Lead workand flashingsformed by hand

Heavier codes go where the lead is exposed, walked on, or has to span; lighter codes suit soakers and small details. Choosing by cost rather than by exposure is the single most common cause of split lead, and it is why we specify per junction rather than buying one roll for the whole job.

Lead is dressed with wooden tools rather than forced, cut to lengths that allow for thermal movement, and patinated where appropriate so it weathers evenly instead of streaking the elevation below.

Most leadwork on a Sussex house falls into a handful of standard details, each with its own failure mode and its own correct method.

Small lead-covered flat areas, bay roofs, porch tops, dormer tops, are still common on period property, and they work well when the bays are sized correctly, laid on a proper substrate with underlay, and joined with welts and drips rather than solder everywhere.

Where an existing lead flat roof has been patched repeatedly, we will tell you honestly whether re-laying the lead or converting to a three-layer torch-on felt system is the better value for that particular roof.

Lead at a chimney only works if the masonry around it works. Perished flaunching, open joints or spalled brick will feed water past even perfect flashings, so we check the stack as part of the job rather than treating it as somebody else's problem.

Because we also carry out chimney work and repointing, the whole detail, stack, flaunching, pointing and lead, gets put right in one visit, under one fixed price.

On houses, leadwork is usually small-scale and highly visible: stacks, dormers, bays and extension abutments where neatness counts as much as watertightness.

On commercial buildings it tends to be parapets, box gutters and long abutments where volume of water and expansion over long runs drive the detailing. Both get the same approach: correct code, sensible lengths, proper fixing.

Along the coast at Worthing, Shoreham-by-Sea, Littlehampton, Hove and Brighton, wind-driven rain gets uphill. Upstand heights and lap dimensions that are adequate inland are not always adequate on a seafront elevation.

We detail with the exposure of the property in mind, which usually means more generous upstands and laps and closer attention to fixings on the windward side.