Hi,
I`m after some advice for our leaky chimney.
When it rains heavily for prolonged periods (like the last few weeks!!), we appear to get water seeping through the mortar in the loft space and then running down the outside of the chimney breast and drippng down.
The house is an end of terrace built around 1890 with a slate roof.
When this first started happening, the first thing done, was the concrete flashing which was not great, was covered over some sort of silicone to help seal it. The chimney pots were all capped aswell. It still appears to leak.
Recently, i had another roofer/builder look at it and he repaired some of the pointing, haunching and added a water proof sealant to the outside bricks. Still, it leaks just as bad as ever!
I`ve had the same roofer back to take another look and he says the chimney has no damp course and reckons we need to demolish the chimney now, and rebuild it with a damp course, lead soakers, flashing, apron and tray.
Looking at the chimney from the ground, there doesn`t appear to be a damp course at all where other chimneys have them.
If it didn`t have a damp course when it was built originally, it obviously held up ok for the best part of 100 years(!), why do i need one now?
If the chimney was to be completly repointed properly, with decent lead flashing to the roof fitted, would this work or still leak? Obviously, this is ALOT cheaper than having the chimney completly rebuilt!
Thanks in advance, cheers, Mike
Heres some pics - you can see the mortar inside is completely shot - i can repoint this myself though (once its dry again!). The gaps at the top is where i started scraping the mortar out before the rain came!
I`m after some advice for our leaky chimney.
When it rains heavily for prolonged periods (like the last few weeks!!), we appear to get water seeping through the mortar in the loft space and then running down the outside of the chimney breast and drippng down.
The house is an end of terrace built around 1890 with a slate roof.
When this first started happening, the first thing done, was the concrete flashing which was not great, was covered over some sort of silicone to help seal it. The chimney pots were all capped aswell. It still appears to leak.
Recently, i had another roofer/builder look at it and he repaired some of the pointing, haunching and added a water proof sealant to the outside bricks. Still, it leaks just as bad as ever!
I`ve had the same roofer back to take another look and he says the chimney has no damp course and reckons we need to demolish the chimney now, and rebuild it with a damp course, lead soakers, flashing, apron and tray.
Looking at the chimney from the ground, there doesn`t appear to be a damp course at all where other chimneys have them.
If it didn`t have a damp course when it was built originally, it obviously held up ok for the best part of 100 years(!), why do i need one now?
If the chimney was to be completly repointed properly, with decent lead flashing to the roof fitted, would this work or still leak? Obviously, this is ALOT cheaper than having the chimney completly rebuilt!
Thanks in advance, cheers, Mike
Heres some pics - you can see the mortar inside is completely shot - i can repoint this myself though (once its dry again!). The gaps at the top is where i started scraping the mortar out before the rain came!
