Chimney stack leak

Business Man

Business Man

Business Man

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23 May 2006
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I've got an issue with the chimney leaking above the roof line when it rains which is then dripping down the inside of the stack and on to the living room ceiling, the chimney stack was removed from the ground floor from previous owner.

Now myself and my neighbour don't plan on ever using the chimney, they have their stack removed right up in to the loft.

From what i can see, some of the top course of bricks below the flaunching are badly frost damaged and it could maybe do with repointing.

Would it be best to have the stack completely removed to below the roof line rather than throw money at what could be a process of elimination?

Anyone else had this done ? what advantages / disadvantages dose this pose

Another thing would be having to secure areal's to the roof itself

Anyone got a rough price on how much this would cost ? the stack is about 11 course high and in South Manchester
 
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surely removing it internally up a storey will still mean there is water ingress, just further up your building? You'll have to get it to stop leaking either way. Be interesting to know what structural changes were made when it was taken away at gf level
 
The chimney internally is structurally sound, its a narrow chimney cobbled into the wall. I had a structural engineer look at it and he said it was fine. it was a concern i had when i moved in as nothing was logged at building control.

I#m thinking to take the stack down that's outside, felt and tile over which will should stop water ingress
 
Business Man said:
The chimney internally is structurally sound, its a narrow chimney cobbled into the wall. I had a structural engineer look at it and he said it was fine. it was a concern i had when i moved in as nothing was logged at building control.

I#m thinking to take the stack down that's outside, felt and tile over which will should stop water ingress
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As the chimney is already missing from the ground floor so re-instating a fireplace isn't really an option I'd have the whole thing removed internally and externally if you can afford it. Otherwise just knock it down to below roof level although you'll probably be looking at a couple of grand.
 
I'd be interested to know the fault if you do get someone to look at it. I have the same problem here with water getting inside the chimney. ours is partially removed to loft level and so is dripping onto the bedroom ceiling.

I paid a guy to have a look at it and the fault look pretty clear as all 4 of the chimneys had no cowls over the top. He removed them and blanked the holes off and the problem has come back. So now I have no idea as the pointing and lead work looks fine to me.
 
Similar issue here, we will never use the fire places and when it is windy we get draughts and wind noise from the vents that have been put in where the fire places used to be. We are going to get rid of the Chimney to below roof level for now and then felt/batten/tile over, solves multiple problems and then maintenance free in the future and options to remove the rest of the stack without issues. Had quotes between £900-£1500 for the work just via local companies on yell.com
 
Mark A said:
I'd be interested to know the fault if you do get someone to look at it. I have the same problem here with water getting inside the chimney. ours is partially removed to loft level and so is dripping onto the bedroom ceiling.

I paid a guy to have a look at it and the fault look pretty clear as all 4 of the chimneys had no cowls over the top. He removed them and blanked the holes off and the problem has come back. So now I have no idea as the pointing and lead work looks fine to me.
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Pointing, leadwork and flaunching may look fine from the ground but be dire when you get up close! a lot of chimney repairs are horrible botches because people don't want to do it properly as it is more expensive and time consuming. the normal cause of water comming down the chimney is failed flaunching and the common solution is layering more and more mortar over the top which just cracks in the first frost and the leak returns. We have both our stacks properly repointed and flaunched and I couldn't believe the amount of rubish that came off the tops of the stacks including plants and wasp nest from inside the chimneys. Touch would since it was done we have not had a drip.
 
Just a bit of an update, had a roofer come around to look at the chimney. His opinion was to keep the chimney for the following reasons

1) both areal's are on the stack which are used by myself and neighbour and would maybe cost a couple of hundred to move. He said the aerial's fitted direct to roofs are forever being blown over in the wind ???

2) if you ever come to sell it will be picked up on surveys and maybe put buyers off.

3) The pointing isn't all that bad

His view was to take the pot off, take the two top course of frost damaged bricks off, slate over, flaunch it, re-point chimney, lead work. price £240.

If I did want to have the chimney removed it would be £360

I've got him to re-point the ridge tiles as well for £100

I had him look at the old felt roof over our garage and kitchen extension as it leaks around the soil pipe into the garage a bit, his view was not to use Firestone EPDM as its got the soil pipe and a down pipe running through the roof. He looked at the roof and he said you have the best roof, tongue and groove floorboards, had it been chipboard it would have been sagging. His opinion was to felt over the top of the existing felt since the felt as improved a lot over the years


A brand new roof with dry-fix was quoted at £3500, should the leak not be fixed at the chimney then I will get it removed at the same time I have the new roof
 
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That builder doesn't want to take the chimney down as it is building regs notifiable otherwise he wouldn't be scare mongering about future sales. If you take the top two courses of bricks off you probably rener the chimney unuseable anyway as your changing the flue height. He could move the TV aerials and they don't have to be roof mounted the most common option without a chimney would be a pole connected to a wall mount below the gutters.

Re-pointing a ridge is almost always a waste of time as what really needs to be done is the ridge tiles lifted and reseated if the pointing has gone then the bedding has almost certainly gone so any new pointing will fall out in the first frost. If he feels the flat roofs need new felt he should be removing the old not felting over it, he just seems a corner cutting cowboy

I would steer clear he appears to be a cowboy.
 
That's not true A1ex, not here in Stockport anyway, Building control are only bothered if the chimney has been removed from the bottom, not from the top to below the roof line. I've just got off the phone to a building inspector at building control.

The house we live in has a hip-roof, I thought aerial's on poles are more suited to gable end walls so probably wouldn't look great on our roof.

I only asked to have them re-pointed for now since planning on having a new entire roof soon.

Yes what he said about the aerial's blowing over made me think what do they do on properties that don't have chimneys.
He could be just being cautious since this is involving another persons property and so it would involve having to have the neighbours aerial
moved before hand, he said he will remove it if i want, he's given me the price to have it removed.

As for the felt roof, he's not the only roofer I have had in that's suggested having felt again even though this guy installs epdm as well, my concern as always been the two pipes going through the roof and he pointed out the same so he didn't recommend epdm.
 
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best to take it down below roof.your lead safe which runs through your chimney at roof level is likely failed.to sort this you would need to take down chimney below roof renew lead safe and rebuild it.
 
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