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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To feel a bit sick at this quote?

141 replies

EmoIsntDead · 10/03/2025 18:33

We need or fascia’s and soffits replace round the roofline. Bits have rotted and birds are getting in under the wood. Got our first quote tonight - nearly £15k!! I feel a bit sick at the thought. My question is, is this a reasonable quote? I have nothing to compare it to (yet). Am I being unreasonable to think this is a bit much?

OP posts:
PoliteMauveSwan · 10/03/2025 23:05

Bojheybuddy · 10/03/2025 22:58

We’re in central Scotland in a four bed detached house. We’ve just had our soffits and guttering replaced. First quote was £15K. After getting a few quotes we ended up paying £9K

What's the break.down

Jumblebum · 10/03/2025 23:07

That's definitely a "we don't want to do this job" quote.

Jumblebum · 10/03/2025 23:07

Or if you live in East Renfrewshire it could be the "posh" area tax!

PoliteMauveSwan · 10/03/2025 23:10

Jumblebum · 10/03/2025 23:07

That's definitely a "we don't want to do this job" quote.

Or no one else wants to do it so here's our best price

Audiprettier · 10/03/2025 23:17

haufbiskiy · 10/03/2025 21:18

God don’t do that. Checkatrade is full of scammers and chancers. Avoid like the plague

Exactly This!!
Please please PLEASE don't get Checkatrade, they should be wearing masks! (Dick Turpin for the young'ns!) 😬
Can you let us know how you get on? 🤞

RogueFemale · 10/03/2025 23:23

@EmoIsntDead I've had a slight roof leak in two places for two years, no dripping just small damp patches. I've had various roofers round to quote, - it was never urgent, so I bided my time.

I had four come round, all of them agreed it was due to disrepair of flashing around the chimney stack and also along one side of the roof slope (terraced house). All of them said it'd have to be full scaffold front and back.

Two of the four didn't get as far as a quote. One said he was too busy and another forgot to quote and said he'd have to return for another look. The two who did quote, it was in the region of £5,000.

And I thought WTF, it's just a bit of flashing and patching up with concrete.

So I waited.

Then, this year, I was recommended a roofer, by someone who said he'd gone to school with the roofer, and was shocked at the £5K quotes.

This roofer quoted £950 (no VAT), didn't need full scaffold, just a scaffold platform on top of a flat roof at the back. Scaffold cost £400, roofer labour £550.

He did the work in a day and a half.

Anyway, just to say, quotes can often be wildly unreasonable.

(A neighbour a few doors down [elderly female] stupidly paid £7K for repair of a small roof leak, the job took two days, she paid, and the roof still leaks).

Audiprettier · 10/03/2025 23:23

Faceache!?! 😂😂

Is that a Freudian slip? 😇

DubheYouCantBeSirius · 11/03/2025 03:20

I'm in the process of building an entire house.

I bought the trusses and had them delivered and got a contractor to construct the entire roof for 5k cash.

I got the tiles put on for another 5k cash.

It's a seven bed huge house.

If a contractor doesn't really want the work, they will go in very high so it's worth it to them if they win it.

namechangedtemporarily123 · 11/03/2025 07:56

London here. I was quoted 4.5k plus scaffolding but managed to get a guy to do it for 2.8k and he didn't need scaffolding. 3 bed semi. Done last month. There's two ways of doing it, either capping on top of the existing boards ( with the rotten bits removed) or replacing completely, which is more expensive. Loads of roofers do this kind of work so you'll get cheaper quotes elsewhere.

Childrenofthestones · 11/03/2025 08:09

Keep in mind builders have a habit, if they are busy, instead of being honest and saying they can't fit you in, will throw out a ridiculous quote, nothing to lose as they are busy anyway. But if you say yes they will drop
whatever the are doing to fit you in.
Basically they are like those acts you used to see on the telly, running round , spinning plates on canes. 😯

BunnyLake · 11/03/2025 08:13

EmoIsntDead · 10/03/2025 19:27

Funnily enough it’s Anglican that gave us our quote today 🙈

I wouldn’t touch Anglian with a bargepole. They will harrass you for life if you're not careful (took me years to get them off my back). Definitely look elsewhere.

zzplea · 11/03/2025 08:19

I was quoted 4.5k plus scaffolding but managed to get a guy to do it for 2.8k and he didn't need scaffolding.

Actually he did 'need' scaffolding, he just was willing to risk his safety by doing the work from a ladder to make it cheaper and more likely that you would choose him.

KeepOnKeepingOn25 · 11/03/2025 09:28

EmoIsntDead · 10/03/2025 19:27

Funnily enough it’s Anglican that gave us our quote today 🙈

People have probably already come on to say about Anglican, they are awful. We had our first quote with them and had a similar heart attack at the price! Absolutely outrageous what they quote/ charge, nearly 3x as much as others. I think this company is actually quite shady and unscrupulous in how they operate and definitely use pressure selling and upselling techniques. They will literally keep hounding you. You will have to be very firm with refusing further contact from them and threat to report them if they don’t leave you alone.

Muckybib · 11/03/2025 17:50

We had quotes I think around 3k 4 bed house, this still felt too much so we just got a builder freind to put treated timber on top of the old, probably cost a few hundred all in nd looks like new. Don't waste 15 k on soffits I'm sure there are far better ways to spend the money!

hcee19 · 11/03/2025 18:01

I had all new guttering soffits , drain pipes etc, including brushes in the gutters to stop the leaves and birds. My house is a large 5 bed home with a detached double garage, we had the garage done to. Total cost £6200, took two days. 15k does sound rather excessive...

Lallie87 · 11/03/2025 18:02

That sounds steep to me - we had ours done about 5 years ago. Four-bed detached house in South Wales. Can’t remember the exact cost but it was under £3k for sure. Including scaffolding, fascias, soffits and gutters.

Khayker · 11/03/2025 18:09

EmoIsntDead · 10/03/2025 18:52

We’re in a small detached house in the Glasgow area. Scaffolding will be needed, that was included in quote.

It depends on the area you live in. We are in Wales and had soffits, fascias, downpipes and gutters replaced a few years back. That cost £8,000 but we did have to shop around and no doubt the price has gone up quite a bit since then.

JustWalkingTheDogs · 11/03/2025 18:10

EmoIsntDead · 10/03/2025 18:33

We need or fascia’s and soffits replace round the roofline. Bits have rotted and birds are getting in under the wood. Got our first quote tonight - nearly £15k!! I feel a bit sick at the thought. My question is, is this a reasonable quote? I have nothing to compare it to (yet). Am I being unreasonable to think this is a bit much?

Jesus do you at Balmoral? We had our 3 bed detached house done, soffits , facias and guttering (inc down pipes) all replaced, we paid about £2000 and that was 3 years ago.

cardboardvillage · 11/03/2025 18:25

We had windows replaced by plus fascias and soffets for about £9k

2 years ago.

Jayne35 · 11/03/2025 18:28

We just paid 11k for a whole new roof, ridiculous quote.

DeadSpace3 · 11/03/2025 18:30

ALWAYS get at least 3 fixed price quotes.

For a job like that, I'd be getting every quote I could & vetting the hell out of who the top contenders are. Have you tried your local FB group for recommendations?

If anyone tries to pressurise you or say it's a limited time deal - walk away & don't go near them again. Also, be wary of paid by the day jobs (they'll stretch out the days) or estimates.

I was a buyer for the NHS when I was younger & later managed some fairly large building repairs & maintenance programmes so my advice should be pretty solid.

dewfirst · 11/03/2025 18:36

We had soffits/gutters/dry verge capping and replacement roof all done over 2 weeks. 4 men, scaffolding all around (detached house).
Total cost including VAT last week £4300.
North West. Local firm recommended by a neighbour. Great job too.

FormidableAnt · 11/03/2025 18:44

We had our soffits done last year for £3,000 plus Vat, small three bedroom semi, north London, guaranteed for 10 years.

EmoIsntDead · 11/03/2025 19:43

Well, you all called it. They’ve phoned DH three times today, first to confirm we’re not interested and then twice from ‘head office’ to offer more discounts 😂 it’s gone from 15k to 11k to 9.5k in the space of one afternoon. I’ll be going with someone
local, thank you very much!

OP posts:
Mydogisamassivetwat · 11/03/2025 19:48

Yeah, that price is absolutely insane.

Ours was done three years ago, for 2k. But we have an excellent builder, who doesn’t take the piss with his pricing.

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