West Berkshire · London and the South East
Chimney Survey in Longlane
Find out what’s going on with the chimney stack before you spend money on it. Chimney surveys in Longlane, with photographs and a clear written report.
- Staining on walls around the chimney
- Eroded joints in the brickwork
- Redundant stacks capped without ventilation
Common roof problems in Longlane
A stack takes the weather from every direction. Frost works into cracks in the flaunching and pointing, and rain soaks into worn brickwork. Most people book after spotting damp or a loose pot, or before buying.
Common reasons to book include:
- Spalled or crumbling bricks
- Pots or cowls that look unsafe
- Signs that a stack is leaning
- Damp patches on chimney breasts
If you own a rental within reach of Newbury Racecourse station, a roof report helps you deal with small faults before they turn into a call from a tenant.
What to check before booking
- Will they check the loft as well as the outside?
- How they’ll see the roof: from ground level, the loft, the roof or by drone
- What follow-up you get after the report
- How soon the report will arrive
Chimney survey in Longlane
Many terraced and semi-detached homes share their chimney stacks with a neighbour. We check everything that’s safely in view and what the owner gives us access to. If a defect appears to be on the neighbour’s side, we note it, so you can talk to them. You get a written report with photos and what we recommend. Common reasons to book are a chimney out of line and spalled or crumbling bricks, on brick chimney stacks, chimney pots and cowls and lead flashings.
Older buildings in small places like Longlane may be listed or in a conservation area. If yours is, re-roofing in different materials may need consent, so the council is the place to check. Knowing the roof’s condition helps you plan ahead with that in mind. Where a building is listed, matching the existing roof materials is often expected.
Nothing in the report is left vague: where something needs attention, it says so plainly, along with how urgent it is.
- Location
- Longlane (RG18)
- Wider area
- West Berkshire
- Cost
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Reports
- A written report with photos, by email
- When we survey
- Weekdays and weekends
- Insured
- Professional indemnity and public liability
- Phone
- 07833 053749
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
More services for Longlane
Leave it or get it looked at?
A small amount of repointing or new flaunching is normally a modest job. Leave it, and frost can work the stack loose, and the work grows. Around Longlane, older homes often have old roof timbers, where water from a failed roof can cause rot if it is left.
The cost of a survey depends on the roof: its size, its height, how many sections it has and how it can be reached and seen safely. Chimney survey starts from £150, including VAT.
Why choose Independent Roof Survey in Longlane
- More than 20 years surveying roofs
- We hold a CAA Flyer ID and Operator ID
- Visits on any day of the week
- 98% customer satisfaction
What happens on the day
Where it is relevant and can be reached safely, the roof space is checked as well as the outside. Inside, we look for staining, damp, gaps and signs of movement. The whole visit usually takes between one and two hours for most houses, rising to roughly 3–4 hours on a commercial building. Somewhere as small as Longlane, access is frequently the only tricky part. Let us know about outbuildings, past repairs and any leaks you’ve noticed. Visits can be on weekdays, Saturdays or Sundays.
- First we talk through the stacks, their history and any problems.
- We check every stack from wherever it can safely be seen.
- Pots, cowls, flaunching, pointing and flashings are checked and photographed.
- We look for damp on chimney breasts and in the roof space.
- The report, with photographs and recommendations, is emailed to you.
Preparing for the visit
- Keep pets inside or away from the areas we are looking at
- Mention any parking restrictions on your street
- Agree roof access with the managing agent if it’s shared
Booking a survey
If you have photos of the roof, send them over. Take them safely from the ground or a window. To get started, ring 07833 053749 or email us.
Advice
Before and after the survey
Getting the most from a chimney survey starts before we arrive and carries on afterwards. Some tips:
- Book a sweep for flues that are in use
- Leave close inspection to people with safe access
- Ask for ventilated caps on redundant stacks
- Find out whether changes to a stack need permission
With a shared stack, the report can help when talking to next door. The photos show the problem and which side it’s on, as far as we could see.
Check fixings on the stack are sound and taken off if they’re no longer needed. Removing unused fixings takes strain off the brickwork.
Rented homes, blocks and businesses
Where a roof is shared: access has to be agreed with whoever owns or manages the building. Let us know about it when booking and we will plan the survey around it.
Landlords and letting agents in Longlane book surveys as well as homeowners. The report gives you a dated record of the chimney stack, with photographs.
Longlane: your questions answered
Do you survey roofs for landlords with property near Newbury Racecourse station?
Of course. Let us know whether a tenant or an agent will let us in, and the report can go straight to you or your agent.
Do you cover smaller places like Longlane?
Yes, Longlane is covered. Our area covers London and the South East, from towns to the smallest villages. The journey is planned ahead, so it helps to know about access.
What if it rains on the day?
Light rain doesn’t normally stop a survey. Heavy rain or strong wind can ground a drone and make the roof unsafe, so we’ll agree a new date if the weather isn’t suitable.
Do you inspect the flue?
No. We survey the stack and its weathering, not the flue. For the flue, you will need a sweep or, for gas, a Gas Safe registered engineer.
What should I do with a chimney I don’t use?
An unused stack still needs to stay weathertight and ventilated. Capping without airflow can lead to damp. We check how it’s capped and its condition, so you can decide with a builder what to do.
Is this a RICS survey?
No. We look at the roof, not the whole building, so it’s not a RICS Level 2 or Level 3 survey. It can sit alongside a RICS survey if you want both.
Will you photograph what you find?
Yes. Photos are taken throughout the survey, and they go into the written report.
What a chimney survey looks like in Longlane
Across the South East, older homes tend to have slate or clay tiles, and many later ones concrete tiles, with flat-roofed extensions, dormers and garages common everywhere. Whichever you have, the details that tend to fail before the covering itself get the closest look. The wider area around Longlane has a long history of building, with Shaw House about 2.7 miles south-west. On older houses around here, roofs often carry the marks of earlier repairs, from replaced slates to new lead, and the council can say whether a home is in a conservation area.
Anyone responsible for a site like Curridge Primary School will know that a written record of a large roof helps plan work for the holidays rather than in term time. If you live in an older home near Holy Trinity, corroded nails, tired lead and weathered chimney pointing are the things to watch on older roofs.
Longlane is about 3 miles north of Thatcham, in West Berkshire. Bookings from Longlane are handled just like any other: a call or an email, a price, then a date. We cover towns and villages across West Berkshire. Our Reading page covers surveys nearby.
We cover every part of RG18 for chimney surveys. We cover properties on Sandy Close, Long Lane and Curridge Piece and the roads around them. We also cover Curridge (1 mile west), Hermitage (1 mile north-east), Wellhouse (1 mile east), Oare (1 mile north) and Little Hungerford (1 mile north-east). Within a short drive, we also cover Newbury (4 miles south-west), Thatcham (3 miles south), Burghfield Common (10 miles east), Speenhamland (3 miles south-west), Hungerford (10 miles west) and Spencers Wood (14 miles east).
Near you in Longlane
In Longlane, that means homes and buildings near The Bunk Inn and the streets around them. The nearest railway station is Newbury Racecourse station, roughly 3.3 miles south. Nearby you will also find West Berkshire Community Hospital (2.7 miles south) and British Balloon Museum & Library Ltd (3.4 miles south-west). Open spaces near Longlane include Snelsmore Common.
What this survey cannot tell you
Every survey has limits, and we’d rather be clear about that before you book. Bear these in mind:
- Whether a gas appliance or its flue is safe
- Structural calculations for a leaning stack
- Areas we can’t view from safe positions
Not sure which survey suits your roof? You can call 07833 053749 or drop us an email and we will tell you. The full list of what we check.
Roof types and parts we check
- Lead flashings
- Chimney breasts
- Flaunching
- Shared and party-wall stacks
- Brick chimney stacks
- Chimney pots and cowls