Every online roof cost calculator works from the same two inputs: a postcode and a rough floor area. Neither of those decides what your roof costs. These six things do, and none of them are visible from a satellite photo. Here is what they are, and how to find out where your roof actually sits.
We will look at your actual roof and put a fixed price in writing. No call-out charge, no obligation.
In roughly the order they move the number.
A calculator reads the building's footprint off a map. A 45-degree pitch has roughly 40% more surface area than the floor plan beneath it. Get the pitch wrong and every material figure that follows is wrong too.
Natural slate, clay pantile, concrete interlocking and reconstituted slate all price differently, and they are not interchangeable. Many Surrey properties have had a covering swapped at some point, so what the calculator assumes for your postcode and what is on your roof are often two different things.
This is the one that ruins budgets. Battens and rafters that have taken water for years need replacing before anything goes back on. It is invisible from the ground, invisible from the street, and invisible to any calculator. It is also the single most common reason a quoted price moves.
A detached bungalow with a driveway and a terraced house on a narrow road are completely different jobs before a single tile is touched. Pavement licences, neighbour access and road closures all carry cost, and none of it appears in an online estimate.
Chimneys, valleys, dormers, verges, flashings and leadwork. A simple gable roof and a roof with two dormers and a stack are priced very differently. Detail work is skilled, slow, and the usual source of leaks when it is skipped.
Fascias, soffits and guttering are far cheaper to replace while the scaffold is already up. Doing them separately later can cost more than the saving. A calculator has no view on this because it does not know the state of your roofline.
Full strip and re-cover including new battens, membrane and dry ridge.
Leak traced to source, flashing and tiles made good, watertight the same day.
Complete new roof with full scaffold and roofline replaced at the same time.
We are not going to pretend a table can price your roof either. What it can do is show you why the spread is so wide, and roughly where the variables push you.
| What moves the price | Pushes you down | Pushes you up |
|---|---|---|
| Roof size and pitch | Small, shallow, simple gable | Large, steep, complex with dormers |
| Covering | Concrete interlocking tile | Natural slate or handmade clay |
| Timbers underneath | Sound, re-batten only | Rotten rafters needing structural work |
| Access | Detached, own driveway | Terraced, narrow road, licence needed |
| Detail work | No chimney, no valleys | Stack, valleys, dormers, full leadwork |
| Roofline | Fascias and guttering sound | Full roofline replacement at the same time |
The honest answer: two houses on the same Surrey street, built in the same year, can differ by several thousand pounds once the scaffold is up and the timbers are visible. Any calculator that gives you a confident single figure without seeing either is guessing. We would rather spend an hour on your roof and give you a number that does not move.
Including evenings and Saturdays. Tell us when works and we will fit around it. You do not need to take a day off.
Roof, timbers where accessible, flashings, chimney, valleys and roofline. Then we tell you what we found, including if the answer is that it does not need doing yet.
Itemised so you can see what each part costs. No call-out charge, no obligation, and nothing added later.
Roof inspections and fixed written quotes across Guildford and the surrounding villages.
Covering Woking, Horsell and the surrounding area.
Weybridge, Oatlands and St George's Hill.
Cobham, Oxshott and Stoke d'Abernon.
Godalming, Farncombe and Milford.
See every town and village we cover for roofing work.
