Chimney Repairs & Lead Work in Twickenham & Richmond

The usual suspect behind a leak

When a period home springs a leak, the chimney is often the first place we look. Perished mortar, cracked flaunching and failed lead flashings let water track down the stack and into the rooms below. Because the damage often starts high up and out of sight, it can go unnoticed for months before a stain appears on a bedroom ceiling.

We put it right properly. That means renewing the lead to the correct code, re-pointing the stack and repairing the flaunching so the whole chimney sheds water again. If nobody uses the chimney anymore, though, removing it and making the roof good is sometimes the better option, since a redundant stack is one less thing to maintain.

Lead flashing does more than seal a chimney. It also protects bay windows, gullies, valleys and the box gutters found on many Victorian and Edwardian roofs nearby. For example, a poorly dressed bay window is a common source of leaks we're called out to fix, and good lead work there matters just as much as it does around a stack.

Twickenham, Richmond upon Thames, St Margarets and Teddington all have a high proportion of chimneys built well over a century ago. Since so many sit within a conservation area, we take care to re-point and re-flash sympathetically, matching mortar and materials rather than reaching for a quick fix. A repair done properly the first time avoids the cost and disruption of doing it twice.