Chimney rebuild & leadwork · 2024
Leaning chimney rebuild
The stack on this 1900s semi had leaned two degrees and the flaunching had crumbled. We took it down to the roofline, rebuilt it in reclaimed brick to match, fitted new code-5 step flashings and topped it with two new terracotta pots and cowls.
Job sheet
- Location
- Crookes, S10
- Scope
- Rebuild above roofline & flashings
- Materials
- Reclaimed brick, code-5 lead
- Duration
- 4 days
- Bricks
- 310
- Lead
- Code 5
- New pots
- 2
Before
A visibly leaning stack, cracked flaunching, spalling brick and a mastic-smeared old flashing letting water track down the breast.
After
A rebuilt plumb stack in matched reclaimed brick, hand-dressed code-5 lead flashings and new pots. The damp on the chimney breast has gone.
What we found once the scaffold was up
Crookes stacks lean the same way because the wet comes up off the Rivelin valley and only ever hits one face. The mortar on the weather side gives up first, the stack follows it, and the flashing tears open at the base.
How it was built back
Taken down course by course above the roofline. Sound bricks kept, the rest matched from a reclaim yard in Attercliffe so the colour sits right seen from the street. Rebuilt in NHL lime mortar rather than modern cement, which lets soft Victorian brick breathe and move instead of shearing. New code-5 step flashings and soakers, dressed by hand on the roof, and two clay pots with cowls.