Chimney repairs in Cromer

The chimney stacks on the Victorian and Edwardian villas along the Cromer cliffs are the hardest worked brickwork in the town. They stand well proud of the roof, they take weather on all four faces, and what they are taking is a north easterly coming off the sea with salt in it. Everything that fails on a chimney fails here first.

Repointing

Salt laden wind driven rain works at a mortar joint from every direction, and once the pointing has gone soft the brickwork behind it starts taking water directly. We rake out properly and repoint in a mix suited to the brick, which on the older stacks means lime rather than a modern cement. Cement on soft brick is harder than the brick, traps the moisture and takes the face off it over the following winters.

Flaunching

The mortar weathering at the top of the stack that holds the pots and throws the rain off is the single most neglected part of a chimney, and on this coast it cracks early. Once it has, water goes straight down inside the stack rather than off it, and the damage shows up on a bedroom wall two floors below. Recasting a flaunching is a small job compared with what it prevents.

Lead flashings

Front apron, side soakers and the back gutter behind the stack. Original lead cracks along its fold lines with age and thermal movement, and salt gets at the fixings holding it in place. We strip the old lead out and form new to code rather than running a bead of sealant along a failed joint, which on an exposed stack lasts about one winter.

Rebuilds

Where a stack has moved, lost its bond or eroded to the point that repointing has nothing left to hold, we take it down to a sound course and rebuild it from there, reusing the original brick where it is in good enough condition so the stack still looks like it belongs on the house. On the cliff top property that matters, because these chimneys are part of how the frontage reads.

Pots, cowls and capping

New pots where they are cracked, bird guards on working flues and cowls where a chimney is downdraughting, which on an exposed seafront property is a genuine and common complaint rather than a rare one. Redundant stacks get capped so they stay ventilated instead of sealing damp inside the brickwork.

Taking a stack down

If a chimney is redundant and in poor condition, removal is sometimes the sensible money. We take it down to roof level and make the roof good over the top, properly tied into the existing covering rather than patched. Where a stack is shared or the house looks wrong without it, we will say so and price the repair instead. You get both numbers.

How we work

A chimney cannot be assessed from the ground. We get up, photograph what is there and work out which of the four usual routes the water is taking before anybody spends anything. Anything beyond a very minor repair needs a proper platform, and the scaffold is in the quote from the start rather than added once we are on site.