Chimney Repairs · Meden Vale NG20
Chimney Repairs In Meden Vale
Has anyone checked the stack on your Meden Vale house since Welbeck shut?
Pointing, flaunching, lead and caps for chimneys on the old colliery village semis and the houses built around them
Coal was still coming up at Welbeck in 2010, so in Meden Vale the coal fire isn't ancient history. The village's 1920s pit houses were built to be heated by coal, and we keep that in mind when we do chimney repairs in Meden Vale. A flue that burned coal for decades holds soot and sulphate, and once it goes cold, damp gets into the mortar. Most of these chimneys don't need anything drastic. They need pointing, a new crown or fresh lead. We go up, photograph every face and tell you which.
Free chimney repairs survey in Meden Vale
Leave your details and we'll ring you back to arrange a survey. The visit is free, you're under no obligation once we've been, and a roof that doesn't need work gets called a roof that doesn't need work.
Fully insured
Free Meden Vale surveys
Itemised fixed prices
about 15 minutes from base
Who does the work
Why Chris won't leave a stack half done
The roofing is Chris's department. He's from round here and has been on roofs since he was a teenager, and after more than 20 years he knows the brick chimneys on the coalfield's old colliery houses inside out. Meden Vale's streets are full of that kind of stack.
A chimney job isn't finished until the roof around it is watertight. If that means a very long day, Chris will put in the hours rather than leave a gap in the lead overnight. The team share that attitude. They're proud to work for a firm that puts the customer before the money, and the work gets done properly whether anyone's looking up from the pavement or not.
1,000+
Repairs carried out
10 years
Workmanship guarantee, on paper
Free
Surveys, quotes and honest bad news
No upselling
A patch that will hold gets recommended as a patch
What your Meden Vale chimney might be telling you
These are the four things owners usually notice first, with what tends to be behind each one on a stack of this age.
A brown, tarry stain on the bedroom chimney breast
Rainwater has dissolved old coal soot inside the flue and carried it through the plaster. Fires burned in these houses for a long time, so there's plenty of residue for the water to pick up. Usually it's getting in at the top, through a cracked crown or an uncapped pot.
Pots that rock, or look out of line from the road
The flaunching holding them has crumbled. This is the cheapest stage to deal with a chimney, because rebedding pots in a new crown is a small job. Replacing a pot that has already come down, along with the tiles it hit, isn't.
Damp in the loft beside the stack, only after heavy rain
Usually the seal where the stack comes through the tiles. On roofs that have never been re-covered, that seal may be an old mortar fillet rather than lead, and fillets crack as the roof moves.
Crumbling joints on the side you only see from the garden
The face that gets the least sun stays wet longest. Sulphate from years of coal smoke softens mortar from the inside, so the back can be open to a fingertip while the street side still looks tidy.
How we look after chimneys on Meden Vale's colliery houses
Every face photographed
Nobody sees the back of a stack from the garden gate. We photograph all four sides and the crown, so you're judging from the same evidence we are.
Lime where the brick calls for it
Soft old brick wants a mortar weaker than the brick itself. Hard cement traps water and blows the faces off, so we match the mix to the stack.
Lead instead of fillets
If a cracked mortar fillet is doing the job a flashing should, we swap it for lead cut into the joints. You pay for that once, and the leak stops coming back.
Caps for fireplaces that are finished with
Plenty of fireplaces here are boarded up. A vented cap keeps rain out of the flue but lets air through, so the breast doesn't sweat indoors.
Rebuilds only when the brick has gone
If the top courses are loose or the stack is badly out of true, we'll show you the photos. If it's sound underneath, you'll get a repointing price, not a rebuild.
Ten years in writing
The chimney work we do comes with our written workmanship guarantee, handed over with the photos at the end.
A late pit closure, and stacks that went cold later than most
Most of the Nottinghamshire coalfield lost its pits in the eighties and nineties. Welbeck kept winding until May 2010, one of the last deep mines in England, so Meden Vale's chimneys are a slightly different case from those in older pit villages. The houses built for its workers in the 1920s were planned around the coal fire, and in many cases their stacks have had fewer cold years than most. That cuts both ways. There's often more soot and sulphate in the flue, but the brick may have stayed warmer and drier for longer. On a stack like that, the mortar near the top and the crown usually give up first. The chimney is rarely the only thing ageing on these houses, though. The flat roofs on the kitchen extensions at the back are often just as overdue for a look.
"People in Meden Vale often ring about a chimney they haven't used for years, surprised it needs anything at all. Usually it's the crown that has gone, not the stack."
From chimney repairs enquiries Roof Repairs Mansfield handles in Meden Vale
Chimney repairs in Meden Vale, step by step
Survey from the roof and the loft
We look at the stack from the roof, then check the loft for damp around the breast and the timbers next to it. The survey is free.
Photos and a written price
You get photos of every face and one itemised price. Scaffold or a tower is a separate line, so you can see exactly what access costs.
The work you agreed to
Pointing, flaunching, lead or a cap, done as written. If we find something we didn't expect, we stop and show you before going any further.
Finished photos, clear garden
We photograph the stack when it's done and take away every bit of old mortar, broken pot and lead.
Your guarantee
The written 10 year workmanship guarantee comes with the final photos.
Ten years, in writing, before we leave the drive
Every roofer in Nottinghamshire will tell you their work is guaranteed. Ask to see the paper and the conversation often changes. Ours doesn't: work booked through Roof Repairs Mansfield carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee as a physical document, dated, signed and handed over with the completion photos - not a line in an email you'll never find again. Materials sit on top of that with their manufacturers' own cover, which differs product to product, so your paperwork names the cover that actually applies to your job.
A guarantee that long only makes commercial sense if repairs are done in a way that doesn't invite a return visit. Around Mansfield that means respecting what the housing actually is: coverings and fixings from the colliery era that fail as systems, not as single tiles, and mortar that has been quietly powdering since the pits shut. So failed material gets stripped back to something sound before new goes on, mortar gets matched to the age of the brick, and anything we can't make right on the day gets said out loud rather than covered over.
The blunt version: if water we were paid to stop finds its way back through our work inside 10 years, we return and put it right at our own cost. That promise has to be cheap to honour - and it is, because of how the work gets done the first time.
10 yrs
Written workmanship cover
1,000+
Repairs carried out
Insured
Public liability held
Named
Manufacturer cover per job
Three things to ask before anyone climbs your chimney
Whoever you get to quote in Meden Vale, these questions separate a careful job from a rushed one.
Will you photograph the back of the stack?
From the street you see one face, maybe two. If a quote covers the whole chimney, the person writing it should have seen the whole chimney.
What happens to the old mortar fillets?
If the answer is a fresh fillet over the crack, the leak will be back. Lead cut into the brickwork is the repair that lasts.
Is the flue being capped or left open?
An open, unused flue sends rain straight down the middle of the stack. Repointing the outside without capping the top only fixes half the problem.
Mend The Stack, Or Take The Top Down And Rebuild?
When a stack looks rough, rebuilding the top section is the bigger and dearer answer. Here's how it stacks up against repairing what's already there.
| Comparison point | Repoint and reflaunch | Rebuild above the roofline |
|---|---|---|
| Suits | Sound brick with tired joints and a cracked crown | Loose or badly spalled brick, or a top section leaning out of true |
| Upfront cost | Lower; a new crown and rebedded pots often come to a few hundred pounds | Higher: taking down, new or reclaimed brick, a new crown and new lead |
| Disruption | The stack stays standing throughout | Courses come down and go back up one at a time |
| Look of the house | Keeps the original brick the semi was built with | Reclaimed brick can match well, but new work may show for a while |
| When it's the wrong call | On brick that's loose deep down, it only buys time | On a sound stack, it's money spent moving bricks that were fine |
| Planning in Meden Vale | No permission needed | Normally fine like for like; check first if you're over the Bassetlaw line |
What chimney repairs in Meden Vale cost
We won't price a stack we haven't seen. As our price guide says, a new crown and rebedded pots often cost a few hundred pounds, and a full repoint with new lead usually comes in at the low four figures. These are the things that push a Meden Vale job up or down that range.
Getting up there
Where a semi on Netherfield Lane or Egmanton Road has a drive or garden at the side, a tower can often go up there. Without that room, scaffold costs more. Either way it's a separate line on the quote.
Whether the stack is shared
On a pair of semis the stack often sits on the party wall. Doing both sides in one visit costs each household less than two separate jobs, and we'll quote it that way if next door agrees.
What the flashing turns out to be
Swapping a mortar fillet for lead takes longer than renewing lead that's already there. The survey photos show you which you've got.
How far down the mortar has gone
Raking out the top few courses is one job. Joints that are soft all the way down to the tiles is a bigger one, and you'll see which before you agree a price.
Chimney questions from Meden Vale
Do I need the council's permission to repair or remove my chimney in Meden Vale?
Meden Vale is part of Warsop parish, so Mansfield District Council is the one to ask. There's no conservation area in the village, so repointing, new flaunching and new lead need no application, and taking a stack down on an unlisted house is normally permitted development. The exception is the handful of properties toward Cuckney, Holbeck or Welbeck, which come under Bassetlaw District Council, where Norton and Cuckney have conservation areas of their own. If you're near that edge, we'll check which side you're on first.
Our stack isn't straight. Is that the old pit workings under Meden Vale?
It can be, but it's less likely than people assume. Subsidence from deep mining mostly shows within a few years of the coal being taken, and Welbeck's last coal came up more than fifteen years ago. On a chimney that burned coal for decades, a lean is more often down to the stack itself, with one face decaying faster than the others. We'll tell you what we see, and a coal mining report for your address will show what was worked underneath.
Is it worth keeping the chimney on a Meden Vale semi if we never light a fire?
Usually, if it's sound. Removing a stack costs more upfront, and where it's shared you can only take your half down above the roof. A vented cap and some pointing let a disused chimney sit quietly for years. If you'd still rather it went, we'll price removal as well so you can compare.
Do you always need scaffold for a chimney repair?
Not always. A small job on a low stack can sometimes be done from roof ladders. Most pointing and lead work is safer from a tower or scaffold round the stack, and that cost sits on its own line so you know what you're paying for.
Should the lead be replaced when the stack's repointed?
If it's lead and it's sound, no. We'll dress it back in. If it's split, or turns out to be a mortar fillet, it's worth doing while access is up, because that's when it costs least.
What to do in Meden Vale
Once the roof's sorted, the old estates to the north of the village are only a few minutes up the road.
The Harley Gallery and Museum, Welbeck
Free to visit on the Welbeck estate. The gallery is housed in the 5th Duke of Portland's 1860 gasworks, and the museum next door, opened in 2016, shows the Portland family's collection.
Find it on Google Maps : The Harley Gallery and Museum, Welbeck
Clumber Park
3,800 acres of National Trust parkland around a lake made by damming the River Poulter in the 1770s. A waymarked loop sets off from the car park on Netherfield Lane.
Find it on Google Maps : Clumber Park
St Mary's Church, Cuckney
A Grade I church on the site of Cuckney Castle. Underpinning in 1951, done before coal was mined beneath it, turned up around 200 skeletons under the nave.
Find it on Google Maps : St Mary's Church, CuckneyFinding Meden Vale
Meden Vale is about a quarter of an hour from our yard on Sandy Lane. It answers to Mansfield District Council for planning, even with the Welbeck estate right on its doorstep.
Word from around the town
What homeowners across the Mansfield patch made of the work, in their own words.
"The back bedroom ceiling had a mark that came and went for two years and I'd stopped even noticing it. When Babet hit it turned into a proper leak overnight. They came out two days later, found a split flashing round the chimney - nowhere near where the stain was - and had it done in a morning. Showed me photos of the fault before and after. The quote and the invoice were the same number, which I'm told is rarer than it should be."
"Ours is one of the old colliery houses and the ridge had been shedding bits of mortar onto the path for months. I expected to be told we needed a new roof - the bloke next door had been quoted for exactly that by someone else. Instead they rebedded the ridge, refixed four tiles and told me the rest of the roof was fine for years yet. Charged a fraction of what I'd braced myself for."
"Water was streaming down the front of the house whenever it rained hard and I assumed the worst about the roof. Turned out the gutter had lost its fall and was tipping everything over the edge in one spot. They reset the brackets, sorted a joint, checked the gully at the bottom and were gone within a couple of hours. Also pointed out a slate that wants watching next year rather than fixing now - appreciated that."
"Bought a 1900s terrace near the town centre and the survey flagged the chimney. Two other firms quoted to take it down entirely. These lads went up, told me the stack itself was sound and it just needed repointing with the right mortar, new flaunching and a cap on the dead flue. Three years on the chimney breast is bone dry. Kept the chimney, saved about two grand."
"The extension roof had ponded for years and every couple of winters someone would patch it and it would come back. They were the first to explain the actual problem - no fall on the deck - and quoted to sort that rather than just laying another layer of felt over it. New rubber roof, water actually runs off it now. You get told the truth, which is worth paying for on its own."
Been a customer?
A short review is the most useful thing you can give a local firm - it tells the next household in Mansfield with a dripping ceiling who they can trust with it.
Areas we cover
Meden Vale is one of the towns and villages round Mansfield we cover. Find yours below.
Get your Meden Vale chimney looked at properly
Book a free survey and we'll photograph every side of the stack, check the loft beside it and give you one written price. We're out Monday to Saturday, 8 till 6.