A unified, self-consistent perturbation approach to rough surface scattering in stratified media is presented. By introducing a boundary-condition operator formulation, the effect of the scattering on the mean field is accounted for by replacing the boundary conditions for the smooth interface with a set of effective boundary conditions involving relatively simple matrix operations. The formulation is valid for any type of interface between fluid or elastic layers, with the only change involved being the actual boundary operators. The use of boundary operator makes the formulation compatible with existing propagation models for stratified media, allowing simulation of scattering loss of the coherent component of the field due to the generation of a scattered field in the stratified fluid–solid media with an arbitrary number of rough interfaces. The scattered field, a by-product of the simulation is, in effect, the reverberation field in the stratified waveguide. The approach is verified by agreement with published theoretical results for specific interface types. Further, it is demonstrated qualitatively how rough surface scattering can account for some of the experimentally observed attenuation of seismic interface waves. Finally, the present approach is shown to agree with experimental results for an Arctic environment with a rough ice cover.