Home Buyer Report highlighted a cracked chimney fillet

LordMirg

Hi all,

I recently got the Home Buyer Report back from a property I am purchasing and one issue raised was some dampness in the roof likely caused by a cracked chimney fillet.

I realise I would have to get some quotes for the job, however I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with such issues and could give a rough idea of how much it would cost to get repaired?

(The report listed it as condition rating 2, i.e. not serious or urgent)

Thanks.

G_M

The main cost is likely to be access.

If scaffolding is needed that can put the price up considerably.

If you can get a local roofer to go up with a ladder, he'll probobly pull out any cracked/loose cement and renew the fillet for... £50? £100?

AlexMac

As above, the damage is trivial and would take little time or cost to fix, either by replacing the fillet (which I assume is the mortar joint seal where the vertical chimney stack meets the slate or tile roof?), or even by a enhancing the seal with a lead 'flashing' or similar ...but...

As the post above says; if the property is more than 2 storeys high, if the chimney's on a difficult to access-roof section, and you cannot find a roofer willing to go up a ladder, then access via a scaffold or scaffold tower could add a few hundred to the cost. I recently had a really good cheap builder say he would happily go up a laddder on a concealed roof, but insisted on scaffolding for an exposed main-road face in case the local building inspector saw him at work and came on all 'elf n safety'!

Assuming you're really keen on the place, why not turn this to advantage? I'm not generally impressed by 'home-buyers' reports as they tend not to discover all potential problems in a house. In fact a good, experienced builder would detect more flaws than a homebuilde level survey would.

So if, as I assume, you plan to ask the vendor if hes happy for you to get a trusted, recommended builder in to quote for the minor roof repair as part of your reasonable preliminaries prior to exchange, ask him to give the place a general once-over while he's there. This particularly applies to an older property. Good luck

LordMirg

Thanks for the advice.

It's a regular 2 storey terrace with a clay tile roof. The fillet is concrete.

I'll look into getting someone to take a look at it.