If you are considering a chimney rebuild in Eriswell and want to know exactly what the process involves from the first phone call to the day we pack up and leave, this page walks you through it.
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
A chimney rebuild is not a small job. It involves scaffold, structural work at height, and several different materials - bricks, mortar, lead, and cement flaunching - all of which need to be right. Understanding what should happen at each stage means you can judge whether the work is being done properly and ask the right questions before you agree to anything.
Brandon Roofers carries out chimney rebuilds for homeowners in Eriswell and the wider Brandon area. Here is a straight account of what a professional chimney rebuild involves, from the initial call to the clear-up.
When you call, it helps to have a few things ready. How high is the chimney stack above the roof? How many pots does it have? What is the roof pitch - is it steep or relatively shallow? Are there obvious signs of a problem - damp on an internal wall, visible cracks from the garden, a leaning stack? Can you see whether the flashing at the base of the stack is lifting or missing?
You do not need to know all of this, and some of it only becomes clear from the scaffold. But the more information you can give, the easier it is to understand the rough scope of the job before we visit.
Any honest assessment of a chimney's condition requires close access to the stack. A look from the garden is useful for spotting obvious problems - a visibly leaning stack, large displaced sections, missing pots - but it cannot tell you the condition of the mortar joints, whether the flashing is properly dressed and pointing, or how far any deterioration has progressed.
A proper inspection is carried out from scaffold level. We check the following:
After the inspection, we can tell you clearly what the chimney needs. Sometimes a repoint and new flaunching is sufficient. If the brickwork is cracked, spalling, or the stack is structurally compromised, a partial or full rebuild is required.
Before scaffolding goes up, the scope of the work should be agreed and clear. For a full rebuild, you should understand which bricks are being used and why - whether they are reclaimed stock to match the original or new facing bricks. You should know what mortar type is specified. On older buildings, lime or gauged mortar is usually more appropriate than hard cement. You should know that the flashing will be lead, properly dressed and cut into the joints rather than covered with adhesive tape.
A chimney rebuild that includes scaffold, brickwork, lead flashing, repointing, and new flaunching on a standard two-storey house typically costs between £1,500 and £4,000. Scaffold hire alone often accounts for £400 to £800 of that figure. Agreeing all of this in writing before work starts is good practice.
Safe chimney work requires proper access. A scaffold that reaches the chimney safely, with a working platform and guard rails, is the minimum standard. Any roofer who proposes to carry out a chimney rebuild from a ladder alone is not working safely and is not in a position to do the job properly. Scaffold typically goes up on the day the job starts or the day before, and it stays in place until the work is complete and the materials have had time to cure properly.
On a full rebuild, the deteriorated brickwork is taken down carefully. The level at which the stack is reduced depends on how far the damage extends. In some cases only the top section needs to come down. In others, the stack needs to be reduced to the roof line and rebuilt from there. Old mortar is cut back from the course at which the rebuild will start, and the surface is prepared so the new brickwork bonds correctly.
Loose debris and broken bricks need to be lowered safely - not thrown from height. If the chimney pot is being replaced, it is removed at this stage.
New brickwork goes up course by course. Joints are kept consistent and the stack is checked for plumb as the work progresses. On a working chimney, the flue opening needs to be maintained correctly. Where a stack has multiple flues, the separating walls between them need to remain intact and properly bonded into the new brickwork.
The mortar mix used in the rebuild should match the specification agreed before work started - lime-based for older properties, cement-based only where appropriate to the original construction.
Once the brickwork is up, new lead flashing is installed. The step flashing runs up the side of the stack, cut into the mortar joints at each brick course. The cover flashing overlaps the step flashing and is also dressed into the joint at the top. The back gutter - which collects water running down the roof slope above the chimney - is formed from lead, dressed, and properly lapped. All lead edges are pointed in with fresh mortar.
Getting the flashing right is as important as getting the brickwork right. Failed flashing is responsible for a large proportion of chimney-related damp problems, and a poorly installed flashing on an otherwise sound rebuild will cause problems within a few years.
The flaunching is the sloped mortar collar around the base of the chimney pot. It is formed from cement mortar, shaped so water sheds outward away from the pot, and finished to a smooth surface. The pot is bedded into the flaunching and set level. If a new pot is being fitted - because the old one was cracked or the wrong type for the current use - this is where it goes in.
Any remaining mortar joints that need attention across the rebuilt section are pointed at this stage. The scaffold gives access to do this properly. The finished stack should look tidy, with consistent joint profiles throughout and no areas of loose or shallow pointing.
Before the scaffold is stripped, the finished work should be inspected from platform level. Check that the flashing is dressed and pointed in across its full length, that the flaunching is smooth and correctly sloped, that the pointing is consistent, and that the pot is upright and secure. If anything does not look right, this is the time to raise it - once the scaffold is down, getting back up costs more time and money.
Old bricks, broken mortar, lead offcuts, and packaging need to be cleared from the scaffold and from the ground around the property. A professional job leaves the site clean. If a skip was used, it should be collected promptly.
The most common cause is the mortar pointing that holds the flashing into the brick joints deteriorating and releasing the lead edge. Once the edge lifts, water runs behind rather than over the flashing. Thermal movement - the lead expanding in summer heat and contracting in winter cold - stresses the joint repeatedly over years. Poor original installation, where the lead was surface-fixed rather than properly cut in, fails much sooner.
Yes. The main considerations are matching the original brickwork as closely as possible and using a mortar that is appropriate for the age of the building. For listed buildings or properties in conservation areas, planning permission may be needed before altering the chimney. That is something to check with the local planning authority before work starts.
A chimney inspection done properly means close access to the stack, either from scaffold or via a specialist flue camera. We check the brickwork, joints, flashing, flaunching, and pot condition. The inspection determines whether you need repointing, a partial rebuild, or a full rebuild - and it means you are getting a quote based on what is actually there, not an estimate made from the ground.
If you are in Eriswell and want a proper inspection rather than a ground-level guess, call Brandon Roofers to arrange scaffold access and a full assessment.
No obligation · We'll call you to arrange a free visit
Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
