Leadwork & Flashings – cost per m – UK 2026 Rate Guide

Budget rate for supply & lay · typical budget rate before your adjustments

Labour, plant, materials, outputs and waste — yours to edit, as an Excel. Three free.

Rates are UK national (non-London): central London and constrained urban sites typically run dearer — adjust the labour, plant and access lines in the build-up accordingly.

Leadwork & flashings

per m² · supply & lay

£55 – £135 / m

What is it

The supply and fixing of new milled lead flashings and details where the roof meets an abutment, chimney, verge or valley — cover, stepped and apron flashings dressed to the masonry with the upstand wedged and pointed into the chase, lead soakers laid under the roof covering at ridge, hip and verge lines, and lead valley gutters formed and bossed to falls — priced per metre of flashing run. Milled lead (Code 4/5) is the traditional durable weathering material: maintenance-free, a 100-year-plus life, easily worked to complex details. This rate prices the leadwork SUPPLY & FIX only — the roof structure, the roof covering & its field / linear details, the roofline & rainwater goods, and the scaffold are separate rates. The rate carries three operations:

Cover, stepped & apron flashings — cut, dressed & fixed to a chimney or wall abutment, the upstand let into and wedged & pointed to the masonry chase.
Soakers — lead soakers laid and dressed under the roof covering at ridge, hip & verge lines to weather the junction.
Valley gutters — lead valley gutters formed & bossed to falls, with welded / soldered detail seams and patination oil applied.

Rate range

Low£55 – £71 / m

Typical£74 – £96 / m

High£105 – £135 / m

Budget rate per m².

3 key cost drivers

Leadwork detail type & access

A straight cover, apron or stepped flashing to a masonry abutment is the priced default. Soakers under ridge, hip & verge tiles run lighter and faster; bossed lead valley gutters, complex chimney aprons with front apron, two stepped flashings & a back gutter, and welded detail seams all take more forming and slow the gang. Two-storey or restricted access is slower again, and the London & South-East market runs dearer. It is a key driver of the labour per m; region rides this note, not a dropdown.

Leadwork material spec (lead code & girth)

A Code 4 milled lead flashing at a representative ~200 mm girth is the priced default. A narrow ~150 mm Code 4 cover flashing is cheaper; a wide Code 5 bossed valley gutter or a heavy-girth detail runs dearer. It is the driver of material cost — the published band already spans it. Lead sheet & sundries are about 40% of the per-metre rate (skilled dressing labour leads it), so the spec is a moderate lever, and there is no product-scenario switch here, so no calculator: the band is the answer.

Location

London and the South East typically add around 20% to labour.

Estimator

Budget rate generator

£74 – £96 / m

Covers the milled lead cover / stepped / apron flashings, soakers & valley gutters, fixings, patination oil, the roofing gang and O&P · excl. structure, the roof covering & its field/linear details, roofline & rainwater goods, strip-off, decoration, scaffold & VAT

Exclusions

Lifting & material distribution — telehandler / forklift, hoist and site-distribution labour (an attendance, in main-contractor prelims)
The roof structure & tilting-fillet / rafter-foot repair, the roof covering & its tile / slate / membrane field and ridge / hip / verge tiling, the roofline & rainwater goods (fascia / soffit / gutter)
Strip-off & disposal of an existing leadwork, the decoration of adjacent joinery (a painter’s rate) & access / scaffold above normal working height
Scaffold supply (usually in preliminaries)
Preliminaries — main-contractor site set-up, management & welfare
VAT