Chimney and roofing specialists in Lewisham
Cracked stacks, failed pointing, leaking flashing and damaged roofs — across the Victorian and Edwardian terraces of South East London. Tell us what you can see and we will tell you what it needs.
Open seven days, 7:00am – 9:00pm. Photographs of the problem are genuinely useful — email them to info@roofinglewisham.co.uk.
What we get called out to
Most enquiries fall into a handful of recognisable problems. If yours is on this list, we have a page explaining what is actually involved.
Chimney repair
Cracked brickwork, spalling, failed flaunching and water getting in at the stack. The starting point for most chimney problems.
Chimney repair →Chimney stack repair & rebuild
Structural work on leaning, moving or badly deteriorated stacks — from partial rebuilds above the roofline to full stack rebuilds.
Stack repair & rebuild →Chimney repointing
Raking out and replacing failed mortar joints on an exposed stack, before water penetration turns into brickwork damage.
Repointing →Flaunching & chimney pots
The cracked mortar cap around the pots — the most common chimney failure of all, and the one that causes the most damage when ignored.
Flaunching & pots →Chimney flashing repair
Leaks where the stack meets the roof — failed lead, cracked cement fillets and perished mortar in the chase.
Flashing repair →Roof repairs
Slipped and broken tiles, ridge and verge problems, valley and gutter-line defects on pitched roofs.
Roof repairs →Flat roof repair
The rear back-addition roof that almost every house here has — and where a disproportionate share of leaks begin.
Flat roofs →Urgent roof problems
Storm damage, water coming in, fallen masonry or a stack you are worried about. Same-day attendance where we can.
Urgent repairs →Work out what you're dealing with first
Written to be useful before you spend anything — including in the cases where the answer is that no roofing work is needed.
Damp on a chimney breast
Three different causes, three different fixes. Getting it wrong is why people pay for roof work and still have the damp patch.
Diagnose it →Survey & inspection
Your homebuyer report flagged the chimney? An independent look at what it actually means in money.
Inspections →What chimney work costs
Why access is usually the biggest number on the quote, and the questions that make two quotes comparable.
Costs explained →Chimneys you don't use
Cap it, cowl it, reduce it or remove it — and the one rule that stops a capped chimney causing damp.
Disused chimneys →Why chimney stacks fail on Lewisham roofs
Much of Lewisham's housing is late-Victorian and Edwardian terrace and semi-detached stock — Brockley, Ladywell, Hither Green, Catford and Forest Hill in particular. That housing came with tall, slender chimney stacks built in soft London stock brick and bedded in lime mortar, and those stacks are now well over a century old.
Three things tend to combine:
- Exposure. A stack is the most weather-beaten part of a roof. It is hit from every side, it cannot shed water the way a tiled slope does, and it stays wet for longer.
- Redundancy. When flues were closed off after conversion to gas or central heating, many stacks stopped getting warm and stopped drying out from the inside. Damp then sits in the brickwork.
- Mortar age. Original lime mortar is sacrificial by design — it is meant to erode before the bricks do. Once joints have opened up, water tracks straight into the stack and, in winter, freezes and expands.
That is why so many South East London stacks reach a point where repointing alone is no longer enough and the top courses need rebuilding. It is also why cement-heavy repairs done in the 1970s and 80s often made things worse: hard cement traps moisture behind it and pushes the damage into the brick faces instead of the joints.
Knowing which of those you are dealing with is the whole job. It is the difference between a few hundred pounds of pointing and a scaffolded rebuild.
Signs worth acting on
- Damp patches on a bedroom ceiling or chimney breast, especially after driving rain
- Mortar you can rake out with a finger, or joints visibly open from the ground
- Pieces of mortar or brick in the gutter or on the ground after wind
- A stack that looks out of vertical, or leans differently to next door's
- Cracked or missing flaunching — the mortar cap the pots sit in
- Staining, moss or a permanently dark band on the brickwork
- Lead flashing lifted, split, or replaced at some point with cement
If masonry has already fallen, keep people and cars away from the area below the stack and call us. Do not go up to look yourself.
How getting a quote works
No obligation, and no pressure on the phone. The aim of the first conversation is simply to work out what you are dealing with.
1. Tell us what you can see
Call, or send the quote form with a few photographs. Pictures taken from a window, a neighbour's garden or the street are usually enough for us to form a view before we arrive.
2. We assess it properly
We look at the stack or roof area in question, and at the parts connected to it — flashing, flaunching, pots, the roof covering around the base. Small problems and big ones can look identical from the ground.
3. You get a written quote
Set out clearly: what needs doing, what does not, what access or scaffolding is required, and what it costs. If the sensible answer is to do nothing yet, we will say so.
We are straightforward about what we will and will not claim on this website, and about what to ask any roofer before you commit — that is set out on our about page.
Not sure whether it is urgent?
Describe what you have noticed and we will tell you honestly whether it needs attention now, at the end of the season, or not at all.
Where we work
We cover the London Borough of Lewisham and the immediately neighbouring parts of South East London.
- Lewisham SE13
- Catford SE6
- Brockley SE4
- Deptford SE8
- Grove Park SE12
- New Cross SE14
- Forest Hill SE23
- Sydenham SE26
- Blackheath SE3
- Hither Green
- Ladywell
- Honor Oak
- Lee
- Downham
- Bellingham
- Crofton Park
Two parts of the borough have enough of their own character to be worth explaining separately: roofing in Blackheath SE3, where conservation constraints and mid-century flat roofs change the job, and roofing in Catford SE6, where Victorian slate terraces give way to interwar tiled estate housing. See all areas we cover →
Common questions
Can you tell me the cost over the phone?
Not accurately, and we would rather not guess. Chimney work in particular varies enormously depending on access, scaffolding and how far the deterioration has gone. What we can do on the phone is give you the likely range and tell you what would push it to the top or bottom of it. There is a full breakdown on our chimney repair cost page.
Do I need scaffolding?
For most chimney stack work above the roofline, yes. Working safely on a stack usually means a proper working platform rather than ladders. For smaller repairs lower down a roof, or some flashing work, other access may be appropriate. We will tell you which applies before you commit to anything.
Is chimney repair covered by home insurance?
Sudden, accidental damage — a stack brought down in a storm, for example — is often covered. Gradual deterioration, failed pointing and general wear are usually not, because insurers treat those as maintenance. It depends on your policy wording. We explain what tends to be treated which way in our advice section.
What are your hours?
We answer the phone seven days a week, 7:00am to 9:00pm. We are not a 24-hour service, so if you call overnight please leave it until 7:00am or email info@roofinglewisham.co.uk and it will be picked up first thing.
Do you work on flat roofs as well as pitched?
Yes. Rear extensions and back additions across Lewisham are overwhelmingly flat-roofed, and a lot of leaks blamed on the main roof actually originate at the junction between the two. See roof repairs.