Is a slate roof dearer than a tile roof?

National cost guides give slate one per-square-metre band and treat tile elsewhere, so the comparison has to be pieced together from more than one table. MyBuilder's slate roof guide, updated in August 2026, gives £100 to £180 per m² installed. Inside that band, Spanish slate sits at £100 to £130, reclaimed slate at £110 to £150 and Welsh slate at £140 to £180.

Checkatrade's repair guide, updated in October 2026 and quoted without VAT, prices repairs by covering rather than by whole roof. It lists concrete at £90 to £120 per m², clay at £110 to £160 and Spanish natural slate at £150 to £220. Those are repair rates, not re-roofing rates, but the order is the same in both guides: concrete at the bottom, slate at the top.

Treat all of these as UK-wide guide figures. They describe a typical job somewhere in the country, and only the quote we write after surveying your roof can tell you what yours will cost.

The stone itself is only part of the story. Slates go on singly, every one fixed with nails or a hook and trimmed by hand where the roof turns and finished with lead at valleys, abutments and chimneys. A large interlocking concrete tile covers far more area per piece and goes down much faster, so the labour element is smaller.

Slate also asks for a more exact set-out. The battens have to be spaced for the chosen headlap, and the pitch has to be steep enough for the slate size. Our page on slate sizes and headlaps shows why a few millimetres of overlap changes how many slates the job needs, which is one reason two quotes for the same roof can differ.

Disposal and access are priced the same way for every covering. Scaffolding round a two-storey house is a big cost whichever material goes on top, and the covering you choose does not change what the scaffold costs. Slate from different quarries also varies in tone and thickness, which affects both the price per slate and how well new pieces blend with old. That fixed element narrows the percentage gap between slate and tile on a bigger job.

This is where slate makes its case. MyBuilder describes a well-installed slate roof as lasting 80 to 100 years or more, and says Welsh slate regularly passes a century. For tiles, the same guide says concrete typically needs replacing after 30 to 50 years and clay after 40 to 60. Marley, a tile maker, expects its own concrete tiles to reach roughly 60 years, while stating plainly that it offers no guarantee.

The sources disagree, and each lifespan shifts with exposure, how well the job was done and how the roof is looked after, so read these as ranges and never as promises. Even so, a house you expect to live in for thirty years or more may see a tile roof replaced once while a slate roof only needs repairs. Every full re-roof brings scaffolding, waste removal and a fortnight of disruption again.

Slate that is repaired well can also be reused on the same roof, since individual slates are lifted and refixed instead of thrown away. That keeps the cost of later repairs down, and the roof keeps its original appearance.

Height and access come first, because a scaffold for a three-storey house costs more than the same job on a bungalow. Roof shape follows: hips, valleys, dormers and chimneys all add cutting and leadwork. The condition of the timbers underneath matters too. Battens that have rotted, or a roof with no boards behind the slates, will need replacing or adding at the same time, and nobody can know until the old covering is off.

If your slates are in decent order and the problem is limited, our page on slate conservation shows how a repair can keep what is already there. In places where the council expects natural slate to stay, such as the Railway Village, where the council's appraisal of the area calls its roofs generally slate, that may be the only acceptable route anyway.

For a general view of the service, see our slate roofing page, which links to every slate question we answer.

This page covers cost only. Swapping tile for slate, or slate for tile, raises separate questions about weight, pitch and consent that belong in a different answer. As a rule, check with your building control body before moving to a heavier covering, because the Planning Portal asks for approval once a new covering weighs 15 per cent or more above the old. A change of covering also alters the look of a street, so it is worth a chat with the council's planners if your house stands inside a conservation area.

Should you be torn between patching and relaying, our guides to walking on slate and delaminating slates explain what to look for. Slates that peel apart in thin layers, or ring dull when tapped, are a sign the roof is nearly spent, whatever it cost to lay.

Once quotes come in, find out from each firm whether the figure covers VAT and the scaffold. Our pricing is meant to be good and fair for the work, and you can test that against a written quote backed by pictures of your own slates. Workmanship is guaranteed for 10 years, in writing, and the site is left clear.