Choosing a covering is a three-way trade between cost today, years of service and what the building can carry and permit. A cheap tile on a handsome stone cottage can cost more in the long run than good stone, while an expensive slate on a house with a light frame can bring structural bills of its own.
Every figure here is a typical range from a published source, named where it appears, and none of it is a promise about your roof. Lifespans depend on exposure, workmanship and upkeep, and cost per m² swings with access, scaffold and whatever the strip reveals under the covering. We cover pitched coverings first, then flat ones and metals, then put the numbers in a table. For a single answer on toughness alone, see the most durable roofing material. If you are working out the budget, our roofing costs guide covers the whole job, and our home page explains how we survey.
How to compare coverings fairly: five measures
A comparison is only useful if the measures are the same for every material. Five matter on a UK house.
- Life. A typical range in years, with the caveat that every source disagrees a little.
- Cost. Published national figures per m², which exclude your access and scaffold.
- Weight. The roof structure was built for one covering. Changing to a heavier one is a structural question.
- Pitch. Each covering has a minimum slope below which it leaks.
- Looks and consent. On listed houses and in conservation areas the right answer is often the same material as before.
The weight rule
The Planning Portal says approval is triggered when a replacement covering weighs 15 per cent or more than the one it replaces; Approved Document A calls a load rise above 15% a significant change. In practice, going from concrete to stone, or from a light sheet to slate, is a conversation with building control and a structural check before any quote. Our guide to Building Regulations for roof work covers the thresholds.
One more note on lifespans
Where sources disagree, the table shows the spread instead of a flattering middle. A maker's guarantee is a separate matter from lifespan: Marley states plainly that its own age figure for tiles is neither a guarantee nor a warranty.
Concrete and clay tiles: the workhorses of pitched roofs
Tiles cover a large part of Britain's twentieth-century housing, and they come in two families.
Concrete tile
Concrete interlocking tiles are the usual choice on estates and extensions. MyBuilder gives them a typical life of 30 to 50 years, Marley says around 60, and CORC says 50 or more. The spread is wide because exposure and upkeep matter so much. For repairs, Checkatrade's 2026 guide puts concrete tile work at £90 to £120 per m², excluding VAT and access. Minimum pitch depends on the profile: Marley lists a plain concrete tile at 35°, while its larger interlocking profiles run down towards 15° to 22.5°.
Clay tile
Clay comes as plain tiles, thin and small and laid in many overlapping courses, or as pantiles, which are curved and interlock. Clay is warmer in colour and tends to age more gracefully. MyBuilder suggests 40 to 60 years, Marley cites a BRE minimum expectation of 60, and CORC says 100 or more if well maintained. The often-repeated 60 years is a weak guide, the Building Conservation Directory argues, given how many clay roofs have outlived it by centuries. Checkatrade's repair figure for clay is £110 to £160 per m². Plain tile pitches are steeper: Marley lists clay plain tiles from 30° to 40° depending on the model, and a clay pantile such as Sandtoft's Old English at 30°.
Where tiles suit
Tiles suit most 20th-century houses and extensions where the existing roof is already tiled. On the older stone and slate houses of the valleys they look out of place, and where they are heavier they can bring approval into play. The ridge and hip are the usual weak points on either type: after BS 5534:2014 a bed of mortar no longer counts as enough on its own, so a sound job adds mechanical fixing or a dry-fix system tested to BS 8612.
Natural and fibre-cement slate
Slate is a metamorphic rock split into thin sheets. It is dense, almost non-absorbent and fine-grained, and it holds a crisp edge.
Natural slate
For Welsh slate MyBuilder reports lives beyond a hundred years; Spanish slate runs 75 to 100 years, and natural slate overall is 80 to 100 years or more. Its slate roof cost guide gives installed prices at £100 to £180 per m²: Welsh at £140 to £180 and Spanish at £100 to £130. Checkatrade's repair range is £150 to £220 per m², the highest of the common pitched coverings. A single slate replacement is £60 to £120 in MyBuilder's guide.
Slate is light for its strength, but not cheap to lay. The slates need correct headlap and fixing, and BS 5534 sets minimum pitches: Cupa Pizarras puts the minimum at 20° for a 500 mm slate in moderate exposure, and says hook fixings should not be used below 25°. The same source calls an area within 30 miles of a west-facing coastline one of severe exposure, which affects the lap you need.
Fibre-cement and synthetic slate
Fibre-cement slates look like slate at a lower price, with a typical life of 30 to 50 years according to MyBuilder. They are lighter and more uniform than natural slate, which suits new extensions and some post-war houses. On an older house with an original natural slate roof, a fibre-cement replacement is usually a visible downgrade, and in a conservation area or on a listed home it raises consent questions.
Where slate suits
Slate suits Victorian terraces and mill-town houses where it is already the covering, and it does well on a roof of 25° or more. It is the sensible like-for-like choice wherever slate was there to begin with. Our guide to Stroud's houses and their roofs shows which streets that tends to be.
Cotswold stone slate: heavy, local and long-lived
Stone is the oldest covering in the district and the most demanding. Cotswold District Council's technical guidance describes it as oolitic limestone, hand-split or frost-split, with long pieces low on the slope and short ones near the top.
Life and weight
With regular maintenance, according to that guidance, a Cotswold roof can easily last 100 years and could last as long as 200 or 300. Checkatrade agrees that a hundred years and more is realistic for stone slate that is looked after. It is also heavy, at about 1,000 kg per 10 m², which means roughly 100 kg per m². The timbers on a stone house were built for that, and a lighter replacement may seem tempting but can look wrong and cause consent problems.
Cost
Stone slate comes to about £160 to £210 per m² in Checkatrade's slate guide (last updated September 2026), with the spread driven by origin, new or reclaimed stone, and your location. It is a general national range rather than a Cotswold installed price, so we fix the price for a Cotswold stone roof only once the survey has shown the stone's origin and the access. Supply is a live issue too: Cotslay, a supplier, says it quarries in India and that new and reclaimed Cotswold stone has become scarce and expensive, which is a seller's claim and should be weighed as one.
Pitch and substitutes
Stone slates are traditionally laid at 47° to 55°. The council's guidance prints an English Heritage policy that calls artificial slates and reconstituted stone inappropriate for historic buildings, and says sandstone and limestone should never be swapped. Our Cotswold stone roofing service page covers repairs and full re-lays.
On a stone house, the best-value covering is rarely the one with the lowest price per m². Look at the life column first.
Flat roofs: EPDM, GRP, felt and single-ply
Flat and low-pitched roofs use membranes rather than overlapping units, so what matters is the sheet, the seams and the fall. BS 6229 recommends designing for a fall of 1:40 to achieve a finished 1:80, according to Rockwool and IKO.
EPDM
This is a synthetic rubber sheet. Lifespans range from 20 to 30 years (GreenSpec) to 30 to 50 (Less), and MyBuilder gives £90 to £130 per m². It is flexible and suits awkward shapes with few seams.
GRP
GRP is glass-reinforced polyester, laid wet over a deck. Less puts it at 25 to 40 years, and MyBuilder at £95 to £150 per m². It is hard-wearing and forms one joint-free skin, but it needs a stable, dry deck.
Felt and torch-on
Built-up felt is the lowest-priced membrane at £70 to £100 per m² in MyBuilder's guide, with 10 to 20 years typical according to Less: a good job can last 20 years, a poor one under 10. Single-ply PVC is £95 to £140 per m² and runs 20 to 30 years (GreenSpec).
Lead and zinc
Metals are for features, valleys, flashings and some whole roofs. Lead flat roofing costs £150 to £200 or more per m² (MyBuilder), and flashing can last over 80 years when correctly installed (MyJobQuote). Code 4 lead is 1.80 mm and about 20.41 kg per m², Code 5 is 2.24 mm and 25.40 kg per m² (Leadworx). Zinc is quoted by VMZINC, its manufacturer, as lasting over a century, while a contractor quoted by HomeBuilding gives 60 to 100 years. Zinc is priced on survey, since the profile, the seams and the access decide the cost.
Where flat suits
Flat membranes are right for extensions, dormer cheeks, porches and garages. Lead is the covering of choice around stone walls and chimneys, where a flashing has to follow irregular joints.
Side by side: life, cost and pitch in one table
All figures are typical ranges from the sources named above, shown to compare, not to price a roof. Costs exclude scaffold and access, and rely on 2026 guides.
| Covering | Typical life | Cost per m² | Pitch or fall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Concrete tile | 30 to 50 years (MyBuilder) | £90 to £120 repair (Checkatrade) | 15° to 35°, by profile |
| Clay tile | 40 to 60 years (MyBuilder) | £110 to £160 repair (Checkatrade) | 15° to 40°, by profile |
| Natural slate | 80 to 100 years or more (MyBuilder) | £100 to £180 installed (MyBuilder) | 20° minimum, moderate exposure |
| Cotswold stone | 100 years or more (Cotswold District Council) | £160 to £210 (Checkatrade) | Traditionally 47° to 55° |
| EPDM | 20 to 30 years (GreenSpec) | £90 to £130 (MyBuilder) | Fall of 1:80 finished |
| GRP | 25 to 40 years (Less) | £95 to £150 (MyBuilder) | Fall of 1:80 finished |
Reading the table
The lowest line to start is not always the lowest to own. Spread the cost per m² over the years in the next column and the long-lived coverings narrow the gap with tiles, which is why like-for-like is an economic point as well as a conservation one.
Which covering for which Stroud home
Use the table as a screen, then let the survey decide.
- Stone cottage or village house. Stone, laid in diminishing courses. Anything else is a conservation, weight and appearance conversation.
- Victorian terrace. Natural slate where slate is there now. Fibre-cement is a lower-cost route, but it looks different close up.
- Inter-war or post-war estate house. Clay or concrete tile to match, chosen by profile and pitch rather than price alone.
- Extension, dormer or garage. A flat membrane with lead at the walls, laid to a proper fall.
None of these is a rule. A single house can have three coverings, and a covering that suits the building is better than one that is better on paper. After the survey, the covering is named in the itemised quote and each stage of the work carries its own price. Our Building Regulations guide explains the approval route if you change material or weight, and the costs guide sets these per-m² figures in the context of a whole job.