Reroof quotes - almost £50k

spamlungs

Hi,


I have been getting quotes to replace the roof on our house in Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. I have been told it is 218m2 but not checked this manually. The house is 5 bed and has a somewhat odd layout (kind of double L shaped with 2 chimneys, 4 valleys, and roof needs extending at gable ends to give overhang) so I accept not a "simple" job. I am, however, unable to find any information online that provides quotes any where near that of those I've been getting. Are these quotes in any way reasonable / sensible? I'm really struggling to understand why they are so much higher than expected (not that i really have an idea what to expect)


Quote 1: £28,845 (now informed he has retired)
Quote 2: £37,900 (exludes rainwater goods and was for spanish slates ,exludes repair to wall plate - whcih are in quote 3)
Quote 3: £46,885 (comprising £25,500 labour and £21,385 materials of which £7960 is slates)


Quotes cover the following:

1. Scaffold
2. Strip all existing roof tiles (double roman clay) and felt and battens
3. Repair section of wall plate on front elevation (3' rotten section)
4. Extend gable end overhang (to relieve wind driven rain ingress)
5. Re-new all fascia boards, barge boards and soffits and cover with UPVC cappit boards
6. Re-new valley lay boards and lead as necessary
7. Re-flash chimneys as necessary
8. Trim roof timbers and supply and fix with the two agreed velux roof lights on rear elevation
9. Fix all new rigid insullation board to sloping sections of ceilings and lay rolls of fibre glass insullation to level ceilings
10. Lay all new CANADIAN slates on 50 x 25m treated battens on breathable roofing felt
11. Fix all new flanged crests to all ridges
12. Supply and fix all new rain water goods
13. Remove all waste

Many thanks,


SL

Furts

Your labour cost is absurd. FoD is not an expensive labour area, and £150 +VAT per day for a roofer (as a guide guess) gives 142 days work to re-roof - are you having a laugh here?

My concern is why are you replacing Double Roman with slate?

What is your objective with the new roof?

Why is there no membrane mentioned?

Why are you capping new timbers - never a good idea?

You have rigid board insulation, yet also fibreglass at floor level?

Add to this the new Velux - what size and do rafters have to be inserted to trim up here?

Then if you are looking at a new room in the roof concept can your existing ceiling timbers cope with the folks stomping around in this new room?

So design and Buildings Regulations rear their heads and no doubt numerous other matters do likewise. What have you got designed, if anything? If not I would be worried.

spamlungs

Thanks, your concerns seem to echo mine about the labour. Do you feel all the quotes £28k, £37k, £46k are all excessive?


Just to clarify a few questions you ask:


I am replacing Double Roman with slate purely for aesthetics because the house was originally slate (back in 1800s when it was a 2 bed stone cottage) - then extended in 1970s and again in 1980s. We are replacing for a number of reasons - lots of damaged tiles, non-breathable membrane, water ingress at gable ends, aesthetics - current roof just genrally very old/tired.


Membrane (breathable) is included - i mistakenly missed it when i typed the quote inclusion across.


The current upstairs rooms are partially in the eaves and so the roof space is about 50% sloped ceilings to be rigid insulation with fibre glass to the remining small horizontal ceiling areas where there is a roof space above.


I do have the velux sizes verbally agreed at thsi time something around 900x1200 - wil lneed to confirm via brochure.


We are not looking at putting any new rooms in the loft - *simply* remove existing tiles, felt, battens, extend at gable ends, redo lead, add 2 velux, re membrane, re batten, tile with slates, new fascia, new rainwater good.


SL

dktreesea

You need to check and recheck their references. Go and have a look at the jobs they have already done. High prices don't always mean good work. 218 sq m sounds really high to me. Are you able to do the measurements yourself or maybe get someone new in to give you a quote and see what their square metres are?


This might be worth a read, though it doesn't really cover slate roofs:
http://www.fixmyroof.co.uk/videos-and-guides/pitched-roof/roofing-prices/

Furts

I had quotes in your part of the UK, albeit 5 years ago, so add perhaps £1000 now on the labour and say £500 on materials and again on the scaffold

This was a house renovation, and refurbish an existing roof, add three extensions with new roofs on each, fit gutters and downpipes everywhere, install nine Velux with flashing kits.

I supplied the materials - tiles, batten and breathable membrane are cheap as chips. I paid for the Velux - say £2500, and a few hundreds for the gutters et al - it was Osma,which is good but you pay accordingly. (Note you only have two Velux.)

The labour rates for roofing was £1600, so the complete job came in at around £5000 +.(Accepted I supplied scaffolding but this was needed for all the other works. The total scaffold bill IIRR was about £1600.)

Anyway, all this makes your quote look a little pricey to state the obvious!

Doozergirl

Canadian slates are a lot more expensive, but better quality than Spanish. Canadian slate comes from the same seam as Welsh, but cheaper and easier to obtain. The differentiation in price between your two quotes isn't all that wide.

At that price though, I'd consider using a tiled roofing consultant for a proper spec.

I can recommend a brilliant roofing company in Worcs, but it's a drive for them - might be worth emailing them a spec.