Chimney Repairs · Sanderstead CR2
Chimney Repairs In Sanderstead
Is your Sanderstead chimney taking the worst of every gale?
Flaunching, pots, lead flashings and stack repairs for exposed interwar houses on the hill
On most Sanderstead roofs the chimney is the highest point, and the roofs themselves are already about as high as the borough gets. Along Limpsfield Road, up Mitchley Hill and around Sanderstead Plantation, a stack takes wind and driving rain on every face. The houses are mainly interwar semis and detached homes under hipped concrete or clay tile, and their stacks tend to be built in a harder brick than the Victorian ones further north. Hard brick lasts. The mortar is what gives up: the joints, the flaunching round the pots and the bed under the lead. Wind and frost wear those out, and those are the parts we repair.
Chimney Repairs quote in Sanderstead
Four details and somebody will come and look at it. There is no charge for the visit, no obligation afterwards, and if the answer is that your roof is fine, that is what you will be told.
The people behind it
Brothers on the job, not just on the phone
Chimney work on high, windy ground shouldn't come down to guesswork. At Roof Repairs Croydon it usually comes down to two brothers, John and Mark, who go through the figures together before any quote leaves the family firm.
They've always worked as a pair and never fallen out. Because they trust one another, nobody sits waiting on a second opinion. Their own view, given with a grin, is that it makes them twice the roofers a typical firm manages. You can make your own mind up about that.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
Signs a stack is suffering from exposure
You can see more from the ground than you might expect, and a pair of binoculars helps. The best time to look is the morning after a windy night, when anything loose has had its chance to move.
A pot leaning at an angle
The flaunching holding it has cracked or broken away. In a strong wind the pot rocks, and each rock breaks up a little more of the mortar around its base.
Bits of mortar on the drive or caught in the gutter
The joints near the top of the stack are eroding. Wind pushes rain into the fine cracks, then frost opens them wider.
Damp showing on a bedroom chimney breast
Rain soaking in through the stack itself and travelling down. A stack in the open has water driven sideways into its brickwork far more than one in a sheltered street.
An aerial bracket that has slipped or rattles
Aerial lashings wrap round the stack, and in a gale the pole acts as a lever. Over the years it loosens the top few courses of brick.
How we repair a chimney on exposed ground
Flaunching that sheds water
New flaunching is formed with a definite fall away from each pot, so rain runs straight off it instead of sitting in a hollow and soaking in.
Every pot checked
Loose pots are lifted, cleaned and rebedded. A cracked one is replaced before it can drop onto the tiles below.
Lead clipped down
Aprons, step flashings and the back gutter are renewed in lead and wedged into the joints. On a roof this windy we clip the free edges too, so a gust can't lift them.
Aerials flagged
If an aerial is working the top of the stack loose, we'll tell you and show you the photos, so you can have it moved to a wall or loft mounting.
Dead flues capped
A stack with no fire under it never dries out from the inside. A ventilated cap stops rain getting down the flue, while air can still pass up it.
Ten years in writing
Ten years is how long our workmanship guarantee lasts, and the paperwork comes to you when the job is done.
Sanderstead stacks and the wind off the high ground
Sanderstead is one of the highest places in the borough to live, and the ground falls away to the south with little to break the wind on its way in. A chimney here doesn't get the shelter that a stack in a valley street gets from the roofs around it. Rain arrives at an angle and hits the sides of the brickwork as well as the top. That matters, because a stack has no roof over it. Once it is wet, it stays wet until sun and wind dry it again, and in winter the frost often gets there first.
On an interwar hipped roof the chimney often comes up through a slope rather than at a gable end, so all the water running down the tiles above meets it head on. The lead back gutter on the uphill side has to carry that water round the stack. Plenty of roofs here have gone decades with hardly any work done on them, so the flashings may be original, or patched with a mortar fillet at some point. A mortar fillet against a stack on exposed ground cracks within a few winters. We take them out and replace them with lead.
"On Sanderstead stacks, the trouble we find is usually at the very top - rocking pots, cracked flaunching, a loose aerial bracket - rather than in the brickwork lower down."
From chimney repairs enquiries in Sanderstead handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
How a Sanderstead chimney repair runs
Indoors first
We check the chimney breast, the loft round the stack and any fireplace for damp. That tells us whether water is coming down the flue or through the brick.
All four faces
From a roof ladder or tower we look at the pots, flaunching, joints and lead on every side, including the one facing the weather, which may be at the back.
Scope agreed in writing
You get a written price that splits out each part of the work and says whether we need scaffold or a tower to do it safely.
Make the top sound
The old flaunching is cut away, loose pots are lifted and rebedded, and any cracked pot is swapped for a new one.
Repoint and reflash
Worn joints are raked out and filled again. New lead is dressed in, wedged and clipped so the wind can't get under it.
Clear up and hand over
We clear mortar and dust out of the gutters, send you photos of the finished stack and give you the guarantee.
The 10 year guarantee, and why it is safe to offer
Promising a roof will stay dry is easy. What counts is what happens if it does not. Work booked through Roof Repairs Croydon carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee, on paper, handed to you on the day and written in language you can actually read. The slates, tiles, lead, mortar, membranes and rainwater goods carry their own manufacturer cover on top of that. It varies by product, so you get told which cover applies to your job rather than one headline number that would be wrong on most of them.
Here is the reason a guarantee like that is not a risk. Repairs come back for one reason above all others: the fault was never found in the first place. Somebody went up, saw a stain on the ceiling below, mended whatever looked worst directly above it, and left. Water does not cooperate with that approach. It lands on a slate, runs under it, drops onto a rafter and travels along the rafter before it finds anywhere to fall. On a wide hipped roof in Sanderstead or Shirley that can be five metres from where it came in.
Find the entry point and the repair holds for years. Miss it and no amount of guarantee wording helps anybody. That is why the survey happens before the price, and it is why, if the same water finds its way back into your house inside the guarantee period, putting it right costs you nothing.
10 year
Workmanship guarantee
1,000+
Roofs put right
Covered
Public liability insurance
Per product
Maker's own warranty
What to ask before anyone climbs up to your chimney
Have they looked at every side?
On a hipped roof the weather face of a stack may point at the back garden. A price based only on what can be seen from the road can miss the worst of the damage.
Will the lead be clipped?
Lead that is only wedged at the top can lift in a hard gust. On an exposed roof it is reasonable to ask for clips along the loose edges.
Does the price include the top?
Repointing the sides of a stack and leaving the old flaunching leaves the most exposed mortar on the house as it was. Check the quote mentions it by name.
Repair the stack, or lose it altogether?
If a chimney no longer serves a fire and keeps causing trouble, removing it is a fair question to ask. On a high roof it takes away the part of the house that catches the most weather.
| Comparison point | Repair and keep the stack | Remove it below the roof |
|---|---|---|
| Suits | Stacks still in use, or ones you want to keep for the look of the house. | Redundant stacks that keep needing attention. |
| Exposure afterwards | Still catches wind and rain, so it needs a check every few years. | None. The roof is closed in with matching tiles. |
| Work involved | Flaunching, pointing, pots and lead. | Stack down, flue capped and vented, roof tiled over. |
| Shared stacks | Repairing your own half needs no notice. | A Party Wall notice is normally needed. |
| Planning | Not normally needed for repairs. | Check first if you are in or near Sanderstead Village. |
| Cost over time | Lower now, with upkeep later. | Higher now, then nothing left to maintain. |
When the leak is lower down
A stain on an extension ceiling sometimes gets blamed on the chimney, and sometimes it's the other way round. If the trouble turns out to be on a garage, a dormer or a back extension, see our page on flat roof repairs in Sanderstead.
Where the money goes on a Sanderstead chimney repair
On most chimney jobs, getting safely to the stack costs more than any other single item. Next comes the amount of brick and lead that needs attention.
Where the stack sits
Where a stack rises from the middle of a large hipped roof towards Hamsey Green, where plots and roofs get bigger, a scaffold is usually needed. One close to the eaves of a smaller semi off Limpsfield Road or Purley Downs Road may only need a tower.
How far the weather has got in
If only the flaunching has failed, the job is small. If wind-driven rain has opened joints down the exposed face and frost has followed it, more of the stack needs repointing.
Lead and the back gutter
Renewing an apron at the front is a modest job. A back gutter on the uphill side, plus step flashings down both sides, takes more time and more lead.
Chimney Repairs in Sanderstead: questions
Can I take down or change a chimney in Sanderstead without permission?
Croydon Council is the authority for Sanderstead, for planning and building control alike. Ordinary repairs to a stack, such as repointing, new flaunching or fresh lead, rarely need any permission. Taking a stack down, or altering it so it looks different, needs more care in a conservation area. Sanderstead Village, around All Saints Church, has been under review by the council for conservation area status since late 2025, so if that's where you live, ask the planning team where things stand before a stack is removed. A stack shared with the house next door adds another step: rebuilding or removing it is covered by the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, which means serving notice on your neighbour.
Why does wind do so much damage to chimneys up here?
A stack stands clear of the roof with nothing round it for shelter. On high ground the gusts hit it harder, and rain is driven into its sides, not just its top. Pots rock, aerial brackets lever at the brickwork and wet joints then freeze. Each winter loosens a bit more.
My Sanderstead semi shares a chimney with next door. Can I repair my side?
Yes. Repairs to your own half, such as repointing or new flashing, need no agreement. It is worth telling your neighbour, though. The stack is one structure, their side has had the same weather, and doing both halves at once often saves on access.
Should I get the TV aerial taken off my chimney?
If the bracket is loose or the bricks round it are cracking, yes. An aerial on a tall pole catches the wind and works at whatever it is strapped to. A wall or loft mounting is far kinder to the stack. We can tell you whether yours is doing harm.
How often should an exposed chimney be checked?
Every few years is sensible, plus after any storm that brings tiles down nearby. A look from the ground costs nothing. If a pot is out of line or there are bits of mortar on the drive, get it checked properly.
What Croydon homeowners say
From roads across the borough, once the ladders had gone.
"Damp patch on our landing ceiling for about three years. Two roofers had been out and both mended the tiles directly above it, and neither made the slightest difference. This chap spent twenty minutes in the loft with a torch before he even went outside, then showed me a photo of a split in the lead in the valley about four metres away from the stain. Fixed it in a morning. Three winters on and nothing."
"Water was coming down the front bedroom wall every time it rained hard and I had convinced myself the roof was finished. It was the gutter. Half of it had dropped so the water was sitting in the middle and going over the front rather than down the pipe. He reset the brackets and cleared the gully, charged me a fraction of what I had budgeted for, and told me the roof itself had years left. Could easily have sold me a new one."
"Ours is in the Chatsworth Road conservation area and I had no idea the rules on roof work here are stricter than the rest of Croydon. He knew straight away, explained what I could and could not do without an application, and did the repair in matching slate. That saved me a very awkward conversation with the council later on."
"Lost most of the ridge tiles along the back in a February gale. Rang in the morning, sheeted the same afternoon so the weather could not get in, came back the following week when it was dry and rebedded the whole ridge properly. Sent me photos of everything for the insurance without me even asking. The bill was exactly what the quote said it would be."
"Gutters had been overflowing under the trees for years and the fascia behind them had gone soft. What I appreciated was that he explained why the timber had rotted rather than just quoting to replace it, and pointed out the new soffits needed vents or I would end up with condensation in the loft instead. Nobody had ever mentioned that to me before."
Had us out to your roof?
Two minutes writing a review does more for a small local firm than any amount of advertising, and it helps the next person in Croydon work out who to ring.
Things to do in Sanderstead
If you have a free hour in Sanderstead, these three are close together and worth seeing.
All Saints Church, Sanderstead
All Saints was begun in flint around 1230 and enlarged in the early 1300s. It stands at the centre of the old village on the hilltop.
View on Google Maps - All Saints Church, Sanderstead
Kings Wood
Kings Wood covers nearly 150 acres of ancient oak, roughly half a mile to the south of the village,, and has been open to the public since it was bought in 1937. Go in spring for the bluebells.
View on Google Maps - Kings Wood
Sanderstead Pond
Once a watering stop for drovers on the road to Limpsfield, the pond sits where Sanderstead Hill meets Addington Road. Excavations close by found Mesolithic remains.
View on Google Maps - Sanderstead PondSanderstead on the map
Our base in South Croydon is about 6 minutes away by road, and Croydon Council handles planning for the whole of Sanderstead.
Areas we cover
We repair chimneys all over the borough and just beyond it, including nearby Selsdon, Purley and South Croydon.
Chimney Repairs by town
Get your stack checked after the next big wind
Ring 020 4538 1998 between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday, or send us a picture of the chimney. We'll get up there, check every face of it and put a free quote in writing.