Chimney & Leadwork

If there's a damp patch on an upstairs ceiling near the middle of the house, the chimney is the usual suspect. Chimneys take weather from every side and rely on lead and mortar that don't last forever. When they fail, water gets in fast.

Chimney work we do

• Repointing — raking out perished mortar and repointing the stack so it's weathertight again.
• Re-flashing — replacing failed or badly-fitted flashings where the stack meets the roof, in proper code-4/5 lead, dressed and pointed in.
• New flaunching — the mortar bed the pots sit in cracks and lets water down the flue; we renew it.
• Rebuilds — where a stack is leaning or badly spalled, we take it down to a sound course and rebuild.
• Removals and capping — redundant chimneys taken down and the roof made good, or capped and vented to stop damp.

Why leadwork matters

Lead is still the best material for weathering roof junctions — chimneys, abutments, valleys and dormers — because it's malleable, durable and lasts as long as the roof. But it has to be the right code (thickness), cut to the right lengths so it can expand without splitting, and dressed properly. Skimp on any of that and it cracks. We use code-4 and code-5 lead and detail it the way it's meant to be done.

Old lead is worth money, so it's also a target for theft on empty properties — where that's a concern we can discuss lead-alternative flashings.