Chimney restoration and external repairs, Westminster, London

2 Margaret Street in Westminster, W1W 8RD is a commercial property managed by the Langham estate.

We were appointed to carry out part of the external repairs package. As only a ground based survey had been carried out prior to scaffolding being erected, we were asked to produce a photo survey detailing the items in need of attention once the scaffolding was up.
Our costed survey was sent to the estate’s surveying team. The items to be done were agreed, followed by a fixed price order being issued.

General maintenance of Victorian age buildings is key to preventing excessive expenditure.

As the chimney stacks are at the top of the building and exposed to the weather more than any other part of the building, these along with the roof are often the items mostly in need of work.
The estate surveying team realised that, unfortunately, the two stacks had been neglected for too long and that racking out and repointing of the mortar was no longer an option. Once the mortar is failing it is no longer bonding the brickwork together. It is only the downforce of weight that holds many Victorian chimney stacks in place.

Our survey indicated that by rebuilding the stacks, replacing severely damaged sills and carrying out repairs where necessary, further water ingress to the building would be prevented and limit future internal repair costs.

We began by carefully dismantling the chimney stacks. Unfortunately the majority of bricks were too badly damaged to be reused, so we used good condition reclaimed bricks as a replacement.

We then removed the damaged sills and replaced them with new natural stone sills to match the originals. We also cut out and replaced the spalled and broken bricks.

We also repointed a lot of brickwork, to prevent water ingress.

With Victorian brickwork, the walls are normally one brick thick built in a Flemish bond style. Cavity walls were not common, back then.

With a solid wall, if the pointing and brickwork is damaged or missing, rainwater will pass through the wall into the internal side of the building causing damp and damage to wall finishes, as well as joists and beams.

Once the stacks were rebuilt along with the external replacement and repairs carried out, the estate’s surveying team checked over our work and signed it off.

The full works took around six weeks in total to complete, well within the allotted timescale.

Finishing on time allowed the client to move new revenue-generating commercial tenants into the building. They moved into a commercial property fit for purpose, in a high demand area.

• Prevention of further water ingress into the building, significantly reducing the potential for internal repair costs in the future.
• Restoration of the building’s aesthetic appeal and structural integrity, especially important for Victorian-era buildings which require careful maintenance.
• Enhanced property value and appeal to potential tenants due to the high-quality restoration of historical features like chimney stacks and stone sills.