New Roof Cost
Needs stripping and starting again, which adds to the new roof cost!
New roof cost and how to keep the cost down.
This is one of those things where the more you know, the worse it gets as you start to understand the complexity of what you’re about to do and the new roof cost and what’s involved in doing it properly!
As a roofing surveyor, I’m constantly attending people’s houses after they have paid lots of money for new roofs, but I then have to tell them that everything is wrong and they need to completely replace the roof at some point, probably sooner rather than later.
It’s mainly new loft conversions and extensions, as the trend at the moment (2022) is to get the builder to do all the work, including the new roof work. Even if a roofer is brought in to do the roof and finish the project, they will be working with the mistakes that have probably already been made. These mistakes normally start way back in the project, even as far back as the drawing stage.
Generally speaking,
On small projects like extensions and loft conversions (small doesn’t mean low cost, I’m talking £50K, £100K even £200K projects), even if the people doing the drawings are architects, they are nearly always trying to maximise the headroom, and the first thing to give way is the construction of the roof. Time and again they go for a cold construction roof. Cold roofs are so hard to construct correctly, they are extremely time-consuming to do and are therefore expensive. In fact even after 15 years of doing 10 to 20 roof inspections a week, I have never seen a cold roof installed correctly. Now, I’m mainly talking about flat roofs, not tiled or slated roofs, but the more insulation we are installing into our roofs the more problems we are building in.
Training
Roofer being trained on installing artificial slates.
Builders have never been taught how to install most of these new materials, and the suppliers have no interest in teaching them. The government has no training courses for any of our working tradesmen (yes we do for apprentices, but even they are not trained to a good standard). You will find that most builders in the domestic market are self-taught and learn on the job, and you really don’t want that on your project!
So what douse a new roof cost?
- Probably a lot more than you think
- The cost of designing the roof
- The cost of calculating the thermal element
- The cost of building control to issue a certificate of completion for your EPC (Energy performance certificate)
- The cost of the insulation and ventilation, if required
- The cost of the roofer and all their materials
- The cost of having someone oversee the works and make sure its all installed to the correct British standards
New roof cost, a lot more than meets the eye.
Do it once and it’s expensive, do it twice because you didn’t do it right in the first place and it’s even more expensive.
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