Oxfordshire · London and the South East
Chimney Survey in Thame
Find out what’s going on with the chimney stack before you decide what to do next. Chimney surveys in Thame, with photographs and a clear written report.
- A stack that appears to lean
- Bricks with flaking faces
- Eroded joints in the brickwork
Rented homes, blocks and businesses
Landlords, agents and building managers in Thame and across Oxfordshire can book any of our surveys. To discuss a property or a block, call 07833 053749 or use the contact form.
For blocks of flats, a roof survey helps managing agents and residents’ management companies plan ahead. The report sets out what needs attention now and what can wait, which helps with budgets and planning.
Chimney survey in Thame
Damp on a chimney breast can have several causes. Water may be getting in at the top through cracked flaunching or an uncapped pot, through the brickwork, or at the flashings. Condensation inside an unventilated stack is another common cause. We check each possibility and record what we find. That points the work in the right direction. We survey shared and party-wall stacks, chimney pots and cowls and brick chimney stacks, and the problems we are asked to look at most are loose, cracked or missing pots and staining on walls around the chimney.
Most homes in a town like Thame are houses, so the roof is normally the owner’s to look after. Small faults, like a cracked ridge, a slipped tile or a blocked gutter, are cheaper to deal with early. A roof report gives you a list of what needs doing and how soon. The photos let you see the parts of the roof you can’t get to.
The report works through the roof section by section, from the main slopes down to the gutters and outlets. It records what’s sound as well as what isn’t.
- Location
- Thame (OX9)
- Region
- Oxfordshire
- Price
- From £150 inc. VAT
- Your report
- Emailed report with photos and recommendations
- Survey days
- Monday to Sunday, daytime
- Insurance
- PI and public liability insurance
- Call
- 07833 053749
- Updated
- 27 October 2026
FAQs for Thame
How do I find out if my home in Thame is listed?
The council and Historic England’s list are the places to check. Either can affect what roof work is allowed, so it’s worth checking before planning any.
Can a landlord with a rental near Haddenham & Thame Parkway station book a roof survey?
Yes. We survey roofs for landlords, letting agents and managing agents as well as owners. You can phone 07833 053749 or drop us an email with the address and what you need, and we’ll talk through which survey suits.
Is it a problem to have an unused chimney?
An unused stack still needs to stay weathertight and ventilated. If it’s capped without ventilation, damp can build up inside. Our survey records its condition and how it is capped, so you can plan what to do with it.
Will you check the chimney is safe to use with a fire?
No. Our survey covers the outside of the stack and the roof around it. The flue should be checked by a sweep, or by a Gas Safe registered engineer for gas appliances.
What’s in the report?
Written findings with photos, covering the condition of the chimney stack, the defects we found and what we recommend, by urgency where it matters. Standard adds moisture detection and a structural check; Premium adds thermal imaging, drone inspection where applicable and structural analysis.
Do you cover Thame for chimney surveys?
Yes. Thame is part of the area we cover.
What happens next?
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.
Tips that help
A survey works best with a little help from you, before and after. Tips:
- Photograph damp patches with the date
- Glance at the stacks from the street now and then
- Keep the report to compare against at the next survey
- Remove aerials or dishes from the stack if they’re no longer needed
After the visit, we write up the report with photographs of each stack. It covers the pots, flaunching, pointing, brickwork and flashings, and any damp we found inside. Basic reports arrive within 48 hours, Standard reports in 24 to 48 hours and Premium reports the same day.
Watch for damp or staining on chimney breasts. Early signs are easier to trace.
How the survey changes by roof type
Brick stacks
Frost can damage bricks that have soaked up water, making the faces flake away. Any spalling is noted with photos.
Chimney pots and cowls
Each pot is bedded into the flaunching, often with a cowl or cap on top. The survey looks for cracked, loose or missing pots and cowls.
How it works
Every visit follows the same pattern: we listen to what’s been worrying you, look at the roof from every safe viewpoint, take photographs as we go and record our findings for the written report. Most visits take an hour or two at most homes, with bigger or more complicated roofs taking longer. A visit in Thame runs most smoothly with the loft hatch clear, side gates open and a parking spot in mind. Someone needs to let us in, so tell us who that will be.
- We go through the chimneys, any damp and any work done on them.
- We check every stack from wherever it can safely be seen.
- We photograph and record the pots, flaunching, pointing and flashings.
- Inside, the chimney breasts and the loft are checked for damp where there is access.
- You get a written report with photos and recommendations by email.
Before the survey
- Make sure the loft hatch can be reached
- Show us where any leaks or stains appear
- Keep pets in another room
Book a survey
Getting a price is simple: just ring 07833 053749 or send us an email, let us know about the property and we will suggest the right survey. The price is agreed up front.
Advice
Can I check my roof myself?
Your own check is a good start, but it is not a survey. From ground level, valleys, flashings and the backs of chimneys are often out of sight, and those are details a survey looks at closely.
You can learn a lot from the ground. With binoculars, look for slipped or missing slates and tiles, gaps along the ridge and leaning chimneys. Please do not climb up for a closer look.
Roofs, chimneys and gutters in Thame
Cotswold stone slates are found on older buildings in west Oxfordshire, and thatch survives in some of the county’s villages. Across the South East, older homes tend to have slate or clay tiles, and many later ones concrete tiles. On roofs like these, good slates or tiles can outlast the nails, battens, lead and mortar around them. About 3.9 miles south lies Adwell House, a reminder of how long the area around Thame has been built on. On older houses around here, roofs frequently 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.
If your home is one of the older ones in the streets near Church of St Mary, its roof may have old fixings, lead flashings and chimneys that need a closer look. If you own a rental within reach of Haddenham & Thame Parkway station, the gap between tenancies is a good time to have the roof looked at. If you look after a building such as Barley Hill Primary School, large buildings have long gutter runs and big roofs that need checking like any other.
Thame is about 8 miles south-west of Aylesbury, in Oxfordshire. We carry out chimney surveys for homes and businesses in Thame. We cover towns and villages across Oxfordshire, large and small. Our Oxford page covers surveys nearby.
All of OX9 is covered for chimney surveys, from the main roads to the quietest streets. Local streets include Upper High Street, Butter Market and High Street. You will find Thame on the A329 and A418, so it is easy for us to get to. If you’re just outside Thame, we cover Moreton (1 mile south-west), Towersey (1 mile east), Kingsey (2 miles east), Long Crendon (2 miles north-west) and Haddenham (3 miles north-east). Further out, we also cover Oxford (11 miles west), Didcot (15 miles south-west), Bicester (13 miles north-west), Abingdon-on-Thames (14 miles west), Henley-on-Thames (15 miles south) and Kidlington (14 miles west). Thame is among the bigger towns we cover in Oxfordshire.
Landmarks near Thame
Typical jobs here are in homes near Lord Williams's School and Cross Keys Public House. The nearest railway station is Haddenham & Thame Parkway station, about 2.1 miles north-east of the centre. Well-known places in the area include Thame Museum (0.5 miles north-west) and Thame Community Hospital (within half a mile south-east). The countryside around Thame includes Snakemoor.
Honest limits
To be straight with you, a roof survey has limits:
- Areas we cannot view from safe positions
- Hidden damage within the stack
- Checks on boilers, fires or their flues
If you are not sure which survey you need, phone 07833 053749 or drop us an email and we will give you a straight answer. The full list of what we check.
Roofs we survey in Thame
- Chimney breasts
- Shared and party-wall stacks
- Flaunching
- Lead flashings
- Chimney pots and cowls
- Brick chimney stacks