If your chimney mortar is crumbling, the repointing itself is often the cheap part of the job. The bigger question is how anyone gets up there safely to do it. For most houses in and around Kings Langley, the honest answer is yes, you will need scaffolding, though there are a few exceptions worth knowing about.
Repointing is slow, careful work. The old mortar has to be raked out to a depth of around 20 to 25mm, brushed clean, dampened and then refilled joint by joint. A typical chimney stack takes one to three days, and the person doing it needs both hands free, a stable platform to stand on, and somewhere to rest tools, a mortar board and buckets. A ladder gives you none of that, and working off one at ridge height is neither safe nor legal for a job of this length.
Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005, any tradesperson working on your roof must have suitable access. Ladders are only acceptable for short, light tasks of a few minutes. A reputable roofer or builder will simply refuse to repoint a chimney off a ladder, so if someone offers to, treat that as a warning sign about the rest of their work.
For most two storey homes the standard solution is a chimney scaffold tower: a platform built up one elevation of the house, then over the eaves and up the roof slope to wrap around the stack. It sits on the roof using purpose made frames that spread the load across the rafters, so it should not damage your tiles when installed properly.
Where the stack sits on the ridge, the platform is usually built to straddle it so the mortar joints on all four faces can be reached. Expect the scaffold to be up for one to two weeks in total, since the new mortar needs time to cure and the work is weather dependent. Hire periods are normally quoted for several weeks anyway, so a rain delay rarely adds cost.
If your chimney is on a bungalow or a low single storey extension, a mobile access tower may be enough, which is cheaper to hire and quicker to put up. Some firms also use cherry pickers or scissor lifts where there is hard standing close enough to the stack, though on a typical residential street the hire cost is often similar to scaffolding once you factor in the operator.
A word on drones and pole cameras: they are genuinely useful for the survey stage, and it is worth having the stack inspected this way before committing to anything. But no camera can rake out and refill mortar joints. If the survey shows the stack is beyond repointing and needs rebuilding or removing, you would need scaffolding for that too, so the access question does not go away.
Scaffolding is a fixed cost whether the trades use it for one job or four, so it makes sense to bundle work. While there is safe access to the stack, it is the ideal time to have the flaunching (the mortar bed holding the pots) checked, a cowl or bird guard fitted, the lead flashing around the base inspected, and any slipped tiles nearby put back.
Around Kings Langley, Abbots Langley and Hemel Hempstead, a lot of the housing stock dates from the 1930s to the 1960s, and chimneys of that age often need flaunching and flashing attention at the same time as the pointing. Ask your builder to quote for these together; the extra labour is usually modest compared with paying for access twice a few years apart.
Where the scaffold needs to stand on a public pavement or road rather than your own garden or drive, the scaffolding company must obtain a licence from Hertfordshire County Council before erecting it. This typically adds a little to the cost and a few days to the lead time, so mention it when you first ask for quotes. A legitimate firm will arrange the licence themselves and should never ask you to skip it.
No, not properly or legally. Repointing takes hours of two handed work at height, and the Work at Height Regulations restrict ladder use to short duration tasks. Any firm offering to do it off a ladder is cutting corners.
Usually one to two weeks. The raking out and repointing takes one to three days, but the mortar needs dry weather and curing time before the scaffold comes down, and most hire periods allow for this.
Almost always. Access is often the largest single cost of chimney work, so having the flaunching, flashing, cowls and nearby roof tiles sorted in the same visit is far cheaper than scaffolding the house twice.
Oxley Scaffolding covers Kings Langley, Hertfordshire and the borders. Tell us what you are planning and you will get a straight answer and a fair price.
One call, one site visit, one fixed price. CHAS accredited, CISRS-registered erectors, fully insured, kit signed off before hand-over.