Chimney repairs in Fakenham

The country around Fakenham is open, and a chimney on a house standing on its own in it takes weather from every side with nothing to break it. That is the difference between a stack here and the same stack in a sheltered street: there is no neighbouring roofline taking the first of the wind, so all four faces of the brickwork weather at the same rate and the pointing goes across the whole stack rather than on one exposed elevation.

Repointing

Old mortar raked out properly and replaced with a mix suited to the brick. On the older brick and pantile property in the town centre that generally means lime, because modern cement is harder than the brick around it and pushes the moisture out through the face of the brick instead, which spalls it over a few winters. Getting the mix right is most of the job.

Flaunching

The mortar weathering at the top of the stack that beds the pots and throws water clear. It cracks long before anyone looks at it, and once it has, rain runs down the inside of the stack instead of off the outside. It is one of the most common causes of damp on a chimney breast and one of the cheapest things on a chimney to put right.

Lead flashings

Apron at the front, soakers down the sides and a back gutter behind. Original lead cracks along its fold lines with age and movement, and once it has, sealant over the top is buying a season rather than fixing it. We strip the old lead out and form new to code.

Rebuilds

Where a stack has cracked, leaned or lost its bond to the point that repointing has nothing sound to hold, we take it down to a solid course and rebuild from there. Original brick goes back on where it is good enough, so the chimney still matches the house rather than announcing itself as new work.

Pots, cowls and capping

New pots where they are cracked or have shifted in the flaunching, bird guards on working flues, and cowls where a stack downdraughts. A great many chimneys around here are no longer used at all, and a redundant stack wants capping in a way that keeps it ventilated. Sealing a flue up completely traps moisture in the brickwork and inside the chimney breast below.

Taking a stack down

On the post war housing beyond the centre there are a lot of stacks that were built for fires nobody has lit in decades. Where one is redundant and in poor condition, taking it down to roof level and making the roof good over the top is often cheaper than repairing it and it removes the maintenance permanently. Where the chimney is in use, or the house plainly looks wrong without it, we will say so and price the repair instead.

How we work

A chimney cannot be assessed from the ground, so we get up on it, photograph what is there and work out where the water is actually getting in before anybody commits to anything. Anything beyond a very minor repair needs a proper working platform, and the scaffold is in the written quote from the start rather than added later.