Squirrel! Unusual Lead Repairs on a Listed Property

I visited a beautiful listed property to look at making repairs to a roof balcony, which is leaking into the room below. The balcony floor is lead lined and has a gutter that runs through the roof and exits onto the tiles. The leaking balcony has been a source of frustration for the owner (and previous owner), with many attempts made to fix the problem but to no avail.

Roof balcony with lead lined gutter

Chewed and scored lead flashing

On closer inspection, it was clear that the lead at the outlet was scored heavily and had been apparently hammered flat against the tiles to such an extent that it had deformed the lead and caused some to detach. I blamed the work of previous builders who had tried to fix the issue by assuming that they had caused the damage by hammering it flat to the tiles in an effort to remove any gaps. But no! A lead specialist said that this is a classic symptom of squirrel damage.

Squirrels have strong teeth that continuously grow, which compels them to gnaw on various materials to keep their teeth at a manageable length. Chewing on soft metal seems to do the trick and lead is a favourite being relatively soft compared to other metals. Who knew! Aluminium is also on the menu, so if you see these marks in future you'll know who the culprit is.

#listedproperty #buildingconservation #periodproperty