Chimney Repairs · Addiscombe CR0
Chimney Repairs In Addiscombe
Has your Addiscombe chimney been repointed more times than anyone can remember?
Lime repointing, flaunching, lead and stack rebuilds for Victorian and Edwardian terraces in CR0
An Addiscombe chimney is rarely one household's business. On the terraces of Lower Addiscombe Road, Clyde Road and Canning Road, a stack often straddles the party wall, with your flues on one side and next door's on the other, and in a converted house it may serve several flats as well. The brick is soft London stock and the original mortar was lime, yet most stacks here have been patched in hard cement at least once since. Then there is the Chatsworth Road conservation area, where the roof rules are the tightest in Croydon. Repairing a stack there is straightforward. Changing one is not.
Chimney Repairs quote in Addiscombe
Four details and somebody will come and look at it. There is no charge for the visit, no obligation afterwards, and if the answer is that your roof is fine, that is what you will be told.
The people behind it
Brothers who trust each other's call
Chimney work in a conservation area needs decisions made carefully and without fuss. John and Mark, the brothers behind Roof Repairs Croydon, have always worked together and have never fallen out over it. They trust each other's judgement, so those decisions come easily between them.
They run jobs and manage the team as a pair, so there is no handover where details go missing. They like to think the pairing makes them about twice the firm a typical roofer is. You can judge that one for yourself.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
Chimney faults that keep turning up on Addiscombe terraces
Most of what goes wrong with these stacks is slow and visible from the street, if you know what you are looking at.
Bricks crumbling around joints that were repointed in grey cement
Hard mortar on soft stock brick. Water can't get out through the joints, so it leaves through the brick face instead, and frost blows the face off. The fix starts with raking that cement out.
A damp chimney breast in a top-floor room nobody heats
Rain is entering at the top, past cracked flaunching or an uncapped pot, then soaking its way down the flue. A stack that never carries warm air never dries out either.
Staining on one side of the stack after next door had work done
On a shared stack, the lead and flashings run across both roofs. A job that stopped at the party line often leaves a gap where the new work meets the old.
Pots leaning, or a crack across the top course
The flaunching has broken up, or the top bricks have lost their mortar. On a tall terrace stack carrying several pots, that is worth sorting before a gale brings one down.
What we bring to an Addiscombe chimney
Lime where the brick needs it
Soft Victorian brick wants a mortar softer than itself. We rake out old cement and repoint in a lime mix that lets the stack breathe and dry.
Both sides of the party line looked at
We inspect the whole stack, your neighbour's half included, and tell you where your repair stops and whether they need to know about it.
Planning checked before anything changes
Inside Chatsworth Road we keep the pots, height and detailing as they are unless Croydon Council has agreed otherwise.
Matching brick and pots
Where bricks have to go, we look for reclaimed stock of the same colour and size, so the patch does not stand out from across the road.
Lead dressed into the joints
Aprons, steps and back gutters cut from sheet lead and wedged in. A cement fillet looks tidy for a season, then opens up.
A written guarantee
Ten years on our workmanship, plus photos showing every side of the stack once it's done.
What a century and a half does to an Addiscombe stack
Houses went up here from the 1860s, so plenty of these stacks have stood for well over a hundred years. In that time they have carried coal smoke, then gas flues, then often nothing at all. Coal left sulphates in the brick and mortar, which can make a stack swell on one side and lean. Gas appliances added condensation. A flue capped badly, or not at all, lets rain straight down. Each stage leaves its own mark, and a proper survey has to read all of them.
The streets are close-built. That shelters the stacks from some of the weather but makes them harder to reach. Scaffolding a terrace chimney often means a narrow side return, a small back garden or a neighbour's permission to use their roof or land. In the conservation area the finished stack also has to look as it did before. Neither is a reason to leave a chimney alone. Both are reasons to plan the job before anyone arrives with poles and boards.
"On terrace stacks like Addiscombe's, the damage we find is more often down to an old cement repair than to anything the weather did."
From chimney repairs enquiries in Addiscombe handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
Repairing a chimney in Addiscombe, step by step
Look at it from across the road
A zoomed photo of the stack tells us a lot. Note whether next door's side looks any different from yours.
Free survey, above and below
Pots, flaunching, lead and all four faces get checked from the roof. Then we head into the loft for damp on the breast and daylight in the flue.
Work out whose stack it is
On a party stack we mark where your half ends and say whether the job needs your neighbour's agreement or a notice under the Party Wall Act.
Check the planning position
If you are inside Chatsworth Road and the work would change anything visible, we tell you before pricing so you can speak to Croydon Council.
Carry out the repair
Cement raked out, joints repointed in lime, blown bricks cut out and replaced in matching stock, pots rebedded and new lead dressed in.
Sign off
Photos of all four sides, scaffold struck, garden cleared and the ten year guarantee given to you in writing.
The 10 year guarantee, and why it is safe to offer
Promising a roof will stay dry is easy. What counts is what happens if it does not. Work booked through Roof Repairs Croydon carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee, on paper, handed to you on the day and written in language you can actually read. The slates, tiles, lead, mortar, membranes and rainwater goods carry their own manufacturer cover on top of that. It varies by product, so you get told which cover applies to your job rather than one headline number that would be wrong on most of them.
Here is the reason a guarantee like that is not a risk. Repairs come back for one reason above all others: the fault was never found in the first place. Somebody went up, saw a stain on the ceiling below, mended whatever looked worst directly above it, and left. Water does not cooperate with that approach. It lands on a slate, runs under it, drops onto a rafter and travels along the rafter before it finds anywhere to fall. On a wide hipped roof in Sanderstead or Shirley that can be five metres from where it came in.
Find the entry point and the repair holds for years. Miss it and no amount of guarantee wording helps anybody. That is why the survey happens before the price, and it is why, if the same water finds its way back into your house inside the guarantee period, putting it right costs you nothing.
10 year
Workmanship guarantee
1,000+
Roofs put right
Covered
Public liability insurance
Per product
Maker's own warranty
Before you accept a quote for your Addiscombe chimney
Can they tell lime from cement?
Ask what is in your joints now and what they will put back. If the answer is the same grey mix that caused the damage, keep looking.
Have they mentioned your neighbour?
A party stack repaired from one side only is a common source of later leaks. A careful roofer raises next door before you have to.
Will it look any different?
Shorter stack, new pots, a rendered finish. Inside the conservation area each of those can need permission, so ask them to list anything that will change.
Keep the stack, or lose it?
Removal comes up a lot on houses where the fires went out years ago. On an Addiscombe terrace, these are the trade-offs.
| Comparison point | Repair and keep | Remove above the roof |
|---|---|---|
| Chatsworth Road planning | None if like for like | Expect to need permission |
| Next door | Only your half is touched | Notice to next door, as a rule |
| Street view | Looks just as before | Missing from the roofline |
| Future upkeep | Pointing and lead in time | None above the roof |
| Unused flues | Capped and vented | Capped below, roof slated over |
| Cost | Lower in most cases | Higher, plus making good inside |
Water coming in further back?
If the damp is at the rear of the house rather than beside the breast, the culprit may be the butterfly valley or lean-to behind the front slope. Our page on flat roof repairs in Addiscombe covers those hidden back roofs.
What chimney work costs in Addiscombe
Access usually sets the starting point. After that, it depends on how much old cement has to come out and whether your neighbour is involved.
Scaffold on a close-built terrace
Stacks on Clyde Road, Canning Road and the streets around Chatsworth Road often have to be reached from a narrow side return or the back garden, sometimes with a neighbour's permission. That shapes the scaffold and its price.
Cement to rake out
A stack pointed once in lime is quick to redo. One with several layers of hard cement takes longer, because it has to come out without damaging the soft brick behind it.
Matching materials
Reclaimed London stock and traditional pots cost more than new, and in the conservation area they are usually what keeps the job like for like.
Chimney Repairs in Addiscombe: questions
Can I take down or alter my chimney in Addiscombe without planning permission?
It depends where you are. Addiscombe is in the London Borough of Croydon. In the Chatsworth Road conservation area, the Article 4 direction made in January 2016 brings every alteration to a house roof under planning control, so removing or reshaping a visible stack there needs an application. Like-for-like repair does not. Elsewhere, removal is often permitted development, but check with Croydon Council first. Where the stack is shared, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 usually means serving notice on next door, and removing a chimney breast indoors brings in building regulations.
Why do Victorian chimneys crumble after they have been repointed?
Usually because they were repointed in the wrong mortar. London stock brick is soft and porous. Lime mortar is softer still, so moisture escapes through the joints. Cement is harder than the brick, so moisture escapes through the brick instead and freezes in it. The faces flake off while the joints look perfect. The cure is to rake the cement out and repoint in lime.
How long does a chimney repair take on an Addiscombe terrace?
Repointing and new lead on a typical stack is often a few days on site once the scaffold is up. A partial rebuild takes longer, because the new brickwork needs time before the flashings go back. On a close-built terrace the scaffold can take a day on its own. If the stack serves several flats, all the owners should know the dates. We give you the likely timing with the quote.
Next door is having their half of our chimney repaired. Should I do mine at the same time?
Usually, yes. The scaffold is already up, and it is often the biggest single cost. The lead and pointing across the stack can then be done as one job instead of two that meet in the middle, which avoids the join between old and new work that so often leaks later. Ask their roofer, or ask us to look at your side while the scaffold is there.
Is there anything inside the house that tells me the chimney is the problem?
Damp on a chimney breast that gets worse after rain, brown marks on wallpaper near the ceiling, or a musty smell from a blocked-up fireplace all point to the stack. A white powder on the plaster means salts are coming through, and water has been passing for some time. We also check the breast in the loft, where the evidence is often clearest.
What Croydon homeowners say
From roads across the borough, once the ladders had gone.
"Damp patch on our landing ceiling for about three years. Two roofers had been out and both mended the tiles directly above it, and neither made the slightest difference. This chap spent twenty minutes in the loft with a torch before he even went outside, then showed me a photo of a split in the lead in the valley about four metres away from the stain. Fixed it in a morning. Three winters on and nothing."
"Water was coming down the front bedroom wall every time it rained hard and I had convinced myself the roof was finished. It was the gutter. Half of it had dropped so the water was sitting in the middle and going over the front rather than down the pipe. He reset the brackets and cleared the gully, charged me a fraction of what I had budgeted for, and told me the roof itself had years left. Could easily have sold me a new one."
"Ours is in the Chatsworth Road conservation area and I had no idea the rules on roof work here are stricter than the rest of Croydon. He knew straight away, explained what I could and could not do without an application, and did the repair in matching slate. That saved me a very awkward conversation with the council later on."
"Lost most of the ridge tiles along the back in a February gale. Rang in the morning, sheeted the same afternoon so the weather could not get in, came back the following week when it was dry and rebedded the whole ridge properly. Sent me photos of everything for the insurance without me even asking. The bill was exactly what the quote said it would be."
"Gutters had been overflowing under the trees for years and the fascia behind them had gone soft. What I appreciated was that he explained why the timber had rotted rather than just quoting to replace it, and pointed out the new soffits needed vents or I would end up with condensation in the loft instead. Nobody had ever mentioned that to me before."
Had us out to your roof?
Two minutes writing a review does more for a small local firm than any amount of advertising, and it helps the next person in Croydon work out who to ring.
Things to do in Addiscombe
Close to the Addiscombe streets, three places to walk while the mortar sets.
Addiscombe Railway Park
Part of a branch line that shut in 1997 for the tram, Addiscombe Railway Park opened in stages from 2007 and now runs from East India Way to Dalmally Road.
View on Google Maps - Addiscombe Railway Park
Park Hill Park
A short walk from the Chatsworth Road streets, Park Hill Park has its 1867 brick water tower and a walled garden remembering Croydon-born illustrator Cicely Mary Barker.
View on Google Maps - Park Hill Park
Ashburton Park
Ashburton Park dates from 1924, laid out by Croydon Corporation around an 18th-century house. A 19th-century lodge and the remains of a chapel survive from its time as a convent orphanage.
View on Google Maps - Ashburton ParkAddiscombe on the map
We are on Penwortham Road in South Croydon, about 10 minutes from Addiscombe. Croydon Council is the planning authority, including for the Chatsworth Road conservation area.
Areas we cover
Victorian stacks turn up right across the north of the borough, and we cover every town listed here.
Chimney Repairs by town
Cracked flaunching or crumbling brick on an Addiscombe stack?
Send us a zoomed photo or describe what you can see. We survey for free, tell you whether the job touches the party wall or the Chatsworth Road rules, and put a fixed price in writing for you to think over.