The short answer
Collect at least 3 written quotes, says Citizens Advice, before you decide. The number matters less than whether the quotes describe the same work. Compare them on scope, not on how the figures are laid out, and check that each is a single total price stating whether VAT and scaffold are covered.
Why three is the usual advice
Citizens Advice advises collecting written quotes from 3 traders or more, ahead of choosing one. That gives you a spread. Two quotes can disagree and leave you unsure which one is out of line, but a third shows where the middle lies.
It also gives you three chances to learn something. One roofer notices a rotten batten, another spots a failing flashing, a third mentions the chimney. Each visit adds to your understanding of what the roof needs, even if you end up choosing someone else.
There is no point in getting ten. Beyond four or five the comparison gets tiring and the differences become noise. Choose firms to ask carefully, ask each the same question, and stop when you have enough to decide.
Written matters as much as the number. A spoken figure is easy to forget and impossible to hold anyone to. Ask for the quote by email or on paper, and ask the firm to say what it is based on.
Be wary of any firm that presses for a decision on the spot. A genuine price will still be there tomorrow.
Make sure the quotes cover the same job
Quotes differ for many reasons, and most are about scope. One firm may price a strip and re-cover of both slopes, while another prices only the front. One may include new battens and underlay, another may assume the old ones stay. One may fix a new ridge dry, another may bed it on mortar.
Before you ask, decide what you want compared. Describe the problem in the same words to every roofer, or better still send identical photographs plus one shared written note. Say whether you want the least costly sound fix or the longest-lasting option, because the answers will differ.
When the quotes come back, lay them side by side and ask, for each one, what is being done, to which parts of the roof, and with which materials. If a quote does not say, ask. A price that looks low is sometimes low because it leaves something out.
Differences in the work are worth more attention than differences in price. If two firms agree on the cause and the remedy and a third disagrees, find out why before you drop either view.
Our survey, with photographs of what is actually there, gives a written scope that you can show to other firms.
One total price, not a pile of lines
A quote for a roof should be a single total price for the whole job. That is easier to hold a firm to than a list of figures, and it avoids the temptation to haggle over one line and miss what is missing from the whole.
Do not expect every firm to lay its figures out the same way. Layouts differ, and a tidy-looking layout says nothing about the quality of the work. Compare the totals, then compare the scope behind each.
Check two things that change the total: does the figure carry VAT, and does it carry the scaffold? A figure that leaves VAT out will rise when the tax is added, and a quote that leaves the scaffold out will grow later. Our answer on VAT on roofing work explains the rate.
What drives the price is the access, the area, the covering and what the survey finds under it. The written quote fixes the figure once the roof has been seen.
If a firm cannot give a total until the work has started, treat that as a warning. A price that moves once the scaffold is up usually means the survey was thin, so ask what the figure assumes about the battens, the underlay and the state of the timbers underneath.
Choosing between the quotes
Price alone is a poor guide. Weigh it against the clarity of the scope, how well the roofer explained the problem, how they treated your questions and whether the paperwork is in order.
Ask about deposits and payment stages before you sign. Our answer on roofer deposits sets out what a fair deposit covers and when stage payments make sense.
A large job justifies a second view. Send the quote and the photographs to another firm and ask whether the diagnosis is right. Most will give a straight answer, and the exchange may save you from paying for repairs the roof never needed.
Then decide, and tell the firms you did not pick. A short message is courteous and clears the matter up for everyone, and it leaves the door open should the chosen firm fall through.
Before you sign, remember that a contract made at your home can often be cancelled within a cooling-off period, so a slow decision costs you nothing, covered in our answer on cancelling a roofing contract. The homepage shows how we run a survey and give a price.
