Corrugated and Box Profile Roof Cost UK: 2026 Price Guide

The garage roof has rusted through at the fixings, the sheets lift and bang in a gale, and there is a puddle on the floor every time it rains. Or you have a workshop, stable block or old outbuilding with a covering that has simply reached the end of its life. Either way you want to know what a new corrugated or box profile roof actually costs before you ring anyone.

The honest answer is that published UK figures for this job disagree by a factor of two — and this guide shows you exactly where and why, rather than averaging them into a number that no roofer will ever quote you.

At a Glance: 2026 Corrugated and Box Profile Roof Costs

What the Sheets Themselves Cost

Cladco, one of the largest UK manufacturers, is the useful benchmark because it publishes prices openly. Its sheets are cut to length, so the prices below are per linear metre including VAT, not per sheet. Box profile has a 1,000mm cover width, so a linear metre is close enough to a square metre of finished roof for budgeting.

Cladco's category and product pages quote slightly different "from" figures — £9.54 versus £10.50 on corrugated — most likely a 0.5mm versus 0.7mm gauge difference, though the pages do not explain it. Ask your supplier which gauge a price refers to.

The gotcha nobody mentions: Cladco applies a £60 ex VAT machinery set-up surcharge on orders below 20m². A single garage roof is often 15–18m², so that surcharge lands on exactly the job most homeowners are doing.

Then there is everything that is not sheet: a 3m ridge flashing at £20.13, foam eaves fillers at £2.70 a metre, screws with bonded washers around £13.59 per hundred, stitcher screws £14.08 per hundred and mastic lapping tape £10.59 a roll. Individually trivial; together, easily £150–£250 on a garage.

Which profile, and what pitch does it need?

Minimum pitch is the constraint people usually miss. From Cladco's technical data: 13/3 corrugated needs a minimum 10° pitch, while 32/1000 and 34/1000 box profile will go down to 4°. Purlin spacing is a maximum of roughly 1.2m for 0.7mm gauge and 1.0m for 0.5mm.

Fixing detail matters more than it sounds. Cladco's installation guide specifies fixing through the valley of the profile with self-drilling, self-sealing screws, end laps of at least 250mm and stitcher screws no more than 400mm apart — with the warning: "Do not over-tighten or under-tighten your screws as this can affect the performance of the washer." Badly set washers are one of the commonest causes of a roof that leaks within a couple of years.

Coatings, Lifespan and What the Warranties Actually Say

This is where the money goes, and where the marketing is loosest.

Polyester paint is around 25 microns. Cladco describes it as "typically 8 to 12 years to first maintenance with a life in excess of 20 years in normal environments", with no warranty badge on its product pages.

PVC plastisol is around 200 microns of leather-grain embossed coating. Cladco puts it at "15 to 25 years to first maintenance with a life in excess of 40 years", with a 15-year warranty badge.

Steadmans, another established UK manufacturer, is more conservative and — importantly — colour-dependent. Its published life expectancy to first full repaint for plastisol on a roof is 25 years inland for lighter Group 1 colours and 20 years for stronger Group 2 colours, dropping to 20 and 15 within 2km of the sea. Group 2 includes black, the reds and the strong greens and blues. Choosing anthracite over poppy red buys you roughly five extra years.

Tata Steel's Confidex guarantee on Colorcoat products runs up to 40 years, but that headline applies to Zone 1 conditions and is reduced by coastal proximity. Steadmans similarly offers warranties "up to 40 years — subject to the building's location". And one counterintuitive point: Cladco states plastisol is less suitable for coastal or exposed sites, cutting against the usual "plastisol is always better" sales line. If you are near the sea, ask what the manufacturer guarantees in your location.

The alternatives

Bitumen corrugated (Onduline, Coroline) is the cheap, light option for sheds and small outbuildings — Coroline is £15.42 inc VAT for a 2m × 950mm sheet. Onduline Classic is warranted "to remain weatherproof for fifteen years", but read the small print: coverage is non-transferable, and "after five years of service, coverage becomes limited to pro-rata replacement value of materials only", excluding labour.

Fibre cement ("Big Six" profile) suits agricultural and traditional buildings: Swisspearl Cemsix starts around £22.00 inc VAT per metre, with a 30-year durability guarantee and a 10-year colour stability guarantee under BBA certificate 03/4049. Insulated composite panels are the upgrade if the building is heated — Kingspan Quadcore roof panels were listed at £41.91 to £71.08 per metre in March 2026, three to five times single-skin steel, but they solve insulation and condensation in one product.

What It Costs Installed — and Why Sources Disagree

Here the published guides diverge sharply, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

That last pair is roughly a twofold gap between two mainstream quote sites published three weeks apart. MyJobQuote's own metal roof page is internally inconsistent too, listing the same £70–£90 per m² figure once under "supply and installation" and again under "supply costs".

The practical reading: a straightforward re-sheet of a sound single garage — timbers fine, easy access, no asbestos — should land nearer the lower figures. Once you add stripping and disposing of the old covering, replacing rotten purlins, new guttering and access equipment, you move towards the higher ones. Checkatrade notes a garage roof job can reach £4,000 where timber replacement is needed.

Budget separately for the extras on almost every quote: old roof removal £500–£1,500 (MyJobQuote) or £1,000–£2,500 (Checkatrade), skip hire £200–£500, and guttering at roughly £30–£70 per metre in uPVC.

Labour and duration

Published 2026 roofer day rates vary as much as the job prices: Checkatrade says £280–£360, MyBuilder £200–£300, MyJobQuote's new roof guide £200–£275, and its metal roof guide £180–£250. MyJobQuote puts a garage roof replacement at 1 to 2 days, or up to 3 days for a pitched roof.

On access, MyJobQuote prices scaffolding for single-storey work at £450–£900 per week and Checkatrade quotes around £250 per week for a tower. On a low outbuilding a tower or properly secured ladders with edge protection may be sufficient — but HSE's position is that "all work on roofs is highly dangerous, even if a job only takes a few minutes", and that you should "fit edge protection to the eaves of any roof".

Getting quotes that actually compare? With a spread this wide, one quote tells you nothing. Ask each roofer for the same three things in writing: the profile and coating, the gauge, and what happens if the purlins turn out to be rotten. Find local, reviewed roofing contractors at localroofer.directory and compare like with like.

The Safety Part You Should Not Skip

Corrugated and profiled roofs are where people die. HSE's figures are blunt: "falls through fragile surfaces, particularly fibre-cement roofs and rooflights, account for 22% of all fall from height fatal injuries in the construction industry", and "almost one in five deaths in construction work involve roof work". HSE lists as likely fragile: non-reinforced fibre-cement sheets, rooflights, liner panels, corroded metal sheets, wired glass and rotted chipboard. That fourth item matters — the rust on your garage roof is not just cosmetic, it is what turns the roof into a fragile surface.

Regulation 9 of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 requires that no person at work passes across, near or works on a fragile surface where it is reasonably practicable to work safely without doing so. Where unavoidable, suitable platforms, coverings or guard rails must support any foreseeable loading, and prominent warning notices must be posted at the approach. The Advisory Committee for Roofsafety's guidance note ACR[CP]002:2017 puts the working rule plainly: "A roof should always be treated as fragile until a competent person has agreed otherwise."

Two failure modes to ask any contractor about: cut edge corrosion, which LRWA Guidance Note No. 10 says starts at sheet end laps and can develop on the inaccessible underside of sheets; and perished washers, which the same guidance notes will "have deteriorated and perished" over the years, leaving loose fixings that let water in. Many "the roof needs replacing" jobs are actually a re-fix.

A detail almost nobody knows: new steel sheet can itself be fragile. Steadmans' load and span tables carry the footnote that spans between 1.20m and 1.80m are non-fragile, while spans above 1.80m are fragile. If your existing purlins are widely spaced, the finished roof may not be walkable even when brand new. Steadmans also notes that standard 2.4kg rooflights are non-fragile on installation but "may not be maintained over their 25 year service life", recommending 3.0kg gauge where it must last.

If the Existing Roof Is Asbestos Cement

Many older garages, sheds and stables have corrugated asbestos cement. The one distinction to carry into your quotes is this. Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, HSE classifies "removal of asbestos cement products, (eg roof sheeting and rainwater goods)" as non-licensed work — provided the material is carefully handled and removed without breaking up. The moment sheets are broken up, or "dropped" off the roof, it becomes notifiable non-licensed work. HSE's task sheet a14 for small structures including garages requires damping fasteners, hand tools rather than power tools, double-wrapping in polythene, and says: "Don't drop them or use rubble chutes."

Disposal rules vary sharply by council. Cornwall allows up to 8 bags or 4 sheets of bonded asbestos free per week, charging £10.80 per sheet beyond that. Doncaster accepts asbestos at two sites by pre-booked appointment only, capped at eight items per property, with whole sheets no bigger than 6ft × 4ft double-wrapped in 1000-grade polythene. Check your own council's page before assuming anything.

On cost, MyJobQuote puts single garage asbestos roof removal at £400–£900 and a double at £750–£1,400, while Checkatrade gives £500–£1,000. MyJobQuote's own £60/m² rate plus a £325 survey produces "around £1,525" for a 20m² garage — above its own headline range, which tells you how soft these numbers are.

Condensation: the Problem Metal Roofs Create

A single-skin metal roof over an unheated garage will drip. The sheet cools faster than the air beneath it, moisture condenses on the underside, and it lands on whatever you are storing — and Cladco notes low-pitched roofs are particularly susceptible. The standard fix is an anti-condensation membrane bonded to the underside of the sheet, Dripstop being the common one. Reseller prices for 32/1000 box profile with Dripstop ran from £22.38 inc VAT (galvanised) to £31.53 (plastisol) in mid-2026, though resellers do not always state whether that is per metre or per sheet — ask. The alternatives are an insulated composite panel, an anti-condensation coating, or improving ventilation.

Regional Price Differences

Only one source publishes regional numbers for UK roofing labour. MyJobQuote (June 2026) states that labour rates in London and the South East are typically 20 to 30% higher than the national average, while the North of England, Scotland and Wales are generally lower.

Checkatrade corroborates the direction but publishes no figures. On a £1,500 garage roof the regional spread is realistically £300–£450 between the cheapest and dearest parts of the UK. Materials are largely national — it is the labour that moves.

Planning Permission and Building Regulations

For England, the Planning Portal's guidance is that re-roofing which does not materially affect external appearance will usually not need planning permission. Changing an outbuilding from grey fibre cement to green box profile probably does change its appearance, so call your local planning department if the building is prominent. Rights are more restricted in conservation areas, National Parks, AONBs and the Broads, and can be removed by an Article 4 direction. Critically: within the curtilage of a listed building, any outbuilding will require planning permission.

On Building Regulations, approval will not normally apply to an outbuilding under 15m² with no sleeping accommodation. For work to an existing roof, approval is needed if you affect more than 25% of the building envelope or more than 50% of the roof, carry out structural alterations, significantly change fire performance, or increase the weight of the roof covering by 15% or more. Swapping heavy fibre cement for light steel reduces weight, so that last rule works in your favour — going the other way, to tiles, will trigger it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long will a box profile roof actually last?

Depends entirely on coating and location. Cladco puts polyester at 8–12 years to first maintenance with a life beyond 20 years, and plastisol at 15–25 years to first maintenance with a life beyond 40. Steadmans is more conservative and colour-dependent: 25 years to first repaint for light colours on an inland roof, 20 for stronger colours, and 20/15 respectively within 2km of the sea. Treat "40 years" as a best-case ceiling under a manufacturer's guarantee conditions, not an expectation.

Is corrugated cheaper than box profile?

Marginally on the sheet — Cladco's corrugated starts around £9.54 per metre against £10.50 for box profile — but the difference is small enough that pitch should decide it. Corrugated 13/3 needs a minimum 10° pitch; box profile will go to 4°. On a shallow garage roof, box profile is often the only workable choice.

Can I fit a metal garage roof myself?

The sheets are light and the fixing is simple, which is why so many people try. The problems are the ones that kill people: working at height on a roof that may already be fragile through corrosion, and the fact that new sheet spanning more than 1.80m between purlins is itself classed as fragile. Add asbestos and the answer is clearly no.

Do I need to replace the purlins as well?

Often, and it is the single biggest cause of a quote coming in higher than expected. Old outbuildings frequently have timber quietly wetted for years under a leaking sheet. Ask every contractor to state in writing what happens — and what it costs — if the timbers turn out to be rotten, so you are not negotiating that mid-job.

Will a new metal roof be noisy in rain?

Single-skin steel over an unheated space is noticeably louder than tiles or bitumen. An insulated composite panel or an anti-condensation membrane will reduce it, and a bitumen sheet such as Onduline is quieter again — at the cost of a shorter warranted life.