Still leaking after roof work?

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Location
Cumbria
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United Kingdom
Hello
We moved into our 100 yr old mid-teraced house a few months ago.

We have just paid around £3k to have the pots on our chimney re-seated and capped. The chimney was also re-pointed and the roofer says he also checked the flashing around the chimney but it was ok. The reason we had the work done was because of damp patches on the chimney breasts in the bedrooms and also on the wall below the loft hatch which backs onto the chimney stack too. We also had some smaller damp patches on the other side of the room and he replaced the flashing down that side of the roof. He also sprayed the chimney stack with silicone sealant.

The reason for my post is that it rained heavily 2 days after he finished the work and the wall below the loft hatch was wet again. (This had pretty much dried up in recent dry weather just before he did the work altho patches on chimney breast and on other side of the room hadn't much)

The roofer came back and felt the chimney stack above the loft hatch and said it was bone dry. He's put newspaper up there now and says if it gets wet we're to call him back again so he can invetigate further. But he also said that the damp patches could also be due to a fungus which will be killed off in the cold weather. (We of course have had the heating on to try and dry out the damp!)

I have searched this site and the internet for mention of a fungus that looks like damp and can find nothing! They don't look mouldy at all ...just wet and they feel wet too. I should point out that this guy is a member of various trade organisations including NFRC.

Is he right about this fungus? How do we get rid of it?

But if it's wet/rain then what do we do next?

Many thanks in advance for your thoughs.
 
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Sometime a leaking roof can be very very difficult to find, I have done a repair last year and it was nowhere near you think the leak was, the rain was running down the rafter then run along the bottom of the purlin and down another rafter 8 feet away!!
 
If you paid him £300 to re-seat your chimney he ripped you off!

Does your central heating flue go up the chimney?
 
Thank you for your replies. Re the cost. I knew it was pricey...we got two other quotes from two other roofers who had also come recommended. But they were all quoting different prices for different work..so we thought well at least if we go for the one with all the letters after his name (and I have checked that he is a member of the organisations in question) then at least we would have some sort of comeback. This is the trouble......we have a few other problems with the house that need fixing and we seem to get differnet opinions from different people...how are you supposed to know who to trust!!
 
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hi the stack should not be capped without vents to allow it to breath from the fireplace up to the stack as the damp can never get out. also if an area has been damp it will be colder so any condensation in your house will go to that area specially if you have double glazed windows. you need to let air flow through the house try putting the windows slightly open to remove damp. ps is the problem in a attic room as you can not stop penetrating damp coming down from an old stack. i do lots of work for trusted tradsmen ltd www.trustedtradesmenled.co.uk and have to put right what the cowboys make a mess off.[/url]
 
When it rains get into the loft space and look for leaks. If there are none then either water is getting down via the flaunching (mortar around the chimney pot base) or you have boiler condensation from a vent up the chimney.
 
As far as I know..there's nothing venting up the chimney i.e the boiler is in the utliity room at the back of the house a long way from any chimneys . Re the other comments... I've seen lots of people recommend putting vents in the chimney breast. Is it as simple as knocking a bit of plaster out and pulling out a couple of bricks and putting an airbrick in?
 

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