A garage roof is one of the smaller jobs in roofing, so people expect a simple price. The spread is wider than they expect. A flat roof on a single garage, a pitched roof on a double, and a corrugated cement roof that may contain asbestos are three different jobs, and the national price guides treat them separately for good reason.
Below you will find the typical UK ranges for each, with the guide and its date beside every figure. Then we look at what sits behind the spread: the size of the roof, the covering, the state of the deck or timbers underneath, how the crew reaches the roof, and the waste that has to leave the site. We also cover the one case where the cost jumps for reasons that have little to do with roofing skill, which is an asbestos cement roof.
Treat every number here as a national guide and never as our price. Our own written quote comes after a survey of your garage, with photographs of the roof, and states a single total.
Typical UK ranges for single, double and pitched garages
The best starting point is a published guide that splits garage roofs by shape. MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) gives these typical UK ranges for replacing a garage roof. They are national figures, they are not Watertight prices, and your own written quote follows the survey.
| Garage roof | Typical UK range |
|---|---|
| Flat roof, single garage | £700 to £1,000 |
| Flat roof, double garage | £900 to £1,400 |
| Pitched roof | £2,500 to £4,500 |
The jump from flat to pitched has little to do with the garage being bigger. A flat roof is a deck with one waterproof layer on top, so the work is mostly preparing the surface and laying the membrane. A pitched roof has rafters or trusses, battens, underlay, tiles or sheets, a ridge, edges at each end and usually guttering to match. Each of those parts has to be bought, carried up and fitted, and the labour rises with them.
A second guide uses a different basis. Checkatrade gives re-felting a garage roof as around £1,000 to £2,000, with an average of £1,500, and the guide is silent on whether VAT is in the figure. The two guides overlap more than they agree, which is normal, because they describe different mixes of jobs. When you read any range, ask what job sits behind it, and whether VAT, the old covering's removal and the clearing of waste are inside the figure.
Condition matters as much as size. A flat garage roof with a dry, sound deck and a clear run for materials sits at the lower end of its band, and the same roof with soft boards, a leaking junction at the house wall or a long carry from the road sits higher. Neither a guide nor a phone photograph can show that, which is why the survey comes first.
Price per square metre by covering
Per-square-metre figures help when a garage is an awkward size, or when you are weighing one covering against another. MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) gives felt at about £75 per m², GRP at about £125 per m² and EPDM at £70 to £100 per m², all as typical UK figures for a garage roof.
Felt is bitumen roofing felt, the traditional covering on a flat garage, laid in layers and sealed at the laps and edges. EPDM comes as a rubber sheet that can be cut to cover a small roof in one piece, which leaves no seams across the main area. GRP is glass-reinforced plastic, a resin and fibreglass skin that sets hard and is finished with trims at the edges. Our guide to the best materials for a garage roof goes through how each one behaves and which suits an exposed coastal garage.
Lower cost to fit is not always lower cost to own
Published lifespans differ by more than the prices do. Less (updated March 2026) puts torch-on felt at 10 to 20 years, noting that careful laying can reach the upper end where a poor job may fail inside 10. GreenSpec expects 20 to 30 years from EPDM, and Less gives GRP 25 to 40 years. These are ranges from the guides and never promises, because exposure, workmanship and upkeep decide what a roof actually does.
Even so, a covering that costs somewhat more per m² and lasts noticeably longer can work out cheaper across the years you own the garage. That is worth weighing before you settle on the lowest figure.
Why a pitched garage roof sits in a higher band
A pitched garage roof is built like a small house roof and priced like one. Behind the MyBuilder range of £2,500 to £4,500 sits the usual work: stripping the old covering, checking the timbers, fitting underlay and battens, laying new tiles or sheets, then finishing the ridge and the edges.
The timbers decide more of the final figure than the covering does. If the rafters are sound and straight, the job is a re-cover. If a slow leak has softened the wall plate, the length of timber laid along the wall head that supports the rafters, or the feet of the rafters themselves, the repair starts before any covering goes on. We look for that from inside the garage as well as from above, because a dark, damp patch on a rafter shows on the underside first.
The edges matter on garages, which are often exposed. A detached garage at the bottom of a Worthing back garden, or on an open estate, takes the weather off the Channel with little shelter. The verges, which are the roof edges over each gable wall, and the ridge need proper fixing. BS 5534, as revised in 2014, no longer leaves ridge and hip tiles to mortar alone, so they carry mechanical fixings too. That is part of what pays for a roof that stays put in a gale.
Repair or replace a pitched garage roof?
A few slipped tiles are a repair. Checkatrade (table updated June 2026) gives repair prices per m², excluding VAT, of £90 to £120 for concrete tiles and £110 to £160 for clay. A roof with sagging battens, perished underlay or covering failing across the whole slope is where re-covering becomes the better spend, and we show you which case you have in the survey photographs.
Factors that shift the price of your garage roof
Once the type of roof is settled, a handful of things push the figure up or down. Knowing them lets you read any quote, ours included, for what it is covering.
- Size. More area means more material and more hours. A double garage is a bigger roof, and the guides above reflect that.
- The deck beneath. On a flat roof the boards under the membrane must be dry, flat and fixed. Sound boards can stay. Rotted or sagging ones are replaced first, and that is often the largest surprise on an older garage.
- Access. A garage reached by a narrow side passage, or one that sits behind the house, takes longer to load and clear. Ask whether a quote includes any scaffold or tower the crew needs.
- Edges and junctions. Drip edges, trims, fascia boards and gutters add to the job. So does a garage joined to the house, where the roof meets a wall and needs a proper flashing, the strip that seals that joint.
- Waste. Old felt and boards are heavy, and taking them away is part of the work. Our crew carries the waste off site at the end.
- VAT. GOV.UK gives the standard rate as 20%. Ask whether the figure in front of you includes it.
None of these can be judged properly from a photograph on a phone alone. They are what we check when we survey the garage, and they are why our quote follows the survey and never a phone photograph, and it gives one figure for everything. The single total then reflects the access, the deck condition and the covering you choose, rather than an average.
How an asbestos cement roof changes the sum
Many older garages, particularly sectional concrete ones, have corrugated roof sheets that may be asbestos cement. For any building dating from before 2000, HSE says to assume it is there, and the same applies for one refurbished earlier than that. Sheets of that age change the budget, because the material has to come off carefully and leave the site as hazardous waste before any new roof goes on. Having the sheets identified before anyone prices the job keeps the figure realistic, since a quote written for an ordinary roof can change once asbestos is found.
MyBuilder (updated 21/08/2026) puts the average removal at around £2,000, with the low end of the rate at about £50 per m². Its range for a single garage roof is £350 to £1,295, and for a double garage £650 to £1,800. Checkatrade gives £950 to £3,750 for removal and disposal. That money pays for stripping the old roof and disposing of it. The new covering, and any timber repairs found underneath, come on top.
Part of that money buys method. HSE guidance asks for sheets to be lowered whole, with no dropping and no rubble chute, and for the waste to be wrapped twice, labelled and kept in a lockable skip. Roofs of this material are always fragile, which shapes how the crew works. On a home, the contractor also completes the consignment note as the waste producer. Removing an asbestos cement garage roof sets out how that work runs, from the first look at the sheets to the waste leaving the site.
If the sheets break up while they come off, the work becomes notifiable and the cost rises. Tell any roofer if the roof looks cracked.
Reading a garage roof quote
A sound garage roof quote is short. It names the covering, states the area it applies to, says what is happening to the old roof, and gives one total price. If any of those is missing, ask.
Four questions are worth putting to every quote you receive, ours included. Does the price include VAT? Does it include any scaffold or access tower? Does it include taking away the old covering and clearing the site? Is a written guarantee on the workmanship included, and for how long? The answers matter more than the headline number, because a low total that leaves out waste removal or the deck repair often grows once the work starts.
Our guide to what a low garage roof price leaves out looks at this in more detail. The point is the same each time: a number only means something when you know the job behind it.
What helps us price your garage
You can speed things up by sending a few photographs taken at ground level and inside the garage, a rough size, and whether the surface is flat, pitched or corrugated sheeting. Tell us if the garage is attached to the house and whether the roof has leaked. We then survey it, trace the source of any leak before pricing, suggest the least work that cures it, and write the quote with pictures of the roof attached.
Where the garage is one of several on a block, mention that too. Our garage roof replacement page covers the whole job, from survey to clearance. Shared structures can affect how the work is done and who needs to be told.
