If you have a deteriorating chimney stack in Upwell and cannot get a roofer on site straight away, knowing what you can safely do yourself and what you absolutely should not touch makes a real difference.
A redundant chimney stack that is shedding mortar, cracking or showing signs of movement is not just an aesthetic problem. The brickwork above the roofline is exposed to frost, rain and wind on all sides. As mortar joints fail, water gets into the structure of the stack and from there into the roof beneath it. Wet roof timbers, soaked felt and damaged tiles are the result. If the stack has started to lean, individual bricks can separate and fall - onto the roof covering, into the gutters, or in the worst case onto someone below.
A chimney take-down removes the stack down to just below the roofline, makes good the tile or slate covering around the base, and seals the flue both at roof level and inside the house at the fireplace opening. The finished job should leave you with a weathertight, watertight roof and no cold air coming through the old flue. In the Ely area, a standard single-stack take-down and reinstatement typically costs between £500 and £1,200, depending on the height of the stack, the number of flues and what is needed to match the surrounding roof covering.
There is often a gap between spotting a problem and getting a roofer on site. During that time, a few straightforward steps can limit the damage without putting you at risk or making the job harder to fix.
Take photographs of the chimney stack from the garden, from different angles, as soon as you notice a problem. If it is visibly leaning, photograph it against a straight reference point like a corner of the house. If mortar or brick fragments are falling, photograph where they land. This information is useful when you speak to a roofer and helps them assess the urgency before they arrive on site.
If the stack is leaning or you have already seen bricks or mortar fall, keep people and vehicles away from the area directly below it. This is particularly relevant if the stack faces a path, a driveway, a conservatory or a neighbour's side of the house. You do not need to cordon anything off formally, but it is worth telling people in the house to use a different door until the situation is assessed.
If the chimney breast inside the house is damp, or if you can see water staining on the ceiling near the stack, put something absorbent down and move anything valuable away from the area. A bucket under an active drip is common sense. What it does not do is fix the source of the water, so do not assume a drip that has stopped has resolved itself - it is likely that conditions have temporarily changed rather than the problem gone away.
If you can access your loft safely from inside the house, look at the felt and timbers in the area above the chimney stack. Wet or discoloured felt, damp timber or visible daylight around the base of the stack all tell you useful things about how much water is getting in and where. Do not go onto the roof itself.
Mortar and small pieces of brick falling into gutters will block them quickly. A blocked gutter sends water up under the tiles at the eaves rather than away from the house. If you can reach the gutter safely from a ladder set against the wall (not the gutter itself), clearing it out takes ten minutes and prevents a separate problem developing.
The instinct to have a go at a problem yourself is understandable, but chimney work specifically carries serious risks that are not obvious until you are already in trouble. The following are things that genuinely cause harm.
This is the most important one. A domestic roof is not a safe working platform. Tiles and slates are slippery when wet and not designed to be walked on. Even in dry conditions, a domestic roof pitch is steep enough that a slip is very likely to end badly. Professional roofers work from scaffolding or tower scaffolds precisely because walking on the roof itself damages the covering and is unsafe. There is no version of a chimney problem that is worth risking a fall.
It can seem logical that if a brick is loose, removing it stops it from falling on someone. The problem is that disturbing one loose brick often destabilises the ones around it. On a stack that is already in poor condition, moving a brick by hand from a ladder can cause a larger section to shift suddenly. Without scaffolding and a proper working platform, you have no control over what happens next.
There is a category of repair that homeowners attempt with ready-mix mortar bought from a builder's merchant or with expanding foam. On a chimney stack, neither helps and both cause problems. Ready-mix mortar used without the right proportions or application method tends to shrink, crack and fall away within one winter, sometimes pulling good adjacent brickwork with it. Expanding foam blocks the flue temporarily but creates a sealing problem when the proper work is done. A roofer will have to remove it before they can cap the flue correctly.
Throwing a tarpaulin over a chimney from a ladder is genuinely dangerous and does not address the route that water is taking into the house. Water will find its way under a tarpaulin, particularly in wind, and a poorly secured sheet on a roof creates a sail that can dislodge the tiles it is supposed to be protecting.
When you contact Ely Roofers or any other contractor, being able to describe the situation clearly speeds up the process and helps them assess urgency accurately.
If you have already taken photographs from the ground, these are far more useful than a verbal description alone. Send them when you call and it helps us assess what is needed before we arrive.
A chimney stack that is visibly leaning, that has already shed bricks or significant amounts of mortar, or where water is actively coming into the house should be treated as urgent. In those cases, call a roofer and explain exactly what you have seen rather than waiting for a routine visit. A stack that is pointing is failing but otherwise upright, with no active water entry, is a problem to address promptly but does not usually require emergency action.
When you arrange a roof survey, ask for a clear written assessment of what needs to be done and what it will cost.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
