Plastering in Langton Matravers
Render repairs, replastering and skimming across Langton Matravers and Purbeck. We tap the wall before we price it, and the quote comes in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
If the render on the south west side of a Langton Matravers house is cracked and hollow while the sheltered walls are sound, that is the normal pattern here. It is usually one elevation of work rather than a whole house, and worth doing before the wall behind it gets wet.
Most calls from the village are one of three things. Render that has crazed, gone hollow under a knuckle and started dropping flakes into the border, nearly always on the wall that faces the sea. A damp patch inside on that same wall, which is the same fault from the other side.
Or a house that wants the whole of it skimmed before anyone decorates. We come out and tap the render across the elevation rather than looking at the one crack you rang about. Half the render jobs here are repairs to a single wall, not the four somebody has quoted for.
The work
Sound render rings, blown render drums
Sound render rings, blown render drums. The wind and rain come off a sea two and a half kilometres away onto the south west walls, and that is where render fails first. Tapping tells you what looking cannot: sound render rings, blown render drums, and the hollow area is nearly always bigger than the crack. Where it is one panel we cut it out square, key the stone or blockwork, and put back a basecoat and a matching topcoat. Where more than about a third of the wall has gone, patching it is money spent twice and we will say so.
A rigid sand and cement render on a stone wall that moves will crack again, so on the exposed walls here it is a mesh reinforced basecoat with a silicone thin coat over it, which stays flexible and sheds water, or a through-coloured monocouche if you would rather never paint it. Old rubble walls that were rendered in lime get lime back, a scratch coat and a render coat over a primed background, because a solid wall has to stay breathable. Every one of them starts on a bell cast bead clear of the damp course, with stop beads at the reveals and mesh where two materials meet.
Inside, after the wet has got through. Where water has been coming in a while the plaster on the inside face is blown and usually carrying salts, and it goes on ruining paint until it comes off. It gets hacked back, the wall is left to dry, then a backing coat to suit the background and a finish coat over it. We will not book that part of the job until the outside is right.
Ceilings are lath and plaster in the older cottages, where the key snaps off the back of the laths long before the plaster looks bad, and plasterboard in everything newer, where the fault is a nailed joint that has cracked: down and re-boarded, or fixed and skimmed, depending on what is left holding it up. Artex over either one skims flat in two passes, and we never sand it. Extensions and garden rooms get dry lining on dabs where the blockwork is fair, stud walls where it is not, tape and joint or a full skim, and angle bead on every external corner, plus the ordinary making good after new windows or a bathroom, which is a morning rather than a project.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
It starts with a free site visit and a survey of every wall and ceiling in the rooms concerned, not just the one you rang about, and the quote is itemised line by line. Replastering inside needs no planning permission, and repairing render like for like is repair. Swapping the finish on a front elevation is another matter, because the village sits in the Langton Matravers conservation area and there are about fifty listed entries along the High Street and the lanes off it, where listed building consent is needed before anything comes off. Re-rendering a whole elevation brings building control in, because Approved Document L treats that as renovating a thermal element. Dorset Council is the authority for both.
Cost
What decides the price
There is no useful rate per square metre. Purbeck stone rubble with lime behind the plaster, a blockwork extension with sound gypsum on it, and a wall that has been wet for two winters are three different prices for the same square metres. A cottage with its front wall on the pavement, a bungalow with a side gate, and a house with a long garden between the gate and the gable are three more. Ask whether it is a skim or a full replaster, and who takes the waste.
If it has just gone
A ceiling down, or a wall that has let go
Ring rather than use the form. A ceiling that has dropped, plaster off a wall after a leak, or render that has come away from a gable goes to the front of the queue. Langton Matravers is about nine miles from us, one of the shorter runs we make, so this is normally same day or next. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The weather side is a different wall
The weather here decides the render, and it only comes from one direction. Driven rain off the sea lands on the south west walls, and being under three kilometres from the coast the salt in it keeps the surface damp between showers instead of letting it dry out.
A wall that never fully dries moves, and a rigid sand and cement render on a moving wall cracks. Every hairline crack is a one way door: rain gets in behind the render and cannot get back out, so the render lets go from the wall in sheets and the first you know of it is a hollow sound or a damp patch on the bedroom wall inside.
So on that elevation we would rather put a mesh reinforced basecoat and a silicone topcoat on than the cement mix that came off it, because it takes small movement without splitting and sheds water instead of soaking it.
Two details matter more than the brand: a bell cast bead that throws water clear above the damp course, and a stop bead at every window reveal so the edge is not left raw. Painting over crazed render seals the wet in rather than keeping it out. And on stone that was never rendered, leave it alone. Repointing is the right trade for that wall, not us.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Langton Matravers, Acton, Worth Matravers, Kingston, Harmans Cross, Swanage and Corfe Castle across BH19. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Langton Matravers questions we get asked
What does the Langton Matravers conservation area actually control?
The look of the place from outside. Within the designation the external face of a building is what is protected, and there are 50 listed entries in the village on top of it, which is a lot for somewhere this size. Renewing a render in the same material and finish sits on the maintenance side of the line. Changing the system or the colour does not, and Dorset Council will want to know first.
Under two miles from the sea. Which render lasts here?
A flexible one on mesh rather than a rigid sand and cement. At 2.6km from the coast with the exposed face looking south west, walls here get driven rain and salt in the same weather and stay wet long after the shower has passed. Sand and cement is strong but it does not move, so it splits first at the openings, then water works behind the panel and lifts it off.
Why does the seaward wall stay damp between showers?
Salt. It sits on the surface and in the pores, holds moisture out of the air, and keeps that face from drying properly, which is why the elevation nearest the 2.6km of open coast greens up and loses its paint film first. Salt also eats metal from the edge inwards, so beads, mesh and any exposed fixing corrode and stain through the finish. Anything metal on that wall has to be stainless or well buried.
Does the coastal landscape designation affect a change of colour?
It adds a layer of scrutiny to anything you can see from the road or the coast path, because the village falls within the Dorset and East Devon Coast and the Dorset national landscape. That is separate from the conservation area and works on the same principle. A matched, quiet finish passes without comment, where a strong colour on a visible elevation invites an argument you do not need to have.
Can one elevation be re-rendered instead of the whole house?
That is usually the sensible job here. The exposed face takes the weather and the sheltered sides can be years behind it, so doing all four at once often means replacing render that has plenty of life left. Getting the join right is the trick, and a break at a corner or under a bargeboard reads far better than a line across open wall. We price the failed face on its own.
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Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, sound the walls, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.