Chimney Repairs · Coulsdon CR5
Chimney Repairs In Coulsdon
Has the stack on your Coulsdon semi started dropping bits of mortar into the gutter?
Repointing, flaunching, leadwork and removals for 1930s chimneys from the Farthing Downs side to Marlpit Lane
Most of Coulsdon went up between the wars, and almost every house of that age was built with a chimney, often a shared stack sitting on the party wall between a pair of semis. A lot of those fireplaces were blocked up decades ago. The stacks stayed. Nobody heats them now, so they stay cold and damp right through the winter, and on the roads that climb towards Farthing Downs the wind drives rain into the joints from the south-west. What you notice is a brown stain on a bedroom chimney breast, or grit on the path below. What we usually find is tired pointing, cracked flaunching round the pots, or a mortar fillet where there should be lead.
Chimney Repairs quote in Coulsdon
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, not a call centre
Chimney work on a pair of semis can mean talking to the people next door as well as you. It helps that this firm has two people at the top who both know each job. John and Mark run Roof Repairs Croydon together, and the business is family through and through.
They trust each other's judgement, so a decision about your stack does not sit waiting for a meeting. Customers often say dealing with the two of them is refreshing.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
What a failing Coulsdon chimney looks like
A chimney rarely fails all at once. These are the early signs, and roughly what is behind each one.
Brown staining on the chimney breast upstairs
Rain soaking into the stack and running down inside it. The top is the usual entry point: cracked flaunching, or a pot with no cap letting rain fall straight down a disused flue.
Sand and small lumps of mortar in the gutter
The joints are eroding. On the exposed side of the valley, frost gets into wet mortar every cold night and pushes it out a little more each time.
A grey cement strip where the stack meets the tiles
Someone replaced or patched the flashing with a mortar fillet. They shrink and crack away from the brick, and water gets in behind.
The stack leaning, or a crack running up it
Possibly sulphate attack from inside the flue, or long-term water damage. Not common, but it needs looking at soon rather than next year.
Why ring us about a chimney in Coulsdon
We look at the whole stack
Top, sides, flashings and the loft below. Damp on a breast can come from any of them, and fixing the wrong one is how people end up paying twice.
Lead flashings, properly dressed
Stepped flashings chased into the joints and an apron across the front. No fillets, no flashing tape.
Disused flues capped and vented
If you no longer use the fireplace, we can cap the pot to keep rain out while leaving enough air moving to stop condensation in the flue.
We talk to next door
On a pair of semis the stack is often half theirs. We can explain the job to your neighbour so the work goes ahead without a dispute.
Rebuild only if it is needed
Most stacks need repointing and new flaunching, not demolition. If it really does need rebuilding from roof level, you get the reason with photos.
Written guarantee
Ten years on our workmanship, in writing, on the day we finish.
Coulsdon chimneys and the valley weather
Coulsdon sits in a chalk valley, and the town is split between the sheltered bottom and the exposed sides. A stack on a house up near Farthing Downs or Coulsdon Woods takes rain sideways off the open downland. One on a house along Chipstead Valley Road gets more shelter but stays wetter for longer, because the sun barely reaches it in winter. Both end up with saturated brick. They just get there differently.
The interwar builders mostly used a cement-lime mortar that has done well for ninety-odd years but is now at the end of its life on the exposed faces. Cold, unused flues make it worse. A chimney that was warm for half the year used to dry itself out. Now it does not, so the first proper frost of the winter finds the joints already wet.
"On interwar Coulsdon semis, it is usually the flaunching at the top of the stack that has let go, long before the brickwork itself."
From chimney repairs enquiries in Coulsdon handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
Repairing a Coulsdon chimney, start to finish
Describe the damp
Which room, which wall, and whether it gets worse after windy rain. That alone often points at the top of the stack or the flashings.
Free inspection
We look from the ground with binoculars, then from the roof if it is safe to, and check the loft where the stack passes through.
Neighbour and access
If the stack is shared, we talk through how the job affects next door. We also work out whether a ladder and roof ladder will do or whether it needs a scaffold.
A fixed written price
Each item on its own line: repointing, flaunching, flashings, caps and access. You know exactly what you are paying for.
The repair
Joints raked out and repointed in a mortar that suits the brick, a new flaunching bed for the pots, and lead flashings chased and wedged into the stack.
Checked and photographed
You get photos of the finished stack from the roof, which is the side you can never see, and the guarantee 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
Three things to ask a chimney repairer
Is the flashing lead?
If the quote says mortar or mastic for the joint between the stack and the roof, it will be back to cracked within a few winters.
What happens to the pots?
Ask whether the pots are being rebedded in new flaunching and whether disused flues will be capped. Those are often left off cheaper quotes.
Do they need scaffold?
Some stacks can be reached safely from a roof ladder, others cannot. A clear answer, with the cost shown separately, is a good sign.
Repair the stack, or take it down?
If you no longer use the fireplace, removal is an option. It is not always the cheaper one, especially on a shared stack.
| Comparison point | Repair and keep | Remove below the roof |
|---|---|---|
| Typical work | Repoint, new flaunching, new lead | Take down, cap, re-tile the gap |
| Neighbour involved | Only if the stack is shared | Almost always on semis |
| Party wall notice | Rarely needed for repairs | Usually needed on a shared stack |
| Matching tiles | Not needed | Needed to fill the hole in the roof |
| Inside the house | No change | Breast still needs support if altered |
| Look from the street | Unchanged | A gap in a pair of semis |
Damp that might not be the chimney
If the stain is near the back of the house rather than on the breast, it could be the kitchen extension or garage roof instead. Our page on flat roof repairs in Coulsdon covers that side of things, and we can look at both in one visit.
Chimney repair prices in Coulsdon
Access is usually the biggest single cost on a chimney. After that it is how much of the stack needs work and whether the leadwork is being replaced.
Scaffold or roof ladder
Some stacks can be reached safely without scaffold. A tall stack on a steep hipped roof usually cannot. Scaffold is quoted as its own line.
Exposure on the valley sides
A stack on a house up towards Farthing Downs or Coulsdon Woods takes more weather, so the joints are often worn further down and need more repointing than one sheltered down by Marlpit Lane or Chipstead Valley Road.
Lead versus a quick fix
Replacing old fillets with proper stepped lead flashings costs more on the day. It is also the part that stops the damp, so we do not leave it out.
Chimney Repairs in Coulsdon: questions
Do I need permission to take down a chimney in Coulsdon?
Coulsdon is in the London Borough of Croydon, so Croydon Council is the authority to ask. Repairs such as repointing or new flashings need no application. Removing a stack is often allowed without planning permission, but Bradmore Green in Old Coulsdon is a conservation area, and changing a visible stack there should be checked with the council first. On a shared stack, the Party Wall Act usually means serving notice on your neighbour, and any structural change inside needs building regulations approval.
Why is my Coulsdon chimney breast damp when I never light a fire?
Because a cold flue stays wet. Rain gets in at the top through cracked flaunching or an open pot, and with no heat to dry it out, the moisture soaks through to the plaster. Capping the pot with a vented cap and repairing the top of the stack usually solves it.
Does the valley position affect chimney damage in Coulsdon?
It does. Stacks on the higher roads take the south-westerly wind and rain straight off the downs, so their joints erode faster on the weather side. Lower in the valley the stacks are more sheltered but see less sun, so they stay damp for longer. We look at which face is worst before deciding what needs repointing.
My neighbour shares the stack. Who pays for the repair?
Usually the work is split if both halves need it, but that is between you and your neighbour. If only your side needs attention, you can normally have that side done. We are happy to explain the job to them and give a price that shows each half.
How long does a chimney repair take?
Repointing and new flaunching on a typical stack is often a day or two once access is up. Mortar needs time to cure before the lead goes back, so allow for that. Rebuilding takes longer.
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 Coulsdon
When the stack is sorted, here are three local places worth a walk.
Farthing Downs
The ridge above Coulsdon is the biggest piece of semi-natural chalk downland left in Greater London, run by the City of London Corporation and dotted with Anglo-Saxon burial mounds.
View on Google Maps - Farthing Downs
Happy Valley Park
Croydon Council's largest open space, set in the dry valley beside Farthing Downs. Its chalk grassland is mostly an SSSI and grows about a dozen orchid species.
View on Google Maps - Happy Valley Park
St John the Evangelist, Old Coulsdon
A Grade I listed church dating mostly from the late thirteenth century, with a fifteenth-century tower, built from Reigate stone and flint on Bradmore Green.
View on Google Maps - St John the Evangelist, Old CoulsdonCoulsdon on the map
From our base in South Croydon it is about 12 minutes to Coulsdon. For planning and building control the town comes under the London Borough of Croydon.
Areas we cover
We repair chimneys right across the borough and over the Surrey and Bromley borders. Find your town below.
Chimney Repairs by town
Worried about the chimney on your Coulsdon house?
Ring us or send a photo of the stack from the garden. We will come and look for free, check the loft side too, and give you a written fixed price before anything is agreed.