Hello All

I have a small leak which appears to run down the outside of the
chimney breast and into the loft. the leak has been around for a while
as it's rotted all the ceiling laths in that general area and they felt
damp. I have since had the ceiling and the laths ripped down and
replaced, but with all this crap weather lately I need to find the
source of it and get it fixed. Looking at the chimney it appears that
the mortar flashings are all cracked. Should I rake this out and
replace with lead, Is this a relatively easy job providing you dont
have vertigo? the house was built in 1896.

I was planning on hiring a roof ladder and attempting this myself
seeing as I cant get a roofer to come round and have a look.

Failing that anyone know a roofer in the Banbury area who will be
willing to fix?

Advice, procedure, much appreciated.

Cheers

Richard

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello All

I have a small leak which appears to run down the outside of the
chimney breast and into the loft. the leak has been around for a while
as it's rotted all the ceiling laths in that general area and they felt
damp. I have since had the ceiling and the laths ripped down and
replaced, but with all this crap weather lately I need to find the
source of it and get it fixed. Looking at the chimney it appears that
the mortar flashings are all cracked. Should I rake this out and
replace with lead, Is this a relatively easy job providing you dont
have vertigo? the house was built in 1896.

I was planning on hiring a roof ladder and attempting this myself
seeing as I cant get a roofer to come round and have a look.

Failing that anyone know a roofer in the Banbury area who will be
willing to fix?

Advice, procedure, much appreciated.

Cheers

Richard


You can certainly buy all the materials at Wickes. As a quick and dirty
option,
they also sell anodised aluminium faced bitumen backed flashing, which
will stick onto a sound surface ( or if not sound then you will need to
prime it ).
If applied properly ( non-dusty surface, warm day and plenty of pressure in
my experience ) it will last a decade+. Nicer if you can do the proper lead
flashing though, which should outlast you!

Andy.

wrote:

Hello All

I have a small leak which appears to run down the outside of the
chimney breast and into the loft. the leak has been around for a while
as it's rotted all the ceiling laths in that general area and they felt
damp. I have since had the ceiling and the laths ripped down and
replaced, but with all this crap weather lately I need to find the
source of it and get it fixed. Looking at the chimney it appears that
the mortar flashings are all cracked. Should I rake this out and
replace with lead, Is this a relatively easy job providing you dont
have vertigo? the house was built in 1896.

I was planning on hiring a roof ladder and attempting this myself
seeing as I cant get a roofer to come round and have a look.

Failing that anyone know a roofer in the Banbury area who will be
willing to fix?

Advice, procedure, much appreciated.

Mmm. Must do mine sometinme..

Actually, rake out teh mortar and replace with new mortar.

Its probably 1896 mortar up there now, so it should be good for another
100 years, or until the roof needs retiling etc.

Cheers

Richard

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello All

I have a small leak which appears to run down the outside of the
chimney breast and into the loft. the leak has been around for a while
as it's rotted all the ceiling laths in that general area and they felt
damp. I have since had the ceiling and the laths ripped down and
replaced, but with all this crap weather lately I need to find the
source of it and get it fixed. Looking at the chimney it appears that
the mortar flashings are all cracked. Should I rake this out and
replace with lead, Is this a relatively easy job providing you dont
have vertigo? the house was built in 1896.

I was planning on hiring a roof ladder and attempting this myself
seeing as I cant get a roofer to come round and have a look.

Failing that anyone know a roofer in the Banbury area who will be
willing to fix?

Advice, procedure, much appreciated.

Cheers

Richard

You stated "Looking at the chimney it appears that
the mortar flashings are all cracked." do you mean that the flashing is
mortar or the pointing to the Lead flashing is cracked.

I have seen many slated roofs done in the late 1800s, with cement mortar
slapped on to the slates and up to the lead flashing. This method of trying
to seal leaks is a waste of time. As the rain water runs under the slate
joints side way and still gets in. What as mainly happened is that the
soaker, which fit between the slates and turn up at 90 degs behind the lead
flashing have deterated. Another source of water ingress could be that the
back gutter to the chimney is full of rubbish or split on the corner where
the lead is bossed round. To re new a lead flashing in lead is quite simple
once you've seen it done. the difficult part is in the marking out so that
it fits in the brick joints, and doesn't look like a set of stairs. if you
go to a builders merchant, you should be able to get a leaflet explaining
all this .

To re new a lead flashing in lead is quite simple
once you've seen it done. the difficult part is in the marking out so that
it fits in the brick joints, and doesn't look like a set of stairs. if
you
go to a builders merchant, you should be able to get a leaflet explaining
all this .


I've seen it done twice recently on my house and would call it anything but
simple. Having seen what's involved - and how long it took experienced
roofers - I was not about to complain at the cost of £400 each.

On 27 Jul 2005 06:01:22 -0700, wrote:

Hello All

I have a small leak which appears to run down the outside of the
chimney breast and into the loft. the leak has been around for a while
as it's rotted all the ceiling laths in that general area and they felt
damp. I have since had the ceiling and the laths ripped down and
replaced, but with all this crap weather lately I need to find the
source of it and get it fixed. Looking at the chimney it appears that
the mortar flashings are all cracked. Should I rake this out and
replace with lead, Is this a relatively easy job providing you dont
have vertigo? the house was built in 1896.

I was planning on hiring a roof ladder and attempting this myself
seeing as I cant get a roofer to come round and have a look.

Failing that anyone know a roofer in the Banbury area who will be
willing to fix?

Advice, procedure, much appreciated.

Cheers

Richard

Lead work is not massivly difficult, but it does take time. You will
need some good snips, and tools to beat the lead with - this does not
include a steel claw hammer, which will make huge dents. I use rubber
mallets (of different sizes), there are also slate beaters.

I suggest that if you DIY this, you spend time and money up front to
make sure you have a good working platform. This will make it much
safer to work, and you will be able to do a much much better job.

The book "The slate roof bible" has pictures/diagrams on this subject.


Rick