Chimney repairs and leadwork
Repointing, flashings and lead dressed the old way.
Repointing, flashings, valleys and dormers dressed in lead the old way, and slate laid with the patience it asks for.
Water that gets into a stack runs down inside it and turns up as damp on the chimney breast. Zoom in on the stack from the ground and send that.
- A free quote, with no obligation
- Fully insured
- Ring the number and you are talking to Cody, who runs the firm
- A team behind him: some jobs Cody does himself, some the team does
- Every photo on this site is one of our own jobs
What happens next
Chimneys
A chimney is the part of the roof that takes the weather from every side and gets the least attention. The mortar joints wash out, the render cracks, the flaunching round the pots breaks up and lets water down the inside of the stack, and the lead at the base, the apron at the front and the gutter behind, gets lifted by frost or simply wears through. Plenty of stacks have not been touched in decades, and they show it: joints you can push a finger into, a pot leaning where the flaunching has gone, lead that has been dressed and re-dressed until it cracks. Repointing puts the joints back so the stack sheds water instead of soaking it up. New flashings at the base send the water that runs down the stack over the tiles and not behind them. Between them they are most of what keeps a chimney from becoming a damp patch on a bedroom chimney breast. The photographs on this page are chimney and lead jobs of ours: a stack with fresh pointing on its lower courses, stacks with their pots and lead, a lead valley, a lead gutter and a dormer cheek.
Leadwork
Lead is still the material for the places on a roof where two surfaces meet: the valley between two slopes, the cheek of a dormer, the apron round a chimney, the flashing where a roof runs into a wall. Cut to size, lapped the right way and dressed down by hand, it outlasts everything around it. Smeared over with a sealant gun instead, it fails in a couple of winters. That is what dressed in lead the old way means.
Slate
Slate is laid to a different rhythm from tile. Each slate is fixed rather than hung on a nib, the coursing has to be set out so the joints stay covered, and a repair means letting new slates into the existing coursing without disturbing the ones around them. The grey slate roof at the top of this page is one of ours, laid up to a brick chimney. The old slate roof with new slates let in, on the repairs page, is the other side of the same trade.
A chimney job, start to finish
A photo of the stack
A photo of the chimney from the ground, zoomed in if your phone will, shows the pointing, the pots and the lead at the base.
Up close
On the roof, the joints, the flaunching round the pots and the flashings are checked for where the water is getting in.
Pointing and lead
Washed-out joints are repointed, and lifted or worn lead is replaced and dressed by hand, so the stack sheds water over the tiles.
Chimneys, lead and slate, our own jobs
Chimney stack with new lead flashing dressed around the base Chimney stack with fresh pointing on the lower courses Chimney stack capped off with a clay pot, rising from a flat roof Rendered chimney stack with a cowled pot and lead at the base, rising from a felt flat roof Lead valley in a tiled roof Lead gutter with welted rolls Lead-clad dormer cheek
Chimney and lead questions
Why is my chimney breast damp?
Often because water is getting into the stack through washed-out joints, broken flaunching or lifted lead, and running down inside it.
What is flaunching?
The mortar bed round the base of the chimney pots, shaped to shed water off the top of the stack. When it cracks, rain gets straight down into the brickwork.
Do you replace lead valleys?
Yes. Valleys, aprons, flashings and dormer cheeks are all lead jobs, and there are photographs of ours on this page.
What does a chimney repair cost?
It depends on the height of the stack, what has failed and how it is reached. The form above with a photo lets Cody tell you where you stand.
The first phone call
Ring or send a photo
Ring Cody on the number at the top of the page. If he is up a ladder when you ring, send a WhatsApp with a photo of the problem instead.
A straight answer
You are told straight whether it is a job for us and where you stand. Photos of the problem help, and WhatsApp is the easy way to send them.
The work, then a tidy site
The roof is done the way the photographs on this site show it: timbers checked, finished tidy, ridge bedded, verges pointed and the site left clean.
A roof to look at
Ring Cody, or send photos of the problem on WhatsApp, and you will be told where you stand.
07925 796983If he is up a ladder when you ring, send a WhatsApp with a photo of the problem instead.