The cost of replacing a conservatory roof, one line at a time

Read our price like an itemised quote

Most installers hand you one number and leave you to guess what sits behind it. We would rather show you. Every price on this page is built from five parts, and each part pays for real work on your roof.

Take an Edwardian roof of about 17 m², which is roughly what a 4 m square floor gives you once the pitch and overhang are added. It has a tired 16 mm polycarbonate top. Its guide price is £4,200 to £4,950. Here is what that money buys.

Line 1: taking the old roof away

Two fitters unclip the bar caps, lift out every polycarbonate sheet or glass unit and strip the old seals. The waste leaves on our van, not in a skip on your drive, and it is recycled. Plenty of quotes in the trade add £120 to £300 for a skip. In ours, clearing away is simply part of the job.

Line 2: the panels themselves

Each panel sandwiches a 75 mm solid foam core between two aluminium sheets. Its U-value is about 0.43 W/m²K. Panels are cut to your surveyor's figures, so nothing gets trimmed to fit on site. The outside can be any RAL shade, and the underside is always a clean white ceiling. Browse the colour choices before your survey if you want time to decide.

Line 3: fitting

This line pays for the panels going into your existing frame, the ridge and hip trims, every seal, and the flashing along the house wall. Expect 1 day on site for a small roof, 1 to 2 for a medium one and 2 to 3 for a large one. Scaffold is rarely needed on a single storey conservatory, which saves money in its own right: hiring it for a job like this commonly runs to £400 to £800.

Line 4: building control

The building regulations leave a conservatory alone only while three quarters or more of its roof lets light through. A solid panel roof takes it past that line, so the work normally needs approval. Before ordering, we settle the specification with your council's building control team. Then we submit the paperwork and cover the council's charge. Those charges usually land between £200 and £400, and they are already counted.

Line 5: the guarantee

Every roof is protected by a 10 year insurance backed guarantee that protects the panels as well as our work. Should we ever cease trading, an insurer picks up whatever is left of it. The guarantee page lists exactly what it protects.

Add the five lines together and that is your price. No survey fee, no separate charge for waste, no paperwork surcharge.

What the five lines do not buy

So there are no surprises, here is what sits outside a roof price:

• repairs to the frame, glazing bars or dwarf walls, which are priced as their own line only when the survey shows they are needed;
• new windows or doors in the conservatory walls;
• redecorating the walls inside, although a roof swap rarely marks them;
• blinds for the side windows, which many people find they want once the roof no longer needs them;
• moving radiators or sockets, which is a job for your own plumber or electrician.

If any of these matter to you, raise them at the survey. The surveyor will tell you what, if anything, the new roof changes for each one.

Starting prices by roof size

We charge by roof area rather than floor area, because roof is what we manufacture and install. A pitched roof with an overhang always measures a little more than the floor below it, so a 3 m by 3 m floor usually means about 10 m² of roof.

The total rises with size, but the cost per square metre falls. Every job carries the same fixed costs for the visit, the paperwork and the van, however big it is. On a 10 m² lean-to that works out at about £310 per m². On a 28 m² lean-to it drops to about £200 per m².

Not sure which band you fall in? Our guide on measuring a conservatory for a new roof takes about ten minutes with a tape and a notepad.

Starting prices by style

Shape changes the price because every hip, valley and extra facet adds cutting, trims and sealing time. The easiest way to picture it: for every £1,000 a lean-to costs, the same roof area costs about £1,060 as an Edwardian, £1,100 as a Victorian, £1,120 as a gable end and £1,160 as a P-shape.

Comparing with a full solid roof quote? Read why an insulated panel roof usually costs less than half before you decide.

Each row shows a typical size for that shape. Your own figure comes from your measurements, so expect it to land a little either side of the row. Every style has its own page, starting with the lean-to roof.

The three extras

Most roofs need nothing added. These three are the only extras we sell, and none of them changes price with the size of your roof.

A small lean-to rarely needs more than one roof light. Bigger multi-facet roofs often take two, so daylight reaches both ends of the room. The roof lights page shows where they can sit.

What moves your number

Two conservatories with identical floors can still end up with different prices. These are the reasons, biggest first.

1. Roof area: a deep overhang or a steep pitch adds square metres the floor plan does not show.
2. Shape: the style steps above. A P-shape with a valley takes longer to seal than a single slope.
3. Frame condition: our panels suit most sound uPVC and aluminium frames. A cracked glazing bar or a sagging ridge has to be fixed first, and any repair appears as its own line so you can see it.
4. Access: if the only way to the garden is a tight passage between houses, or the roof sits above a drop, stripping and fitting take longer. The surveyor notes it and it is priced before you agree.
5. Colour: white and anthracite grey are standard. A special RAL shade can alter the figure, and your quote says so if it does.
6. Your council: building control charges differ from council to council, so an identical roof can be priced a touch higher across a boundary.

Once in a while a frame is simply past saving. Then what you need is a full replacement roof with a new frame, which is not something we build, and our surveyor will tell you so on the day.

A worked quote from start to finish

Here is a realistic order: a Victorian conservatory on a 1990s detached house, about 17 m² of roof, grey outside, with two roof lights and spotlights.

After the survey that range becomes one fixed figure. If the surveyor spotted a frame repair, it would sit as a separate line under the roof, costed before you commit to anything.

How to get your fixed price

1. Use the roof builder to see a guide range for your shape, size and extras.
2. Send your details through the quote form. A photo showing the roof from outside, and another looking up at it from indoors, help a lot.
3. Pick a survey slot that fits your week. The surveyor measures each section, checks the frame and talks through colours and extras.
4. Receive one fixed price in writing, with every line shown. It only changes if you change the order.

The week by week timeline shows what happens after you say yes.

Checking a lower quote against ours

If another price comes in under ours, make sure it covers the same five lines. Ask:

• Is taking away and recycling the old roof included, or is a skip extra?
• How thick is the insulated core, and what U-value does the installer state for it?
• Who makes the building control application, and is the council's charge in the price?
• Is the guarantee insurance backed, and for how many years?
• Are trims, wall flashing and seals included, or added later?

If you are weighing panels against simply putting new sheets back on, our guide to the cheapest way to replace a conservatory roof compares the options honestly.