The chimney is the hardest-working junction on your roof: four faces of brick, a bed of mortar for the pots, and lead where it all meets the tiles. When any of it tires, water finds the chimney breast — and the repair bill grows with every month it’s ignored.
Chimney work is where the drone survey earns its keep most obviously. Stacks are exactly what you can’t see from the ground and exactly what’s expensive to scaffold “just to look”. Ten minutes of flight gives us — and you — close-up imagery of every course of pointing, the flaunching, and each lead junction, so the quote is built on evidence and the access costs are known before anyone commits to anything.
Interwar Solihull and Birmingham stock keeps us busy here: original lime-ish mortar at the century mark on Hall Green terraces, and 1930s semis in Shirley where the stack has outlived two roofs. Repointed properly with the right mix, they’re good for decades more.
Straight answers
The leak's near my chimney — is it the roof or the chimney?
Toss-up: chimneys are the most common leak source on otherwise sound roofs. Failed pointing, cracked flaunching and tired lead all funnel water into the same ceiling stain. The drone's zoom sorts out which without anyone climbing anything — and the photos come to you.
Why do chimney quotes vary so much?
Access. The same repointing job can need a ladder, a tower, or full scaffold depending on the stack's position — that's £0 to £800 of difference before any mortar. Our quote shows the access line separately so you can see exactly what you're paying for.
Mastic or lead?
Lead. Mastic 'flashing repairs' are the classic cowboy shortcut — months of life, not decades. We fit and dress lead to the LSA guidance it deserves; it's why the guarantee on our leadwork means something.