Roofing leads: how to get more roofing work in the UK

Roofing work arrives in a few ways, and they're not equally good:

• Past customers and neighbours who saw your scaffold or your van.
• Google searches and Maps results, often on the day a leak appears.
• Lead sites and directories.
• Storm damage and insurance claims, which arrive in bursts.
• Letting agents, property managers and housing providers who need repairs and maintenance.
• Builders and other trades who need a roofer they can rely on.

Ask every customer how they found you and record the job value. Roofing jobs range from a few slipped tiles to a full re-roof, so the source of your big jobs matters more than the number of leads.

Your Google Business Profile is free and it's what shows in Maps when someone searches for a roofer nearby. Google's advice is to keep your information complete and accurate, respond to reviews and add photos. It says there's no way to pay for a better local ranking.

1. 1If customers don't visit you, hide your address and set a service area. Google says a service-area business should hide its address and keep the area within about two hours' drive of base.
2. 2Use your real business name, with no added keywords or towns.
3. 3List the work you want: repairs, re-roofs, flat roofs, chimneys and guttering.
4. 4Add photos of finished roofs from the ground and close up. Roofing is visual, and good photos sell the next job.
5. 5Ask for reviews after every job and reply to all of them. Our guide on getting more Google reviews is written for plumbers, but the steps are the same for roofers.

Roofers can also use Google Local Services Ads, which charge per lead. Google warns that if you regularly fail to answer calls or respond to messages, your ad ranking may be affected. Our guide to Local Services Ads and missed calls explains what that means for your budget.

Paid roofing leads in the UK can fill a gap, but you'll often be one of several roofers quoting. Here's what the main lead sites publish about their own fees:

Sources: Checkatrade's join page, the Rated People help page for tradespeople, MyBuilder's pages on its fees and how lead fees are calculated, and MyBuilder's terms.

Count the cost of each won job, not each lead. For example, £400 of lead fees that wins two re-roofs and three repairs means each job cost £80 to win. If one of those re-roofs pays for the year's lead spend, the site is working. If you mostly win small repairs, look again.

Storms bring a rush of calls in a few days. The Met Office lists seven named storms that affected the UK in the 2025/26 season, from Storm Amy in October 2025 to Storm Dave in April 2026. The Association of British Insurers says storm damage to people's homes cost insurers £244 million in 2025, up 32% on the year before, with an average storm damage payout of £2,450.

A storm week is when the most roofing leads arrive and when you're least able to answer them. Plan for it before the season starts:

1. 1Decide which jobs come first: water coming in, then loose or dangerous material, then everything else.
2. 2Have a short script for the phone: address, what's happened, whether water is coming in and the best number to call back.
3. 3Keep tarpaulins and temporary repair materials stocked so you can make safe quickly.
4. 4Book proper repairs for the weeks after, and keep a list of everyone who rang.
5. 5Make sure someone, or something, answers while you're up a ladder.

When a customer is claiming for storm damage, they usually need evidence for their insurer. Make that easy and you'll win the job and the customer's trust:

• Take clear, dated photos of the damage before you touch anything, from the ground and close up, when it's safe to.
• Give a written, itemised quote that separates storm damage from wear and tear.
• Explain what you've done to make the roof safe and what the permanent repair will be.
• Be honest about wear and age. A report the insurer can't trust doesn't help your customer.

Insurance customers often have a deadline and a stressful week. Being the roofer who answers, turns up and sends the paperwork the same day is a strong reason for them to recommend you.

Both give customers a reason to choose you.

TrustMark describes itself as the only Government Endorsed Quality Scheme for work in and around the home. Registered businesses appear in its Find a Business directory, and TrustMark says many government energy efficiency funding schemes require businesses to be TrustMark registered, which matters if you also do energy efficiency work paid for by those schemes.

CompetentRoofer, run by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors, is the only roofing-specific scheme that lets roofers in England and Wales self-certify their roof refurbishment work. GOV.UK lists it as the competent person scheme for replacing roof coverings on pitched and flat roofs.

Show any scheme logos on your website, quotes, van and Google profile.

Repeat work smooths out the gaps between storms:

• Offer gutter clearing and roof checks to past customers every year, before winter.
• Contact letting agents, block managers and property managers who look after many roofs.
• Look for school, council and housing roofing contracts on Contracts Finder, which lists government contracts worth over £12,000 including VAT.
• Build links with builders, loft converters and solar installers who need a roofer.

Fast. A customer with water coming through the ceiling rings roofers until one answers. In the same BT Business survey, 58% of UK adults said they'd tell friends and family to avoid a business that didn't pick up.

The cost of a missed enquiry is the job's value times the chance it would have booked. For example, missing five enquiries a week in a storm week, where one in four would have booked a £600 repair, is about £750 that week. Put your own numbers into our missed call calculator, and read what a missed call costs a roofing business for real repair and re-roof prices.

Then follow up:

1. 1Ring back missed callers within the hour where you can, starting with anyone who has water coming in.
2. 2Send written quotes within a day of the survey.
3. 3Chase re-roof quotes after a few days. Big jobs take longer to decide, so a second follow-up a week later is normal.

For calls that come in at night and at weekends, see our guide to out-of-hours call answering.