of a perfectly honest quote.

A published rate for a roofer is not a rate for a general builder, and the reverse holds too. Lead work, slating and flat-roof membranes are skilled trades, and the person doing them should be someone who does them regularly. Our comparison of roofer or builder explains which jobs suit which. Timing matters as well, because the order of work on a roof often counts for more than the hourly figure.

Whatever the rate, how you pay matters too. Read how much deposit a roofer should ask for before agreeing terms, and see whether roofing companies offer finance if the total is more than you can pay at once.

If you would rather spread the cost, small regular jobs beat big emergency ones. A yearly check of gutters, valleys and flashings often finds a faulty tile before it becomes a leak. Our seasonal roof maintenance checklist lists what you can spot from the ground and what to hand to a roofer.

When you do need Skyline Swindon Roofing, the quote is in writing, follows a survey, and covers the lightest job that really cures the fault, with pictures of your roof alongside. Our workmanship is guaranteed for 10 years, in writing.