A Tale Of Three Cappers

For some time we'd suspected that water had been tracking inside the chimney to an inside wall. In winter when the old coal stove was burning it went away, but then in the wetter months(!!) it showed again.

When we had the new log burner fitted, we asked the guy who was putting in the new flue to check the stack. Fine, he said, and that he'd also cemented over the chimney cap properly. So he said...

The problem hadn't got better, so with winter round the corner (sorry folks, yes it is) we decided to contact Alan, a roofer mate of Russ's next door. We know he's a great worker from how well he put the new roof on Russ's extension.

I rang him last Friday, he came and looked on Saturday and Wednesday he was up ladders sorting it. He's well sought after so we were pleased to say the least. "What do you reckon Al?", I said.

In fact he said that the chimney needed completely re-pointing and also he wanted to look at the capping (see above). I left him to it and a bit over an hour later took him another cuppa out.

Talk about fast worker; he'd finished and not only that, showed me the "new concrete" from the capping put on by the flue fitter sub-contracted by the stove people. Completely crap and shoddy job; he'd literally pasted over unsound cement which should have been removed first.

Now completely sorted by Alan, who asked when I was taking a couple of shots (I'd hoped to catch him at work but he was too quick):

"Does that camera zoom in then?". "Nah", I said.

"Well", said Alan, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you'll just have to get closer"...


[Editor's postscript: He was quite happy for me to shin up the ladders (I'd worked for a roofing firm in a former life, long ago, so was quite happy to do so...) and got up to the ridge. Camera sorted, ready to snap... Battery died. Win some, lose some.]