Coping stones, flaunching, repointing and full stack rebuilds across Glasgow and South Lanarkshire. Surveyed before it's quoted — never from a photograph.
Cracked, lifted or slipped copes let water straight into the stack. We lift, re-bed and repoint them, or replace like for like where the stone has gone.
The mortar fillet holding your pots is usually the first thing to fail. Once it cracks, the pot works loose and the stack takes water. We cut the old out and pour fresh.
Stacks weather harder than any other masonry on the building — exposed on four sides, and nothing above them. We rake out and repoint in a mortar that suits the original.
Where a stack is leaning, spalled or beyond pointing, we take it down to a sound course and rebuild. Brick or stone, matched as closely as we can source.
Not every chimney is worth keeping. We take disused stacks down below the roofline and weather the roof back in properly, so it never leaks.
Re-bedding loose pots, fitting the right terminal for the appliance, and capping flues that are genuinely finished with.
Most damp blamed on the chimney is actually failed lead where the stack meets the roof. We renew soakers, aprons and back gutters.
Stack damaged in a gale? We'll make it safe first and photograph everything — the report is written so an insurer can use it.
A tide mark or staining on the chimney breast in an upstairs room usually means water is getting in above, not condensation below.
Fine mortar dust collecting in the fireplace means the joints inside the flue are giving way. Worth looking at before it's a rebuild.
Buddleia and grass root into open joints and split them wider every winter. Where there's growth, there's already a way in.
If the pot rocks, the flaunching has failed. In an exposed spot that becomes a falling-masonry problem rather than a maintenance one.
We book an External Chimney Inspection and get eyes on the stack properly — copes, flaunching, pointing, pots and the flashings around the base.
Photographs of what's actually there, what's failed, and what's merely weathered. Yours to keep, and written plainly enough to hand to an insurer or a solicitor.
Scope, materials and access set out before anything starts. If scaffolding is needed we say so up front rather than adding it later.
Done by the same firm that swept it. If the flue needs relining or sweeping once the masonry is right, that's us as well — not another trade to chase.
Most firms who rebuild a stack have never looked down one, and most sweeps stop at the fireplace. We've been doing both since 1979, which matters more than it sounds. A leaning stack and a flue that won't draw are frequently the same fault, and knowing that saves taking a chimney apart to find out.
It also means nobody is guessing about the flue while the scaffolding is up. If the liner needs attention, or the stack ought to come down rather than be patched again, you'll hear it from the people who have to stand over the work afterwards.
No, and be wary of anyone who does. From ground level you cannot tell a stack that needs pointing from one that needs rebuilding, and the difference is considerable. We inspect first, then quote what we've actually seen.
Often, yes. Anything beyond re-bedding a pot usually means a proper working platform, and a tower won't reach most stacks safely. We tell you before you commit, not once we've started.
A partial rebuild is commonly two to three days on site once access is up. A full stack in stone can run longer. Weather moves it — mortar laid in a frost is mortar laid twice.
Ordinary repair usually doesn't. Listed buildings and conservation areas are different, and altering or removing a stack can be too. We'll flag it if we think it applies to yours, but the council is the authority on it, not us.
Small work, yes. Anything needing scaffolding is a separate visit, though we'll sweep and certificate the flue while we're there rather than have you book twice.
Yes. Storm damage claims are refused far more often for weak evidence than for weak cause. The inspection report is photographed and dated so it stands up as a record of what the stack was like.
Repair work runs across Glasgow, Rutherglen and South Lanarkshire, roughly forty minutes out. Further afield, call and ask — it depends on the size of the job.
The inspection is paid in advance. The repair itself is staged and agreed in writing before it starts. No deposit is taken for the survey visit beyond the inspection fee.
We survey the stack, photograph what's there and quote from that. Book the external inspection online, or call and talk it through first.