Lead work is essential for keeping water out wherever a roof meets a wall, chimney or skylight. We cut, dress and fit lead flashing to a proper weathertight standard on all property types across Poringland and the surrounding villages. Poor lead work is one of the most common causes of persistent roof leaks.
Photo from one of our recent jobs
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Lead flashing is the strip of worked metal that seals the join between a roof surface and any vertical structure it meets: chimneys, parapet walls, dormer cheeks, bay roofs, skylights and soil vent pipes. When that seal fails, water tracks down behind tiles or into the wall cavity, and the leak often appears inside the building well away from where the fault actually is. Lead work covers this on properties in Poringland, which are mostly post-war, and in neighbouring villages across south Norfolk.
Lead is sold in rolls graded by thickness, known as code numbers. Code 3 and code 4 sheet is used for soakers and small flashings; code 4 and code 5 is standard for chimney flashings and parapet gutters; code 6 and above suits flat roof weatherings and box gutters. Choosing the right code matters because lead that is too thin will split at the folds, while lead that is too heavy can slide under its own weight.
Cutting and dressing lead is a craft skill. The lead is scribed to follow the profile of the masonry, cut to size, and then dressed down with a bossing mallet and dresser so it sits flush without splitting. Step flashings are interwoven with roof slates or tiles one course at a time, while cover flashings are chased into mortar joints and fixed with lead wedges before being pointed up. Each section is kept short enough to allow for thermal expansion, typically no longer than 1.5 metres per piece, so the metal can move with temperature changes without buckling or cracking at the joints.
Common failure points include:
A mortar fillet on its own, without a proper lead flashing behind it, will always fail in time. Mortar is rigid and the roof moves; the fillet cracks, opens up and lets water in. This is a common problem on older properties where the original lead was removed and not replaced correctly.
Chimneys are the most demanding lead work job on a typical house. A full chimney flash involves a back gutter (the horizontal lead tray behind the chimney stack), two sets of stepped soakers and cover flashings up each side, and a front apron flashing. Each piece has to be measured and dressed individually to fit the stack and the tile profile.
If your chimney breast is damp inside, or there are tide marks on the breast wall, the flashing is the first thing to check before spending money on internal plasterwork.
Where a flat roof meets a wall, the upstand needs to be fully weathered with lead dressed up the face of the wall and fixed into a chase. Parapet gutters run along the back of a parapet wall and collect water before discharging it through an outlet. Lead parapet gutters on older buildings are often the original installation and can last well over a century when properly maintained, but they do need periodic inspection for splits at the welts and around the outlets.
Typical lead parapet gutter replacement in the Norwich area runs from around £150 to £400 per linear metre depending on gutter width, code of lead used and access difficulty. Chimney re-flashing on a standard two-storey house generally falls between £300 and £700 for a full set of flashings and soakers, again depending on chimney size and how much preparation the stonework or brickwork needs.
Lead outlasts every alternative flashing material. Properly fitted lead flashings on a chimney can remain watertight for 60 to 100 years. Zinc and aluminium flashings are sometimes used on modern buildings and are cheaper up front, but they have a shorter service life and are less forgiving to work. Self-adhesive flashing tapes are a temporary repair material, not a permanent fix, and are not suitable as a replacement for cut and dressed lead on a traditional roof. On listed buildings or properties in conservation areas, lead is often specified by the local authority and no substitute is accepted.
Before any lead is cut, the existing detail needs to be inspected. On a chimney this means getting onto the roof and checking the condition of the brickwork or stonework, the mortar joints, and the state of the existing lead or fillet. If the brickwork is crumbling, the pointing needs to be made good before new lead is installed, otherwise the chased joint will not hold. We look at the whole picture rather than just the flashing in isolation.
Larger jobs involving multiple details, a full flat roof perimeter or extensive parapet work will take longer and may need scaffolding depending on height and access. We will tell you what access equipment is needed before we start so there are no surprises on the day.
After the lead is dressed and fixed, all pointing is made good with a suitable mortar mix. On older buildings we use a softer lime-based mortar rather than a hard cement mix, which would crack away from the masonry faster than the lead itself moves.
Churches, older public buildings and some residential properties with large flat lead roofs can all be targets for lead theft. If you return to find lead missing from your roof, get a tarpaulin or temporary cover over the exposed area as quickly as possible and then arrange for a proper assessment before water tracks into the building fabric. Replacement lead should be marked with a forensic property marking product as a deterrent.
If you have a damp patch near a chimney, below a roof abutment or at a parapet, call us and describe what you can see. In many cases we can give you a good indication over the phone of whether the lead is the likely cause, and arrange to come out to Poringland or the surrounding area to take a look. A short lead repair carried out correctly costs far less than the internal redecoration that follows a leak left to run for a season.
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