Chimney Repairs · Purley CR8
Chimney Repairs In Purley
Is the lead around one of your Purley chimneys, or the stack itself, letting water in?
Repointing, rebedding, lead aprons and back gutters for tall stacks on clay tile roofs across CR8
Many of the larger houses in Purley have more than one chimney, and on the Webb Estate and in Upper Woodcote Village the stacks are often part of the design, built tall in brick to suit the house. Where they come through hand-made clay tiles, each one is wrapped in lead: an apron across the front, stepped flashings and soakers down the sides and a back gutter behind. The interwar stacks along Foxley Lane and around Purley Oaks are plainer, but they have the same weak points. When damp appears on a chimney breast in Purley, the first job is working out which of those parts has let go.
Chimney Repairs quote in Purley
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
John, Mark and a careful look at your stack
A chimney on an older clay tile roof rewards a second opinion, and this firm has one built in. Roof Repairs Croydon is run by two brothers, John and Mark, who often price a job side by side and then run it together.
Their thinking runs along the same lines, so they rarely need long to agree on what a chimney needs. It's a refreshing experience, customers often say: two points of contact, both of whom know your stack, and if one can't pick up, the other usually will.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
How a failing Purley chimney usually shows itself
On a clay tile roof a stack can leak through its brick, its top or its lead. Each leaves a slightly different trail.
Damp at the top of the chimney breast in the loft
Look at the back gutter. Behind a wide stack the lead tray fills with leaf and moss off the tiles, and water spills over the back of it into the roof space.
Water down one side of the stack after driven rain
The stepped flashing or the soakers. If the lead has slipped out of its joint, or soakers were left out in a past repair, rain from that side gets under the tiles.
Staining on the face of a decorative stack
Open joints or cracked flaunching letting water into the brick. Ornamental brickwork has more ledges for water to sit on.
A cracked or loose pot
The mortar bed at the top has broken up. Tall stacks on the higher Purley roads catch more wind, and a pot without a firm bed will start to move.
What careful chimney work looks like on a Purley house
Lead dressed by hand
Aprons, steps, soakers and back gutters are cut and shaped from sheet lead to fit each stack, then wedged into the mortar joints.
Tiles lifted and put back
To reach the soakers we take up the clay tiles around the stack and refit them afterwards, so the original tiles stay on the roof.
Brick and mortar matched
Repointing uses a mortar that suits the brick, with the joint finish matched to the rest of the stack.
Ornament kept, not simplified
Corbelled courses and shaped pots are repaired as they are. Where a piece has to be replaced, we look for one that matches.
Every stack looked at
Where a house has several chimneys, we check them all at the survey and tell you which need work now and which can wait.
Ten year written guarantee
The chimney work we carry out is covered by our ten year workmanship guarantee.
Clay tile, lead and wind off the Downs
A chimney on a clay tile roof leans on its lead far more than one on slate. The tiles are small and closely lapped, so the lead has to work with them: soakers tucked under each course, a flashing stepped up the brick over the top, an apron spread across the tiles at the front. On the Webb Estate, where William Webb's houses went up in Arts and Crafts, Tudor Revival and Neo-Georgian styles between 1903 and 1925, some of that leadwork may be original, and all of it was meant to be made by hand. Repairs should be made the same way.
The weather adds to it. The higher roads run up onto the dip slope of the North Downs, where wind gets behind a tall stack and drives rain sideways into the flashings. Lower down, where the Caterham and Coulsdon valleys meet, the big trees drop leaf into back gutters every autumn. The 1987 storm, which took some of the finest trees at Purley Beeches, is worth remembering whenever a pot looks loose.
"On Purley chimneys, the back gutter behind the stack is the part we most often find an earlier repair has skipped."
From chimney repairs enquiries in Purley handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
How we carry out chimney repairs in Purley
Trace the damp
We start in the room and the loft, noting where the damp sits on the breast and the rafters. That points us to the top, the sides or the back of the stack.
Inspect each face
With safe access on the roof, we check the brick, the pointing, the pots, the flaunching and every piece of lead, taking photos as we go.
Set out the options
The written quote separates what is urgent from what can wait, names the lead and mortar we will use, and says whether anything should be checked with Croydon Council.
Lift the tiles carefully
Clay tiles around the stack come off by hand and are stacked so they can go back in the same place.
Renew lead and mortar
New soakers, stepped flashing, apron and back gutter are cut and dressed to fit. Joints are raked out and repointed, and the top is rebedded.
Refit and hand over
Tiles are refixed and the gutters cleared of debris. You get the photos and our written guarantee.
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
Questions to ask before anyone works on a Purley chimney
Will they fit soakers?
On a tile roof, a stepped flashing with no soakers under it is a shortcut. Ask whether they will be lifting tiles to fit them.
What about the back gutter?
You can't see it from the ground and it's easy to leave off a quote. On a wide stack it is one of the likeliest places for water to get in.
Do they know the conservation areas?
On the Webb Estate and in Upper Woodcote Village, taking a stack down or changing how it looks should be checked with Croydon Council first. A good roofer tells you so at the start.
Repoint and reflash, or rebuild the top?
Most Purley stacks need care rather than demolition. This is how the two main options compare when the top of a stack is in poor shape.
| Comparison point | Repoint, rebed and reflash | Rebuild above the roof |
|---|---|---|
| When it fits | Brick sound, joints open, lead or flaunching worn. | Brick crumbling deep into the stack, or the top leaning. |
| Effect on the look | The stack stays as built and nothing comes down. | Rebuilt to match, in salvaged brick where it can be found. |
| Lead | Renewed around the existing stack. | Renewed once the new brickwork is up and has set. |
| Time on site | A couple of days on most stacks. | Longer, with curing time before the lead goes back. |
| Shared stacks | Your side can be repaired without serving notice. | Party Wall notice needed before work starts. |
| Planning | Like-for-like repair, no application. | Check with Croydon Council if the look or height would change in a conservation area. |
Lead on the flat roofs too
The same leadwork skills apply to the small flat roofs over bays, porches and dormers on many older Purley houses. If one of those is leaking, have a look at our page on flat roof repairs in Purley.
What affects the cost of chimney repairs in Purley
A chimney repair here is priced on access, on the amount of lead involved and on how much decorative brickwork needs attention.
Plots that step away from the road
On the Webb Estate and around Purley Downs many houses sit above or below the road on sloping chalk ground, so scaffold has to be built up from uneven levels. On a lot of quotes that makes access the largest single item.
Lead on clay tile
Soakers, steps, an apron and a back gutter take more lead and more labour than a simple flashing on slate. Lifting and refitting the tiles is part of that.
Ornate tops and extra stacks
Stacks with corbelled tops or shaped pots take longer to repoint and rebed. If a house has three or four chimneys, doing them from the same scaffold saves money.
Chimney Repairs in Purley: questions
Do I need permission to remove a chimney on the Webb Estate?
Quite possibly, so check before anything is booked. Purley is in the London Borough of Croydon, and the Webb Estate and Upper Woodcote Village are conservation areas where roof work is looked at much more closely than elsewhere. Taking down or altering a stack that can be seen from the road is the kind of change Croydon Council will want to hear about first. Repointing, rebedding pots and renewing lead like for like normally need no permission. If the stack is shared with a neighbour, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies to anything structural.
Why does the back gutter behind my Purley chimney keep blocking?
Trees. Many Purley roofs sit under mature beech, oak and yew, and the leaf they drop collects in the lead tray behind the stack. Once it fills, water spills over the back and into the roof. Clearing it each autumn, and making sure the tray has enough fall, stops most of the trouble.
Can you match the brick on an older Purley chimney?
Usually closely enough. For a handful of bricks, sound ones taken from the top of the stack during the repair can often be reused where they show. For bigger repairs we look for reclaimed brick of a similar colour and size, and match the mortar and joint so the repair doesn't stand out.
Is it worth keeping a chimney I don't use?
On many Purley houses the stacks are part of the design, so keeping them is often the right call, and in a conservation area it may be the only one. Fit a ventilated cap to keep the rain out, keep the lead and the top in good order, and a redundant stack need not cause damp.
Why does my chimney leak only in certain winds?
Wind-driven rain is getting under the lead on one side. On the higher roads, wind can push water sideways under a stepped flashing or past soakers that are short or missing. We check the weather side first.
Do you use mortar fillets instead of lead?
No. A mortar fillet against a stack cracks as the roof moves and lets water in within a few winters. On a clay tile roof we use soakers and lead flashings, which move with the roof.
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 Purley
Purley has some fine places for a walk, a couple of them linked to the same William Webb who laid out the estate.
Promenade de Verdun
Webb created the Promenade de Verdun in 1922 as a memorial: a straight avenue of Lombardy poplars with a granite obelisk at its south end, the trees planted in earth shipped from a Great War battlefield in northern France.
View on Google Maps - Promenade de Verdun
Purley Beeches
At Purley Beeches the beech trees stand over yew and whitebeam. Local subscriptions helped buy the wood for the public in 1907, and although the 1987 storm took many big trees it is still worth a stroll.
View on Google Maps - Purley Beeches
Foxley Wood
Croydon Council owns and manages Foxley Wood, a nature reserve where old oak and ash meet patches of chalk grassland. You can get in from Higher Drive, among other roads.
View on Google Maps - Foxley WoodPurley on the map
From our base in South Croydon, Purley is a drive of about 8 minutes. Planning and conservation questions here go to Croydon Council.
Areas we cover
We work on chimneys across the whole of Croydon and in the towns that border it, including Kenley, Coulsdon, Sanderstead, Wallington and Caterham.
Chimney Repairs by town
Damp near a chimney in your Purley house?
Tell us which stack and which room, and whether it only shows in certain weather. We'll come out free of charge, look properly at the stack and its lead, and give you the cause and a written price before anything is decided.