Fresh clay tiles with clean lead ridge detail

05/Roofing Service

Lead Flashing

Bossed, not cut from strip. Watertight first time.

Lead is the oldest roofing detail still in use because nothing has come along to replace it. Done right, it outlasts everything around it. Done wrong, every storm is a gamble.

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What's included05 / 07

Stepped flashings cut into brick joints
Soakers under every course at abutments
Lead dressed and bossed to shape on site

A/The Detail

How we do this job properly.

Where lead belongs

Around chimney stacks, where a roof meets a wall, around dormers, behind parapets, and at valleys on heritage buildings. Anywhere water runs off one surface and has to be carried across or away from another.

How we work it

Lead is bossed to shape, not cut from strip and stuck down. Stepped cuts get raked into the mortar joint, not scored across the brick face. Soakers go under every course at a side abutment. Fixings are copper clout or lead wedges, not mastic.

Codes and sizes

Code 4 for most domestic flashings. Code 5 where the length of lead is greater or the exposure is higher. Expansion gaps allowed for on anything longer than 1.5 metres because lead moves with heat.

B/Questions

Before you call, the quick answers.

Q.01

How long should lead flashing last?

Sixty to a hundred years if it was installed correctly to start with. The mortar pointing around it usually needs attention first.

Q.02

Can you just re-seal old lead?

Sometimes, if the lead is sound and only the pointing has failed. Often the lead itself has fatigued at the fold lines and needs replacing. We'll tell you honestly.

Q.03