Chimney repairs & leadwork in Macclesfield
The chimney is the wettest, coldest, most exposed masonry on the house — it takes weather from every side and has nothing above it — so it is the first thing to fail and the single commonest source of a roof leak. On a Victorian terrace, the stack is usually where to look first and the covering last.
Three things go, in a fairly reliable order. The flaunching — the mortar fillet holding the pots — cracks and lets water down the inside of the stack. The pointing erodes, so the brickwork itself starts drawing water. And the lead flashing at the roof line either lifts out of its chase or was never properly wedged and pointed in the first place. That last one is the one people paint over with black bituminous goo, which hides it for a season and then traps the water behind it.
Leadwork is a craft with actual rules, and most of the failed lead on Macclesfield roofs failed because they were ignored. Lead moves a lot with temperature, so pieces have to be kept short — code 4 flashings in lengths of about 1.5 metres, lapped, never run as one continuous strip. A single long piece looks tidier on the day and splits within a few years. Mortar fillets instead of a proper stepped flashing are the other giveaway.
Two things to know before work starts on a terrace. A stack sitting on a party wall is very often shared, which brings the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 into it and means the neighbour has to be served notice. And if you have had the fire taken out, an unused stack still needs to be ventilated top and bottom, or it will sweat and stain the chimney breast from the inside — which people then report, understandably, as a roof leak.
Chimneys & leadwork — every job, in detail.
6 jobs in this category. Each has its own page explaining what's involved, what your roofer checks and — just as importantly — when a job can safely wait.
Chimney repointing
A stack takes weather from four sides with nothing above it, so its mortar erodes long before the rest of the house. Repointing means raking out to a proper depth and refilling with a mortar matched to the brick — not smearing a hard cement over the top of what is there.
Read more →Chimney flaunching & pots
The flaunching is the mortar fillet on top of the stack that holds the pots and sheds water off the head. It is the most exposed mortar on the whole building, and when it cracks, water runs straight down inside the stack and comes out on the chimney breast below.
Read more →Chimney stack rebuilding
Where the brickwork itself has gone — spalled faces, perished joints throughout, or a stack that has started to lean — repointing is no longer enough and the stack comes down to sound courses and goes back up. It is a bigger job than it looks and it needs proper access.
Read more →Chimney stack removal
Taking a redundant stack down to below the roof line and closing the roof over it removes the maintenance permanently, and is often cheaper than rebuilding. The parts that need care are supporting whatever is left below, weathering the roof properly, and the neighbour's side if the stack is shared.
Read more →Chimney flashing
Where a stack passes through the roof it needs a proper set of lead weatherings — an apron at the front, stepped flashings and soakers at the sides, and a back gutter behind. It is the single commonest source of a roof leak, and the commonest place to find a bodge.
Read more →Leadwork
Lead is the traditional material for every awkward junction on a roof and, correctly detailed, it outlasts almost everything around it. Almost all failed lead failed for the same reason: pieces run too long, so thermal movement fatigued and split them.
Read more →Not sure which one you need?
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