A roof is hard to judge from the ground, which is why choosing who works on it feels like a gamble. You cannot see the battens, you cannot see the underlay, and the person on your doorstep knows more about both than you do. That imbalance is the reason a short checklist helps.
Nothing here needs technical knowledge. It is a sequence: decide what the job is, collect written quotes, insist on a survey with photographs of your own roof, ask about the practical items that get forgotten, and read the contract before paying anything. Each step gives you something you can compare, so the decision rests on paper rather than on charm.
It applies to any roofer, including us. Our own approach is on our Andover roofing page, and the companion guide on spotting a dodgy roofer covers the warning signs in more detail. The prices below are national averages from published guides, not prices from us.
Work out what the job actually is
Start before you phone anyone. Stand in the garden or on the pavement with your phone and take clear photos of each slope, the ridge, the chimney and the gutters. Note where any stain, drip or draught is, and the date you first saw it. A roofer who is shown a specific symptom can price a specific repair.
Repair, patch or replace
Roof work runs from re-bedding one ridge tile to stripping a whole house. A leak at a single valley, several slipped tiles or a cracked flaunching is repair work, and is priced as such. A roof whose battens, underlay and covering have all aged together is a different conversation. Be wary of anyone who answers a small symptom with a whole new roof before they have looked closely. A recommendation from a neighbour is useful, but it describes their roof and their problem, not yours, so use it to shortlist and then ask your own questions.
For scale, Which? (November 2025) gives £75 to £400 per job, excluding VAT, for swapping a handful of broken or missing standard tiles, from one up to six. MyJobQuote (October 2026) gives an average roof repair of around £650. These are typical UK ranges, and they show why the right size of job matters before any quote arrives.
Small repairs are real work
Some firms only want full re-roofs. Ask early whether the roofer takes small repairs too, because a good firm will, and will tell you plainly when a repair makes better sense than a new roof. If you want a routine look at your roof first, our roof maintenance checklist shows what you can check from the ground.
Collect at least three written quotes
Citizens Advice's advice is to collect at least 3 written quotes from different traders before choosing one. Three is a sensible floor: it shows you the spread, and it makes one outlier easy to spot. It does not mean you must take the lowest.
Ask every firm the same question
Give each roofer the same description of the job, ideally the same photos, so you are comparing like with like. A wrong assumption about size or access can move a price by a large margin, and it is much better to find that out at the quoting stage than on the day the scaffold goes up. If one firm is quoting for a full strip and another for a patch, the prices tell you nothing. Ask each to confirm in writing which parts of the roof are included.
One total, with the extras named
A good quote is a single written figure covering the entire job. You can fairly ask three things of it: does it include VAT, does it include the scaffolding, and does it include taking the old materials away. If a figure is missing any of those, the real price will arrive later. Compare the totals only once you know they cover the same scope.
When a price looks too good
A figure far below the others is a prompt to ask why, not a bargain to grab. Sometimes a roofer has spotted something simpler. Sometimes the scaffold, the underlay or the waste has been left out. Phone and ask what is and is not included, and keep the answer in writing.
Having a clear count of quotes matters less than having the same scope on each.
What a proper survey should involve
A price given over the phone is a guess. A price after a survey is a statement about your roof. Ask whether the roofer will climb up or use a ladder or tower, look at the roof from inside the loft, and photograph what they see. Photographs matter because they let you see the same damage, and let you show another roofer.
What should come back to you
After the survey you should receive photos of your own roof, a plain account of what is wrong and why, what repair is proposed, and one written price. If the explanation is only that the roof is old, ask for more. Age is a reason to look, not a diagnosis. A roofer who has found the cause should be able to show you the photograph that proves it and say what would happen if the repair were left another winter.
From the loft
Inside the loft a roofer can see daylight at the ridge, stained rafters, wet insulation and the underside of the underlay. Many problems that look like a covering fault outside turn out to be battens, underlay or ventilation. A survey that stays outdoors can miss them.
On older and protected homes
If the house is listed, in a conservation area or inside a National Landscape or National Park, tell the roofer at the start. The covering may be controlled, and the right consent route has to come before the first tile moves. Ask the council's planning team before work starts, so the consent route is settled first.
Scaffold, waste and building control: ask before you sign
Three practical items cause most of the arguments on a roofing job, and all three are easy to settle in advance.
Scaffold
Ask whether scaffolding is in the price and who arranges it. Scaffold on a public footway or road requires the highway authority's consent (Highways Act 1980, section 169). Hampshire County Council is that authority for Test Valley, and it states that scaffolders apply on a customer's behalf, as do Wiltshire Council and West Berkshire Council. Elsewhere, ask who applies and when. A drive or garden you own needs no such consent.
Waste
Ask where the old tiles, battens and felt go, and who pays for the skip. Anything that may contain asbestos, such as old sheeting or soffit boards, needs special handling and is never part of an ordinary skip. A roofer should be able to tell you that without prompting.
Building control
Some roof jobs are notifiable under the Building Regulations and some are not. A firm that knows the Planning Portal tests will say which side of them your job falls on, and will say who contacts the building control body. Our building regulations guide explains the tests.
Finally, ask for the start date, the likely length of the job, what happens if it rains, and who you should call each day. A roofer who answers all of these calmly has probably done it before. Write the answers on the quote or in an email, so that nobody has to remember a conversation held on a doorstep.
Trade bodies, licences and logos
Roofing is not a licensed trade in England. There is no single licence that every roofer must hold, so a claim to be "licensed" tells you nothing by itself. Be equally careful with logos on a van or website. A badge shows that a firm said something to somebody; it does not show the standard of the work on your roof.
Ask for evidence you can check
A better test is evidence about the work. Ask for photos of comparable jobs, a recent address you can look at from the road, and the name of the person who will actually be on your roof. Ask to see current public liability documents and check the dates yourself. These are ordinary requests, and a reputable roofer will not mind.
Be careful with online praise
Reviews help only when you can read what was actually done. A page of one-line comments says little. A review that describes the roof, the problem and the finish says more. Treat ratings as a starting point for questions, never as a verdict. Read the Google profile, if there is one, the way you would read a reference: look for detail, and ask the roofer about anything that puzzles you.
Asbestos and specialist work
If your roof, soffits or garage sheeting might contain asbestos, the firm should say how it will be handled. HSE advises treating a building from before 2000, built or refurbished, as one that may contain asbestos. Handled carefully and left unbroken, asbestos cement sheeting can be removed without a licence, but breaking it up makes the work notifiable. If a roofer waves the question away, move on.
Read the contract before you pay anything
Before the first payment, you should have a written agreement that names the work, the one total price, the start date and how you will pay. The details of deposits and stages are in our guide to roofing contract payment stages, so only the essentials are here.
Your cancellation rights
Sign a contract in your own home once a survey is done, and the law treats it as an off-premises contract. You can cancel it within 14 days of the day after it is made without giving a reason, and the roofer must tell you about that right in writing. If they do not, the period can run on, for up to a year. If you ask the roofer to start inside the 14 days, you must make that request on a durable medium, such as an email.
There is one exception that matters on a roof. Where you have specifically asked for an emergency visit to fix something urgent, that work falls outside the cancellation right. Citizens Advice gives the same rule for repairs you invite someone in for.
If something goes wrong
Work must be done with reasonable care and skill, and that duty cannot be written out of a contract. Keep every message, photograph and receipt, and put any complaint to the roofer in writing first, giving a reasonable time to put it right. If you need help, the Citizens Advice consumer helpline is 0808 223 1133.
