Chimney Repairs · South Croydon CR2
Chimney Repairs In South Croydon
Is the chimney on your South Croydon villa behind that damp bedroom wall?
Flaunching, pointing, lead flashings and stack removals on the Victorian and Edwardian chimneys of CR2
South Croydon's villas went up when every room had a fire, and the roofs still show it. Along Croham Road, The Waldrons and the roads off Selsdon Road there are big stacks carrying rows of pots, and most of them now heat nothing. A cold stack doesn't dry out the way a working one did. The mortar at the top weathers away quietly for years. Then a wet week comes in on a strong wind and a damp patch turns up on a chimney breast two floors down. We are based on Penwortham Road, a few minutes from most of these houses, and when someone here rings about a damp upstairs wall, the stack is the first thing we look at.
Chimney Repairs quote in South Croydon
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
The family firm behind your chimney quote
Roof Repairs Croydon is a family business on its own patch in South Croydon, run by brothers John and Mark. They quote together, run jobs together and manage the team together, which suits a tall villa stack where there is a fair bit to weigh up.
They trust each other, so a decision about your chimney isn't left waiting for a meeting. Customers often say dealing with them is refreshing. The brothers put it their own way: they like to think working as a pair makes them twice as good as a typical roofing firm.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
Signs the stack is letting water in
Most chimney faults show indoors long before anyone looks up. Here is what each one usually points to.
A damp patch high on the chimney breast that comes and goes
Water is getting in at the top, through cracked flaunching or open joints, and soaking down the brick inside. It shows after a few days of rain, then fades again.
Mortar crumbs or bits of brick in the gutter
The pointing is washing out and frost is opening the joints a little more each winter. If pieces of brick are coming down too, the faces are spalling.
A stain on the ceiling right next to the stack
Usually the lead where the stack comes through the slates. The back gutter behind a wide villa stack fills with debris and overflows under the slates.
A pot that looks tilted from the street
The flaunching holding it has broken up. A loose pot on a tall stack is worth sorting before a strong wind sorts it for you.
Why a firm from CR2 suits a villa chimney
We start at the top
Flaunching and pots get looked at first. A cracked cap lets in more water than most people would guess.
Mortar soft enough for old brick
Victorian brick wants a softer, lime-based mix. Hard cement pointing on it holds water in the brick and pops the faces off.
Lead cut for your stack
Aprons, steps and back gutters are made from sheet lead on site and wedged into the joints. No mortar fillets and no tape.
Height sorted at the survey
A three-storey villa stack is a long way up. We tell you at the visit whether it needs scaffold, roof ladders or a tower, and price that on its own line.
A straight answer on redundant stacks
If a stack serves nothing, we set the cost of keeping it against the cost of taking it down, and say what the conservation area might make of it.
Ten years, on paper
Our workmanship guarantee on the stack runs for ten years and comes as a document you keep.
Big stacks, a rising hill and the damp side of the wood
The older South Croydon villas were built to heat a lot of rooms, so the stacks are wide and tall and they rise well above slate roofs that are high to begin with. That height is the trouble. The ground climbs as you go south from the town centre, which leaves the tops of these stacks taking the full weather. Wind-driven rain finds every open joint, and the mortar bed at the very top takes more of a beating than anything else on the house.
Then there's the north side. Under the trees along Croham Hurst, brickwork facing away from the sun stays wet through the winter, and wet brick is where frost does its damage. Many villas are flats now, which can mean one stack serving three or four homes, or none of them. Where the stack sits on the party wall with next door, ordinary repairs are simple, but anything structural means talking to your neighbour first.
"On the older South Croydon stacks we look at, the flaunching turns out to be the culprit more often than the flashing, even when the owner is certain it's the lead."
From chimney repairs enquiries in South Croydon handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
How a chimney repair in South Croydon goes
Inside first
We look at the stain, the breast and the loft round the stack. Where the damp sits tells us whether to start at the top, the sides or the back gutter.
Up close on the stack
From a ladder or scaffold we check every face, the pots, the flaunching and the lead. The photos come down with us, so you see what we saw.
A written plan
The quote spells out what gets repointed, rebedded or releaded, which mortar we will use and how we will get up there.
Make the top weathertight
Loose pots are lifted and rebedded. Old flaunching is broken out and a new bed is formed that throws water away from the pots.
Joints and lead
Open joints are raked out and refilled in a mortar that suits the brick. Flashings are dressed and wedged, and the back gutter is cleared and checked for fall.
Clear up and hand over
Gutters below are emptied of grit and old mortar, any slates we disturbed are checked, and you get the 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
What a sensible chimney quote should include
The flaunching, by name
If the top of the stack isn't mentioned, the most common way in has been left out. Ask about it.
How they will get up there
On a tall villa stack the access often costs more than the work. A quote without it isn't a full price.
A view on keeping it at all
With a redundant stack you should hear both options. A firm that only ever suggests a rebuild, or only ever suggests removal, isn't looking at your house.
Keep the stack or take it down?
Most villa stacks in South Croydon don't heat anything any more, so the question comes up often. This is the trade-off.
| Comparison point | Repair and keep it | Take it down below the roof |
|---|---|---|
| Looks | The roofline stays as built, which counts on The Waldrons. | A gap in the roofline that may need approval in a conservation area. |
| Cost now | Repointing, new flaunching and lead. | Taking down, capping and slating over. Often more up front. |
| Cost later | Needs checking and the odd repair over the years. | Little to look after once the roof is closed over. |
| Neighbours | You can repair your own side without asking. | A Party Wall notice if the stack is shared. |
| Damp inside | Cured once the top and lead are sound, with a vented cap on unused flues. | What is left of the flue still needs venting, or the breast can sweat. |
| Paperwork | Usually none. | Planning check with Croydon Council, and building control if the breast comes out inside. |
And the flat roof underneath?
Water off a stack and water through a flat roof can show up on the same ceiling. If your chimney rises above a back addition, our page on flat roof repairs in South Croydon covers the other half of the problem.
What a South Croydon chimney repair costs, and why
Chimney work is cheap in materials and dear in access. The price follows the height, the state of the top and how much lead is involved.
Villa height on a hill
A stack on a three-storey villa on Croham Road or The Waldrons usually needs scaffold, and where the garden falls away it has to be built up from a lower level. That is often the biggest line.
What the weather has done to the brick
Stacks facing north under the trees round Croham Hurst stay damp and freeze more. Expect more raking out, and possibly some new bricks, on that side.
How many pots and flues
A wide stack with several pots means more flaunching, more rebedding and more caps if unused flues are being closed. Each one adds a little.
Chimney Repairs in South Croydon: questions
Can I take down the chimney on my house on The Waldrons?
Not without checking first. South Croydon is in the London Borough of Croydon, and The Waldrons is a conservation area, so removing or altering a stack that can be seen from the road may need permission from Croydon Council. The Article 4 direction on numbers 5 to 23 covers hard surfaces and boundary walls, gates and fences, so for the roof it is the conservation area rules that count. If the stack is shared with next door, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 applies to anything structural and notice has to be served before work starts. Repointing and reflashing like for like normally need no permission.
One face of my stack is crumbling and the others look fine. What causes that?
Usually because that side stays wet. On the slopes below Croham Hurst the north face of a stack can go weeks without drying, and every frost works on wet mortar and soft brick. The sunny side dries out between showers and lasts much longer. Repointing the bad face in a suitable mortar is often enough.
My South Croydon flat is on the top floor. Is the chimney my problem?
That depends on the lease. In most converted villas the stack is part of the building the freeholder looks after, even if the damp shows in your flat. Check the lease, then tell the freeholder or managing agent. We can put the fault and the cost in writing so they have it in front of them.
Should I seal up a chimney I never use?
Cap it, but don't seal it. A flue closed at both ends holds moisture and the breast goes damp. A cap that keeps rain out but lets air through, with a vent lower down in the room, keeps the flue dry.
Is cement pointing on a Victorian stack a problem?
Often, yes. Old brick is softer than modern cement, so water that should leave through the joints leaves through the brick instead, and frost lifts the faces off. If an earlier repair used hard cement and the bricks around it are flaking, we would rake it out and repoint in a lime-based mix.
How long does a repoint and reflash take?
A day or two on most stacks once the access is up, weather permitting. Fresh mortar has to be kept from frost and heavy rain while it sets, so we won't start in conditions that would spoil it.
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 South Croydon
If you live here you probably know these already. If not, they're worth the trip.
Croham Hurst
Croham Hurst is ancient woodland of oak, beech and hazel and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Walk up to the top and you will find a Bronze Age round barrow.
View on Google Maps - Croham Hurst
Lloyd Park
Lloyd Park, on Coombe Road, is about 114 acres of open grass. It takes its name from Frank Lloyd, the newspaper owner, whose family passed the land to Croydon.
View on Google Maps - Lloyd Park
Coombe Wood
Coombe Wood, near Coombe Lane and Conduit Lane, has formal garden rooms set against trees, and a cafe in what used to be the stables.
View on Google Maps - Coombe WoodSouth Croydon on the map
South Croydon is home for us, as we're based on Penwortham Road. Croydon Council handles planning for every street on this map.
Areas we cover
We look after chimneys right across the borough and a little beyond it, in places such as Sanderstead, Selsdon, Addiscombe, Shirley and Caterham.
Chimney Repairs by town
Damp on a chimney breast in CR2? We're close by
Tell us which room and which wall, or send a photo of the stack from the street. We will come round, get up to it, and explain in writing what is letting the water in. The survey and the quote cost nothing.