Repointing • Rebuilds • Lead Flashing
Chimney Repairs Medway
More roof leaks start at the chimney than anywhere else on the house. Repointing, new flaunching, proper lead flashings and full rebuilds.
Free inspection, photographs of what is actually up there, and one price before we start.
Call 01634 907 234The usual suspect
Nine Times Out Of Ten, It Is The Chimney
A chimney stack takes weather from every direction, including from underneath where rain blows up. It has more joints in it than the rest of the roof put together, and every one of them is a way in. When somebody has a leak nobody can find, this is where we look first.
Three things usually fail. The mortar joints erode until water soaks straight into the brickwork. The flaunching on top cracks and lets water in around the pots. And the lead at the base gives up, or was never done properly to begin with.
Repointing, recapping, new lead, or taking the stack down and rebuilding it if it has gone too far. We will tell you honestly which of those yours needs - including when the answer is less than you were bracing yourself for.
Get A Price For This Work
What you get from us
Chimney Work That Holds
Lead, not a bead of sealant
Flashings get chased into the mortar course and dressed down. Sealant round the base of a stack is a repair with a two-winter life, and you can usually spot one from the pavement.
Mortar matched to the brick
Modern hard cement on soft older brick traps water in the brick and spalls the face off it. The mix has to suit what is already there, not what is quickest.
We say when a stack can be saved
A tired stack does not automatically mean a rebuild. Where repointing and a fresh cap will buy another twenty years, that is what goes on the quote.
Chimney Work We Take On
Chimney repairs and rebuilds on houses across Medway:
- Repointing - eroded joints raked out and refilled in a mortar that suits the brickwork.
- Flaunching - the mortar cap around the pots cut off and renewed once it has cracked.
- Lead flashings - new front aprons, side soakers, step flashings and back gutters, chased in properly.
- Rebuilds - the stack taken down to a sound course and rebuilt, matching brick and bond.
- Pots and cowls - cracked pots replaced, and disused flues capped while keeping them ventilated.
- Removal - redundant stacks taken down and the roof made good where they stood.
A stack you can see leaning, or mortar you can pull out with your fingers from ground level, has gone past the point where it should be left another winter.
Common questions
Chimney Questions We Get Asked
The damp usually shows on the ceiling near the stack, or on the chimney breast in an upstairs room, and it gets worse with wind-driven rain rather than steady rain. That pattern points at the flashings almost every time.
Not necessarily. Removing one is a bigger job than it looks and can affect the structure below. Capping it while leaving ventilation is often cheaper and better, and it keeps the look of the street intact.
The sloped mortar cap on top of the stack that the pots sit in. It sheds water off the top. When it cracks, water gets straight into the brickwork below, and renewing it is a small job compared with what it prevents.
Usually, yes. A stack cannot be worked on safely off a ladder, and it takes two hands and materials up there. We tell you at the quote stage and it is inside the price, not added afterwards.
In most cases. Reclaimed brick of the right period laid in a matching bond means the repair does not read as a patch from the pavement. We will show you what we intend to use before we order it.
Repointing or new flaunching is typically a day or two. A full rebuild takes longer, and mortar needs time to cure, so we will not rush it back into the weather before it is ready.
Towns we cover
Chimney Repairs Across Medway
We work on chimney stacks across Gillingham, Chatham, Rochester, Strood and Rainham, from Victorian terraces to interwar semis. If yours is leaking, leaning or simply looks tired, give us a ring.
Call 01634 907 234