Anyone asking what a new slate roof costs soon finds that the answers do not agree. One guide gives a single average. Another gives a range whose top figure is three times its bottom one. A third prices the slate alone, per square metre, with no labour at all. None of them is wrong. They measure different things, for different houses, on different dates.
The way to use them is to treat each as a marker, not a quote. Name the source, note the date, and read what the figure includes. Everything on this page is a typical UK figure from a national guide. None of it is a price from us, and none of it can be turned into a total for your roof by simple multiplication.
Below you will find the published figures side by side, the reasons they spread so widely, the ratio between Welsh and Spanish slate, the factors that move a real quote, what to check about VAT and scaffold, and how to compare one quote with another. It also answers the cost question about slate: what re-slating a roof in Andover would cost.
The published figures, side by side
The table sets out the guide figures that apply to slate or to replacing a whole roof, each with its source and date. Read the notes before the numbers.
| Source and date | What it covers | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| MyJobQuote, Oct 2026 | Fitting a slate roof, average | Around £7,800 |
| Which?, Nov 2025 | Taking a typical three-bedroom house to a wholly new roof, any covering, ex VAT | £7,000 to £21,000 |
| MyJobQuote, Oct 2026 | A new roof, average, any covering | Around £5,250 |
| HomeBuilding, Sep 2025 | Three-bed semi of 65 m2 finished in plain concrete tiles, labour, scaffold and insulation counted in | £10,000 to £15,000 |
| HomeBuilding, Sep 2025 | The same house in Welsh slate | Might reach £18,000 |
Which? says its figures include labour and materials and leave VAT out. MyJobQuote does not state a VAT basis, so its figures are quoted as printed. Every row is a typical UK range, and not a promise about what any contractor will charge.
Reading the table
The first two rows are the only ones that speak directly to slate or to a whole roof. The HomeBuilding rows come from a worked example that names the tile, so they show how much a change of covering can move a total on one house, not what slate costs in general. If you hold a quote in your hand, find the row closest to your house and treat the rest as background. A quote far outside every row deserves a question about what it includes or leaves out.
The figures are also moving targets. Slate, timber and labour prices change, and a guide updated in October may already differ from one written the previous autumn, which is why each row carries its date.
Why the figures spread so widely
The gap between £5,250 and £21,000 looks absurd until you ask what each number describes.
Different jobs under one label
MyJobQuote's £7,800 is an average for slate. Its £5,250 is an average for new roofs of any covering, so it is not a slate figure. The Which? range is for an average three-bedroom house and names no covering, so it takes in roofs that differ in shape and condition. HomeBuilding's example fixes the house size at 65 square metres and names the tile.
Different houses
A bungalow with a plain hipped roof and a Victorian terrace with a bay, a dormer and a chimney stack at each end are both "three-bedroom houses". One has few joints to seal and one has dozens. The same slate costs very different amounts to lay on each.
Different dates and different sources
Guides are published at different times and gather their numbers differently. Which? surveys a panel of traders in a single month. MyJobQuote gives averages without describing the house. HomeBuilding works one named example, a 65 m2 semi.
What to take from it
A realistic way to read the table is that a slate roof on an ordinary house sits in the thousands to low tens of thousands of pounds, and that the exact place depends on factors only a survey can see. Your own figure belongs to your roof.
The slate roofing page explains how a slate roof is built, which helps in reading any quote.
Welsh against Spanish: the ratio, not a total
A large share of the spread in slate pricing comes from where the slate was quarried, and that is the first thing to pin down on any quote. Ask the supplier's name, the origin and the grade, since "natural slate" on a quote covers several very different products.
Supply-only prices
HomeBuilding's supply-only table gives per-square-metre prices for slate: Spanish natural slate at the lower figure, Welsh slate at the higher figure, and reclaimed Welsh slate in between. Welsh slate lands at roughly 2.5 times the supply price of Spanish. They are supply-only figures, so the ratio is the useful part, not a per-square-metre total.
Why we do not multiply
It is tempting to take a per-square-metre price, multiply by the roof area and call it a quote. That fails for three reasons. The roof area is not the floor area, since pitch and overhangs add to it. The price covers supply only, with no battens, underlay, nails, labour or scaffold. And waste and cutting run higher at hips, valleys and edges. So the multiplied figure is always wrong, and it can mislead in either direction.
What the ratio does tell you
It tells you that swapping Spanish slate for Welsh can move the cost of the slate itself by a large factor, while the labour, scaffold and underlay stay about the same. The effect on the total is therefore smaller than the effect on the slate. Our guide to Welsh or Spanish slate sets out the other differences, including look and life.
What moves the total on your roof
These are the things a surveyor looks at before a price is possible. None is a sales device: each changes the real work, and each can be pointed out on the photographs we take, so you can see why the figure is what it is.
Area, pitch and shape
More surface means more slate, more battens and more labour. A steep roof is slower and needs better access. Hips, valleys, dormers and chimneys add cutting, lead and time. A plain gable roof is the simplest shape to slate, and the quickest.
What lies under the old covering
If battens are rotten or rafters need repair, that work joins the job. We do not know until the roof is opened, though the loft inspection and the photographs usually give a good indication.
Whether the old slates can be reused
Sound slates from your own roof can go back, which reduces what is bought, though a new slate is added wherever an old one fails the test. The proportion depends on the roof and cannot be guessed from the ground. Our guide to re-slating a roof explains the sorting.
Access
Scaffold is part of the work on a slate roof and is included in the written quote. A tall or awkward house, a narrow plot or a pavement that must be licensed all change the cost of reaching the roof.
Flashings and roofline
Lead flashings at chimneys and walls, ridge fixings and any fascia or gutter work done while the scaffold is up all add to the total.
VAT, scaffold and what a quote should say
Two items catch homeowners out when quotes arrive: VAT and scaffold. A third, waste, sometimes follows them.
VAT
The standard rate of VAT is 20 per cent. A quote that excludes VAT looks lower than one that includes it, so ask which basis each figure uses. Which? states its figures ex VAT, and MyJobQuote does not say. Be wary of any explanation for why VAT does not appear on your bill, and ask the roofer to put the basis in writing.
Scaffold
Scaffold is a real cost on a slate roof, and its size depends on the house, the plot and the weeks it stands. Ask whether the quote includes it. Scaffold that would obstruct the road or pavement needs a highway licence, and for most Andover addresses Hampshire County Council issues it.
Waste and cleaning
Ask whether skip hire, waste carriage and clearing the garden are inside the price, and who is responsible if the skip stands on the road, as that needs its own permission. If the old slates are asbestos cement, the waste route changes entirely and the cost with it, as our guide to old fibre-cement slates and asbestos explains.
What the quote should state
The covering and its origin, the underlay, the battens, the ridge and flashings, what happens to old material, and the total. If the quote lists only a total, ask what it covers, and get that explanation in writing, so it can be checked against the finished work.
Comparing quotes and choosing a route
Citizens Advice advises collecting written quotes from 3 or more traders before deciding on building work. That is sound for a slate roof, with a few cautions.
Compare like with like
Two quotes are only comparable if they describe the same work, and that is harder than it sounds because trades describe work in different words: the same slate, the same underlay, the same battens, the same ridge and the same scaffold. A quote that is thousands lower often leaves something out, such as the underlay, the battens or the flashings.
Beware the low outlier
Should one quote sit well below the others, ask why. Cheaper slate, thinner battens or no underlay renewal all show up in the price and in the roof's life later.
Repair or re-slate?
Not every slate roof needs replacing. If the fault is a few slipped slates or one flashing, a repair costs far less. The survey sorts that out, and we say when a repair is the right buy. For repairs, MyJobQuote's average is around £650 (MyJobQuote, Oct 2026), a typical UK figure for general repairs.
What you receive from us
After the survey you receive a plain account, photographs of what we found and one written price for the route we recommend. Nothing about that figure is a guess. It follows from the inspection of your own roof.
If you have a question about a published figure, bring it to the survey and we will explain how it fits your roof.
