New roof Quote and more Value for money ? and ethics ?

Joined
5 Apr 2004
Messages
121
Reaction score
6
Country
United Kingdom
Hi ,
Will try and keep this as simple as possible but its difficult alot to explain .

Gone for a quote of a builder who is local. I asked for a quote how do people quote these days what he brought me was 3 different prices scribbled down on a piece of paper for possibly 3 different ways of going around doing what we want .

Our house is just a normal sized semi detached 3 bedroom house no extensions .The list of what we wanted doing below .

1. New roof ( it is 3 sided )
2. New soffit & facia & guttering
3.Chimney badly needs repointing
4. A metal heavy postbox embedding in our porch that goes thru the wall so its a basic job of knocking a few bricks out reusing and repointing thats it . Had a quote before of 2 blokes for £200 which i thought was bit ott didnt need 2 people for £100 each beer money . To me its a £150 tops job .

5. We have a small conservatory prob 10 foot by 8 foot that has one of those horrible polyuthrene ( plastic ) roofs that the big metal bars go through . We want this taking off and maybe a flat roof and as large a window as possible putting in . Our house is quite dark position wise to sun .

The materials .

For the roof we ideally wanted rosemary roof tiles ( i know alot more expensive more battens and smaller tile ) but would settle for 20/20 tiles clay flanders style tiles .

Soffit & facia and guttering we 100% want black all the way . Im a window cleaner and ive seen to many awfull looking new white gutterings within 2 years for a lifetime . Also we want deep guttering , so more expensive i know .

The conservatory we are open to ideas but he settled on a flat glass fibre build and a hinged window large ( extra cost ) , but he did give us a good idea in coming up with no hinged window just a double glazed pane would let in tons of light and cut down on cost .We do have side windows and a door to let heat out should we need to .

We got quoted a top price of for all the best stuff £14700 all in everything .

£11700 for everything but having instead of the rosemary tiles the 20/20 tiles .

£11200 for the cheaper option of concrete tiles on roof but everything else the same .



We talked about it and went for the middle one the 20/20 tiles its not 100% what we wanted but thats what we went for . We knock on his door and accept this is where it starts to get iffy . He says " that is a vat free quote if you want a receipt i would have to charge vat so 20% more on those prices :O !! . I was a bit miffed about this as i think his quote originally is slighty expensive and thought this included vat . But still we thought about it and was going to accept as ive seen his work and its good .

Anyway it went a day as he was going to get some tiles to show us , when he returned with the tiles he knocked on our door gave us the tiles and said .Im really embaressed i dont want to do you job now as ive left off £1500 pounds of the bill ive not charged for the extra scaffolding for the conservatory roof and the skip .Going to admit i just let him walk away as i find all this pretty iffy as i think his original price is quite pricey .What do other people think ?? .

Other info he did say was if we didnt want the conservatory roof doing to knock off either £4000 or £5000 .

If you do reply to this and thankyou please remember we are in the midlands not up scotland or in london where prices prob differ alot , please bare that in mind .

Im basically asking were we getting ripped off at £11700 ??? esp as he wanted to then add another £1500 and if you also think about it if we wanted a receipt it was then an extra 20% on top off £11700 plus £1500 , surely this was taking the pee .

Thanks

P.s 2 more builders coming next week , always pays to get more than one quote ( case in point ) .
 
Sponsored Links
A little more info is down our street he has done work and a 2 sided roof cost them £3000 , and also someone else who has had 20/20 tiles and a 3 sided roof he said he did that for £4500 .

How i see it is .

Chimney £500 for repointing
Postbox £150
conv £4000
roof £4500

rosemary tiles and extra £1000
guttering £1000

So thats £11150 and thats incuding vat !!


Before all you builders start shouting about the best black soffit and facia is more than £1000 to have done please remember that half of the price in putting up soffit and facia is the scaffolding which is already priced in to the roofing work quote isnt it ?? . So at a £1000 that should cover the extra cost of black and labour . Soffit and facia is cheap as chips but yes i know the black stuff is quite alot more .
 
Unfortunately it's a bit hard for anybody on here to give any indication on cost, your only option is to get quotes for the work locally and compare.

It sounds like the builder you chose was either a good tradesmen but a bad businessman, or a tradesmen that throws out a cheap price on a fag packet quote to draw you in, then when the job begins the goalposts start moving......although to be fair to him, he pulled out and said he couldn't do it, rather than take your roof tiles off and then start blackmailing you for more money.
 
As a basic idea I'd expect a fairly detailed quote to include :-
Waste disposal (skip or sell existing tiles)
Scaffolding
Timber materials - quantities
Sarking

Facia, Soffit, Guttering and Fixings

Did he inspect the inside of the roof? The heavy timbers / truss's may need addition repairs once the existing is off.
Detail on what work his men expect to do (strip back and replace. Counter-battens? Vent tiles?)

The chimney repoint I'd expect a days work.

Conservatory roof - I don't understand from your description what exists and what you want to replace it.

Letter box - Think your cost idea doesn't seem that far away from reality. You might be better getting a one-man-band in to do that.

You want a fixed price on the labour; for materials costs you want a guide price for with an accurate price on Job start - material prices are, shall we say 'flexible' at present.

Obviously all +VAT.
 
Sponsored Links
An update on this thread had another quote from what seems at the moment an altogether more professional outfit and guess what ( remember what i thought it should cost ) it comes out at £11'060 for all the lot .That includes a hinged widow in the conv roof and 20/20 flanders tiles on the main roof . He has provided a written quote sent by email no extra costs involved even if end timbers need replacing in roof . This is for a rubber bonded roof supported by 6x2 timber to replace the poly roof on conservatory etc etc , electrics and a large window and the better guttering and all black soffit and facia in black ash on the main roof .

Im really rather pleased with the whole outlook of the guy and the way he has gone about it .The bloke across the road from us was wanting £4 to £5k more and ripping us off .............what a neighbour !! .

This is a good pointer to get more than one quote !! .

The whole quote is written out so professionally and details down to taking the last brick away lol .

I could bloody kiss him lol

I will attach his quote later but obviously take out the names .
 
Last edited:
Just a quick question im ummmmmm and arrrrring over all black soffit and facia with 20/20 flanders tiles . I originally wanted this so it doesnt show the muck after 6 months off the roof . But 2 roofers have advised because of white windows that they would go all black but have the soffit in white as all black might be a bit to much . Anyone got opinions on this , i know its personal choice but anyone got any input at all ? .
 
Hi This is the quote i love how its all totally explained .

Fascia and Soffits

  • Removal of existing rainwater goods and timber
  • Sprocket rafters ends
  • Install new fascias & Soffits in Black Ash
  • Install rigid eaves guard
  • Install over fascia ventilation
  • Install new gutters and downpipes
  • To remove all debris from site after installation
  • Register guarantee with materials manufacturer Freeform


Total Cost of works: £1575.00



The way we install fascias can be seen on our website


Other worthy points are:

  • We remove and replace all rotten rafter ends at no extra expense to you.
  • We are registered approved installers of FreeFoam roofline building products
  • Our fascia boards are high density and load bearing
  • Our soffit boards are also high density rather than hollow clad which tend to sag between fixings over time.
  • We use square sprockets attached to the side of rafter ends to achieve a more stable fixing and a straighter and truer installation
  • Fixings are made using 65mm stainless steel, ring shank polytop pins at 600mm centres.
  • All work is taken with full public liability cover on place. MTF gives a full 10 year guarantee on all of its fascia and soffit products, a 50 year extended guarantee is also provided by the material supplier.

If you have any further questions please contact me on


New Roof


Brief description of work to be carried out:

Ÿ Arrange / erect scaffolding

  • Ÿ To provide a skip to take away all rubbish
  • Ÿ To strip existing roof
  • Ÿ To install new breathable membrane (Cromer Vent 3)
  • Ÿ To Install treated 25x50mm tile battens
  • Ÿ To Install new Santoft 20/20 Flanders tiles
  • Ÿ To install dry ridge system to ridge tiles and hip tiles
  • Ÿ To install dry bonding gutter to neighbouring property
  • Ÿ To install lead flashing to chimney breast
  • To install repoint chimney breast
  • Ÿ To clean and tidy site down after work is completed
Total Cost of roof £6850.00

cost in smaller clay tiles £8550.00



Flat Roof

  • To strip existing roof
  • To install new joist 6'’x2’’ frame
  • To install new firing
  • To install new 18mm osb boards
  • To install Firestone rubber cover
  • To install new fascias and soffits guttering
  • To install all roof flashing and gutter trims
  • To install new plasterboard plastered finished celling
  • To Install new downlight to celling

Total cost of work £1800


an opening window can be added to the roof at an additional cost of £800

or a fixed glazed unit at around £400
 
Back
Top