Which Tradesman - Roofer/Sweep or Damp Specialist

sundin13

Hi All,

My personal bete noire - chimney damp - has appeared in our house (We had to spend £1500 to fix it before moving out of our last one). However I had a roofer look at the chimney flashings last year (when I first noticed a small damp spot) and he couldn't see a problem.

Pictures are here (hope it works)


I was hoping someone could advise me who to call - you'll see from the pictures that it's quite an extensive chunk of damp. As the roofer said the flashings/pointing of the chimney were ok, I was wondering whether it might be water getting into the unused (bricked up downstairs) chimney, and the small airbrick not providing adequate ventilation to dry it out. In which case I maybe need a chimney cowl?

Your thoughts, as ever, are greatly appreciated

S13

fatbikersbouncebetter

I guess the higher roof next door is next doors house????(could be from there) Water has a habit of finding its way through the weirest channels. ROOFER is a good start, could be if you have a slate roof, there is no felt/membrane. so a hole anywhere could cause this. Chimney has a pot missing???? is that the one you mentioned.??? Not much help I guess, but might not be the stack at all.....

sundin13

There's actually a five foot gap between us and next door, so I think I can probably rule that out! You're right that there's no membrane on the roof - so it could be a gap in any slate...eek? And I hadn't thought about there only being one pot...I just assumed that was the way it was meant to be.

I'll find a roofer to call out then. I'm just nervous about doing it without knowing the problem, as in our last house we had four roofers quote for the chimney damp and they all had different opinions about the problem/solution!

Thank you

welda

I would look at having a cowl installed first on existing pot, then ask the tradesperson while up there "has there been another pot next to existing and, if so, is it sealed/watertitght"? You can also compare with surrounding houses, how many pots to a stack?

HTH and, you find the source of dampness.

:beer: