Does the price sound about right?

[JoeJoe]

Storm damage from last week:

- 4 ridge tiles need replacing.

- Tiles smashed against chimney stack causing render to need redoing - cracks everywhere (then landing on wife's car in the drive - but that's another story...)

- Also noticed that a couple of tiles on the gable end lost their cement bedding causing a leak.

Quote to sort out the above - £900

includes:

- Very tight space for scaffolding (chimney/ridge around 10m+ above ground).

- Remove old render, apply scratch + render (inc shingles for that lovely effect...). Then paint. Chimney around 1.2-1.5m above roof, around 0.6m x 0.6m.

- Remove a few tiles, fix whatever the leak caused underneath, embed in cement.

Does it sound about right in term of price? A local firm.

[newshound]

Sounds pretty good value to me

[Andrew Gabriel]

Agree.

I suspect most of the cost is the chimney. Most roofers would refit ridge tiles quickly from a ladder without scaffolding, but you can't repoint most chimneys without scaffolding.

Tiles smashing against a chimney won't cause it to need repointing. That's just down to weathering (assuming it was done correctly originally).

Whilst you have a roofer up there, I would suggest getting vented caps put on any pots where the flue isn't used anymore. Maybe also a good time to address any TV aerial upgrade needed.

[JoeJoe]

Exactly what he said himself...

Insurance guy suggested (and agreed to pay for) it, so we didn't argue ;-) I agree that probably had to be done anyway prior.

Already there.

Aerial is new, but I plan to use his scaffolding to move the aerial from the chimney (one of those cable fixings that most likely contributed to the damage to the render) to something similar to this -

to be fixed to the gable end.

Thanks again.

PS: price inc of VAT.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Aerial bracket straps are often the only thing holding chimneys together ;-)

Note that tops of gable walls are not at all strong - there's no weight of bricks on top of them, and the roof doesn't rest on them (although there may be some strapping). So don't mount such a bracket near the top, where it might well just cause the top few bricks to topple off with it.

When I've used a bracket like that, I've actually used two of them spaced apart and a longer pole, to significantly reduce the turning force that there would be across the fixings on just one bracket in the wind.

[JoeJoe]

Thanks, I'll make sure I fix it lower down the wall.

[alan]

And if replacing the cable make sure it's CT100 (or equivalent).

[JoeJoe]

Thanks for that - will do.

[alan]

Search ebay for Webro WF100 - a few sellers for 10m or 20m lengths.