Greater London · London and the South East
Chimney Survey in Lambeth
A careful look at the chimney stack at your property in Lambeth, with photos and a written report.
- Flaunching that has broken away
- Redundant stacks capped without ventilation
- Mortar washing out of the joints
Chimney survey in Lambeth
If you’re buying a home with chimneys, it is worth knowing their condition before you exchange. On older stacks, we often find cracked flaunching, loose flashings and worn pointing. You get photographs and findings you can take back to the seller or agent. It complements a RICS home survey rather than replacing it. If you’ve noticed bricks with flaking faces and flaunching that has broken away, a survey will tell you what’s going on, on flaunching, chimney pots and cowls and chimney breasts alike.
London has a great many flats in converted houses and purpose-built blocks, so roofs are often shared between several households. Landlords, managing agents and residents’ companies need to know what condition it’s in and what work is coming up, in Lambeth as anywhere. Leaks from a shared roof rarely affect just one home. With a written report and photographs, everyone can plan from the same facts.
With the Standard Survey, you also get moisture detection, a structural check and a follow-up consultation. The Premium Survey adds thermal imaging, drone inspection where it applies, structural analysis and an in-person consultation.
- Location
- Lambeth (SE11, SW1P, SW8)
- Wider area
- Greater London
- Cost
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Report
- Written, with photos, emailed to you
- Survey days
- Weekdays and weekends
- Insurance
- Professional indemnity and public liability
- Phone
- 07833 053749
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Tips that help
From years of surveys, a few habits stand out as worth the effort:
- Find out whether changes to a stack need permission
- Never climb onto the roof to look at a chimney
- Check that disused chimneys can still breathe
- Book a sweep for flues that are in use
If anything in the report is not clear, just ask us. Standard Surveys come with a follow-up consultation, and Premium Surveys with an in-person one.
Have aerial and dish brackets on the stack checked, and moved if they’re working it loose. Less load on the stack means less strain in wind.
What happens if roof problems are left?
Before deciding what to do with a redundant stack, a survey shows how it is doing. Changes to stacks in conservation areas or on listed buildings may need consent, so check with them first. Many older London roofs have only old felt under the slates, or no underlay at all, so a slipped slate can soon mean water inside. Left alone, that means wet timbers and plaster, which is a far bigger job than the roof fault itself.
Simple, low roofs take less time to survey than tall or complicated ones, and the package matters as well. The price is always agreed first.
What you get with us
- Covered by professional indemnity and public liability insurance
- An independent view of the roof
- Surveys seven days a week
- Drones and thermal imaging where applicable
Take a look at what a roof survey costs and our case studies.
Checking the roof from ground level
After heavy rain, check ceilings and the tops of walls for new stains. Take a photo and write down when you saw it.
A DIY look is useful, but it isn’t a survey. From the ground, valleys, flashings and the backs of chimneys are frequently out of sight.
Chimney surveys around Lambeth
Inner London’s Victorian and Edwardian terraces often have Welsh slate roofs. From the street you may see only a parapet, with a butterfly roof and a valley gutter behind it draining to the back. In a house like that, shared stacks, party-wall upstands and lead flashings all need looking at as far as they can be seen. On roofs like these, good slates or tiles can outlast the nails, battens, lead and mortar around them. Historic houses like Benjamin Franklin House, about 1.2 miles north, show how far back building in the area around Lambeth goes. On older houses around here, roofs often carry the marks of earlier repairs, from replaced slates to new lead, and any change of roofing material on a listed home needs checking with the council first.
Anyone responsible for a site like Vauxhall Primary School will know that large buildings have long gutter runs and big roofs that need checking like any other. Living close to Old Paradise Gardens is pleasant, but mature trees mean leaves in gutters and valleys each autumn, and an overflowing gutter soon means a wet wall. If you live in an older home near St Peter's Church, its roof may have old fixings, lead flashings and chimneys that need a closer look.
Lambeth is about 1 mile south-west of London, in Greater London. Wherever you are in Lambeth, we can come and survey your property, on a weekday, Saturday or Sunday. Across Greater London, we cover Lambeth and the places around it.
Here we cover the SE11, SW1P and SW8 postcode area for chimney surveys. You will find streets such as Gibson Road, Langley Lane and Randall Road, all of which we cover. Lambeth sits on or near the A3203 and A3204, which makes travel easy. Other places close to Lambeth include Vauxhall (1 mile north), Kennington (1 mile south), Oval (1 mile south), Newington Butts (1 mile east) and St George's Fields (1 mile north-east). We also work in nearby towns like Kensington (4 miles west), Shoreditch (3 miles north-east), Walthamstow (8 miles north-east), Hoxton (3 miles north-east), Whitechapel (3 miles north-east) and Hampstead (5 miles north-west).
Near you in Lambeth
In Lambeth, that means homes and buildings near The Jolly Gardeners pub, Old Paradise Gardens and Lambeth Palace Library and the streets around them. Also close by are Lambeth School of Art (within half a mile south) and Lilian Baylis Technology School (within half a mile south). There’s a railway station in Lambeth itself: Vauxhall station. Other landmarks nearby include Newport Street Gallery (less than half a mile north-east) and Evelina London Children's Hospital (0.5 miles north). Green spaces nearby include Bellenden Road Nature Garden and Ludgate Hill.
What happens on the day
After the inspection, everything we found is written up as a photo-illustrated written report. As for time on site, most surveys take roughly 1–2 hours at most homes, rising to roughly 3–4 hours on a commercial building. Surveys in Lambeth can be booked for any day of the week. It helps if you can point us to a visitor permit or a nearby bay, and to clear a path to the loft hatch. A back bedroom window can be the best vantage point for a rear addition, so we may ask to use one.
- You tell us whether any stacks are shared, unused or leaning.
- We check the roof around each stack, including the flashings.
- We check the flaunching and pots on every stack.
- Any lean, spalling or worn pointing is recorded.
- You receive a written report setting out what needs attention first.
Before the survey
- Have any paperwork from past roof work to hand
- Tell us about parking before the day
- Leave a clear route to the loft
How to book
Buyers should book once an offer has been accepted, so you have the findings in time to act on them before you exchange. Otherwise, simply phone 07833 053749 or email us whenever suits you.
Advice
What else we do in Lambeth
Lambeth questions
Can parking be tricky for a visit in Lambeth?
It depends on the street. Where there are permit zones, a visitor permit or nearby pay-and-display bay works well.
Is my home in Lambeth listed or in a conservation area?
Historic England’s list shows listed buildings, and the local council can tell you about conservation areas. If a home is listed, changes that affect its special interest need listed building consent, and in a conservation area re-roofing in different materials may need permission.
Do you survey roofs on blocks of flats?
Yes, once whoever controls the roof agrees access. We check the parts we are given access to, and the report makes that clear.
What does the report include?
It sets out what we found, why it matters and what we recommend, backed by photos. It also says if any part of the roof couldn’t be seen safely, so you know exactly what was covered.
Do I have to be there for the survey?
It depends on what we need to see. For inside areas and the loft space, someone has to give us access; we will agree the details when booking.
What causes damp on a chimney breast?
It can come from several places: water getting in at the top, through the brickwork or at the flashings, or moisture trapped in a stack with no ventilation. Our survey checks each of these and records the likely cause.
Will you go up on the roof?
Only when it’s safe. Some roofs are too steep or fragile to walk on safely. We use safe viewpoints, the loft space and a drone where it applies, and the report records anything we couldn’t see.
For landlords and managing agents
With a portfolio of properties, surveys can be booked for more than one address. To discuss a number of properties, call 07833 053749 or use the contact form with the addresses.
Roof problems in a rented home affect tenants as well as the building. A survey helps you spot issues early and plan the work with less disruption.
What we can’t see
It helps to know what a survey will not do before you book:
- A structural engineer’s assessment
- Whether the flue is safe to use
- Areas we can’t view from safe positions
If you’re not sure which survey you need, phone 07833 053749 or email us and we’ll give you a straight answer before booking. The full list of what we check.
Roof types and parts we check
- Shared and party-wall stacks
- Chimney pots and cowls
- Brick chimney stacks
- Flaunching
- Lead flashings
- Chimney breasts