The short answer
Yes, if the chimney is showing wear. A re-roof puts scaffold around the stack, and the lead flashings that seal it to the new covering have to be renewed anyway. Repointing, reflaunching the pot or cutting an unused stack down is cheaper with access already in place, and it avoids opening up fresh roofing later to reach the same detail.
Why the stack and the new covering belong together
A chimney rises through the roof, and every face of it needs a watertight junction with the covering. That junction is made of lead. Two lead details matter here. A flashing is lead dressed into a mortar joint and down onto the roof, while a soaker is a folded lead sheet tucked under each course of slate or tile beside the stack. Together they carry water away from the brickwork or stone.
When the covering is replaced, those lead pieces have to come out and go back, because they interlock with the courses around them. Putting new tiles up to old lead is how leaks start. Doing the chimney at the same time means the flashings are laid against the finished surface by one team in one visit.
There is also a practical point about access. Working at the stack from a ladder is awkward and sometimes unsafe. A scaffold built for the re-roof gives a stable platform right around the chimney, and the cost of that platform is already in the job.
What chimney work usually comes up
Three jobs are common, and a survey tells us which apply to your stack.
- Repointing. Mortar joints in an exposed stack erode with weather and smoke. On older Bath houses and anything listed, lime mortar is the right choice. In planning comments on a listed Walcot house, the Bath Preservation Trust asked for lime, because cement can hold moisture against the stone and speed its decay.
- Flaunching and pots. Flaunching is the mortar bed around the pots at the top, sloped so that rain runs off. When it cracks, rain gets into the flue and the stack head. Pots that have loosened are rebedded while we are up there.
- Leadwork. Flashings, back gutters and aprons are renewed against the new covering. Lead sheet is graded by code, and a flashing is often cut from code 4 or 5, with the heavier codes kept for gutters.
Typical UK figures show how the pieces stack up. MyBuilder's 2026 chimney repair guide reports typical UK repair costs between £500 and £2,000, with repointing alone averaging about £750. What you pay is set by a written price after the survey.
When it is better to take the stack down
Not every chimney earns its place on the roof. Where a flue has gone out of use, a stack that is leaning, cracked or open at the joints can be taken down below the roof line and capped, and the roof covering carried across. That removes a point of weakness for good, and it saves repeated maintenance.
The decision has consequences. Removing a stack that carries other flues, or one that is part of a party wall shared with a neighbour, needs care and sometimes notice to the adjoining owner. A chimney breast in the room below may also be affected. We are not going to guess at these questions from outside, so we check the structure and the loft before advising.
A chimney often forms part of the roofline's character where a house is listed or stands in a conservation area, and taking it down may need consent. Speak to B&NES planning first, since the council states that unauthorised work to a listed property is an offence.
Where a stack is kept but a flue is unused, the flue should still be ventilated so damp does not build up inside it, and capping and venting details can be agreed on site. Pots also need checking for cracks and loose seating before they are rebedded, since a cracked pot can drop pieces down the flue or onto the slope below.
Timing, cost and what you save by combining the jobs
Scaffold is a noticeable line in any roofing quote. MyBuilder's 2026 figures put scaffolding at about £1,125 for a re-roof, and chimney repair guidance shows a simple patch costing a few hundred pounds less when no scaffold is needed than when it is. Hiring the scaffold twice, once for the roof and once for the chimney, is an avoidable expense.
There is a second saving that is easier to miss. If the chimney is repaired after the new covering is down, the roofers have to disturb the new slate or tile to reach the flashing. A slipped or cracked tile in that area can then let water in. Putting the stack right first lets the covering finish neatly against it.
If your stack is sound, leave it alone. A chimney in good condition needs only a visual check and perhaps new lead. Our survey photographs the stack from close range so the condition is on record for you to look at.
Related parts of a re-roof
Chimneys often sit near other things that change during a re-roof. If solar panels are planned, their position may depend on where the stack casts shade, so read whether to fit solar panels during a re-roof before deciding. Tile reuse around the stack is a matter of matching, which we cover in reusing old roof tiles. The scaffold itself, and what it needs by way of permissions on a pavement, is set out under re-roof scaffolding.
For the whole sequence from survey to handover, start from our roof replacement page. We deal with the chimney as part of the same plan, so the work is priced and programmed together rather than in pieces.
