Chimneys and parapets
A bungalow stack sits on the ridge with no stay and one pot leans. What is leaning, the pot or the stack, if the brickwork below the pot is upright?
The pot is leaning, not the stack, if the brickwork below the pot is upright. A stay is missing, which is a separate fact about restraint of the stack, not proof that the brick has tilted. The survey can see an upright shaft and a pot that is out of plumb on top of it. It has not pulled the pot off, and it has not measured the flue. Upright brickwork is why the lean is being kept with the pot.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Pots sit in a flaunching on the crown of the stack. They lean when that bedding cracks or the pot itself is loose, even while the brick shaft below stays upright. Calling the whole stack unsafe because one pot leans mixes two findings. The missing stay means nothing was seen tying the stack, which on a bungalow ridge is worth its own sentence. It does not redraw an upright shaft as a leaning one.
Ask a roofing or chimney contractor to deal with the leaning pot and to say whether the flaunching has failed, and keep the missing stay as its own item. Tell the solicitor the brickwork below the pot was upright, so a report that says the stack is leaning would overstate the survey. The inspection has not tested the flue and has not condemned the shaft.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did you record the pot as leaning and the brickwork below it as upright?
- What did the missing stay add, if it did not prove a tilt in the shaft?
- Was the flue left untested?
What are the typical next steps?
- Call the lean a pot, not a leaning stack, while the brick is upright.
- Ask a chimney contractor to look at the pot and the flaunching.
- Keep the missing stay as its own note.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If there is no stay, must the upright brick still be called leaning?
No. A missing stay is absence of a restraint. It is not a measurement of tilt. The brickwork below the pot was upright, so the thing leaning is the pot. The survey has not redescribed that shaft as leaning in order to account for the stay. The two sentences stay separate.
Does an upright stack mean the pot can be ignored?
No. Upright brickwork answers which part is leaning. It does not bed the pot back into the flaunching. A loose pot can still throw water into the crown or block a flue. The survey has not tested the flue and has not passed the pot because the shaft looked straight.