New roof cost: what a roof replacement costs in the UK, and when to add solar

How much does a new roof cost in the UK?

Third-party cost guides agree on the broad shape of the market. Where their exact numbers differ, it is usually because they sample different jobs.

• Which? surveyed 11 Which? Trusted Traders in November 2025 and found a new tiled roof on an average three-bedroom house costs £7,000 to £21,000, including labour and materials but excluding VAT. A new flat roof on a typical single garage (6m x 3m) ran £1,400 to £3,500 using felt, or £1,950 to £4,000 using modern boards and PVC or EPDM rubber.
• Checkatrade, in its roof replacement cost guide updated in March 2026, puts the UK national average at around £8,000, with most homeowners spending £4,000 to £19,000. The higher end is typically a larger, more complex slate hip roof.

Where the two disagree, it is usually because Which?'s figure is for a fixed house size while Checkatrade's spans every roof shape and size nationally.

Does a semi, a terrace or a detached house cost more to re-roof?

Neither Checkatrade nor Which? prices roofs strictly by bedroom count or house type. Both price by roof area and shape instead, and a large bungalow footprint can need similar covering to a tall three-storey terrace, despite the two being very different "house types". The closest sourced figures:

If you want a figure specific to your home, the most reliable way is to work out your roof's area and shape, then apply the per-m² figures in the next section, rather than relying on a bedroom count.

Does the covering itself change the price?

It does, considerably. These are supply and fit prices per square metre from Checkatrade's roof installation cost guide (last updated October 2024; the guide does not state whether the figures include VAT, so treat them as a guide price only):

Man-made (fibre cement) slate and GRP flat roofing are not broken out separately in either cost guide, so ask for a priced figure at survey rather than relying on a published average.

What is usually inside the price and what is not

A roofing quote should make clear whether it includes:

• Scaffold hire, erection and removal
• Skip hire and waste disposal
• Breathable membrane, battens and any insulation upgrade
• Fascias, soffits and guttering, if being replaced at the same time
• Any chimney repointing or flashing work
• VAT at the standard rate of 20% (see the VAT section below)

If a quote is silent on any of these, ask. Checkatrade's cost guides give these figures for the common extras:

• Scaffold: around £700 to £1,300 to set up, remove and hire for a typical job (roof replacement cost guide, updated March 2026). The roof installation cost guide separately prices a week's hire at around £900 on its own, and complex "tin hat" scaffolding over bay windows or awkward access at around £2,500 a week (roof installation cost guide, last updated October 2024)
• Skip hire: £300 per skip (roof installation cost guide, last updated October 2024), or £320 a week for a 6 to 8 yard skip (roof replacement cost guide, updated March 2026)
• Stripping and removing the old roof: around £1,000 to £2,500, separate from the new covering (roof replacement cost guide, updated March 2026)

A typical three-bedroom house with medium or large tiles takes 3 to 4 days to re-roof (Checkatrade roof installation cost guide, last updated October 2024). Checkatrade's roof replacement cost guide separately notes a full job can take up to a week depending on size and complexity (updated March 2026).

What makes one roof quote higher than another?

Size, pitch and complexity

A simple rectangular roof costs less per square metre than one with dormers, valleys, hips or multiple chimneys, because every junction needs extra flashing, labour and time. Checkatrade's own shape-based figures above show this directly: a hip roof costs more per m² than a gable roof of the same area.

Access and scaffolding

A roof that scaffolding can reach easily from the street costs less to access than one over a conservatory, a steep bank, or a shared boundary with no side access. Awkward access is one of the main reasons two quotes for what looks like the same job can differ.

What is found underneath

Roofers cannot see the condition of the battens, the sarking felt or the rafters until the old covering is off. Rotten battens, damaged sarking or rafters needing localised repair are common, and a fair quote should flag this as a possibility with an indicative allowance rather than leave it as a total unknown.

Region: the two guides do not fully agree

Which? states that "prices are likely to be at the upper end of the scale if you live in London or the South East" (Which?, November 2025 survey). Checkatrade's roof replacement cost guide instead says that "prices tend to be higher in the South West and big cities like London" (Checkatrade, updated March 2026), naming the opposite end of southern England to Which?. Both guides agree London pushes prices up; on the South East versus South West question they disagree, so we are not going to present a confident regional rule either way. Access and the complexity of a particular roof matter more than a broad regional guide.

Repair or replace? How to tell what your roof needs

Signs of a roof at the end of its life

Checkatrade and Which? both point to the same warning signs:

• Slipped, cracked or missing tiles, especially if you are finding debris in the gutters
• Daylight visible through the roof from inside the loft
• Damp patches or staining on ceilings or interior walls
• Sagging in the roofline, which can indicate structural movement
• Worn or peeling chimney flashing
• Moss or mould build-up that is trapping moisture against the covering

How long each covering lasts

Published lifespan figures for roof coverings vary widely between sources, and the two Checkatrade guides cited here do not give lifespans by material. The roof replacement cost guide only says that "most roofs last around 20 years without needing any work" (Checkatrade, roof replacement cost guide, updated March 2026). As a general rule, natural slate outlasts clay tiles, which outlast concrete tiles, and the real figure depends on installation quality, local weather exposure and maintenance. The most reliable number is the one on the covering's own product warranty. Ask any roofer quoting for new tiles or slate what manufacturer warranty comes with the covering itself, separate from their own workmanship cover.

When a repair is the honest answer

Not every roofing problem needs a full replacement. A handful of slipped or cracked tiles, a single damaged ridge tile, or isolated flashing wear are usually repair jobs, and repair is almost always more cost-effective unless the damage is widespread or the roof is already near the end of its expected life (Which?, November 2025). If your roof is sound with life left, a good roofer should tell you that, not sell you a replacement you do not need.

Why is a re-roof the best moment to add solar?

One scaffold, one set of trades, one disruption

Scaffolding for a typical roofing job costs roughly £700 to £1,300 to set up, hire and remove (Checkatrade, roof replacement cost guide, updated March 2026). A solar installation also needs scaffold access. When the two jobs happen together, that scaffold goes up once instead of being hired, erected and struck down twice for two separate projects a few years apart. It is a convenience and disruption saving, not a pricing mechanism, and it does not change how either job is taxed (see the VAT section below).

In-roof solar: panels that sit where the tiles would have been

On-roof solar sits on rails above the existing tiles. In-roof, sometimes called building-integrated solar or BIPV, replaces a section of the tiles or slates themselves, with the panels forming part of the weatherproof covering. During a re-roof, that section of covering was going to be bought and fitted anyway, which is why in-roof suits a re-roof better than it suits an existing, sound roof where the tiles are simply being covered over.

Roof age matters more than roof type: panels last 25 to 30 years, so the roof under them needs to last as long

Solar panels are built to run for a long time. The Energy Saving Trust puts panel lifespan at "25 years or more" (Energy Saving Trust, updated 27 August 2026), and the DMEGC 465W all-black panel used in Pro-Fit's standard installations carries a 25-year product warranty and a 30-year linear power warranty, guaranteeing no more than 1% output loss in the first year and no more than 0.4% a year after that, for at least 87.4% of original output at year 30 (DMEGC Solar, module datasheet DM465M10RT-B54HBW, document EN DS-M10RT-B54HBW, dated 18 June 2025).

That is a long time to sit on a roof. If your existing roof has less than 10 to 15 years of life left, fitting panels now and replacing the roof again in a decade means paying for scaffold, access and disruption twice, and potentially removing and refitting the array in between. Where the roof is already sound with plenty of life left, there is no need to touch it just to add solar.

Roofing and solar from one group

Pro-Fit's group covers roofing as well as solar, so we can look at a roof and a proposed array together at survey stage, rather than a roofer and a separate solar installer each designing around the other's work afterwards. Read more about us, or see how it works from first call to handover.

In-roof or on-roof: which suits a re-roof?

How in-roof systems work

A number of manufacturers supply the trays, flashing kits and fixings that let panels sit flush with the surrounding roof covering rather than on top of it:

• GSE Integration: an in-roof mounting system described, in a customer testimonial published on the manufacturer's own site, as one where "solar panels are built into the roof and replace part of the tiles" (GSE Integration, gseintegration.com, accessed 7 October 2026)
• Viridian Clearline Fusion: a roof-integrated system that combines panels, mounting and flashings as a single BBA-certified product. Announcing its BBA Agrément certification, Viridian Solar's chief technical officer said the certification confirms "the lifetime of the product is equivalent to the roof structure to which it is attached" (Viridian Solar, "Clearline fusion Awarded BBA Agrement Certificate", viridian.solar, accessed 7 October 2026)
• Marley SolarTile: a push-fit in-roof tile available in 335Wp and 445Wp formats, carrying a 15-year full-system warranty when installed as part of Marley's complete roof system. The panels' own power warranty runs to 25 years on the 335Wp model and 30 years on the 445Wp model (Marley, marley.co.uk, accessed 7 October 2026)
• GB-Sol PV Slate: an integrated slate-format solar product carrying a 25-year warranty (GB-Sol, gb-sol.co.uk, accessed 7 October 2026)

The cost difference, honestly

In-roof systems typically cost more than on-roof systems on an existing, sound roof, because they are a specialist product fitted by a crew familiar with roof-integrated work. That gap narrows during a re-roof, because the tiles the in-roof panels replace are tiles you were not buying and fitting separately. Pro-Fit prices in-roof and re-roof work at survey rather than from a published list, because the real cost depends on how much covering the array displaces.

Looks, conservation areas and planning

Flush, in-roof systems are often preferred by conservation officers, because they sit level with the surrounding roof rather than standing proud of it. Conservation areas and listed buildings have their own rules, so check with your local planning authority before committing to a format.

How does VAT apply to a new roof, and to the solar?

VAT works differently for the two kinds of work. The general HMRC rules, stated plainly, are these.

Re-roofing is standard rated

General building work on an existing residential property, including routine roof repair and replacement, is standard-rated building work: Notice 708 states that "work to an existing building is normally standard-rated" outside a short list of qualifying exceptions that ordinary re-roofing does not fall into (HMRC, VAT Notice 708: Buildings and construction, GOV.UK, accessed 7 October 2026).

Solar and batteries: 0% VAT on qualifying installations until 31 March 2027, then 5%

Residential installations of solar panels and battery storage are zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027. From 1 April 2027 the rate reverts to 5%, not back to 20% (HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6: Energy-saving materials and heating equipment, GOV.UK, accessed 7 October 2026).

Your written quote shows how VAT applies to each part of the job.

What does Pro-Fit's solar cost, if you add it?

Pro-Fit's published pricing runs from a six-panel array with no battery to a twelve-panel array with a 12kWh battery.

Every figure is a guide price, fixed in writing after a free survey, for a standard pitched roof. In-roof and re-roof work are not in this table and are priced at survey, because the amount of roof covering displaced varies from job to job.

See the full pricing table for every array and battery size.

What should a roof quote that's worth having include?

A good survey covers this, and a good quote itemises it:

• The roof's size, shape and pitch, measured on site, not estimated from a photo or a satellite image
• The condition found underneath, where visible (battens, felt, any sign of rafter damage)
• The exact covering specified, by name, not just "tiles" or "slate"
• Scaffold, skip hire and waste removal, stated separately or clearly included
• Any insulation upgrade required to meet current building regulations
• Guttering, fascias and soffits, if included
• The manufacturer's product guarantee on the covering, separate from the installer's own workmanship cover
• Payment schedule and what happens if unforeseen repairs are found once the old covering is off

Ask every roofer the same questions, in writing, so you are comparing like with like. See our roofing page, our prices, or get a quote for a free survey covering either or both. More questions? Visit our FAQ, or if you are a homeowner weighing up a first project, start there.