Is a hipped roof more expensive than a gable roof?

1What the published ranges say

Two national cost guides draw the line clearly. MyBuilder's new roof cost guide, updated on 21 August 2026, lists the following typical UK ranges for a semi-detached house.

Checkatrade's roof replacement guide, last updated in October 2026, gives a wider spread across house sizes: £9,250 to £18,000 for a hip and £7,000 to £16,250 for a gable, both plus VAT. The guides measure different houses, so the figures do not line up exactly, but both put the hip higher. Treat every number as a typical range rather than a figure for your own house. Both guides assume a standard job. MyBuilder puts labour at £50 to £130 per m² and a day rate at £250 to £300, which shows how much of any re-roof is simply time spent on the roof.

2Why a hip costs more to build and cover

A gable roof has two main slopes that finish at flat gable walls. On a hipped roof every side slopes away, so the same footprint carries four planes. Where two planes meet on the outside, the hip descends diagonally to the eaves, and it needs its own hip tiles, fixings and bedding or dry-fix system.

Cutting is the second driver. Each tile that meets a hip is trimmed to the angle, and a hipped roof has far more of them than a gable, whose verge is a straight run. Cut tiles are slower to lay, create more waste and need their fixing checked one by one.

Timber adds more. Hip rafters and the short jack rafters either side make the frame busier, which matters if any of it needs repair. The covering costs the same per tile on either shape, but more planes mean more labour and more offcuts. For a look at the internal lines where planes meet, see dry valley troughs.

3Scaffold, access and the parts of a price that are not tiles

Scaffold is a large share of any re-roof, and a hipped roof needs it on all four sides. MyBuilder's guide gives scaffolding at approximately £1,125 for its reference job, and Checkatrade puts it at £700 to £1,300. Where a quote leaves scaffolding out, the real price is higher, so check that yours covers it, and look for VAT too.

The covering has its own say. Natural slate, clay and concrete sit at different price points, and the pitch limits which can be used; see changing the pitch of a roof. Underlay, a protective membrane laid below the tiles, and battens, the timber laths that carry them, are often renewed on a full re-roof and sit inside the same total. Access, the height of the eaves and the state of the chimney also move the figure.

4When a gable can cost more than you expect

The gable is not always the cheap shape. A tall gable end needs scaffold to its full height, and the verge, the finished edge where the slope stops at the gable wall, must be done properly. Mechanically fixed verges are the better detail on an exposed coast, because mortar alone no longer carries the load. If the gable wall is covered in hung tiles, the wall adds work of its own.

Many houses mix the two shapes. A half-hipped roof, a gable with a hipped return, or a bungalow with a hipped main roof and a gabled extension all sit between the typical figures. The ranges describe a standard semi, and a bungalow, a terrace or a detached house with a complex footprint will move off them in either direction. That is why a survey measures the roof before anyone names a number.

5Reading a quote for either shape

The survey records the size of the roof, the state of the frame and the faults, and our written quote then states one total for your house, with photographs of the roof attached. Two quotes for one hipped roof can still differ if one assumes new battens and the other keeps the old ones, so ask what each covers. When comparing two hipped-roof quotes, look first at the number of hips, the covering chosen and the scaffold allowance, since those are the usual reasons for a gap.

If the question is whether to change the shape altogether, converting a flat roof to pitched is a related decision. Our pitched roofing page lists the rest of the work.