There is no single answer, and any roofer who gives you one over the phone is guessing. What we can do is set out exactly which variables move the number, so that when quotations arrive you can see why they differ.
Homeowners in Altrincham ask this more than any other question about a new roof, and the honest answer is that the figure depends on the roof rather than the town. What the town does change is the mix of properties, and Altrincham's mix has a strong bearing on cost: a great deal of the housing here is Victorian and Edwardian, and much of it was originally slated. That affects the covering, the condition of what is underneath, and occasionally the planning position.
Rather than invent a number, this guide sets out the variables that actually move it. If you understand these, you can read three quotations and tell which one is priced properly and which one has left something out that will reappear as a variation halfway through the job.
Area is the starting point, but shape matters nearly as much. A simple gable roof over a semi is quick to strip and quick to cover. Add hips, valleys, dormers, a bay roof and two chimney stacks and the same measured area takes considerably longer, because every intersection needs cutting, and every abutment needs lead. Many of the older Altrincham properties fall firmly into the second category.
Stripping natural slate is slower and more careful work than stripping concrete tile, particularly where slates are to be sorted and the sound ones set aside for re-use. There is also more waste to remove from a slate roof by weight of handling, even though the covering itself is lighter.
This is the single largest source of variation between an estimate and a final account, and it is the one nobody can see until the covering comes off. Rafter ends softened by years of a leaking gutter, a sagging purlin, split battens: none of it shows from the ground. A good quotation says clearly what is included and what would be treated as additional, and gives you a rate for it in advance.
Natural slate, reclaimed slate, clay tile, concrete tile and fibre cement slate differ substantially in material cost and in the labour they take to lay. This is usually the largest single decision you make, and on a Victorian Altrincham house it is often not a free choice — see the section on heritage below.
A detached house with a driveway on both sides is straightforward. A terrace with no rear access, or a property where the scaffold has to stand on the pavement under a licence from Trafford Council, is not. Access also governs how waste leaves the site and where a skip can legally sit.
Very few roofs need only a covering. Ridge and hip bedding, verge treatment, new underlay, replacement battens, lead to chimneys and abutments, ventilation at eaves and ridge, and often fascias, soffits and guttering while the scaffold is standing. Doing the guttering later means paying for a second scaffold.
Altrincham has designated conservation areas, and Trafford operates Article 4 directions covering development that affects areas and buildings of historic interest. An Article 4 direction removes permitted development rights that would otherwise apply, which means work you could have carried out freely elsewhere may require an application here.
The cost implication is indirect but real. Where the covering has to be matched — natural slate rather than a modern substitute, for instance — the material specification is set for you, and it is usually not the cheapest option. It is worth establishing the position before you start comparing quotations, because a quotation for concrete tile on a property that requires slate is not a quotation you can use.
Trafford Council can confirm whether a specific address sits within a conservation area and whether an Article 4 direction applies to it. That is a free enquiry and it takes one call.
If the property is listed, listed building consent is a separate requirement from planning permission and applies to works affecting character, including roof coverings. It is dealt with by the local planning authority and should be resolved before work is priced, not after.
A complete re-roof renews a thermal element. Under regulation 23 of the Building Regulations 2010 that brings a duty to improve the thermal performance of the element where it is technically and economically feasible. For an existing dwelling, Approved Document L Volume 1 gives a roof U-value of 0.16 W/(m²K). The insulation work needed to reach that is part of the job and part of the price, and a quotation that ignores it is understating the work.
The widely repeated claim that building regulations are only triggered once you replace more than 25% of the roof is wrong, and it has been wrong since regulation 23 was substituted in January 2013. The current test is more than 50% of the individual thermal element, or a major renovation — defined in regulation 35(1) as work to more than 25% of the surface area of the whole building envelope. A complete re-roof clears the first of those comfortably.
Set the totals aside for a moment and compare the following. If a quotation does not tell you these things, ask, and get the answer in writing.
Broadly, a complete roof replacement divides between labour, materials, scaffolding and waste disposal, with the proportions shifting according to the covering. A natural slate roof is materials-heavy and labour-heavy. A concrete tile roof over a straightforward gable is comparatively less of both. Scaffolding and disposal are broadly fixed by the building rather than by what you put on it, which is why they weigh more heavily on a small roof than a large one.
This is also why doing the whole roof at once is usually better value than doing it in sections. The scaffold, the site set-up and the waste run are paid for once.
Apex Roofing quotes after looking at the roof. That means the loft as well as the outside, because the state of the timbers, the underlay and any daylight visible through the covering tell you more about the real scope than a view from the pavement does.
We will also tell you plainly if a roof does not need replacing yet. There is a point at which repeated repairs stop being economic, and there is a point before it where they are still the sensible answer.
Every quotation from Apex Roofing follows a proper look at the roof — not a postcode and a guess. Free, with no obligation.
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A rate per square metre is a useful way to compare two quotations for the same roof, but it is a poor way to price a roof you have not seen. Two houses of identical footprint can differ substantially once you account for the number of hips and valleys, the condition of the timbers underneath, and whether a scaffold can be erected on the property or has to be licensed over a footpath.
Usually because they are not for the same work. One may include replacing defective battens, new lead to the abutments and upgraded insulation to meet building regulations; another may assume the existing battens and lead are re-used. Compare the scope line by line before comparing totals.
It can, if the covering has to be matched to something specific rather than chosen freely. Reclaimed or natural slate costs more than concrete tile. It does not add cost automatically — a like-for-like renewal in a conservation area is still a like-for-like renewal.
It should be, and if it is not stated you should ask. Scaffolding is a real cost on every re-roof, and a quotation that quietly excludes it is not comparable with one that includes it.
Apex Roofing covers Cheshire and the surrounding area for complete roof replacement, new slate and tiled roofs and re-roofing.
Apex Roofing Cheshire · 105 Fence House, Fence Avenue, Macclesfield SK10 1LM
Tell us about the property and the roof in Altrincham, and we will come back to you — usually the same day.
Prefer to talk? Call 07377 461095 · WhatsApp +44 7465 861265 · Email apexroofing14@gmail.com
