Lead Work in Mundford

Expert Lead Work
in Mundford

You have a leak from a lead failure - what now?

Finding water coming through your ceiling after heavy rain is alarming, but the worst thing you can do is act in a panic. Most DIY attempts to fix or temporarily seal a lead failure cause additional damage that makes the eventual repair more difficult and more expensive. This page sets out what you should do, what you should not do, and what to tell a roofer when you call.

Lead failures are one of the more common sources of roof leaks on UK homes. The vulnerable points are chimney stacks, the sides of dormers, roof-to-wall abutments and lead valleys where two slopes meet. When any of these flashings fail, water enters the roof structure and works its way through, often appearing inside some distance from where the actual entry point is.

What to do while you wait for a roofer

Your priority is to protect the inside of your property from further water damage while the roof is being assessed and repaired. None of the steps below involve going onto the roof yourself.

• Contain the water. Place buckets, bowls or towels under any active drips. If water is tracking across a ceiling and running down a wall, use a towel at the base to prevent it reaching floor finishes or spreading further into the room.
• Leave a bulging ceiling alone. If a plasterboard ceiling is visibly bulging downward with trapped water, keep everyone out of the room and do not poke, prod or pierce it - it can come down without warning.
• Move belongings out of the affected area. Electronics, furniture and soft furnishings should be moved away from the leak immediately. Even a slow drip will saturate and damage items left underneath it over several hours.
• Photograph everything. Take photos of the water entry point, any visible damage to the ceiling, walls and floor, and any belongings affected. Do this before you clean up. These photos are useful for any insurance claim and for showing the roofer where the water is appearing inside.
• Check the loft space if you have one. If the drip is not yet through the ceiling but you suspect a roof leak, checking the loft after heavy rain can tell you a great deal. Look for wet insulation, wet timber or daylight coming through where it should not be. Note where the wet area is in relation to the roof above - this helps a roofer locate the entry point from the outside.
• Call a roofer promptly. Do not wait to see if the leak stops on its own. Even a minor lead failure allows water into the roof structure, where it can saturate insulation and begin to rot timber before the damage is visible inside. The longer it is left, the more extensive the repair becomes.

What not to do yourself

This is where good intentions tend to make things worse. The following are the most common DIY mistakes on lead failures, and the reasons they cause problems.

• Do not get on the roof. A sloping roof, particularly when wet, is dangerous for anyone who is not trained and equipped to work at height. Falls from roofs cause serious injuries and fatalities every year. Even a flat or shallow-pitch section is slippery when wet. This is not a risk worth taking for a temporary fix.
• Do not apply roofing sealant or bitumen paint over lead. Self-adhesive flashing tape, silicone sealant and bitumen paint are occasionally used as emergency patches, but applied incorrectly they make the situation worse. They trap water in areas it cannot drain from, they prevent the lead from moving naturally with temperature changes, and they make the eventual proper repair more difficult because they have to be stripped off. If a product description says it is a permanent repair, it almost certainly is not.
• Do not ignore an internal damp patch and assume it will dry. A damp patch on a ceiling that follows rain is not going to resolve itself. The entry point is still open, and every subsequent rainfall adds more water. Water in a roof structure can travel significant distances along joists and rafters before it appears inside, so the wet ceiling patch may be some way from the actual failure point. Assuming it has stopped is not a safe conclusion.
• Do not apply expanding foam or any filler to brickwork around a chimney. This causes more problems than it solves. Expanding foam is not waterproof, degrades quickly when exposed to UV and rain, and blocks the chase that a roofer needs to re-cut and re-use when fitting new lead. Clearing it out adds time and cost to the repair.
• Do not re-mortar the visible gap yourself without understanding what is causing it. Pointing around a chimney flashing that has failed may look like the obvious problem, but simply re-pointing the visible gap without lifting and re-fixing the lead beneath it often seals the problem in rather than sealing it out. Water can still track behind a surface-pointed flashing if the lead itself is not in contact with the wall correctly.

What to tell a roofer when you call

A roofer asking the right questions before they arrive can come better prepared. When you call, try to have the following information ready:

• Where the water is appearing inside - which room and which part of the ceiling or wall
• Whether the drip is directly below a chimney, a dormer or an area where an extension joins the main house
• How long the problem has been occurring, and whether it has been getting worse
• Whether any previous lead work or roofing repairs have been done on that area
• Whether you have access to a loft space and what you could see there

None of this requires you to inspect the roof yourself. It is information from inside the house, and it is genuinely useful for helping the roofer locate the source efficiently once they are on site.

What happens when the roofer arrives

A proper lead work inspection requires access to the area itself - not just a view from the ground or a ladder top. The roofer should be able to identify the lead failure, assess the condition of the surrounding lead and underlying materials, and give you a clear explanation of what has gone wrong and what needs to happen to fix it correctly.

They should also be working to BS EN 12588, which sets the minimum thickness (code) of lead for each application. Code 4 or 5 is standard for chimney and dormer flashings, Code 5 or 6 for valleys. If replacement lead is going in, the code matters to the longevity of the repair.

Lead work costs in Mundford and the surrounding area will vary depending on the scope of the job. Re-flashing a chimney stack typically costs between £300 and £700 depending on size and access. A lead valley replacement on a domestic roof can range from £400 to over £1,000 for longer runs. A repair to a specific failure point will generally cost less, but only if the rest of the lead is in sound enough condition to make a repair worth doing.

Call us for a roof survey in Mundford

If you have an active leak or have noticed water staining near a chimney, dormer or valley, call us to arrange a roof survey. We will get up on the roof, find the source of the problem, and give you a straight answer on what needs doing and what it will cost - before any work begins.