How Much Does a New Garage Roof Cost?

For a straightforward answer, the MyJobQuote guide to replacing a garage roof gives a typical UK range of £750 to £3,500, with an average of around £1,500 (MyJobQuote, Oct 2026). That is a wide span, and it needs reading carefully. The low end describes a small garage and a simple covering. The high end describes a larger garage or a more involved specification.

So what do people usually pay to replace a garage roof?

On those published figures, around £1,500 is the average, which the guide treats as the middle of the market. It is the mid-point of a published range, not a quote, and a particular garage can sit well on either side of it. A tidy single garage with a sound frame may land near the bottom of the range, while a double garage with new timber and a rubber membrane will climb towards the top. Read the average as a signpost and nothing more.

Compare like with like. A figure for felt is not a figure for rubber, and a roof that includes new timber is not the same as a re-cover. The same goes for sheet and flat: a quote to swap sheets for sheets is a smaller job than one that turns the roof into a boarded deck with a membrane, and the two should never be set side by side.

Many garages end up with a flat roof, and the published guides price flat roofs separately. Less gives a range of £1,200 to £2,500 for a 15 m² garage flat roof. MyJobQuote shows between £1,200 and £1,800 for a garage of the same area covered in SBS felt, a bitumen membrane modified with a rubbery polymer so it stays flexible, and gives around £1,500 as the typical felt roof overall (MyJobQuote, Oct 2026).

How does rubber compare with felt?

EPDM is a rubber membrane, normally rolled out as a single sheet. MyJobQuote lists it at around £60 per square metre, with £1,050 as the installed average for a rubber roof (MyJobQuote, Oct 2026). Rubber and felt are not interchangeable in price, nor in life. Less gives torch-on felt 10 to 20 years, and GreenSpec and Less disagree on EPDM, with 20 to 30 years from one and 30 to 50 from the other. Our page on how long a garage roof lasts sets out those lives in full.

Remember what a flat figure includes. A guide may price a re-cover over a sound deck, while your roof may need a new deck as well. Where the boards are rotten, they come up with the old covering, and the price changes with them. GRP, a fibreglass finish, is the third common choice, and Less puts its life at 25 to 40 years.

A corrugated or sheet roof is not priced like a flat roof, and the published figure that matters most here is the cost of dealing with asbestos. MyJobQuote gives an average near £2,750 to clear an asbestos roof, and £325 as a typical UK asbestos survey (MyJobQuote, Sep 2026). Those describe the removal and the testing, so check what a quote adds for the new covering.

Why does asbestos change the price?

Asbestos cement sheets are classed by HSE as non-licensed work when they are removed carefully, but the work still needs controls: the sheets come off whole, they are double-wrapped and labelled, and the waste moves under a consignment note to a site permitted to receive it. Breaking the sheets up substantially makes the job notifiable. Each step needs time, kit and a legal disposal route, and that is what the extra money buys.

HSE tells owners to expect asbestos in any garage that predates 2000, so an older garage often needs testing before a full price can be set, and the test result shapes the whole method. You can read more in our guide to asbestos garage roof removal.

Do not go up on the sheets to look, because HSE counts all asbestos cement roofing as a fall risk.

If the sheets are modern fibre cement or metal, the work is a conventional strip and replace. The cost then depends on size, the roof frame, and whether the new covering is a sheet or a boarded flat roof with built-in falls, which takes more timber and more labour.

Two garages of the same floor area can price very differently. The factors below explain most of the difference, and a survey should tell you where your roof falls on each, whether that is a plain re-cover or something closer to a rebuild.

Which factors matter most?

• Size and shape. The area of the roof, and whether it is a plain rectangle or has steps, upstands and an awkward corner.
• The covering. Sheet, felt, rubber, GRP or tile, each with its own price and life.
• The deck and frame. A sound structure keeps the job small. Rotten boards or purlins add timber and labour.
• Falls. A roof that needs new tapering or firrings to drain properly takes longer.
• Edges and details. Trims, drip edges, gutters, flashings against a house wall, and any rooflight.
• Access. A wide drive and clear sides are easy; a narrow alley or a steep plot is not. Scaffold may be needed.
• Waste. Old sheets, boards and felt must be taken away, and asbestos has its own route.

Scaffold deserves a note. MyJobQuote lists £550 to £750 for a week of front-elevation scaffold (MyJobQuote, Oct 2026). A small detached garage may manage without a full scaffold, while one against a house wall or a boundary might need it. Scaffolding set up on the highway is licensed by the highway authority (Highways Act 1980 s169), so ask whether your garage needs one. We arrange it alongside the scaffolder, which keeps you out of the paperwork.

If two quotes arrive, look for a statement in each on VAT, on scaffold, and on asbestos work, so you know exactly what the total covers.

Not every tired garage roof needs ripping off, and not every roofer will tell you so. The sensible option is the one that matches the condition of what you have. Replacing is usually the answer when the covering is cracked all over, the fixings have rusted through or the timbers have gone soft.

Can the roof be repaired instead?

A repair makes sense where the fault is confined and the rest is sound: a split in a felt roof, a failed seam, a cracked sheet. MyJobQuote puts a general roof repair at about £650 on average (MyJobQuote, Oct 2026), though that is for roofs in general rather than garages. If the same area keeps failing, the repair stops being the better buy. Our guide on replacing a corrugated garage roof with a flat roof shows what a full replacement involves.

On an asbestos cement roof the options differ, and the choice changes the final bill noticeably. Overcladding keeps the old sheets beneath a new covering, which avoids removal and its disposal costs, but it only suits a frame strong enough to carry the load, and the asbestos stays on site. Removal is the permanent answer. Which one suits you depends on the condition of the sheets and the frame, and a survey settles it.

It is wise to think about the long run. A cheaper covering that fails in ten years may cost more over thirty than a better one that lasts, and a repair that postpones replacement by a year or two is still money spent. Our job is to show you the condition of your own roof with photos and leave the decision with you once you can see the evidence.

The best protection is information. A written quote should say what is being replaced, what the new covering is, what is included and what is excluded. The price we give is a single total in writing, issued once the survey is done, and the photographs show the roof it relates to.

What should a good quote cover?

• The covering and the deck: what goes on, and what happens to the old boards.
• The falls and the drainage route to a gutter or outlet.
• Edges, trims and any junction with a house wall.
• Waste removal, and the route for any asbestos.
• Whether scaffold, access and VAT are included.

Ask the questions that tell good roofers from careless ones. How will the fall be formed? What happens if the boards underneath are rotten once the old roof is off? How is the join against the house wall protected? How will the site be left each day? Those questions, more than the headline figure, show how carefully a job has been thought through.

Your consumer rights apply as well. A contract signed at home following a survey comes with 14 days to cancel. If a dispute arises, call the Citizens Advice consumer helpline on 0808 223 1133.

The national figures above are a starting point. Your own garage, its frame and its sheets decide the real number. To get yours, arrange a survey of the roof itself; the photographs and a single written price follow from it.