What should a roofing quote include?

Guide · Updated 20 September 2026

Price the access as its own line

Scaffold hire is the single biggest reason two roofing quotes for the same job are hundreds of pounds apart, and the customer cannot see why from two bare totals. Put it on its own line — supply, erect, which elevations, how long — and your figure explains itself. A quote that assumes ladder-and-board access should say that too, because the difference is not detail, it is the price.

It also protects you. Access priced openly can be extended openly if the job runs on; access buried in a lump sum comes out of your margin when it does.

Name the materials

“Strip and re-cover like for like” is not a specification. Name the covering — concrete interlocking, plain clay, natural slate, fibre-cement — the underlay, and the battens. Two quotes for “a new roof” can honestly be a thousand pounds apart on the covering alone, and the customer comparing your named materials against someone else’s one-line figure can finally see why.

Where there is more than one of something, put the location on the line: “lead flashing, chimney” and “lead flashing, dormer” read as two jobs; two identical flashing lines at one price read as a mistake.

Say how building regulations are being handled

A repair is just a repair, but stripping and re-covering a roof normally brings the Building Regulations into play in England and Wales — including the requirement to look at upgrading the insulation when a large share of the covering is replaced, since the roof then counts as a renovated thermal element. The Planning Portal has the current position.

The quote should say, in one line, how that is being dealt with: through a competent person scheme such as CompetentRoofer, which lets you self-certify and have the work notified for the customer, or through building control directly. It matters to the customer for a reason they may not know yet — the compliance paperwork is what a buyer’s solicitor asks for when the house is sold — and it is the line that separates a re-roof from a patch-up on paper.

State a plan for what you cannot see

You cannot price the battens, sarking or rafter ends you have not seen, and some of what comes to light when the covering is off will change the job. The wrong answers are the usual pair: absorbing it means paying for someone else’s rot out of your own pocket, and adding it silently to the final bill means asking the customer to pay for work they never agreed to — which, as the guide on whether a quote is legally binding explains, they are entitled to refuse.

The answer is a provisional line, written on the quote: timber replacement beyond what is described, at a stated rate, agreed before the work carries on. Put like that in advance it reads as honesty; said for the first time from the scaffold it reads as a surprise bill. If the whole roof is an unknown — you have not been up yet, or the covering hides everything — quote what you can see and issue the rest as an estimate until you can.

Show VAT, or say there is none

If you are VAT-registered, show the subtotal, the VAT as its own line, and the total the customer actually pays — on a five-figure re-roof the VAT is real money, and silence about it is what starts the dispute. If you are not registered, one line saying so stops the customer holding 20% back “in case”. The guide on showing VAT on a quote covers the cases in between.

Date it, and say whose skip the old roof goes in

Roofing materials follow prices that move — lead especially — so date the offer. Thirty days is the usual validity; print whichever figure you choose and re-quote rather than honouring a lapsed one, as how long a quote should be valid for explains. Then the exclusions, which on roofing work usually come down to:

• Waste — a stripped roof is a skip or two of tile and timber; say whether removal is in the price or the customer’s own skip is assumed.
• Weather — a start date and programme offered in good faith, with the roof left watertight at the end of each day, but not a promise about the sky.
• Internal making good — ceilings and decoration below a roof that has been leaking are usually someone else’s trade; say so.
• Structural work — if a heavier covering than the original needs the structure checked or strengthened, that is its own conversation and its own price.
• Asbestos found in situ, which stops the job regardless of what the quote says.

Payment terms, in one line each

A deposit if you take one and what it covers — on roofing work, usually the materials and the scaffold, the two costs you carry before a tile moves — when the balance is due, and how to pay. How much deposit should you ask for makes the case for the defensible figure: what you have to buy before you start, not a slice of the profit.

A structure to copy

Top to bottom, a roofing quote carrying all of the above reads like this:

• Your business name, address, phone, email, and the scheme you are registered with — TrustMark, CompetentRoofer, NFRC membership — with its number.
• The word Quote, a quote number, the date, and the valid-until date.
• The customer’s name and the address of the work.
• A one-line description of the job.
• The line items: work, location, quantity, unit price, line total — the access and the waste as lines of their own.
• Subtotal, VAT (or “not subject to VAT”), total.
• How building regulations are being handled and what paperwork the customer receives.
• The provisional line: what happens if the timbers turn out to need more than the quote covers.
• Exclusions.
• Payment terms.

Speak to Quote builds that document from a dictated description: say the job before you are off the ladder and the line items come back with quantities and locations, your registrations and terms already in place, and the VAT right because you set it once. The roofing page shows a worked example — a rear-extension strip and re-tile with the scaffold, the flashing and the waste each on their own line.