No one can fix our leaking chimney please help!!

ellie1379

We have had a leaking chimney for 4 years :eek:

5 different roofers have tried to fix it and there has been no change... we are desperate for any help and advice anyone can give!

it is a semi detached victorian house. The chimney breasts are on the outside of the house on the non attached side. The chimney leaking is used by a fireplace in the front lounge and the bedroom above it.

I can hear and see up to 5 separate drips of water in the bedroom fireplace when it rains and at no other time and it happens all year round. The lounge fireplace is covered over (but has an air vent).

On the bedroom wall there is a damp / water mark that comes down from where the cornice is and it downs down then spreads out to the left and right directly above the fireplace. The fireplace is for decorative purposes and is not used.

This is the list of what work we have had done....
1 Side of the house repointed and sprayed with waterproof coating
2 Chimney capped ( with caps that have vents but dont allow rain in )
3 Soakers replaced
4 Flashing replaced
5 Coping stones repointed
6 Chimney Stack repointed
7 Flaunching redone with waterproofing added
8 New slate tiles along the side of the roof where it meets the wall
9 The roof side of the chimney and wall below it rendered

From the outside you can see the outline of the brickwork through the render on the chimney stack - which I have been told indicates that the bricks behind are wet.

if anyone has ANY idea what can possibly be going on we would be ETERNALLY grateful

Wookey

Is the chimney always leaking no matter in what direction the rain comes from? If so i would first suspect the coping on top, with a house that old it is highly unlikely there is a lead tray built into it or any other damp membrane, rain could be seeping down thru round the chimney pot further into the chimney.

Furts

ellie1379 wrote: »

We have had a leaking chimney for 4 years :eek:

5 different roofers have tried to fix it and there has been no change... we are desperate for any help and advice anyone can give!



if anyone has ANY idea what can possibly be going on we would be ETERNALLY grateful

Without photos it is impossible to say. However a scenario is this. You claim nine different jobs have been undertaken. What have you done to oversee, inspect and check that these jobs were necessary, and were undertaken correctly?


Put another way, what has been your input up on the scaffolding to sort out the problems? This may sound like an unfortunate truth but it is possible all the builders have taken you for a ride and nothing has been done in a competent manner. The fact that it is still leaking after all these years adds a little support to this idea.


Over to you, but it sounds like you need professional advice from a competent construction type, or you need to engage a reputable, competent builder/roofer.

ellie1379

It does seem to leak all the time regardless of the direction of rain although I don't always check as I am finding the whole thing so depressing now

The coping stones only run up to the bottom of the chimney stack - we haven't had them taken off and a membrane put down so that is something I will ask them to try next!

Would this explain the damp on the render on the stack itself though as this is above the height of the coping stones? They did the new flaunching right up the base of the pots so technically it shouldn't be getting in there...

ellie1379

I have been up the scaffold - got them to take videos and photos plus if I use my camera I can zoom in and take pictures and have sent them to various people - so I think .... that the work has been done correctly although I am no expert of course. I am trying to work out how to post pictures on here but it seems I need to have a url for them rather than upload straight from my computer :huh:

Wookey

Best to get some decent photos posted, you will need to post them to an imaging sharing site and then put the url from them on here, just google photo sharing site, there are a few free ones about.

Your chimney should have a coping or some sort of brick built/rendered covering on the very top where the pots come out at, this should be the first place to look as its the most exposed to rain from all directions. Any rain that gets thru there can end up showing almost anywhere if there is no lead tray built in to turn the water back out.

ellie1379

http://s991.photobucket.com/user/ellie1379/library/Roof

does this link work to show photos?

Furts

I can see many questionable areas. The upshot is the chimney should be taken down and rebuilt with lead flashing to discharge water onto your roof, and to shed water the other side clear of the wall. New bricks, like semi eng class B, new mortar like 1:3, and so on. However the bricks and mortar look very poor so if the wind blows this could still blow the rain back.


From the tops of the pots - do they let in rain, to the inadequate corbelled drip detail, to the new flashing to your roof, to the render above your roof, are all suspect. Finally, do not laugh at this, but it is outright folly to mount that TV aerial on that old stack.


All this, and more, is fundamental building. What puzzles me is why you are in your current situation.


But also a reality check - my chimney is a problem. It was never built properly in the first place and anything I have done only alleviates some of the rain issues. Chimnies can be a nightmare and you have to ask if you need them in the first place. Over to you on this point and the other observations.

Wookey

I'd be inclined to agree with the above, i would be looking to rebuild the chimney from the point above the current lead flashing, put a large lead tray within it and have some lead flashing put in below those copings either side of it to catch any ingress. The most likely culprit is still water coming down thru that rendered top area around those chimney pots, a lead tray properly installed will turn any water out onto the roof, i would also get a proper coping made to cover as much of the top of the chimney as possible. This isn't a big job and a competent builder should be done inside a week from start to finish.