Newmarket Roofers handles lead flashing repairs and full replacements for homeowners in Soham, covering everything from chimney step flashings to flat roof abutments.
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Lead is used at every junction where a roof meets a wall or another surface - around chimney stacks, along dormer cheeks and sills, at bay window roofs, and where a flat roof section meets a house wall. Its job is to create a watertight seal that can flex slightly with the building's movement and with temperature changes throughout the year. When it is in good condition, lead is one of the most durable roofing materials available. When it fails, it tends to produce slow, persistent leaks that can cause significant internal damage before they are traced to the source.
All the lead work we carry out is hand-dressed on site to BS EN 12588 standard, using the correct code of lead for each application. This is not a detail to gloss over: the code determines the thickness, and the thickness determines how long the lead will last and how well it can be dressed to fit the surface.
The most obvious sign is a damp patch or staining on an internal ceiling or wall, particularly near a chimney breast, dormer wall or bay window roof. Because water can travel along rafters and joists before it shows itself, the wet patch is not always directly below the source of the leak.
From the ground, visible signs include lead that has cracked along its length, flashing that has lifted away from the wall, excessive bitumen or mastic used as a patch, and mortar above the flashing that has dropped away leaving a gap. Any of these is worth having looked at properly, because a small gap in lead flashing is enough to allow water in during sustained rain.
This is the question homeowners in Soham ask most often once a lead problem has been identified. The honest answer is that it depends on the condition of the existing lead, the cause of the failure, and how long you need the repair to last. Here is how to think about it.
A repair is appropriate when the lead itself is in reasonable condition and the failure is localised. For example, if a section of step flashing has lifted at one end because a fixing has worked loose, or if a small crack has appeared at a corner where the lead was not dressed quite tightly enough, these can often be addressed without replacing the whole run. Similarly, if the pointing above the flashing has simply dropped out and water is tracking in behind it, re-pointing may be all that is needed once the lead has been checked and is confirmed sound.
Repairs also make sense on younger lead that has failed for a specific, correctable reason - poor fixing rather than material degradation, for instance. If the lead is still flexible, shows no widespread cracking, and is the correct code for the application, there is no reason to replace it unnecessarily.
Replacement becomes the logical choice when the lead has reached the end of its useful life. Old lead becomes brittle and develops a network of fine cracks rather than one obvious failure point. At that stage, patching one section simply shifts the next failure to an adjacent one. Replacing the full run is more cost-effective than a series of repairs over the following years.
Replacement is also the right call when the original installation was poorly done - for example, where the lead is continuous rather than laid in correctly sized sections with expansion joints, where the wrong code was used and the material is too thin, or where step flashing was bedded on top of masonry rather than turned into the mortar joints. A patch cannot fix a fundamental installation problem.
Full replacement is typically needed when:
It is not always all-or-nothing. On a chimney with step flashings and a back-gutter, it is quite possible that the back-gutter needs replacing but the step flashings are still sound, or vice versa. A proper assessment from roof level - not from the ground - will tell you which sections are genuinely failing and which can be left. Ask your contractor to be specific about what they are recommending and why, section by section.
Lead flashing repairs typically range from £150 to £400 depending on the extent of work and access required. A full chimney re-flash, including back-gutter, step flashings and front apron, generally costs between £600 and £1,200. Valley lead replacements are priced by the linear metre and vary depending on the length of the valley and how it is detailed at each end. These are typical UK price ranges - the actual cost for your roof will depend on what is found when the work is assessed properly from the roof.
It is worth factoring in access costs. Scaffold or a tower is usually needed for chimney and parapet work, and that adds to the overall price whether you are repairing or replacing. If a full replacement costs only marginally more than a repair once access is accounted for, replacement is often the more sensible investment.
For a repair, the contractor will clean back the area, re-dress any lifted lead, re-fix any loose sections, replace pointing where needed, and check the surrounding tiles or slates for damage. For a replacement, the old lead is stripped off, any damaged timber or masonry beneath it is made good, and new lead is dressed and fixed in correctly sized sections. Each section overlaps the one below it and is turned into a mortar joint at the top to prevent water from getting behind it.
The difference between a good job and a poor one is largely invisible once the scaffolding comes down. This is why it matters to ask the right questions before work begins, and to understand what you are being quoted for.
If you have a suspected lead leak or you have been told your flashing needs attention, call us to arrange a proper roof survey. We will tell you clearly whether a repair or a replacement is the right approach, and why.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
