Chimneys and parapets
Flaunching is cracked around two pots and sound around the third. What pots are the note about?
The note is about the two pots where the flaunching is cracked, not the third, where it is sound. Flaunching is the mortar that beds and weathers the pots at the top of the stack. Cracks around two of them open a path for rain at those pots. The third pot, with sound flaunching, is the comparison that keeps the note local. The survey has not said the stack is leaning, and it has not tested the flues. The pots in the note are the two with cracked bedding. The sound pot is not that defect.
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 are set in a mound of mortar called flaunching, shaped to throw water away from the joints. When that mortar cracks around a pot, rain can get between pot and mortar and into the top of the stack or the flue. Two pots showing that, and one not, means the defect is those two beddings. The survey saw the cracks and the sound third pot. It did not pull any pot, and it did not camera the flues.
Ask a roofer or a chimney contractor to remake the flaunching around the two cracked pots, and to check those pots are still secure, without condemning the third. Tell the solicitor the note is limited to the two. The survey has not specified new pots for the whole stack and has not tested the flues. If a pot itself is cracked as well as the mortar, the contractor can say so from the stack. That is beyond the view already written.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which two pots have cracked flaunching?
- Is the third pot's flaunching sound, and outside this note?
- Were the flues left untested?
What are the typical next steps?
- Limit the note to the two pots with cracked flaunching.
- Leave the sound third pot out of that defect.
- Ask a contractor to remake the bedding around the two pots.
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 you later think the third pot leans, does this note already say so?
No. This note is cracked flaunching around two pots and sound flaunching around the third. A lean would be a different observation, and it is not what was written here. Do not add the sound pot to the cracked pair because of a worry about lean. Ask the surveyor what was actually seen on the third pot.
Does sound flaunching on the third pot mean that flue is safe to use?
No. Sound mortar around one pot is not a flue test. The note is about cracked flaunching on the other two. The survey has not tested any flue, including the one with sound bedding. Whether a flue is safe to use is a question for a chimney specialist. The third pot is simply not the cracked-flaunching defect.