Chimney flashings

[L3571]

We are purchasing a 1950s detached property with two chimneys no longer in use. The bedrooms directly below these chimneys have damp patches coming from the ceiling which I’ve been advised are being caused by the flashings. I arranged for a roofer to take a look and provide a quote and they’ve sent through one for £5400 inc VAT to grind out the chimneys, repoint them, recap them, replace tiles and replace leading. We definitely don’t want all that work doing, nor can we afford it. We just need the damp rectifying urgently as we have a baby. How much should we be looking at just to replace the lead flashings? We will require scaffolding in place for them to complete the work. Any advice would be most appreciated feeling a bit out of my depth. Thanks

We had ours done about 2 months ago. It cost £250 for one chimney.
Editing to add that I'm not certain if he replaced the whole flashing, or mended what was there, but I think he replaced it.

Thank you. Did you need scaffolding? Can I ask what area you’re in. We are in Manchester

My husband is a roofer and NW based, but not Manchester so I'm not posting to try to get work for him! If you can DM me some photos or post some on here I can ask him for a rough idea of price.

It's pointless to ask for ideas of cost without photos because chimneys can vary hugely in width, height, houses can be different heights. With chimneys being ground out and repointed, that's a massive job and needs a full chimney saddle scaffold which is expensive. Also quality of workmanship varies hugely and is often reflected in the price.

I know you're saying you just want the flashing done but it might be that there's more work needed and you could be wasting money by just getting them done. It could also be that the roofer who came out is fishing for more work.

Edited for spelling mistake!

I'd like to add our experience which has been that, having repointed the chimney, replaced the lead and sealed the cap on the unused portion of our chimney, nothing has had any effect at all and our smallest bedroom is still showing damp patches which get worse after heavy rain and is only kept at bay by a dehumidifier in the roof permanently on and emptied every night. The bricks are just completely saturated at this stage and are so porous that the water comes flooding through every time it rains.

We are now at the point of removing the chimney in the spring. There is nothing left to try.

You don't own the place yet? Can you pay less for it now that this has come to light?

The chimneys will need some work no doubt but to stop the leak I need the flashings done urgently then we can think about getting other maintenance in the future. We’ve used these roofers before for penetrating damp in our current property underneath a chimney breast and they did the same thing with repointing and capping off and it made no difference. I’d really like to know how much I should be getting quoted so I can have an informed conversation. Thanks so much for your advice

Have you had a quote to remove the chimney?

Husband is asleep so I'll show him these in the morning.

To be fair that chimney does looked quite fucked and very tall so likely will need scaffolding.

Update from roofer husband. He said that for what they've priced for you shouldn't pay more than £1800 +VAT, that's inclusive of scaffolding. He said the roof does look old and worn, so flashing on their own might not be enough to stop the issue. Hope that helps!

We had something similar a while ago and got totally conflicting advice too. In the end, we had Emerson Pro Services come out and take a proper look—they broke it down in a way that finally made sense and spotted things the roofer before had missed. They were fine about explaining costs upfront and didn’t try to push anything we weren’t sure about.