How Long Does a Roof Last? UK Lifespans by Material
Garage Roof Replacement Cost UK: 2026 Price Guide
A garage roof replacement typically costs £1,200 to £3,000. A single garage in felt sits near the bottom; a double garage in EPDM or with a rotten deck to replace sits near the top.
It is one of the most common jobs we do and one where quotes vary wildly, usually because some include the deck and some quietly do not.
01/Garage roof costs by type and size
| Garage | Covering | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Single (15–18 m²) | High performance felt | £1,200 – £1,900 |
| Single (15–18 m²) | EPDM rubber | £1,500 – £2,300 |
| Double (28–35 m²) | High performance felt | £1,900 – £2,900 |
| Double (28–35 m²) | EPDM rubber | £2,400 – £3,600 |
| Pitched garage roof | Concrete tiles | £2,200 – £4,000 |
| Asbestos cement sheet removal | Licensed disposal | £500 – £1,200 extra |
Includes strip, waste removal and the new covering. New timber decking adds roughly £25–£40 per m² where the existing boards have gone soft.
Asbestos: check before you start
Garages built before the mid-1980s often have corrugated cement sheet roofs containing asbestos. It is not dangerous while intact and undisturbed, but it must not be broken up, drilled or power-washed.
If your garage roof is corrugated grey sheet of that age, assume asbestos until proven otherwise and have it tested. Removal has to be done properly and disposed of at a licensed facility — that is the £500–£1,200 line in the table above, and no legitimate contractor will skip it.
Which covering for a garage?
High performance torch-on felt
20–25 yearsThe sensible default for most garages. Two or three layers bonded down, proper upstands at the abutments. Good value and long-lived when laid properly.
EPDM rubber
30–50 yearsOne sheet, no seams across the roof. Costs more up front but on a garage you are likely to keep, it is the last roof you will buy.
GRP fibreglass
25–30 yearsHard seamless finish, good if anything gets stored or walked on up there. Needs a dry spell to install and a solid, stable deck.
Concrete tiles
40–60 yearsOnly for pitched garage roofs. Matches the house, lasts the longest, but the structure has to be able to carry the weight.
What usually fails on a garage roof
The upstands
Where the roof meets the house wall or the garage's own kerb. Perished upstands are the most common single cause of a leaking garage — the field of the roof is often still sound.
Ponding water
Garage roofs settle and lose their fall. Standing water finds every weakness.
The deck
Chipboard or thin ply that has taken years of small leaks goes soft and has to come out.
Old pour-and-roll felt
Blisters, cracks and splits once it passes fifteen years or so.
Blocked outlets
Leaves in the outlet mean water sits rather than drains.
On most leaking garage roofs the covering is only half the problem. If the fall is wrong or the upstands have failed, re-covering without fixing those buys you a few years at best.
05/Repair or replace?
Repair a single split, a failed upstand or a blocked outlet if the rest of the covering is sound. Typically £200–£600, and worth doing on a roof under ten years old.
Replace when the felt is blistered or cracked across the whole area, the deck feels soft underfoot, water is ponding and not clearing, or you are on your third patch. At that point repairs are money spent on a roof that is going anyway.
06/A recent example
We did exactly this job on a garage at Readhouse Farm Estate in Fawdon — the owner had damp showing inside and the felt upstands had perished. Stripped off, primed the deck, re-felted with two layers of Icopal Tecnotorch and formed new upstands at every abutment. One day, start to finish. The full write-up is on our Fawdon garage re-felt page.
07/Do you need permission?
Replacing a garage roof like for like is maintenance — no planning permission needed. If you are changing the shape, raising the height, or converting the garage into a habitable room, both planning and Building Regulations come into play and you should check with the council first.
Getting a price
We survey garage roofs across Gosforth, Jesmond, Kenton, Heaton and the wider North East, tell you whether the deck is sound, and put a fixed price in writing. Our flat roofing and felting page covers what is involved, and our guide to flat roof replacement costs goes into the systems in more detail.
