Thurrock · London and the South East
Chimney Survey in Little Thurrock
Chimney surveys in Little Thurrock, backed by more than 20 years’ experience. Every survey ends with a written report and photographs.
- Lifted or split lead flashings
- Signs that a stack is leaning
- Flaunching that has broken away
The survey, step by step
Expect us to ask a few questions before we start, such as when any problem began and what work has been done before. The inspection then takes between one and two hours for most homes, a little longer where there are several stacks. With a bit of garden around a house, as there often is around Little Thurrock, the roof can be viewed from several angles. Mention any side of the property we cannot get to. The loft, where there’s safe access, completes the picture.
- We start with the details: how many stacks, whether any are shared and any signs of damp.
- We inspect each stack from safe viewpoints outside.
- Every part we can see is checked: pots, cowls, flaunching, pointing, bricks and flashings.
- Inside, we look for damp on chimney breasts and in the loft where there’s safe access.
- You get a written report with photos and our recommendations.
Preparing for the visit
- If the roof is shared, arrange access with whoever manages the building
- If you’re buying, let the agent know when we are coming
- Keep pets in another room
Book a survey
Every survey is priced before it is booked, so you know where you stand. Our price is from £150, including VAT. To book, call 07833 053749 or email us.
Advice
How a chimney survey works in Little Thurrock
For buyers, a chimney survey before exchange can flag work you may want to raise. Cracked flaunching, failed flashings and worn pointing are common findings on older stacks. You get photos and findings you can take back to the seller or agent. It complements a RICS home survey rather than replacing it. Common reasons to book are pots or cowls that look unsafe and unused flues sealed without airflow, across lead flashings, shared and party-wall stacks and brick chimney stacks.
Trees around homes in smaller places like Little Thurrock drop leaves, twigs and moss onto roofs and into gutters. Blocked gutters overflow and soak the walls below. A report spots that kind of slow problem before it becomes damp inside. Plants growing from a gutter or moss on the tiles are signs worth noting from ground level.
The report records the chimney stack as we found it on the day. That makes it useful now and a handy reference later.
- Location
- Little Thurrock (RM16, RM17)
- Wider area
- Thurrock
- Cost
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Your report
- Emailed report with photos and recommendations
- Appointments
- Monday to Sunday, daytime
- Insured
- Professional indemnity and public liability
- Telephone
- 07833 053749
- Page updated
- 27 October 2026
Little Thurrock questions
Will you come out to Little Thurrock?
Yes, smaller places are covered as well as towns. Our area covers London and South East England. Let us know about access, parking and anything unusual about getting there when you book.
How do I find out if my home in Little Thurrock is listed?
Start with Historic England’s list for listing and your council for conservation areas. Either can affect what roof work is allowed, so it’s worth checking before planning any.
What causes damp on a chimney breast?
It can come from several places: cracked flaunching, worn pointing, failed flashings, uncapped pots, or damp trapped in an unventilated stack. Our survey checks each of these and records the likely cause.
What happens after the survey?
The report comes by email, and what you do next is up to you: use it with a seller, an insurer, a roofer or a managing agent.
My chimney looks like it’s leaning. What should I do?
Have it checked rather than leaving it. Leaning often comes from mortar breaking down unevenly. The survey records what we can see, and a structural engineer can confirm whether it’s stable.
Will you walk on the roof?
Not unless it is safe. Most of what we need can be seen from safe viewpoints, the loft and, where it applies, a drone, and the report notes anything we couldn’t see.
How much does a chimney survey cost in Little Thurrock?
Our price is from £150, including VAT. Our Basic Survey starts from £150, the Standard Survey from £250 and the Premium Survey from £400, all inc. VAT.
Surveys for landlords and agents in Little Thurrock
Where a roof is shared: access has to be agreed with whoever owns or manages the building. Mention it when you get in touch and we will plan the visit with that in mind.
If you own several properties, surveys can be booked for more than one address. To arrange surveys for several addresses, call 07833 053749 or drop us an email.
Roof by roof
Brick stacks
Spalled bricks, where the face has flaked off, are a sign of water and frost. We record any we can see.
Rendered stacks
What’s behind the render can’t be seen without removing some, so the report says what can and can’t be judged.
Chimney surveys in Little Thurrock: local notes
Little Thurrock lies within about 4 miles of the sea, and being near the sea means more wind and salt than a roof inland would face. Metal fixings and flashings corrode faster in salt air, while gales work at loose ridges, slates and tiles, and driving rain gets into whatever gap is left. Older buildings in Essex often have clay tiles and weatherboarding, alongside plenty of post-war and newer estates. On roofs like these, good slates or tiles can outlast the nails, battens, lead and mortar around them.
If yours is one of the older homes in the streets near St John the Evangelist, its roof may have old fixings, lead flashings and chimneys that need a closer look. For businesses in and around places such as Ealing Broadway Centre, a roof report helps plan work around trading rather than after a leak.
Little Thurrock is about 1 mile north-east of Grays, in Thurrock. We visit Little Thurrock as part of our work across Thurrock. Across Thurrock, we cover Little Thurrock. We also survey roofs in Maidstone.
Postcode districts we cover here for chimney surveys: RM16 and RM17. Local streets include Long Lane, Lodge Lane and Kerry Road, all of which we cover. Little Thurrock sits on or near the A1013, which makes travel easy. We also cover Grays (1 mile south-west), Orsett Heath (1 mile east), Chafford Hundred (1 mile west), Chadwell St Mary (1 mile east) and North Stifford (2 miles west). Within a short drive, we also cover Stanford-le-Hope (5 miles north-east), South Ockendon (3 miles north-west), Balstonia (4 miles north-east), Corringham (6 miles east), Aveley (4 miles west) and Purfleet-on-Thames (4 miles west).
What’s near Little Thurrock
In Little Thurrock, that means homes and buildings near The Hathaway Academy and Treetops School and the streets around them. The nearest railway station is Grays station, roughly 1.3 miles south-west. Well-known places in the area include Thameside Centre (1 mile south-west) and Thurrock Community Hospital (under half a mile north). The countryside around Little Thurrock includes Sawyers Lake and Chafford Gorges Nature Park.
Towns and villages near Little Thurrock
More services for Little Thurrock
Common roof problems in Little Thurrock
Lots of homes have redundant stacks. If a stack is capped or blocked without ventilation, moisture can build up inside. Damp patches can appear on chimney breasts even when nothing is leaking.
Here are some of the things we see frequently:
- Unused flues sealed without airflow
- Signs that a stack is leaning
- Gaps in the mortar around the pots
- Frost-damaged brickwork on the stack
Anyone responsible for a site like Deneholm Primary School will know that a written record of a large roof helps plan work for the holidays rather than in term time.
What to check before booking
- What experience they bring
- Which limits apply to the survey
- How they plan to inspect the roof safely
- Do they have a CAA Flyer ID and Operator ID for drone work?
Leave it or get it looked at?
If you’re buying, find out about the stacks before you exchange. Once you’ve exchanged, the work is down to you. Our report gives you facts to raise with the seller or agent. In an older home around Little Thurrock, water from a roof defect can get into timber and plaster, and that is a much bigger job than the original defect.
What a survey costs comes down to the roof itself: its size, its height, how many sections it has and how safely it can be seen. Chimney survey starts from £150, including VAT.
Why us?
- Package prices that include VAT
- 5,000+ roofs surveyed
- Covered by professional indemnity and public liability insurance
- A sub-250g drone, flown with a CAA Flyer ID and Operator ID
Read what a roof survey costs and our case studies.
When you need someone else
No survey can tell you everything, and we’d rather be clear about that before you book. Bear these in mind:
- Checks on boilers, fires or their flues
- Hidden damage within the stack
- Parts of the stack that can’t be seen safely or belong to a neighbour we can’t access
Not sure which survey suits your roof? You can phone 07833 053749 or drop us an email and we will tell you. The full list of what we check.
Roofs we survey in Little Thurrock
- Chimney breasts
- Chimney pots and cowls
- Lead flashings
- Shared and party-wall stacks
- Brick chimney stacks
- Flaunching