Roofers use a vocabulary that homeowners rarely meet until the day something goes wrong. A quote mentions battens, soakers, flaunching and a re-cover, and it is hard to tell whether the job described is small or large. This guide from Watertight Worthing Roofing is a plain map of the work, so you can read a quote and a survey with some confidence.
Roofing divides sensibly into a few families. There are repairs to a roof that is fundamentally sound, replacement of a covering whose useful years have run out, and the separate world of flat roofs. Around those sit the specialist details: lead, chimneys, the gutters and boards at the eaves, roof windows, and the inspections that help you decide which of the other jobs you need at all.
Each section below names the work, says what it involves in practice, gives a typical UK price range from a published guide, and links to the page where we go further. Prices vary with access, the covering and what a survey finds, so treat every range as an orientation, not an estimate. If you are weighing up who should do the work, questions to ask a roofer is the companion page.
Repairs: fixing a sound roof that has developed a fault
A repair assumes the roof as a whole still has years in it. Typical jobs include putting back a cracked, slipped or absent tile or slate, renewing a stretch of lead flashing, re-fixing a loose ridge, clearing and relining a valley, and patching a flat roof. The work starts with finding the real opening, because the mark on the ceiling is rarely directly beneath it, and a good repair deals with that opening, not the symptom.
For the cost, MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) publishes a UK range of £150 to £1,500 for a roof repair, splitting minor jobs at £100 to £300, moderate ones at £500 to £1,000 and major repairs at £2,500 or more. Storm fixes sit at £500 to £1,500 in the same guide. Our roof repairs page covers the causes and methods in detail.
Ridges and hips
The ridge is the horizontal crest of the roof, while a hip slopes down from it at an external corner of the building. Both carry capping tiles. For loose or cracked ones, MyBuilder gives £300 to £600 to re-bed or replace the ridge tiles. Ridge tile repairs explains how they are fixed down against the wind.
When the weather will not wait
When a roof is leaking right now, the work comes in two stages: make it safe, then repair it properly once conditions allow. Our emergency roof repairs page describes the first stage and what to do while you wait.
Re-roofing: stripping and replacing the covering
When a roof leaks in several places, the battens have decayed or the underlay has perished, patching costs more over time than starting again. Re-roofing means stripping the old tiles or slates, inspecting the timbers, laying fresh underlay and battens, and fixing a new covering. It is the largest job on a pitched roof and the one that most often raises the question of consent. Roof replacement sets out the stages in order.
The covering sets the lifespan, within wide limits. Published figures put well-laid natural slate at 80 to 100 years or more, and Marley cites a minimum life expectancy of 60 years for clay tiles and around 60 years for concrete. MyBuilder takes a shorter view of concrete, saying such tiles typically need replacing after 30 to 50 years. All of these are ranges, none is a promise, and exposure and upkeep push them either way.
What it costs
In MyBuilder's new-roof guide the typical UK range is £5,000 to £12,000, with a semi-detached gable at £5,000 to £8,000 and a hipped one at £8,000 to £12,000. Slate runs at £100 to £180 per m² in its separate guide. See pitched roofing for the tile types and slate roofing for natural slate.
Consent and the house itself
Building control may apply to a re-roof, and a thermal upgrade can follow. Our guide to Worthing house roofs sets out which period of house tends to call for what, from seafront Victorian terraces to post-war bungalows.
Flat roofs: membranes, falls and the three main systems
A flat roof is never perfectly level. It needs a fall, a slight tilt that sends rain towards an outlet, and IKO, citing the 2018 edition of BS 6229 (since revised), recommends designing for 1:40 so that the finished roof still achieves a minimum of 1:80. Without that tilt, water ponds and works at the weakest joint in the membrane. Flat roofs appear on extensions, garages, dormers, porches and the many bungalows along the coast.
Three coverings dominate. EPDM is a synthetic rubber sheet, normally supplied as a single large sheet. GRP stands for glass-reinforced plastic, a laminate of resin and fibreglass formed on the roof itself. Felt is bitumen-based and laid in layers, and today's torch-on versions are welded down with heat. MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) gives per m² ranges of £70 to £100 for felt, £90 to £130 for EPDM and £95 to £150 for GRP. Lifespans differ too: a flat roof typically lasts 15 to 30 years, EPDM 20 to 30 years or more, and GRP 25 to 40 years.
Repair or recover
A localised tear or a failed joint can often be dealt with by repair. A roof that has blistered, ponded or failed across much of its area is a candidate for a new membrane, and the cost then depends on the deck underneath as well. Flat roofing goes through the options and what each one demands of the structure.
Lead on flat and sloping roofs
Lead is also a roofing material in its own right, used on small flats, bay roofs and porches, and it is the usual metal for flashings. Lead roofing covers the codes and the dressing.
Chimneys, flashings and the details around them
Junctions give out more readily than the open slope, and a chimney is the largest junction on most houses. A chimney job may mean repointing the brickwork, renewing the flaunching (the mortar skirt that grips the pots at the top), re-dressing the flashings around the stack, capping unused flues or rebuilding the stack above the roofline.
The prices vary a good deal. MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) gives a typical UK range of £500 to £2,000 for chimney repointing, with around £750 as an average, while rebuilding the stack ranges from £2,000 to £10,000 or more. MyJobQuote (22/09/26) puts a patch of chimney leadwork at £150 to £250 and a full replacement at £350 to £460 without scaffolding. Our chimney repairs page explains how to read the cause of damp near a stack.
Removing a chimney breast
Taking a chimney breast out of a room is a separate job from roof work, and it always needs Building Regulations approval, and where the breast is on a party wall a party wall notice is needed as well, so that sort of project belongs with a builder as well as a roofer, and it is worth sorting out before anyone orders materials.
Where lead comes in
Flashings, soakers and valley linings are normally lead. MyJobQuote says lead flashing can last over 80 years, and over 100 for higher codes, which is worth remembering whenever someone offers a bead of sealant in its place. A sealant is a short-term cover for a gap, and it does nothing about why the gap opened.
The roofline: gutters, fascias, soffits and roof windows
The roofline is the lowest edge of the roof, where it meets the walls. The fascia is the board running along the eaves that the gutter hangs from, while the soffit is the board under the overhang, often drilled or fitted with vents to let the loft breathe. Together with the gutters and downpipes, they decide whether rain leaves the building at the right place or finds its way in.
MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) puts guttering replacement at £30 to £70 per metre, and soffits and fascias together at around £150 per metre, with soffits at £100 to £180 and fascias at £80 to £150 per metre separately. Take care with older boards: in some houses the soffits are asbestos insulating board, which is work to test first and never to cut or break. Gutters, soffits and fascias covers materials and fixing.
Roof windows
Fitting a roof window means cutting into the roof, setting a frame in line with the slope and weathering it with flashings. MyBuilder gives £350 to £600 for a standard installation. Planning and Building Regulations rules apply, particularly in conservation areas and the National Park, so read skylights and roof windows before you buy anything.
Conservatory and garage roofs
Replacing a conservatory roof, or the often-forgotten garage roof, is its own category with its own materials and rules. See conservatory roof replacement and garage roof replacement for what each involves.
Inspections, cleaning and specialist work
Some jobs exist to tell you what else you need. A roof inspection, whether from a ladder, a pole camera or a drone, produces photographs and a written opinion before anything is touched. MyBuilder gives a typical UK range of £150 to £250 for a standard inspection, £200 to £400 for a drone survey and £300 to £500 for thermal imaging. Roof inspections and surveys describes what each one can and cannot show.
Cleaning and moss removal
Moss and lichen keep the surface wet, and clumps that fall can choke the gutters. MyBuilder says cleaning starts from around £300, and cautions that pressure washing can harm fragile tiles, which is why gentler methods suit some roofs. See roof cleaning and moss removal.
Spray foam, commercial and stone roofs
Spray foam insulation applied to the underside of a roof can cause dampness if it is installed badly, and a November 2024 report named lenders that declined such homes, others looking at each case; spray foam insulation removal explains assessment and removal. Shops, units and flat blocks have their own systems, covered under commercial roofing. Stone slate roofs in the Weald villages, with their Horsham slabs, call for a specialist hand, described in Horsham stone roofing.
Whichever job you need, read the guarantee wording before you commit, and see how a roofing guarantee works. The warning signs that a firm is not what it claims are listed in how to tell a dodgy roofer.
