How much does it cost to do lead flashing?

Lead flashing is one of those jobs where the price sounds vague until someone explains what actually drives it: how much lead, what code, and how hard the detail is to reach.

Whether you need lead work & flashing or lead work & flashing services Godalming, we cover the whole area, with 36 years on Surrey roofs behind every job and a 25 year written workmanship guarantee handed over before we leave.

Call Wey Valley Roofing on 07428 300474 and Scott will arrange a free look at your flashing.

How much does it cost to do lead flashing?

What it costs to do lead flashing depends on how much lead is involved, the code of lead needed, how the roof is reached and whether the brickwork or mortar joints behind it need putting right first. A short abutment is a small job. A long chimney and valley combination is a bigger one.

The things that move the figure up or down

Lead is sold by weight, and weight is the first thing that moves a price. Code 4 is the usual choice for cover flashings, code 5 or code 6 where there is more movement or more water to carry. Heavier lead costs more per square metre and takes longer to dress properly, so the material and the labour rise together.

Then there is the length. Replacing the flashing on one side of a chimney is a different proposition to stripping and remaking a full lead valley, a parapet gutter or the abutment where a two storey wall meets a lower pitched roof. Both are lead work & flashing, but the second involves more material, more chasing out and more time on the roof.

Access is the other honest variable. Ladder work on a bungalow gable is quick. A tall chimney stack, a scaffold tower or a roof with nothing safe to stand on all add cost before a single strip of lead is cut. Whether you need lead work & flashing or lead work & flashing in Guildford, we cover the whole area and price the access as part of the job rather than adding it afterwards.

Why a repair sometimes costs less than you expect

Not every leak at a wall junction means new lead. Lead lasts a very long time. What usually fails first is the mortar pointing holding the upstand in the joint, or a soldered detail that has split from thermal movement, or lead that was cut too short and never had proper wedges behind it. Repointing a sound flashing costs far less than remaking it.

That is worth saying plainly, because it is easy to be sold a full replacement when a patch repair and repointing would hold for years. Our survey is free and there is no obligation, and if the smaller repair is the right answer we say so. Some flashings, though, are past saving: lead thinned by a century of weather, or lead that was patched with mastic and flashing tape until nothing sound is left. Those get remade.

Where the failure sits at a chimney, the price often covers the stack as well: flaunching, repointing or new pots alongside the lead work & flashing itself. Doing both at once costs less than doing them a year apart.

The same team covers lead work & flashing in Woking.

What a proper price should include

An honest fixed price in writing should cover the lead, the fixings and wedges, the chasing out and repointing, the access, and the clearing up. It should also cover doing the detail correctly rather than quickly. Lead Sheet Association guidance sets out how long each piece can run before it needs a lap, how deep the upstand goes into the joint and how much movement the detail must allow for. Ignore that and lead cracks along the fold within a few winters, which is the usual reason a flashing needs doing twice.

Whether you need lead work & flashing or lead work & flashing in Woking, we cover the whole area, and the price you are given is the price you pay. Every job carries a 25 year written workmanship guarantee, handed over before the team leaves, and that applies to a single flashing repair just as much as to a new roof.

Getting a figure for your own roof

Nobody can price lead from a phone description alone, and a number given that way is a guess. We come and look, get up to it or take a drone view where that shows the detail better, and then put a fixed figure in writing with no charge for the visit. If you are looking for a roofer near you who does leadwork properly, the roof gets inspected before anything is quoted.

• Cost tracks the amount and code of lead, the access, and the state of the brickwork behind.
• Repointing a sound flashing is cheaper than remaking it, and we will tell you which you need.
• Chimney work and flashing done together costs less than done separately.
• The survey and the quote are free, in writing, and carry no obligation.

Scott has spent more than 36 years on Surrey roofs, and the work is done by our own roofers rather than subcontracted out. Call any hour and a real person answers.