In short
Checkatrade's 2026 chimney repair guide puts repointing a chimney stack between £300 and £1,000 plus VAT, averaging £750, with the low end for a small stack on a low roof and the top end for a stack mid-ridge on a two-storey house that needs scaffolding. Access is most of that spread. If the brickwork itself is soft or the top courses have blown, repointing is not enough and a partial rebuild is the honest quote.
This is a job for our Chimney repairs service.
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The published range
Checkatrade's chimney repair cost guide, updated April 2026, gives these figures before VAT. They are national ballpark averages and the guide says so; we quote each stack after looking at it.
| Job | Checkatrade low | Checkatrade high | Checkatrade average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chimney repointing, per project | £300 | £1,000 | £750 |
| Flashing repair, per project | £250 | £1,000 | – |
| Replace up to five tiles around the stack | £170 | £500 | £170 |
| Stack removal, per metre | £260 | £340 | – |
Why the range is so wide
The mortar is a small part of the bill. What sets the price is getting to the stack safely and how much of it needs doing.
- Access. A stack on a single-storey rear roof can be reached from a roof ladder. A stack on the ridge of a two-storey house in Norwich or Wymondham needs a scaffold with a working platform round it, and Checkatrade's flashing guide puts scaffolding at roughly £300 to £400 on top of that job. HSE guidance is clear that all roof work needs proper edge protection and that ladders are only for short-duration tasks, and repointing a whole stack is not one.
- How much has gone. Raking out and repointing a few open joints on the weather face is a different job from every joint on all four sides.
- What else is up there. If we have a scaffold round the stack, the flaunching, the pots and the lead flashing get done at the same visit. It is far cheaper than coming back for each.
- Height and size. A tall stack with several pots on an older Norwich terrace is simply more brick.
When repointing is the wrong repair
Repointing holds only if the bricks are sound. If the faces have spalled from frost, the top courses have opened up, or the stack leans, new mortar is money spent on a chimney that needs rebuilding from the roof line up. We tell you which it is before quoting, with photographs, and if it is a rebuild we say so. Checkatrade's guide lists stack removal separately, and where a flue is disused, taking the stack down below the roof line and tiling over is sometimes the cheaper long-term answer than keeping a brick tower you no longer use in good order.
