Chimney Repairs in Cheltenham

Repairing salt-weathered post-war chimneys and heater flues in Cheltenham

The chimneys on Cheltenham’s mid-century homes were built plainly: a brick stack, a mortar wash over the top for a crown, and galvanised steel flashing where the stack meets a tiled roof. Decades of bay air later, that mortar crown is cracked and crumbling, the flashing has rusted through at the fold, and the exposed face of the stack has lost mortar from the joints. Add a wood heater’s steel flue and its collar, and there is a second set of metal parts to corrode.

Diagnosis comes before any quote. We photograph the stack, crown, flashing and the flue collar from the roof, and put a camera up the flue, because rust staining on the tiles below a chimney can come from the flashing, from a corroded cowl or from the heater’s flue pipe, and each is a different repair. You see the photos and get a firm price for the part that has actually failed, not a list.

The repairs are practical ones for a practical chimney. Crumbling crowns are rebuilt in proper mortar with a fall so water sheds off, rusted flashing is replaced with a corrosion-resistant material and sealed to the tiles, eroded joints are repointed to match the post-war brick, and spalled bricks are cut out and replaced. Where a heater flue or an unlined open flue has failed, a stainless liner is quoted after the camera inspection.