Leadwork is the name roofers give to every part of a roof made from sheet lead rather than tile, slate or stone. On a pitched roof the covering does the broad work of shedding rain. Lead does the fiddly work: it seals the places where the roof meets a chimney, a wall, another roof or a window, and a joint is where rain gets in first if anything gives. The metal earns its place by being easy to shape by hand into almost any form, and by staying weatherproof for decades once it is fixed well.
This guide walks round a house and names each place lead is used, so you can tell what you are looking at. Older houses carry plenty of it, from chimney collars on stone cottages to bay roofs on villas. The strips hidden under the slates have their own page on lead soakers, and national prices and thickness codes are covered separately as we go. All of it sits under our lead roofing service.
Flashings: the grey collars round chimneys and wall edges
A flashing is lead cut and bent to seal the meeting point of the roof covering with a chimney, wall or other upstand. Roofers use a handful of names for the shapes. An apron flashing sits at the foot of a chimney stack or a wall that faces down the slope, lying over the tiles and rising up the brickwork. A stepped flashing follows the edge of a wall that runs up the slope, jumping up one brick course at a time. A cover flashing is a separate upper piece that hangs down over a lower one, shedding water onto it so the joint is never left open.
How it is held
The top edge of a flashing is turned into the wall, usually into a groove cut along a mortar joint (a raglet) and tightened with lead wedges, then pointed. The lower edge rests on the roof covering and is shaped so it does not lift in the wind. Lead is not glued on. It is dressed into place and held mechanically, which is why a good job looks neat and slightly chunky at the same time.
How to spot one
From the ground a flashing reads as a dull grey band, often with a crisp stepped line where it meets masonry. New lead is bright and silvery, but it weathers within months to a flat, chalky grey, so an old collar can look like part of the stone. Stand back from a chimney with binoculars and follow the line round all four sides. If you can see the same grey metal on every face, the stack is flashed. If one side shows a smear of black or grey mastic instead, someone has patched it.
Our page on lead sheet codes explains the thickness that flashing work normally calls for.
Soakers: the small lead pieces you never see
A soaker is a small, bent rectangle of lead that is set in with every course of slates or tiles beside a wall or chimney. One leg lies flat under the covering and the other turns up the wall. Each soaker overlaps the one below it, and the stepped flashing sits over their upturned legs. The result is a joint made of many small layers that all shed water outward, which is very forgiving of a settling building.
Because soakers are sandwiched between the roof covering and the wall, you cannot see them on a roof that is in good order. What you see is the stepped flashing on top. That is the main reason their condition is a mystery to owners until water appears. Lead soakers belong to the thinnest end of the code range, and Leadworx lists Code 3 for soakers and light duty, while Royston Lead's brochure lists soakers as the one use for Code 3.
When they come to light
On a re-roof or a repair where slates must be lifted along a wall, soakers are exposed. Sound ones can often be reused. Corroded or split ones are replaced, and the work can be priced as a short line on a written quote. A chimney with a stained breast inside the house, and no obvious gap outside, makes us look at the soakers and the wall joint before anything else.
Where tiles have been replaced with a different type, soakers cut for the old size may no longer line up with the courses. A roof patched more than once with mixed coverings is where we look for this mismatch.
Valleys and back gutters: lead channels that move water sideways
Where two roof slopes meet in an inward corner, you have a valley. All the water from both slopes collects there, so it needs a continuous waterproof channel. A lead valley gutter is a long strip laid in that angle, with the slates or tiles trimmed to sit either side and leave a width of lead showing between them. Royston Lead lists pitched valley gutters among the uses for Codes 4 to 8. Our page on lead valleys goes through them in more depth.
Stone roofs are different
Cotswold stone roofs traditionally avoid lead in the valley. The classic detail is a swept valley, where the stone courses curve round the corner. Cotswold District Council's stone slate guidance rates close-mitred and open lead valleys as cheaper to construct, yet less satisfactory than the traditional detail. On those houses a lead-lined valley usually points to a later repair.
Back gutters
A chimney that sits partway up a slope blocks the water running down behind it. The fix is a back gutter: a small lead trough on the upslope side of the stack that catches the flow and sends it round both sides. You will not see it from the ground. From a ladder or a window above, it looks like a shallow grey channel pressed against the chimney's high side, with a lip turned up the brickwork.
Back gutters are a common leak point because leaves, moss and grit settle in them. When someone reports a stain beside a chimney, we clear the back gutter before anything else.
Box gutters
Between two roofs, or behind a parapet, the same idea is built as a wider trough called a box gutter. Royston lists parapet and box gutters under the heavier codes, 5 to 8.
Bays, porches and dormers: lead on the small roofs
Many older houses have a bay window that carries its own low roof, and the covering over it is very often lead. A bay is a series of angled faces, which suits a material that can be folded round corners. The sheets are laid over a timber deck, run up the wall behind as a flashing, and turn down over the front edge into a gutter or onto a fascia. A porch roof over a front door is dealt with in the same way.
Dormers
A dormer is a small structure that projects from a pitched roof to hold a vertical window. Its sides are called cheeks, and they are commonly clad in lead, with the top in lead or another covering and a flashing at the junction with the main roof. Royston lists dormers across Codes 4 to 8. If you are thinking about adding a dormer, planning rules apply: roof additions of this type are not permitted development in a conservation area or in the Cotswolds National Landscape, so ask Stroud District Council's planning team before you draw anything up.
What to look for
Bay and porch roofs are the leadwork most people can actually see, from an upstairs window or a low step ladder. Look at the angle where the lead meets the wall, at the front edge, and at the corners of the bay. Common faults are a lifted top edge, dents from a ladder or foot traffic, and a patch of sealant where a split was smeared over. A lead roof that is walked on regularly will not last as long as one that is left alone. Our page on lead flashing costs shows typical national prices for jobs of this size.
Flat roofs and parapet gutters: lead as the whole covering
On some roofs lead is not just a joint detail. It is the whole waterproof layer. A lead flat roof is made of sheets laid in bays over a deck set to a slight fall, with raised rolls running with the fall and small steps called drips across it. Those two details let the metal expand and contract without tearing. They are covered properly on our page about lead flat roofs, because the system is large enough to deserve its own guide.
You find lead flat roofs behind parapet walls, where the edge of the building hides them from the street. They also cover bay roofs, porch roofs and the flat portions of period extensions. A parapet gutter is the channel running along the foot of that wall, collecting rain and taking it to an outlet. From the street you might see only the stone parapet and a downpipe, with nothing on top that looks like a roof.
A material, not just a finish
MyBuilder's 2026 flat roof guide puts lead at £150 to £200 or more per m², well above bitumen felt at £70 to £100 per m² and EPDM at £90 to £130 per m². Less Ltd quotes 50 to 100 years for a lead flat roof, which is why the higher outlay can make sense on a house you plan to keep. Lifespans are typical ranges, not promises, and they depend on how the roof is laid and cared for.
If your flat roof is a pale grey or silver metal surface with seams that stand up like low ridges, you have a lead roof or a close cousin of one, and it should be inspected by someone who knows the difference.
Reading your own roof for leadwork
You can learn a lot with a camera and a clear afternoon. Start in the garden and look for grey metal around the chimney, along any wall that rises out of the roof, in valley lines, and over bays and porches. Then go indoors. Check the ceiling and walls beneath each of those spots for tide marks, flaking paint or a musty smell, and, if the hatch is easy to reach, glance at the brickwork of the stack from the loft side.
Signs that lead needs attention
- An edge standing proud of the wall, or a gap you can see daylight through.
- A crack or split, usually at a fold or corner.
- A slipped section, where the lead has crept downhill and left the top edge exposed.
- Silicone or mastic smeared over a joint.
- Lead missing altogether, which can follow theft.
White patches on grey lead are a normal surface layer, not damage. The deposit forms as the metal weathers, and a roofer will tell you it is only a problem when it is heavy and flaking.
What we do with the photographs
At a survey we photograph the leadwork on your own roof, close up, and mark each fault on the pictures. The written quote then puts a price against each flashing, soaker, valley or bay, so the cost of every part is visible. We also take away the old lead and leave the site clear. The work carries a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing.
Photographs from a phone are enough to start. Send us the chimney from two sides and any wall edge you are worried about, and we can tell you which of these parts we need to look at first.