Cheapest Roofing Material for a Roof Replacement

Cost guides quote a rate per square metre of roof surface, which is the area you would measure along the slope, not the footprint of the house. Checkatrade's roof installation guide, with its table dated October 2026, gives typical UK ranges for fitting a new pitched covering.

For flat roofs the same publisher's guides, dated September 2026, split the figure by membrane. Felt runs from £50 to £80 per m². EPDM, a synthetic rubber sheet, runs from £80 to £100 with an average of £90. GRP, glass-reinforced plastic, which is sold as fibreglass, starts at £36 per m² where the price buys the membrane alone, and climbs to around £210 per m² for a roof with full insulation built in.

So which covering is lowest on price?

On a flat roof it is felt, and on a pitched roof it is plain tiling at the bottom of its range. The ranges overlap, though, and that matters. The top of the plain tile range sits above the bottom of the clay range, so a sharply priced clay roof can land beneath a dear plain tile one. Rates also move with the size of the job, because a small roof carries the same fixed costs as a large one, and with how awkward the access is. A steep roof behind a terrace, with no room for a lorry and every pallet carried by hand, costs more per square metre to cover than an open bungalow roof in the same material. Ask what the rate assumes about access before you trust it.

A price per square metre tells you what you pay once. It says nothing about how often you pay. Lifespans are published as typical ranges, not promises, so treat the figures below as a way to compare coverings rather than a forecast for your own roof.

Is a long lifespan the same as a long warranty?

No. A warranty covers workmanship or product faults for a stated period. A lifespan is how long the material can last when it is laid well and looked after. Ask any roofer which of the two they are quoting you. The 60-year figure applies to clay tiles, and old hand-made peg tiles are described in conservation literature as a case where that number is not a reliable guide, so do not stretch it to every tile on every house. The same caution applies to the ranges for membranes: they describe a typical result, and a roof that ponds water or sits under a tree will not reach the top of its range.

Here is the correction in plain arithmetic. Divide the price per square metre by the years of life, and you get a yearly cost for each square metre of roof. The sums use only the ranges above. They leave out labour for stripping, the scaffold and the work needed to prepare whatever lies beneath.

• Felt: £50 to £80 over 10 to 20 years works out between about £2.50 and £8 per m² for each year.
• EPDM: the £90 average over 20 to 30 years gives £3 to £4.50 per m² each year.
• Plain tiling: £120 to £230 over 60 years gives about £2 to £3.85.
• Clay tiling: £160 to £275 over 60 years gives about £2.65 to £4.60.

Read the bands, not single numbers. The best case for felt matches tiles, but the worst case is the dearest on the list, and felt has the widest spread because its life is the least certain. Tiles have a narrower spread because their lives are longer and steadier. That is the reasoning behind the old advice that concrete tiles are good value over a lifetime: they are not the lowest at the till, but they are rarely the highest in the yearly sum.

One more point favours the longer-lived coverings. A roof that is stripped less often is disturbed less often, which means fewer chances for a batten to split or a ridge to loosen as the old tiles come off.

The spread between coverings is widest on flat roofs, which is why a garage, extension or porch roof deserves a comparison of its own. A felt roof is the quickest route to a watertight deck at the lowest rate. The trade is a shorter life, and a felt roof is the one most likely to need doing again within a couple of decades.

Is EPDM worth more than felt?

On the figures above, EPDM's £90 average sits about £25 per m² higher than the middle of the felt range, yet it is expected to last roughly twice as long. Ask the roofer how the sheet will be joined and where the laps fall, since the edges and upstands are where a flat roof is most exposed. For a small roof, a membrane cut to size in one piece leaves very little to go wrong.

Where does GRP fit?

GRP is laminated on site in layers, and the quoted life of 25 to 40 years is the longest of the three. The lower figure of £36 per m² buys the membrane alone, while the £210 figure includes full insulation, so ask which of the two a quote means before you compare it with an EPDM price.

What about the fall?

Whatever the membrane, water has to run off. BS 6229:2025 keeps a minimum finished fall of 1 in 80 for general roof areas, and manufacturers such as IKO advise designing for about 1 in 40 so that the built roof still meets the minimum. A budget membrane laid on a deck with no fall will not last as long as the table suggests, and no amount of careful laying fixes a roof that holds water in the middle.

Even a perfect per-year comparison covers one slice of a roof replacement. Several costs sit outside the rate for the covering, and they decide whether a low rate turns into a low total.

Which extra costs should you expect?

Scaffolding is the biggest. Checkatrade's October 2026 guide gives £700 to £1,300 for a new-roof scaffold, a figure that covers erection, the weekly hire and removal at the end. Poles and boards that obstruct a public footway or road need the highway authority's licence. In West Sussex and Surrey we arrange that alongside the scaffolder, and any roofer ought to be able to say who applies. A scaffold kept wholly on private land needs no licence. Then come battens and underlay, any rotten timber found once the old covering is off, fascias and soffits if they are failing, and VAT, which is 20% at the standard rate.

Does a heavier covering change the job?

It can, and the sums are worth doing before you fall for a sample. A new covering that is 15 per cent or more heavier than the old one brings the job into Building Regulations approval, says the Planning Portal, which also recommends a word with an engineer or surveyor beforehand. Swapping a light covering for natural slate or clay is therefore more than a price decision. Our post on replacing a slate roof with tiles covers the opposite swap.

For a wider view of what a whole job costs, see the clay tile roof cost page. Sheet coverings are weighed up the same way as the tiles above.

Start with how old your roof is and what covers it, since a roof that is failing early on a budget covering is a different problem from one that has simply reached the end of a long life. Then decide how long you plan to stay in the house, because that changes which end of the range makes sense for you. If you are selling within a few years, the yearly sum matters less than a sound, tidy roof that survives a buyer's survey. If it is your long-term home, the longer-lived coverings earn their extra outlay.

What should a quote name?

Ask each roofer to name the covering and its maker, the pitch it suits, the underlay and battens, and whether scaffolding, waste removal and VAT sit inside the total. Citizens Advice recommends collecting three or more written quotes from separate traders. At Crown you get a survey first, pictures of your own roof next and a single written total price after that. A fibre cement option is covered in our piece on fibre cement slate lifespan.

Where do you go from here?

This post belongs to our roof replacement service, which walks through a re-roof from first look to final tidy. For a price on your own house, send us the roof's age, what it is covered with now and a few pictures taken from the garden, and the survey will start with the parts that decide the cost on that kind of roof.