Garage Roof Replacements London

My name's John Quilligan, owner of First Rate Roofing LTD and a garage roof needs to get treated differently to a house roof for a genuine reason.

It's often flat rather than pitched, it's frequently older and more neglected than the roof over the main house, and depending on its age, it may be built from materials that need specific care to deal with safely, not just replace.

We inspect properly before recommending anything. If a repair genuinely solves the problem, that's what we'll suggest.

If it's time for a full replacement, we'll tell you why and what it actually involves, not just quote the bigger job because it's more profitable.

Felt — the most common covering on older garage roofs, and often the one closest to needing replacement if it's original. Felt has a working life of roughly 10-15 years, and a garage roof felted decades ago is usually well past that.

EPDM rubber — a single-sheet membrane with no seams, genuinely long-lasting when properly installed, and a common upgrade choice when an old felt roof is replaced.

GRP fibreglass — a rigid, cold-applied resin system that cures into one seamless surface, well suited to a garage roof that also gets walked on occasionally.

Corrugated sheeting — common on older garages specifically, less so on houses. This is exactly the category most likely to raise the asbestos question on anything installed before the early 2000s, covered in detail below.

Pitched tile — where a garage roof is pitched rather than flat, matched to the same material as the main house where possible, so it doesn't stand out.

Sagging in the middle of the roof — often means the timber deck underneath has taken on water damage over time, not just a surface-level covering problem.

Cracking, splitting, or visible daylight through the covering — a felt or corrugated roof showing its age this way is usually past the point where another patch repair makes sense.

Repeated leaks in the same spot despite previous repairs — a sign the underlying structure or fall has failed, not just the visible covering.

A roof that's clearly original to a garage built decades ago — worth a proper inspection even without an obvious active leak, since older coverings fail eventually regardless of how they currently look.

How do I know if my garage roof has asbestos? Age and material are the first clues, corrugated garage roofs installed before the early 2000s are the most likely candidates. We can't confirm this without a proper look, and if we suspect it, we'll tell you honestly and point you toward a licensed specialist for testing and removal where needed, rather than guess or ignore it.

Can you remove asbestos yourselves? We don't hold specific asbestos removal licensing, so where removal is needed above the threshold that can be handled safely without it, we refer you to a properly licensed specialist first. Once that's dealt with, we carry out the actual roof replacement.

How long does a garage roof replacement take? Most standard single garage flat roofs are completed within a day, sometimes two depending on size and whether any structural timber repair is needed underneath.

Is EPDM or GRP better for a garage roof? Both are genuinely durable options. EPDM is a single seamless membrane, well suited to most garage roofs. GRP is rigid and holds up particularly well if the roof gets walked on. We'll talk through which suits your specific garage during the inspection.

Do you charge for the inspection? No. No call-out fee, ever, regardless of what the inspection finds.

Garage roofs are typically much smaller than a house's main roof, and pricing reflects that. As a guide, a standard single garage flat roof replacement, felt, EPDM, or GRP, typically runs £800-£2,500 depending on size, material, and access.

A pitched garage roof matched to the house typically costs more, closer to the same per-square-metre range as standard pitched roofing.

If asbestos removal is needed before replacement, that's a separate cost through a licensed specialist, not something we can quote on their behalf. We'll tell you honestly if this applies to your garage before giving you a number for the actual replacement work.

See our roof replacement page for how this compares to other services. The only way to get an exact figure is a free inspection.