If you have a suspected leadwork failure at your Barnham Broom home and you are waiting for a roofer, knowing what to do in the meantime - and what to leave well alone - can prevent a manageable problem from becoming a serious one.
A leak traced back to failed lead flashings rarely announces itself clearly. Water enters at a chimney stack, a dormer edge, or a valley junction, then travels along roof timbers before appearing as a damp patch on a ceiling some distance away. By the time you notice it, water may have been tracking in for weeks or months. That slow ingress is what makes leadwork failures more damaging than they first appear - the visible stain is often just the end point of a longer water journey.
Lead flashings seal the junctions between your roof and any vertical surface: chimney stacks on all four sides, dormer cheeks and sills, bay window flat roofs, valleys where two roof slopes meet, and parapet walls. When they fail - through thermal cracking, mortar chase erosion, or poor original workmanship - those junctions become open to every rain event.
Good lead flashing work means cutting sheet lead to the correct code thickness (Code 4 as a minimum for most residential flashings, Code 5 for valleys), shaping it precisely to follow the profile of the roof and masonry, wedging it mechanically into cut chases in the brickwork, and pointing the chase with a flexible mortar. Each section is cut to a length that allows for thermal expansion and contraction without cracking. Laps between sections must overlap by at least 100mm, more on a shallow pitch.
This is not quick work to do properly, and it is very different from applying a sealant product over an existing flashing. A correctly fitted lead flashing on a chimney involves at least four separate pieces: front apron, back-gutter, and stepped flashings on both sides. Each has to be individually cut, dressed, fixed, and pointed.
If water is getting in and you are waiting for a roofer to attend, there are practical steps you can take inside the house to limit damage while you wait. None of these fix the roof, but they protect your property while the repair is arranged.
Place containers under any active drip and use old towels or absorbent material around the base to protect flooring. If you have a sagging ceiling where water has pooled above the plasterboard, carefully piercing the plasterboard at the lowest point with a screwdriver allows the pooled water to drain in a controlled way rather than bringing a section of ceiling down at once. This is a temporary measure that saves the rest of the ceiling from collapsing under the weight.
Move furniture, electronics, and anything else of value away from beneath the affected area. Water that appears to be coming from one point on the ceiling may spread further if rain continues. Cover what you cannot move with plastic sheeting.
Take photographs and video of the leak, the ceiling staining, and anything visible on the roof from ground level. Note when the leak appears or worsens - whether it happens during heavy rain, lighter rain, or only when wind is coming from a particular direction. This information helps a roofer diagnose the source more quickly, especially if the entry point is not immediately obvious. Leadwork leaks near chimneys, for example, sometimes only show during driven rain rather than vertical rainfall.
If your loft is accessible and safe to enter, go up during or after rain and look for the point where water is entering the roof structure. You may be able to see damp timbers, water tracking along a rafter, or daylight near a chimney penetration. This gives the roofer a starting point before they go onto the roof. Do not lean on or put weight on the boarding around the chimney breast - it may be soft or damaged.
When there is a visible leak and a delay before a roofer can attend, the temptation to do something - anything - is understandable. Most DIY interventions on leadwork either do nothing useful or make the subsequent repair harder and more expensive. Here is what to avoid.
This is the single most important rule. A domestic roof is not a safe working surface without the correct access equipment, footwear, and training. Falls from roofs cause serious injuries and deaths every year. Chimney stacks are higher still and involve leaning out over a pitch, often on a wet surface. No temporary fix you could apply from the roof yourself is worth that risk. Leave the roof access to a roofer with the correct equipment.
Roofing sealant, mastic, bitumen paint, and self-adhesive lead-repair tape are sold in DIY sheds and are sometimes suggested online as quick solutions. They may slow an obvious drip briefly, but they degrade within a year or two and trap moisture between the lead and the masonry while they do so. More practically, applying these products obscures the extent of the underlying failure, which means the roofer has to spend more time stripping back the repair before they can assess and fix the actual problem. You will pay for that additional time.
If the brickwork of the chimney is visibly cracking or leaning, this is a structural issue as well as a leadwork one. Do not attempt any work on or near it yourself. Keep people away from the area immediately beneath the stack and arrange an urgent inspection.
A leak near a chimney or dormer is far more likely to be a leadwork failure than a cracked tile. Replacing tiles yourself without addressing the flashings will not stop the water entry. A roofer needs to inspect the flashings, the mortar chases, and the surrounding structure before drawing conclusions about what has failed.
Before you agree to any leadwork repair or replacement, you should know: which part of the roof is involved, what lead code will be used, how the flashing will be fixed (wedges into a cut chase, not mortar alone), and what access equipment is needed. Ask for this in writing as part of the quote. A contractor who cannot or will not specify these details is one to be cautious of.
Ask also what they will do if they find additional problems once they are up there - rotted timber beneath a valley, for example, or a chimney pot that needs re-bedding. You want to agree in advance how unexpected findings will be communicated and priced, rather than receive an escalating bill after the fact.
Re-pointing and re-wedging a sound flashing where the mortar chase has failed: typically £150-£300. Full chimney leadwork replacement on a standard house: roughly £350-£800 depending on the size of the stack and the access needed. Valley lead replacement: from around £400 upward depending on length. These are working ranges; the actual cost depends on the specific property and what is found on inspection.
We carry out leadwork repairs and replacements for homeowners in Barnham Broom and the surrounding villages near Dereham. If you have a live leak or you can see damaged flashings from the ground, call us to arrange a survey. We will tell you exactly what needs doing and give you a clear breakdown before any work starts.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
