Rendering in Blandford Forum
A Georgian brick town where the right advice is often that the front wall should not be rendered at all.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a sound Georgian brick front in the middle of town, render is usually the wrong answer, and covering one is a planning question rather than a repair. Where render already exists, on side and rear walls, the post-war estates and the 1970s and 1980s houses, it is worth doing properly.
People ring us here about three things. A patch of render that sounds hollow when you knock it, usually low down where the wet gets in. A crack running off the corner of a window that has opened up over a couple of winters. And a shaded elevation gone green and streaky that will not stay clean.
The town is brick. It burned in 1731 and went back up in brick, so most of the older frontages were never meant to be covered. The first thing we do is work out whether your wall wants render at all. If it does, we tap the whole elevation, mark the hollow areas, and write down what comes off and what goes back on. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
The work
What we render, and what we leave alone
Silicone thin coat. The system most people mean when they say render. A primer, a polymer basecoat with a glass fibre mesh bedded into it, then a through-coloured silicone topcoat floated to a scraped texture. It moves a little, sheds water and holds its colour, and it suits the 1970s and 1980s blockwork that makes up most of the newer housing here. Beads and stop ends at every opening, a bellcast at the base so water drips clear.
Monocouche. One through-coloured coat put on thick and scraped back the next day. Quick on a plain elevation and hard wearing, but unforgiving of a poor background. We would not put it on a wall that has already been patched a dozen times.
Sand and cement, pebbledash and Tyrolean. A scratch coat, a float coat, then either a smooth finish, a dry dash thrown on while it is green, or a Tyrolean flicked on. Plenty of the post-war houses here carry one of these, and matching an existing dash is a question of aggregate size and colour. We make up a sample panel first.
Lime render. On a solid wall built before 1919, period brick or a rubble core, the coat has to be softer than the wall behind it and it has to be breathable. That means lime, in two or three coats, hair gauged in the base. Put a hard cement or a plastic rich acrylic on a wall like that and trapped moisture goes inwards instead, and the wall stays damp behind a face that looks perfect.
Hacking off, and the tapping that comes first. Blown render has parted from its background. We tap the whole elevation and mark every hollow area, because that decides whether you are patching, overlaying or taking the lot off. Past about a third of a wall, patching is money spent twice.
Cracks, delamination and staining. A hairline map of crazing is shrinkage and cosmetic. A crack you can get a coin into is movement or a failed bead, and wants opening up and reinforcing rather than filling. Algae and the green and black staining on a shaded wall come off with a soft wash.
Render over external wall insulation. Insulation board fixed to the wall as a render carrier, then the same mesh, basecoat and topcoat on top. It is the one render job that changes the thermal performance of the house, and as part of a wider renovation Approved Document L sets what the wall is expected to reach. On a solid breathable wall we say honestly that it is the wrong house for it.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access and scaffold, protection, preparation of the existing wall, the system and number of coats, beads and stop ends, and making good on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Re-rendering an existing wall is not usually notifiable, so on a straightforward job there is nothing for building control. Appearance is what is controlled here. There are 209 listed entries in and around the town and the conservation area covers much of the older street frontage, so covering bare brick, or changing the colour of a rendered front, is a planning question, and on a listed building it needs listed building consent. We look the address up before quoting.
Cost
What decides the price of a rendering job
No rate per square metre, because the square metres are the easy part; what is already on the wall decides the price.
Getting to it. A townhouse front onto a pavement, a semi on one of the post-war estates and a detached 1980s house with a drive are three different platforms before anybody mixes anything. A bungalow gable comes off a tower, a three storey elevation wants a scaffold, and the platform has to stand for the whole system rather than a day. The work at height rules are why it is a priced line rather than something folded into a rate.
What is already on the wall. Rendering over sound brick is one job. Hacking off blown sand and cement, or a pebbledash that has parted from the background, is another, and it is the part nobody can see from the road. We tap the whole elevation before quoting, because the hollow areas set the hours.
The system, and what the wall behind it needs. Silicone thin coat over insulation, monocouche through-coloured, or traditional sand and cement all price differently and behave differently. On a solid wall that has to breathe, a plastic-rich modern system traps moisture and moves the problem inside, so the right system is a wall decision rather than a colour decision.
Comparing quotes? Ask which system is being quoted and how many coats, whether the old render is being hacked off or overlaid, whether beads, bellcast and stop ends are included, whether the scaffold is in the price, and what happens to the existing sills and pipework. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If it has started to come away
Render that has blown or cracked open
Ring rather than use the form. A section that sounds hollow when you tap it, or a crack you can get a coin into, is letting water behind the render and the frost does the rest. We make the loose area safe, sheet it if the weather is against us, and price the elevation once we can see how far the blown area actually goes. If a piece has already come off and there is bare background showing, get it covered before the next wet spell rather than after it, because a soaked wall adds drying time to the repair. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why we talk people out of rendering a brick front
The town centre is the reason. Blandford burned in 1731 and was rebuilt in brick over the following thirty years, which is why so much of the older housing has a face brick front with gauged arches and rubbed brick at the openings. Those fronts were built to be seen and to weather. Rendering over one hides the detail, and because the brick is soft and the joints are lime, a modern cement or acrylic coat holds water in the wall instead of letting it out. The damage shows years later, and on the inside.
It is a planning matter as well as a building one. Inside a conservation area a like for like repair to an existing finish needs nothing, but putting a new material on a street elevation is a change of appearance and gets asked about. None of that stops the work most people actually want. Side and rear walls, garden walls, rendered later additions and anything already carrying a sand and cement coat are ordinary jobs, and that is most of what we do in the town.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover the town and the villages around it, Blandford St Mary, Bryanston, Pimperne and the Winterbornes, broadly DT11, with Dorset Council for planning and building control. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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
Blandford Forum questions we get asked
Can I render the front of a Georgian house in the town centre?
Usually you should not, and often you would need permission to. Those fronts are soft brick with lime joints, built to breathe, and a modern coat traps moisture in the wall. Changing the material on a street elevation in a conservation area is a change of appearance too. Side and rear walls are a different conversation.
How long does one elevation take from start to finish?
On a two storey side wall, reckon on the scaffold going up, a day or two of preparation and hacking off, the basecoat and mesh, then the topcoat once the base has cured, and a clean down. Curing between coats sets the calendar rather than the trowel work, and cold or wet weather stretches it.
Our pebbledash is hollow in patches. Patch it or take it all off?
We tap the whole wall before answering. Isolated hollow panels with sound render around them are worth cutting out and making good. Once the hollow areas start running into each other, patching costs more over time than taking the wall back to the background and putting one system across it.
Will a new render stop the damp inside our wall?
Sometimes, and sometimes it makes it worse. If rain is getting in through open cracks or a failed bead, sorting the face of the wall sorts it. If the wall is solid and the damp is moisture that cannot get out, sealing the outside with a plastic rich coat traps it. So we look at what the wall is built of first.
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Find out what your wall actually needs
Thomas comes out, taps the elevation, tells you whether render is the right answer and itemises the work. The visit and the quote are free.