Rendering in Bearwood, cavity walls and gables
Post-war cavity walls throughout, which takes the breathability argument off the table and makes this a decision about finish rather than fabric.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Rendering in Bearwood is on post-war cavity walls with a damp proof course, which is the easy end of the trade. A cracked or hollow sand and cement coat is patched or hacked off, and a full re-render goes back in a silicone thin coat or a monocouche, both through-coloured and happy on that background. Gables and panels are where it usually fails. Cracks showing on the inside face are plastering work, and we can price both together.
In Bearwood the question is usually appearance. A dashed gable that has gone streaky. A rendered panel above a bay that no longer matches the brick. A whole front elevation somebody wants taking from tired painted render to a clean scraped finish that never needs painting again.
There is a second situation too, and it is the one worth being honest about. Somebody has damp inside and has been told to render the outside. Sometimes that is the answer. Often it is not. We tap the wall, look at the ground levels and the base of the elevation, and tell you what the render will and will not fix before anyone prices it.
The work
Gables, panels and full elevations on the estates
Checking the background comes first. Every quote starts with a mallet over the wall. On Bearwood houses of this age the render is usually still bonded, and where a coat sounds hollow it is normally around a bay, a gable verge or a spot where water has been running off a blocked gutter for years. We chalk what is loose so you can see it.
Silicone thin coat. The workhorse system in Bearwood. A mesh reinforced basecoat over the prepared background, a primer, then a silicone topcoat scraped or floated to the texture you pick. It flexes with the wall, sheds water, resists algae better than masonry paint and never needs repainting.
Monocouche. A through-coloured polymer modified render applied in one build and scraped back the following day. The colour runs through the coat rather than sitting on top of it, so a chip does not show as a white scar. It suits the plain gables and long elevations on the newer closes.
Dashed and Tyrolean panels. A good number of the 1960s and 70s houses on the edge of the Bearwood estate carry dashed panels between brickwork. Those can be cut out and re-dashed, or the whole panel can be taken off and brought up flush in a thin coat system so the elevation reads as one surface instead of two.
Hacking off and making good. Where a coat has genuinely blown it comes off with a breaker to a firm edge. Bearwood's cavity walls give up their render easily, which is a mercy. The blockwork or brick behind is made good, given a key, and anything friable is stabilised with a primer.
Cracking and delamination. On a Bearwood house, a vertical crack over a lintel or under a sill is usually movement rather than failure, and it is cut out, meshed and made good. Crazing across a sand and cement coat is cosmetic. A crack you can get a coin into is letting water behind and the frost will widen it every winter you leave it.
Beads and bellcast. Angle beads at the corners, stop beads at the reveals and a bellcast bead at the base so water leaves the wall instead of tracking back under the render. On a house with a modern damp proof course the render must stop clear above it, which is the detail most often got wrong on a cheap job.
Render over external wall insulation. Where the cavity is narrow and the heating bills say so, insulation board or a render carrier can be fixed to the outside face and rendered over. EWI is thermal work as much as render work, so it is quoted and detailed differently.
How it runs
Re-rendering a gable, a bay or a whole elevation
On Bearwood houses of this age render is usually a gable, a bay or a band across the first floor, applied over blockwork, rather than the whole house. Thomas taps each rendered area himself to map the hollow patches, and checks the bellcast bead over the damp course, the window sills and any pipes fixed through it.
The written quote itemises scaffold or tower, sheeting and protection, preparation, the render system and coats, stop ends and beads, and the making good afterwards.
Thomas is your one contact for the whole Bearwood job. Doors, windows and the drive are sheeted before anything is hacked off, the old render is bagged or skipped and leaves with us, and the site is cleared every day. Where the blockwork behind turns out cracked or a lintel has rusted, you see a photograph and a price before we render over it.
Putting new render where there was render before counts as maintenance. Bearwood has no conservation area, but a new or different finish must still look similar to the existing house or it needs permission. Rendering bare brick for the first time on a house that has been extended is worth checking against permitted development, and the council keeps the list of designated areas. Putting insulation behind a render brings in building control and the Part L standard in Approved Document L.
Cost
Blown patches, beads and which render system
We do not work to a rate per square metre on render. The state of what is on the wall now sets the time.
Access. A gable on a detached Bearwood house with a drive beside it, a mid terrace where the scaffold goes up in the front garden, and a two storey side wall tight to a boundary fence all need different platforms. Low bays can come off a tower. The scaffold stays up for every coat and the curing between them, which the work at height rules make a priced line.
Hacking off. Sand and cement that has lost its bond, or pebbledash parting from the blockwork, has to come off before anything goes on, and it is heavy and slow. Tapping every part of the wall before quoting is how we count it.
Choosing a system. Over the blockwork of a post-war Bearwood cavity wall, a silicone thin coat, a through-coloured monocouche or a painted sand and cement finish will all work. They differ in cost, look and upkeep. Insulated render, with boards under it, is a bigger job with sills and pipes moved out.
Movement. On Bearwood's clay, fine cracks turn up in render as the ground moves. Mesh in the base coat and movement beads help, but a crack that keeps opening needs its cause found first.
Trims. Corner and reveal beads, the bellcast at the damp course and stop ends each take time.
Ask anyone else quoting which system and how many coats, whether the old render comes off or gets covered, and whether the beads, the bellcast and the scaffold are included.
If it has started to come away
Hollow, cracked or falling render
A section that sounds hollow when tapped, a crack wide enough to take a coin, or render bulging off the wall means water is behind it, and frost will finish the job. If any of it is loose over a path, a door or a car, keep people clear and phone; do not wait on the form.
On the first visit we take down anything likely to fall, sheet the bare wall if rain is due, and map how far the blown area goes before pricing it. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If you miss us, we return the call as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
A cavity wall makes the render decision simpler
Every house in Bearwood sits on a cavity wall with a damp proof course, and that changes the argument. People worry about render trapping moisture because a solid pre-1919 wall has no cavity and no barrier, so it dries out through its own face.
Put a plastic rich coat on a period wall of that kind and the moisture has nowhere to go. On a post-war cavity wall the outer leaf is a rain screen, and a silicone or monocouche system is entirely at home on it.
So in Bearwood the choice is genuinely about finish: texture, colour and how much maintenance you want, rather than a breathability question with a right and a wrong answer. It also means a render job here rarely turns into something bigger once the scaffold is up.
The one thing to be careful of is the opposite mistake. Render is not a damp treatment. If you have a damp patch inside a cavity wall house, the usual causes are a bridged cavity, ground levels raised above the damp course, a leaking gutter or a cracked sill, and covering the outside in a new coat hides the symptom rather than the cause. We would rather find that at the visit than after you have paid for an elevation.
Who you are dealing with
Render priced by the owner, not a salesman
Our base in Boscombe is 5 miles from Bearwood. We render houses here and in Kinson, West Howe, Canford Heath and out towards Merley, broadly BH11, where Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council decides planning and building control.
You deal with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The man who taps the walls and prices the job is its owner, Thomas Hannen. Checkatrade carries a verified customer's 10 out of 10 for us. The visit is free, and the written quote with each line set out costs nothing. Before you book a visit in Bearwood, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Bearwood?
Most repairs in Bearwood need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.
| Question | In Bearwood |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Bearwood. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Bearwood, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Bearwood. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Bearwood. |
Questions
Questions about rendering in Bearwood
Will rendering the outside stop the damp inside my house?
Only if the render is what is letting the water in. On a cavity wall the usual culprits are raised ground levels, a bridged cavity or a leaking gutter. We check those first, because a new coat over the top of one of them just hides it.
Can you render just the gable and leave the rest in brick?
Yes, and it is a common request here. The render is stopped on a bead at the corner and at the verge so the edge looks deliberate, not accidental. The join is the part that decides whether it looks right.
Silicone or monocouche, which should I pick?
Both are through-coloured and neither needs painting. Monocouche goes on in one build and has a heavier, more traditional grain. Silicone is a thinner topcoat over a meshed basecoat and copes better with a wall that moves. We will say which suits your elevation.
How much disruption is there for a full elevation?
A scaffold goes up, the wall is covered for several days and there is noise on the hack off day. Windows are masked and the site is swept every evening. Most people carry on living normally throughout.
Can dashed panels be made flush with the rest of the wall?
Usually, yes: the dash comes off, the background is levelled and the whole elevation is brought up in a thin coat system so it reads as one surface. A bigger job than patching the panel, and the one people are happiest with afterwards.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Bearwood
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Free quote
Get the elevation tapped and priced properly
Thomas comes out, checks the background and the base detail and prices the system in writing line by line. The visit and the quote are free.