If your chimney stack is leaning, cracking or shedding mortar, getting the right contractor in Mildenhall is the single most important decision you will make before any work starts.
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A chimney rebuild is not a patch-up job. When a stack has deteriorated to the point where the brickwork is crumbling, the mortar is failing in depth, or the stack is visibly leaning, surface re-pointing is not enough. The right repair involves taking the stack down to a sound course of brickwork - at minimum to the lead flashing line, and sometimes to the roof line itself - and rebuilding it course by course with fresh mortar, matching bricks, and new lead flashings set into the courses properly.
New lead flashings are fitted as part of every rebuild we carry out. This matters because old lead that has been folded over cracked brickwork, or tucked into failed mortar joints, will not seat correctly on new work. Replacing the lead at the same time is not an upsell - it is the only way to make the joint between stack and roof watertight for the long term.
Re-pointing of the remaining visible joints below the new work is included as standard. A common failure is to rebuild the upper section and leave deteriorated pointing lower down. Water tracks into those joints and the cycle of damage begins again within a few years.
Chimney work sits at the point where masonry, lead work, and roofing all meet. Not every roofer is competent in all three, and not every builder understands how a roof's waterproofing actually works at the stack junction. Getting it wrong means you are back on the scaffold within a few years, often paying more to correct poor work than the original job cost.
Stacks on older properties often used a softer lime mortar originally - replace that with a hard modern sand-and-cement mix and you accelerate brick spalling because the mortar becomes harder than the brick itself. A contractor who knows this will match the mortar spec to the brick. One who does not will use whatever is on the van.
Before any contractor starts work on your chimney, ask these questions directly and listen carefully to the answers. A competent tradesperson will answer without hesitation.
A proper quote for a chimney rebuild should be itemised. You want to see the cost of the masonry work, the lead, the scaffold (or access), and any associated re-pointing listed separately, or at least described. A single round-number price with no breakdown makes it impossible to compare quotes or to know what you are actually getting.
Get more than one quote. Prices for chimney rebuilds in Suffolk typically range from around £800 to £2,000 for a partial rebuild, and more for a full rebuild, depending on the height of the stack, the access required, and how far down the rebuild needs to go. A quote significantly below that range for a full rebuild with lead should prompt questions about what is being left out.
Be wary of a quote given without the contractor going up to inspect the stack. Ground-level assessments using binoculars or drones can give a rough picture, but the true extent of the damage - how deep the mortar failure goes, whether the flaunching is hollow, whether the pots are cracked internally - is only clear once someone is up there with the brickwork at eye level.
There are patterns that appear repeatedly in poor chimney repair work. Knowing them helps you avoid a bad outcome.
When the job is finished properly, the new brickwork should be level and plumb. The mortar joints should be neatly struck and consistent in depth. The lead flashing should sit tight to the brickwork with no gaps at the upstand, and the step flashing should be correctly lapped over the back gutter. The chimney pot should be re-bedded on fresh flaunching, not just sat back on the old crumbling haunch.
From ground level you may not be able to inspect all of this yourself. Before the scaffold comes down, ask the contractor to walk you through the completed work - or at minimum send you photographs taken at close range showing the lead detail, the pointing, and the pot bedding.
We carry out chimney rebuilds across Mildenhall and the wider Suffolk area, working from our base in Bury St Edmunds. If your stack needs attention, call us to arrange a proper on-site inspection. We will tell you honestly what the stack needs - whether that is a full rebuild, a partial rebuild, or something more limited.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
