How to Price Roofing Jobs

How to price roofing jobs comes down to five lines: measure the true roof area (plan area × pitch factor), cost the materials with wastage, price scaffolding and waste as separate lines, add labour at a day rate that covers your overheads, then add a weather allowance and your margin. Quote the result as a fixed price and check it against a price per m².

Per m², day rate or fixed price?

A price per m² is a sense check, not a way to build a quote. Two 70 m² roofs can have very different scaffold, valleys and tear-off.

A day rate suits work nobody can see until it’s opened up: chasing a leak, rotten timbers. Put “day rate plus materials” in writing before you start.

A fixed price is what most customers want for a re-roof. Build it from the lines below. If the per m² figure it gives looks wrong, one of your lines is wrong.

Step 1: Measure the real roof area

Measure the plan area: the footprint the roof covers, overhangs included. Then multiply by the pitch factor, which turns flat footprint into actual sloped surface.

22.5°: 1.08

30°: 1.15

35°: 1.22

40°: 1.31

45°: 1.41

The maths is 1 ÷ cos(pitch). What matters: a 35° roof is 22% bigger than its footprint, and every tile, batten and hour sits on the bigger number.

Step 2: Materials, with wastage

Tiles or slates: the manufacturer’s coverage per m² at your gauge, not a figure from memory.

Battens: metres per m² at that gauge.

Membrane: allow extra for laps.

Lead, ridge, verge, fixings: their own lines. Lead on a chimney adds up fast.

Wastage: 5 to 10% on tiles is common, more with lots of cuts, hips and valleys.

Then add your markup. The material markup and margin calculator shows what it actually does to your margin.

Step 3: Scaffold, access and waste as their own lines

Scaffold is the line that sinks roofing quotes. It’s usually subcontracted and priced on hire duration, so if your job overruns a fortnight, the scaffolder’s bill runs on with it. Get a written quote with the weekly extension rate and show it as its own line. Bury it in a per m² rate and the overrun comes out of your wage.

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 require work at height to be properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people. Price in the time that takes. A RAMS template and, where the site needs one, a permit to work cover the paperwork.

Skips: price by the load and count the tear-off. An old tiled roof comes off heavier than you’d think.

Step 4: Labour, weather and margin

Labour is person-days × your day rate. The tradesperson day rate calculator works that rate out from your real costs, the site labour uplift calculator covers awkward access, and the subcontractor charge-out calculator covers subbed labour.

Then a weather allowance. The day you can’t tile still costs you. Price it or pay for it.

Worked example

Illustrative figures only, not market rates. Use your own supplier prices and day rate.

A re-roof with interlocking concrete tiles. Plan area 60 m², pitch 35°, so 60 × 1.22 = 73 m² of roof.

Tiles: Working 730 + 10% waste = 803, call it 810 × £1.40, £ 1,134

Battens: Working 242 m × £0.80, £ 194

Membrane: Working 2 rolls × £95, £ 190

Ridge, verge, lead, fixings: Working allowance, £ 650

Materials markup: Working 15% on £2,168, £ 325

Labour: Working 4 days × (£280 + £180 labourer), £ 1,840

Scaffold: Working subcontract quote £1,300 + 15% handling, £ 1,495

Skips: Working 2 × £300, £ 600

Weather allowance: Working 1 day for two, £ 460

Total: 6,888

Sense check: £6,888 ÷ 73 m² is about £94 per m². If you’d quoted off the 60 m² footprint instead, you’d have left about £1,200 of materials and labour on the table. On one roof.

Repairs, flat roofs and guarantees

Repairs need a minimum charge. Travel and access cost you half a day whatever you find up there.

Flat roofs price the same way with a pitch factor of 1, but felt, EPDM and GRP each carry their own material and labour figures. On any roof, state your workmanship guarantee and its length, and that manufacturer warranties are separate. If VAT applies, show it as its own line at the end.

Common mistakes

Pricing off the footprint. Every pitched roof is bigger than its plan area. Multiply first, then price every material off the sloped area.

Estimating when you meant to quote. “About £6,500” isn’t a firm price. Our guide on whether a quote is legally binding covers why that matters.

Do this in FieldHive

Run the numbers through the trade job pricing calculator first, free. Then the quote and estimate builder turns it into a proper quote, scaffold and skips on their own lines. Want your price lines saved so the next roof isn’t built from scratch? That’s what the FieldHive app is for.

Aid, not advice

This guide explains a method for pricing roofing work. The worked example figures are illustrative, not market rates. It is not health and safety advice: for work at height, follow HSE guidance and your own risk assessment.

Regulation checked September 2026: Work at Height Regulations 2005 (HSE guidance, hse.gov.uk/work-at-height).