Chimney Repairs · Rainworth NG21
Chimney Repairs In Rainworth
Is the stack at the end of your Rainworth terrace starting to look tired?
Repointing, flaunching, lead work and capping for the Rufford colliery houses on both sides of the council boundary
Rufford Colliery's houses were built to be heated by coal. On the early avenues off Southwell Road East the terrace-end stacks sit on stepped brick corbels, and the larger twenties estate around Kirklington Road and Python Hill Road has its own run of stacks of much the same age. Those fires went out a long time ago. The estates went up within a few years of each other, so their chimneys are wearing out at the same pace, and when one starts dropping mortar the rest of the row usually follows. Most chimney repairs in Rainworth come down to pointing, crowns and lead on hundred-year-old brickwork.
Free chimney repairs survey in Rainworth
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 Rainworth surveys
Itemised fixed prices
8 minutes from base
Who does the work
Chris on chimneys that have been left too long
Chris runs the roofing side of the business. He's from round here, started on roofs as a teenager and has more than 20 years in the trade, which is long enough to know what a century-old stack does once its joints open up.
A chimney job isn't packed up until the stack and the roof around it are watertight, even if that makes for a very long day, and he doesn't mind. His team are the same. They work hard and they're proud to be with a firm that cares more about the customer than about money or short hours, so the stack gets done properly whether anyone is watching 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 a failing Rainworth chimney tends to show you
Rainworth's stacks rarely fail out of nowhere. These are the early signs, and what they usually point to on houses of this age.
Damp in the bedroom where the chimney breast is
On a terrace-end house it's often water getting into the corbelled brickwork under the stack, where the pointing has gone. It travels down inside the wall before it shows on the plaster.
Crumbled mortar collecting in the gutter
The crown around the pots is breaking up. On stacks this old the flaunching may never have been renewed, and loose pots aren't far behind it.
Next door has just had their side of the stack done
Your half of a shared chimney is the same age and has had the same weather. A survey will show whether the join between the two halves was left sound.
Lead at the base of the stack covered in mastic
Somebody has tried a quick fix before. Sealant smeared over old lead holds for a season or two, then the gap opens up again behind it.
How we handle chimney work on Rainworth's colliery houses
Corbels looked at, not just the stack
The stepped brickwork carrying end-of-terrace stacks on the earliest avenues can't be seen properly from the road. We check its joints from the roof, because that's where water gets in unnoticed.
A mix that suits old brick
These are old, fairly soft bricks. We point them in a breathable mix so moisture can escape, rather than a hard cement that traps it and blows the faces off.
Your council checked for you
Repointing needs no permission on either side of the village. If you're thinking of taking a stack down, we'll confirm whether you're under Mansfield or Newark & Sherwood first.
Shared stacks reported in writing
Where one chimney serves two houses, we survey the whole thing and write it up, so the chat with next door starts from facts rather than guesses.
Cold flues capped and vented
An open pot on a disused flue lets rain straight in. We fit a cap that keeps the weather out and still lets air through, so the breast doesn't sweat indoors.
Neighbours priced together
Houses on the same row often need the same work at the same time. If a few neighbours want to share the scaffold, we're happy to price the stacks as one job.
Why Rainworth's stacks are all asking at once
The Bolsover Colliery Company built Rainworth in two bursts. The cottage-style houses between First and Fourth Avenue came first, from 1912 to 1919, and about 400 more followed over the old boundary in the twenties. Percy Houfton's practice designed both, and both were built around coal fires, so the chimney was never an afterthought. Rufford stopped producing coal in 1993 and the fires have long since gone out. What's left is a village of stacks that went up together, have weathered together and are now running out of mortar at roughly the same time. That's why one failing chimney on a street is worth treating as a warning for the others. The same thinking applies lower down the house, where the flat roofs on the back extensions can be just as overdue for a proper look.
"A lot of the Rainworth chimney calls we take start with someone spotting scaffolding round a stack further along their own row."
From chimney repairs enquiries Roof Repairs Mansfield handles in Rainworth
Five steps for a Rainworth chimney repair
A free look at the stack and the loft
We get up to all four faces of the chimney and check the breast and timbers from inside the loft. If removal is on the table, we also confirm which of the two councils covers your address.
Photos and an itemised price
You get pictures of what we found and one written price, broken down job by job, with scaffold or other access priced as its own line.
The work you agreed to
Pointing, flaunching, lead or capping is carried out to the written quote, with nothing swapped for something cheaper on the day.
Photos of the finished stack
Before we come down you get pictures of the new joints, crown and flashings. The old mortar and any broken pots leave with us.
Ten years in writing
The workmanship guarantee is handed over on paper and covers the repair for a decade.
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 a roofer about your Rainworth chimney
Whoever you get round to quote, these questions show quickly whether they've looked properly.
Did you check the corbels?
On a terrace-end stack the stepped brickwork underneath is half the job. A price that only covers the stack above the tiles may have missed where the water is really getting in.
Which part of the stack is mine?
On a shared chimney, a good roofer is clear about what they're pricing, what belongs to next door and how they'll treat the join between the two.
Why does it need a rebuild?
Taking a stack down and building it back is sometimes right, but it's the dearest answer. Ask what they saw that ruled out pointing and a new crown.
Rainworth Stacks: Repoint The Top, Or Take It Down And Rebuild?
Most century-old Rainworth stacks can be saved with new joints and a new crown. A few can't. Here's how the two routes compare.
| Comparison point | Repoint and reflaunch | Rebuild above the roofline |
|---|---|---|
| When it's right | The bricks are sound and the stack is straight; it's the mortar that has failed. | Bricks are spalling badly, or the stack leans in a way that needs dealing with. |
| Cost | The cheaper route, mostly in the low four figures with new lead included. | Costs more, as the stack comes down course by course before it goes back up. |
| Original detail | Keeps the old bricks and the corbelling the houses were built with. | Can be rebuilt in matching brick, though new rarely looks quite like old at first. |
| Time on the scaffold | Shorter. | Longer, with more material in and out. |
| Shared stacks | Each owner can maintain their own side. | Structural work on a party stack needs next door's agreement. |
| Planning | No permission needed on either side of Rainworth. | Like-for-like is normally fine; ask your council if the stack's height or look will change. |
What sets the price of chimney work in Rainworth
New flaunching and rebedded pots usually come to a few hundred pounds, and a full repoint with new lead mostly lands in the low four figures. Where your job falls depends on a handful of things.
Corbelled stacks off Southwell Road East
Terrace-end stacks on the early avenues sit on stepped brickwork. Pointing the corbels as well as the stack means scaffold further down the gable, and that goes in the access line.
Steep pitches around Kirklington Road
Houfton pitched the twenties roofs steeply for pantiles, so reaching a stack partway along one usually takes more access kit than a shallow roof would.
One stack, two owners
If the chimney is shared and next door wants theirs done too, splitting the scaffold brings each household's share of the access down.
Lead and pots
Perished lead or a cracked pot adds materials. Reusing pots that are still sound keeps the price down.
Rainworth chimney questions
Which council do I ask about chimney work in Rainworth?
That depends on your address, because Rainworth is split between Mansfield District Council and Newark & Sherwood District Council. The line crosses Southwell Road East near the bridge over Rainworth Water. For repointing, flaunching and new lead you won't need to ask either of them, as straightforward repairs need no permission. Taking a stack down is usually permitted development too, but if you're unsure, check with the right council before starting. We can tell you which one covers you.
Why are so many chimneys on my Rainworth street in poor shape at once?
Because they were built together. The colliery company put up the early avenues between 1912 and 1919 and the bigger estate in the twenties, so the mortar in the stacks is close to the same age on every house. They've also had exactly the same years of weather, so if one stack is losing its joints, the ones beside it are rarely far off.
Are the corbelled chimneys in Rainworth worth keeping?
If the brickwork is sound, yes. The stepped corbels at the ends of the First to Fourth Avenue terraces are an original feature, and repointing them in a suitable mix costs far less than rebuilding. We'd only suggest more than that if the bricks themselves are breaking up.
My fireplace is blocked up. Does the chimney still need a cap?
Yes. A flue that never sees heat never dries out, and an uncapped pot funnels rain right into the middle of it. A vented cap stops the rain while keeping air moving through the flue, which keeps the chimney breast from going damp inside.
Can you repair just my half of a shared chimney?
You can look after your own side, and we'll do that for you. The two halves are still one structure, though, so a soft joint next door can let water across. Anything structural on a party stack needs your neighbour's agreement under the Party Wall Act, and we'll give you a written report on the whole stack to help with that conversation.
What to do in Rainworth
When the scaffold is down and the stack is sorted, this side of Rainworth has some good places to get out and walk.
Rainworth Heath
Sixteen hectares of rare heathland off Rufford Colliery Lane, looked after by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and protected as an SSSI. Go between April and July for the heather, and listen out for nightjars.
Find it on Google Maps : Rainworth Heath
Rainworth Water Local Nature Reserve
Mixed woodland and pools in a steep bowl made from the old pit's spoil, close to the village centre. Dragonflies and dingy skipper butterflies are about in summer, and dogs on a lead are fine.
Find it on Google Maps : Rainworth Water Local Nature Reserve
Sherwood Pines Forest Park
Forestry England's pine forest, north of the village past Clipstone on the B6030, with marked trails, a café, a bike shop and a Go Ape course.
Find it on Google Maps : Sherwood Pines Forest ParkFinding Rainworth
Rainworth is about 8 minutes from our yard on Sandy Lane. Depending on which part of the village you're in, planning comes under Mansfield District Council or Newark & Sherwood.
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
Rainworth is one of the places we cover around Mansfield. Pick your own town below, or see chimney repairs in the other villages nearby.
Want someone to look at your Rainworth chimney?
We'll check the stack, the corbels if your house has them, and the loft below, at no cost. You'll get photos and a written price, with the scaffold shown separately.