Lead flashing is the bit of your roof nobody thinks about until a damp patch appears on a bedroom ceiling. It is also one of the easiest jobs for a quote to be wildly wrong in either direction, because two chimneys that look identical can be very different jobs once you get up there. Here is an honest breakdown of what lead work actually costs in Brighton and the wider South East, and what makes the number move.
Most domestic lead jobs in Sussex fall somewhere between a few hundred pounds and a couple of thousand. The single biggest factors are how much lead is needed, how difficult it is to reach, and whether the surrounding brickwork or tiling needs attention at the same time.
As a rough guide for a straightforward job on a two storey house with tower scaffold or a safe ladder position:
Lead is priced by weight and it is not cheap. Milled lead sheet is sold in codes, with Code 3 being thinnest and Code 8 heaviest. Chimney soakers are usually Code 4, most flashings and back gutters are Code 5, and anything holding standing water or taking foot traffic wants Code 6 or above.
A back gutter behind a chimney in Code 3 will fail within a few years. If one quote is noticeably cheaper than the others, the first question worth asking is which code of lead is being used and how many metres of it. That single answer often explains the whole gap.
Salt laden air and strong onshore wind are hard on roofs here. Coastal properties in Hove, Rottingdean and Peacehaven tend to need patination oil applied properly and joints detailed generously, because wind driven rain finds any gap that thermal movement opens up.
Brighton's terraced streets and Regency stock bring their own costs. Narrow frontages, parking suspensions, party wall parapets and old soft lime mortar all add time. Anything in a conservation area or on a listed building may need lead to match the original detailing rather than a modern shortcut, and that is a conversation to have before work starts rather than after.
Lead expands and contracts a surprising amount in the sun. Pieces that are too long crack along the fold, usually within two or three winters. Good practice keeps individual pieces under about 1.5 metres and laps them, rather than running one long strip because it is quicker.
The other common shortcut is smearing everything in mastic or, worse, flashing tape over failing lead. It looks tidy for a season and then traps moisture against the brickwork. If a quote is a third of everyone else's, it is usually one of these two things.
A proper quote follows an inspection, not a phone description. Photographs from the roof are reasonable to ask for, and most damp problems blamed on flashing turn out to involve the pointing, the pot, or a cracked haunching as well.
Get two or three written quotes and compare the scope rather than the headline figure. If one includes rebedding the chimney pot and another does not, they are not the same job, and the cheaper one may cost you more once you are back up there next year.
Correctly specified and installed lead should last 50 years or more, often outliving the tiles around it. Early failure is nearly always down to pieces being too long, the wrong code being used, or the chase not being cut properly.
If the lead is sound and only the mortar chase has failed, raking out and rewedging is sensible and much cheaper. Once the lead itself is cracked, thinned, or has been patched with mastic, replacement is the better value option.
Not always. Low level abutments and single storey extensions can often be done from a tower or a safely footed ladder, but chimney work at height almost always needs proper scaffold, and that cost should be stated separately in your quote.
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