Chimney repairs and leadwork

Chimney repair and the leadwork around it deal with the part of the roof that takes more weather than almost any other, standing proud above the ridge line and exposed on every side. The lead flashing wrapped around the chimney's base is one of the single most common places a roof actually leaks, which is why we treat chimney work as a specialist job within roofing, because it genuinely is one.

What goes wrong with a chimney

• Cracked or crumbling mortar joints in the brickwork, letting rain penetrate the stack
• Failed flaunching, the mortar collar around the chimney pots, cracking and letting water track down inside the flue
• Perished lead flashing or soakers around the base, where the chimney meets the roof
• Cracked or spalling chimney pots
• A leaning stack, usually from long-term water ingress weakening the mortar

A damp patch on a bedroom ceiling near a chimney breast is one of the most common calls we get, and the cause is almost always the lead flashing rather than the chimney stack itself.

Disused chimneys are not exempt

A chimney that no longer has a fire connected to it still needs the same maintenance as a working one. The stack, mortar joints, flaunching and lead flashing all continue weathering whether the flue is used or not, and a disused chimney is often the one that gets ignored longest, right up until water tracks all the way down into the loft or the room below. If you have removed a fireplace but kept the stack, it still needs inspecting periodically.

Repointing

Mortar joints erode over decades of weather, especially on exposed stacks, and once water gets into the joints it works its way through the whole structure. Repointing with the correct mortar mix, matched to the age and type of the original brickwork, stops that before it becomes a structural issue. See our chimney repointing page for detail and our chimney repair cost guide for typical pricing.

Flaunching and lead flashing

Flaunching is the mortar collar that seals around the base of the chimney pots and sheds water away from the flue opening. It cracks with age and needs renewing periodically. Around the base of the stack, lead flashing and soakers, ideally code 4 lead dressed and pointed properly rather than sealed with mastic, stop water tracking down between the chimney and the roof tiles. See our lead flashing and valleys page, this is the single most common cause of a leak that looks like a roof problem but is actually the leadwork.

What you get

Every chimney job carries our 10 year written workmanship guarantee, and lead flashing repairs use proper code 4 lead dressed and pointed correctly, not mastic sealant painted over a problem to buy a season or two.

What we check while we are up there

Because a chimney needs full scaffold access on every side, we take the opportunity to check the surrounding roof area too, ridge tiles nearby, the tiles or slates immediately around the stack, and the guttering directly below it, since mortar debris from a failing chimney very often ends up in the gutter first. Anything found gets photographed and included in your written summary, whether or not you choose to act on it straight away.

Chimney pots and cowls

Cracked or spalling chimney pots let water straight down inside the flue rather than shedding it off the top of the stack, and a damaged pot is often mistaken for a flashing problem when the two are actually independent. Where a chimney is capped off or fitted with a cowl to stop birds nesting, we check that the fitting is still sound and has not itself cracked or worked loose, since a poorly fitted cowl can trap moisture rather than keep it out.

Working safely at height on an occupied chimney

If the chimney is still in use, we agree access and any temporary interruption to the flue with you beforehand, and make sure the stack is left safe and usable once work is finished, rather than leave you unable to use a fire you were relying on.

How weather affects the schedule

Repointing and flaunching need reasonably dry conditions to cure properly, and we will not rush mortar work in driving rain just to keep to a booked date, since a joint that has not cured correctly fails faster than the one it replaced. We build weather contingency into the timeframe we agree with you.

Areas we cover

Chimney and leadwork across Wisbech, King's Lynn, Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds and the rest of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, west Suffolk and south Lincolnshire, particularly on the many older period properties across the Fens.