Leadwork & Lead Flashing in Marlborough
Local roofers for repairs, new roofs & flat roofing. Free surveys, fixed written quotes, tidy workmanship.
Swindon Roofing Company carries out leadwork and lead flashing in Marlborough — chimney soakers and stepped flashings, lead valleys, secret gutters, parapet and box gutters, and the lead tops on bay windows and dormers. Marlborough is a leadwork town: a large conservation area and period roofs whose weatherproofing depends on sheet lead rather than tiles.
It is why cheap fixes stand out so badly here. A silver strip of flashing tape across a Georgian chimney, or a cement fillet where a stepped flashing belongs, is visible from the pavement and leaking again inside two winters.
The leadwork Marlborough roofs actually need
Chimney soakers and stepped flashing
Soakers under each slate course with stepped cover flashing raked 25mm into the joints — the proper answer to a cracked cement fillet.
Lead valleys
Open lead valleys on new boards over a tilt fillet — common on the older rear ranges near the town centre.
Parapet and box gutters
Behind a parapet there is nothing between the lead and your ceiling — falls, drips and outlets matter more here than anywhere.
Secret gutters
Narrow lead-lined channels where a roof meets a wall. They silt up, overflow inwards, and get blamed on the tiles.
Bay window and dormer tops
Flat lead tops with welted seams or wood-cored rolls. Often felted at some point and now failing.
Code weights, bay lengths and why the bodges fail
Lead is specified by code, which is a thickness. Code 4 suits flashings, soakers and aprons; code 5 is for valleys, parapet and box gutters, and anything carrying standing water. Code 3 where code 5 belongs shaves a little off the quote and splits within a few years. Patination oil goes on the same day so new lead does not streak the brickwork.
Failed leadwork here nearly always fails for one of three reasons. Bays run too long, so thermal movement tears the sheet at a fixing — Lead Sheet Association guidance caps a code 4 flashing bay at around 1.5m for exactly that, and BS 6915 is the standard the detailing follows. Mortar joints blow and let the flashing pull out. Or an earlier repair was made in sand and cement and cracked open.
Leadwork prices in Marlborough
| Job | What is involved | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Chimney re-flashed — front apron, steps, soakers | Code 4, joints raked out and repointed | £450 – £950 |
| Abutment or extension apron flashing | Code 4 dressed into a raked joint, cement fillet removed | £250 – £600 |
| Lead valley re-lined, per valley | Code 5 on new boards with tilt fillets | £700 – £1,600 |
| Bay window or dormer top re-covered | Code 5, welted seams or wood-cored rolls | £600 – £1,400 |
| Parapet or box gutter re-lined | Code 5, correct falls, drips and outlets | £1,200 – £3,500 |
Guide figures for 2026; lead prices move with the metal market and access is priced separately. Free survey and a fixed written quote before anything starts.
Listed buildings and the conservation area
Much of central Marlborough is a conservation area and a good number of buildings are listed. Like-for-like repair in the same material and detail is normally acceptable without a separate application, but once the specification changes — lead swapped for GRP, a new dormer or rooflight — consent is likely to be needed. We say which side of that line a job falls at survey, not after the scaffold is up.
Lead earns its price by outliving the alternatives: sixty years is fair for correctly detailed sheet lead. Failures are almost never tired metal — they are splits from over-long bays, mortar joints that have let go, and old repairs in cement.
Roofers in Marlborough
Repairs, re-roofs and roofline across the town.
Chimney repairs
Repointing, rebuilds and stack work.
Roof leak repair
Traced properly before anything is priced.
Frequently asked questions
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