Chimney Repairs in Basingstoke
Roof repairs, new roofs and roofline work across north Hampshire. Free surveys, fixed written quotes, tidy workmanship.
Basingstoke Roofing Company repairs chimney stacks across Basingstoke ā repointing, re-flaunching, new lead soakers and back gutters, capping off unused flues and taking stacks down where they have no future. Chimney work is the most common cause of a leak that has nothing to do with your tiles.
There are two very different stacks in this town and they need different things. The estate housing carries short, single-flue stacks built into the slope, most of which stopped being used when gas central heating arrived. The older properties around the town centre, Old Basing and the villages have tall multi-flue stacks in soft brick and lime mortar that predate all of it.
Two kinds of stack, two kinds of job
The 1960sā80s stack is usually four or five courses above the tiles, built in hard facing brick with a cement mortar and a cement flaunching around a single pot. Its failure mode is predictable: the flaunching cracks, water gets into the top of the brickwork, and it works down until it shows on a bedroom ceiling next to the breast. The lead is often thin, and on some builds the back gutter was formed in cement rather than lead at all, which lasts about as long as you would expect.
The older stacks fail differently. Soft bricks and lime mortar erode rather than crack, so the joints recede, the brick faces spall, and the stack starts to lean. Those want repointing in a lime mortar that matches what is there, not a hard cement that traps moisture in the brick and accelerates the damage.
Work we carry out on stacks
Repointing
Joints raked out and repointed in a mortar matched to the brickwork ā cement-based on modern stacks, lime on older ones.
Re-flaunching
The mortar fillet holding the pot is broken out and re-formed with a fall away from the pot so water runs off rather than sits.
Lead flashings
Front apron, stepped side flashings, soakers and back gutter renewed in code 4 or code 5 lead, wedged into raked joints and pointed, in bays no longer than 1.5m.
Capping an unused flue
A vented cap or a half-round capping pot closes the flue against rain while still letting the stack breathe.
Rebuilding above roof level
Where the brickwork above the tiles has gone, the stack is taken down to sound work and rebuilt, reusing the original bricks where they are worth keeping.
Removal
Stack taken down and the roof made good with matching tiles and new membrane. Removing the breast inside is a separate job.
Chimney prices in Basingstoke
| Job | Guide price | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Repoint a single-flue estate stack | Ā£450 ā Ā£1,100 | Scaffold or tower |
| Repoint a tall multi-flue stack in lime | Ā£900 ā Ā£2,400 | Full scaffold |
| Re-flaunch and refit pot | Ā£300 ā Ā£700 | Often combined with repointing |
| New lead flashings all round | Ā£450 ā Ā£1,200 | Scaffold |
| Cap an unused flue, vented | Ā£180 ā Ā£400 | Tower where reachable |
| Remove stack above roof line and make good | Ā£900 ā Ā£2,200 | Full scaffold |
2026 guide figures. Scaffold is included in these ranges where the job needs it. Everything is surveyed free and fixed in writing first.
Capping a dead flue without creating damp
Most estate-house chimneys here have not had a fire in them for forty years, and the instinct is to seal them shut. Do that at both ends and you build a sealed, unheated column through the house. Moisture in the brickwork has nowhere to go and comes out as a tide mark on the chimney breast ā usually blamed on the roof.
The fix is airflow. Cap the top with a vented cowl that keeps rain out but lets air through, and put a vent into the breast at the bottom. A trickle of air through the flue keeps the stack dry, costs very little, and prevents a damp problem that is expensive to diagnose later.
Leak near the chimney breast
Tracing whether it is the stack, the flashing or the roof.
Frequently asked questions
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