Roofing costs explained: typical UK prices for Swindon homes

MyBuilder's roof repair guide, updated on 21 August 2026, gives a range of £150 to £1,500 for repairs overall. It splits the work into three levels. Minor jobs such as refixing a few slipped slates or replacing a cracked tile sit at £100 to £300. Moderate repairs, where a section of covering or a flashing needs rebuilding, sit at £500 to £1,000. Major work, such as a large area of structural timber or a collapsed section, starts at £2,500 and goes up from there. The same guide puts storm fixes at £500 to £1,500.

Checkatrade prices repairs by the square metre instead, and its guide shows how much the covering matters. Its figures, all excluding VAT and access equipment, are £110 to £160 for clay tile, £90 to £120 for concrete tile and £150 to £220 for Spanish slate. Flat-roof repairs run at £100 to £140 for bitumen felt, £120 to £170 for EPDM and £130 to £180 for GRP. EPDM is a flexible rubber sheet laid whole, and GRP is fibreglass cured in resin over a deck.

Why do ridge tiles get their own price?

Ridge tiles sit at the top of the roof, where a scaffold tower or a full scaffold is often needed. MyBuilder puts re-bedding or replacing ridge tiles between £300 and £600, and repointing a ridge or hip between £200 and £400. A ridge that is only cracking at the joints costs less than one that has to be lifted and refixed along its whole length. Our guide to ridge repair costs works through the options.

Urgency matters too. A leak that needs making safe first adds a visit, and a temporary fix is covered inside the overall total rather than arriving as a surprise afterwards. Leaks and storm damage jump the queue with us.

If a leak is the reason you are reading this, our roof repair cost guide goes into the national figures in more detail than there is room for here.

Replacing a whole roof is the largest figure on a household roofing list. MyBuilder's new roof guide, updated 21 August 2026, gives a typical range of £5,000 to £12,000. For a semi-detached house of 50 to 80 square metres of roof it shows £5,000 to £8,000 for a gable roof and £8,000 to £12,000 for a hipped one. Checkatrade, in a guide updated in October 2026, quotes an average of around £8,000, and prices a hipped roof at £9,250 to £18,000 and a gable at £7,000 to £16,250, all plus VAT. Its figures assume roofs of about 64 square metres.

A hipped roof costs more because it has more edges, more ridge to finish and more cut tiles. A gable end is simpler, which is why the gable figure is lower in both guides.

What does the covering add?

For slate, MyBuilder gives £100 to £180 per square metre installed. Welsh slate is £140 to £180, Spanish £100 to £130 and reclaimed £110 to £150. Checkatrade's slate guide, last updated in September 2026, puts stone slate at around £160 to £210 per square metre, although that is not a Cotswold-specific figure. These sit alongside the clay and concrete repair figures above, and the next guide in this set, UK roofing materials compared, lines them up.

Where do I read about a full re-roof?

Our guide to how much a new roof costs covers the stripping, the timbers and the finish in order.

Flat roofs are priced by area, and the covering sets the rate. MyBuilder's flat roof guide, updated 21 August 2026, puts a replacement at £2,800 to £7,500, which works out at an average of around £75 per square metre. Its per-metre rates are £70 to £100 for bitumen felt, £90 to £130 for EPDM, £95 to £150 for GRP, £95 to £140 for PVC single-ply and £150 to £200 or more for lead.

Checkatrade's October 2026 roof replacement guide prices a flat roof at £2,800 to £7,500 for a 32 square metre roof, or £45 to £120 per square metre, plus VAT. The two guides agree on the overall band even though they split it differently.

What about a garage?

MyBuilder's garage roof guide gives £700 to £1,000 for a single flat garage roof, £900 to £1,400 for a double and £2,500 to £4,500 for a pitched one. A garage with an old cement-sheet roof can bring in another cost entirely: taking cement sheets off safely and disposing of them is its own cost, between £350 and £1,295 for a single garage roof on MyBuilder's asbestos removal page. Our guide to flat roof costs and the one on garage roof costs have more.

The smaller jobs have their own bands. The table below gathers them, each with the guide and date.

Why is the chimney range so wide?

MyBuilder's chimney guide shows the stack's position matters: £200 to £700 for a bungalow chimney, £600 to £900 for the side stack of a semi and £900 to £1,500 for a central one. Height means scaffold, and scaffold is a cost in its own right.

Does the roof window price include the scaffold?

MyBuilder's roof window guide says its £350 to £600 covers labour and fitting, and mentions scaffolding of around £500 on top. Always ask what a quote does and does not include. Our pages on chimney repair costs, gutter replacement and roof window installation each go deeper.

Four things move a roofing price more than any others, and none of them shows up in a headline range. The first is access. A roof you can reach from a driveway is cheaper to work on than one behind a terrace with no rear lane. The second is scaffold. MyBuilder's scaffolding guide gives around £850 to £1,200 for a standard two-storey house, and Checkatrade's roof replacement guide shows £700 to £1,300. A scaffold built for chimney work alone costs £400 to £900 on MyBuilder's figures.

The third is waste. MyBuilder shows disposal at £100 to £1,000, and the spread comes from how much old covering, timber and rubbish leaves the site and how it has to be carried. A roof stripped of heavy concrete tiles weighs more than one stripped of felt. Clearing the site and carrying the waste off is part of our job, so that cost sits inside the total.

What about hidden timber repairs?

The fourth is what lies under the covering. Rotten battens, a wet wall plate or rafters that have moved only appear once the old tiles are off. We photograph what we can reach at survey and tell you where we cannot see yet, because timber repair is the single biggest source of a late change in scope. What it costs depends entirely on the damage found, so a survey that shows timbers at risk is reflected in the written quote.

Does VAT or the pitch change the picture?

Many published figures exclude VAT, and some include it, so ask whether the figure on any quote has VAT and scaffolding in it. Steeper pitches, extra valleys, dormers and an awkward outline all add hours on the roof. When a re-roof reaches a big share of the roof, Building Regulations approval may apply and a thermal upgrade can follow, and a loft room that needs a protected escape route adds to that, which our guide to roof work and Building Regulations explains.

A published range tells you whether to be alarmed or relaxed about a figure. It cannot tell you what your roof needs. That is why our process puts the survey first. We inspect the roof, photograph it, and then send the written quote as one sum for the whole job. Our prices are fair and good, and the photographs show you what that sum is based on, so you can set it beside any published range and see how they compare.

We steer you to the smallest job that genuinely cures the fault. When a repair stops a leak, we tell you so, even though a re-roof would mean a bigger invoice, and when the covering is spent we tell you that as well. Every job carries a written workmanship guarantee of 10 years, and we leave the property clear of debris.

What if I change my mind after signing?

Agreements made in your own home come with 14 days to cancel, and our answer on the cooling-off period explains how it works. If a project needs consent first, the planning guide shows what to check before you commit. Ready to start? Contact us, or look at Skyline Swindon Roofing from the top to see how we work.