The short answer
Lead is soft, heavy and easy to dress into awkward shapes, and it weathers to a quiet grey. Copper is lighter and harder, starts bright orange and darkens to brown, then slowly turns green. Lead is the usual choice on period and listed roofs, copper on designed details where its colour is wanted. Both are best priced on survey.
How the two metals behave
Flashing is the strip of metal that closes the gap wherever a roof runs up against something else: a chimney stack, a side wall, a dormer cheek. The metal has to be shaped to the surface, tucked into a mortar joint and left free to shift as the temperature rises and falls, and the two metals go about this differently.
Lead is heavy and very soft. A fitter can press it into the corner of a stone chimney with a wooden dresser and it will hold the shape. It stretches slowly under its own weight and with temperature, which is why detail and fixing matter so much. Copper is much stiffer. It holds crisp folds and clean lines, but it needs careful forming at corners and will not settle into a rough stone surface the way lead does.
Neither is a good choice in the wrong hands. Both depend on the laps, the fixings and the chase being right.
There is also the question of weight. Lead is dense, and a long run of heavy sheet needs fixing that will not let it slump down the slope. Copper is lighter and holds itself up, which suits long, straight runs but asks for expansion joints so that the metal can lengthen without buckling. Each metal has habits, and the fitter has to plan around them. Our leadwork explained guide covers the basic building blocks.
Looks and how they age
New lead is a bright, silvery grey that dulls within weeks as a thin oxide film forms. After that it settles into a soft matt grey that suits slate, stone and clay, and it rarely draws the eye. That quiet finish is part of why conservation officers and owners of period houses reach for it.
Copper starts a vivid salmon-orange, like a new coin. Over months it darkens through chocolate brown, and over a longer time it can turn the blue-green known as verdigris. The pace depends on the weather and how much shelter the metal has. A copper flashing next to a grey slate roof can look striking, or it can look out of place, depending on the building.
One practical point is staining. Copper run-off can streak stone and paintwork green below it, and rainwater from copper should not be allowed to run over other metals, as the mix can corrode them. Lead run-off leaves a pale deposit on some stone. Ask how each is handled before you decide.
Soldered copper joints and folded lead laps also look different up close. Copper seams are neat and sharply defined. Lead rolls and laps are softer and rounder. On a flat-roofed bay or porch, where you may see the work from an upstairs window, it is worth choosing the finish you like.
Cost: what to expect and what moves it
Checkatrade's repair cost guide, updated October 2026, gives lead flashing in Code 5, not exceeding 150 mm wide, at £50 to £70 per metre, and stepped flashing at £80 to £120 per metre, excluding VAT. That is a national figure for lead only, not a price for your roof.
For copper, the cost comes down to the thickness of the sheet, the length of the run and how intricate the folds are, and the figure is set once the flashing has been measured. Copper is generally the dearer metal and slower to form, so expect it to sit above lead for the same detail. The survey and the written quote that follows give you the number for your own roof.
Access moves the price as much as the metal. A chimney two storeys up needs a scaffold or tower, and the cost of getting to the work can outweigh the difference between the two metals. Whoever quotes, ask whether VAT and scaffolding are included.
Which suits which building
On a Victorian or Edwardian terrace, a railway cottage or any building in a conservation area, lead is almost always the right match. It was the original material, it takes the shape of old brickwork and stone, and it needs no argument with a planning team over how the roof will look. Listed buildings in particular are expected to keep to traditional materials.
On a modern house, a designed extension or a roof with a contemporary look, copper can be a deliberate part of the architecture. It works well on a flat-roofed addition, a bay roof or a porch where the colour is wanted and the metal will be seen.
For ordinary flashing at the back of a chimney, hidden from the road, lead is the practical choice, and our pages on lead aprons and the lead saddle explain the two details most chimneys rely on.
Repair, sealant or new metal
If an old flashing is leaking, the cause may not be the metal. Mortar chases that have crumbled, flashings that have slipped, and cracked fillets can all let water in around perfectly good lead. A cheap fix is to smear sealant along the edge, but that rarely lasts, and our page on sealant on a lead roof explains why. Often a repair means re-wedging and repointing, not new metal.
When the metal itself has split or worn through, replacement is the answer, and for most roofs the metal we fit is lead. See lead flashing repairs for how we decide between mending and renewing.
At survey we photograph the flashing close up, so you can look at the same detail we are looking at, and you get a written quote afterwards. The work carries our workmanship guarantee of 10 years, in writing. For everything under one roof, start at lead roofing.