Rendering in Boldre, forty year old finishes
Much of the render around here dates from the 1980s and 1990s, which is about the age at which a dash or a painted cement finish stops being tired and becomes a job.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Rendering in Boldre is often forty year old finishes coming to the end. Many houses here went up from the early 1980s on, and at thirty or forty years a dash or a painted cement render stops being tired and becomes a job. A tap test over the whole wall, in a grid, shows whether it needs patch repairs, a meshed recoat, or hacking off and re-rendering in silicone or monocouche. For inside walls, see plastering in Boldre.
On a Boldre house the symptoms arrive in order. The colour goes flat and patchy. The topcoat starts chalking and comes off on your hand. Stones begin dropping off a dry dash, or fine crazing appears across a panel. Last comes the hollow note when you tap it, and by then water is already getting behind the render.
The question then is whether the wall can carry a new finish over what is there, or whether the old render comes off first. It is the biggest decision on the quote and it is settled by tapping, not by looking. We sound every elevation, tell you what we find, and itemise the access, preparation, system, beads and making good. The visit and the written quote are free.
The work
Overcoat or strip, and how we decide
Tapping the whole elevation comes first. On a Boldre wall, render still bonded to the background rings hard. Render that has blown sounds hollow and drummy. We work across the wall in a grid rather than testing one spot, and chalk the edges of the hollow areas so you can see how much of the elevation is actually loose.
Overcoating a sound background. Where the existing render on a Boldre house is firmly stuck across the whole wall, it can be prepared, cleaned down and used as the background for a new system. That saves the mess and cost of a strip out, and it is a legitimate answer provided the tapping supports it.
Hacking off. Where the render has parted from the wall there is nothing to bond to, and anything put over the top goes when it goes. Blown areas of a Boldre wall come off back to sound masonry, open joints are repointed, the background is stabilised where it is dusty, then a mesh reinforced basecoat and a finish go on in coats.
Dry dash that is shedding. A typical 1980s failure. The topcoat has lost its grip on the coat below and the aggregate starts arriving on the drive. Small areas can be cut out and rethrown, matched to a sample panel where the stone can still be got. A whole elevation that is going is better taken off in one go.
Crazing and chalking. Fine crazing across a panel is shrinkage in an old cement render and is not urgent on its own. A topcoat that comes off on your hand has chalked, and washing will not improve it. That wall needs a recoat, not a clean.
Silicone thin coat. The usual replacement here. A stabilising primer where needed, a mesh reinforced basecoat that bridges old hairline cracking, then a through coloured silicone topcoat that sheds rain, washes down and never needs painting again.
Monocouche. One thick through coloured coat, ruled and scraped back to an even texture. Hard wearing on a plain elevation, needs a stable background, and the day joints get planned before the first mix so no seam lands mid wall.
Beads, bellcast and stop ends. Bellcast at the base above the damp proof course, stop beads at reveals and eaves, angle beads on corners, and a movement joint where an elevation is long or two structures meet. Old beads that have rusted through get cut out rather than covered.
Older and solid walls. A small number of houses in Boldre predate 1919. Those are solid walls, built breathable so moisture soaks in and dries back out through the face, and a plastic rich modern system leaves it trapped. Those get lime, which stays open and moves with the period fabric.
External wall insulation. Board fixed outside and rendered over, on a render carrier where the background will not take a direct fix. If an elevation is coming off anyway that is the moment to consider it, because the access is already paid for and the thermal gain is permanent.
How it runs
Hacking off, meshing and re-rendering an elevation
Thomas taps the render across each wall to find the hollow areas, looks at the cracks, the bellcast over the damp course and the beads round the windows, and checks what the wall is built of behind it. The quote lists access and scaffold, protecting windows and the garden, hacking off or preparing the old render, the system and the number of coats, beads and stop ends, and making good round sills and pipework.
Thomas is your contact throughout. Scaffold goes up round the elevations being done. Windows, doors and plants are sheeted and taped, and the old render is bagged and taken away. Each coat is left to cure before the next, and we will not render in frost or heavy rain. Many houses in Boldre are eighties terraces and semis where the render has cracked on the south west side. If hacking off shows a cracked lintel or loose brickwork, you get a photo and a price before we carry on.
Re-rendering a wall that is already rendered is maintenance. Rendering a brick wall for the first time is not permitted development inside a National Park, and with the Forest South East Conservation Area drawn round much of Boldre as well, a first-time render needs planning from the Park Authority. Its interactive property map covers your address. Renewing the render across most of an elevation brings in building control, and Approved Document L may then ask for the wall to be insulated.
Cost
Old render, the weather side and the right system
No rate per square metre from us. What is on the wall now, and what is behind it, decide the job.
Hollow render. Where render on a Boldre house has let go of the brick it comes off with a hammer and bolster, and the wall is brushed down and dubbed out before anything new goes on. Old pebbledash that has come away is heavier and dustier still. Thomas taps each elevation end to end before pricing, since the size of the hollow patches sets the days.
The south west side. Boldre gables turned to the south west catch the wind-driven rain. Fine cracks on that face let water in, frost widens them, and the render lifts, so that elevation may need a mesh layer or a render with more flex in it.
Which render. For a Boldre wall, sand and cement, a one-coat monocouche that is through-coloured, and a silicone thin coat over insulation boards are three different prices and three different behaviours. On an old cottage’s solid wall a lime render lets moisture out, where a plastic-rich finish can hold it in.
Getting up there. A Boldre bungalow end wall is a tower job. A two storey terrace with a shared path, or a semi with the garage in the way, needs scaffold for the whole job, costed under the work at height rules.
Trims. Beads, the bellcast, stop ends, sills, and unclipping pipes and cables all take time.
Ask anyone else quoting which render and how many coats, whether the old coat is being hacked off or rendered over, and whether scaffold, beads and the bellcast are included.
If it has started to come away
Render that has cracked, bulged or dropped
If render sounds hollow, is bulging or has already dropped pieces, keep people away from the wall below, especially over a door or a drive. A crack you can fit a coin into lets rain in behind the render, and frost then pushes it off.
Pebbledash shedding stones on a Boldre house is a sign it is parting from the wall. Call instead of filling in the form. We take down anything loose on the first visit, sheet the area if rain is due, and check how far the hollow areas spread before pricing the repair. Booked work is done Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If you do not reach us, we call back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
When a forty year old render can be covered, and when it cannot
Every quote for a tired elevation comes down to one question: can the new system go over the old render, or does the old render come off first. Overcoating is cheaper, quicker and less mess, so it is what most people hope for. It is also perfectly sound when the existing render is genuinely stuck to the wall across the whole elevation, because then it is simply another background.
The test is tapping, and it has to be the whole wall rather than a couple of spots. A hollow area means the render has let go of the masonry, so whatever you fix to it is fixed to something that is falling off. A new system over that looks excellent for two or three years and then comes away in sheets. So ask whoever priced it how much of the wall they tapped and what they found. Anyone who quoted an overcoat from the pavement has not answered the question.
Who you are dealing with
Rendering in Pilley, Norleywood and the old village
Render jobs in Boldre are priced by the owner. Thomas Hannen runs Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and he taps every elevation himself. We work out of Boscombe, about thirteen miles away, and render in the village, Pilley, Norleywood, along the lanes towards the river and in Lymington. Before you book a visit in Boldre, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Rendering a wall for the first time needs the National Park Authority’s say, and insulated render also goes to New Forest District Council for building control. Checkatrade holds a 10 out of 10 for us from a verified customer. The visit to see the walls is free, as is the written, itemised quote.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Boldre?
Most repairs in Boldre 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 Boldre |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Boldre. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Forest South East Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Boldre. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about rendering in Boldre
When is it safe to leave the existing render on the wall?
Only where it is stuck fast across the whole elevation. Then it is simply another background, and using it saves a great deal of mess. Where any part sounds hollow it has already let go, and a new system fixed to it will come away when it does.
How much of the wall do you tap before quoting?
All of it, in a grid, not a few spots, and both storeys. Hollow areas do not announce themselves from the pavement and are usually wider than the crack that prompted the call. It is the check that decides the price.
Why is our dry dash dropping stones?
Because the coat holding the aggregate has lost its grip on the coat beneath. Once water gets into that gap, frost lifts the rest off, so it accelerates. Small patches can be cut out and rethrown to a matched sample. A whole elevation that has started is better taken off.
The topcoat comes off on my hand. Is that serious?
It is chalking, which means the surface has weathered away rather than the render failing. It is not structural, but washing will not fix it and repainting a chalked surface without preparing it properly just peels. That wall wants preparing and recoating.
Does having the scaffold up change what else we should do?
It is the cheapest moment to think about insulation, since the platform is there and the wall is open. Whether it pays depends on the wall: a filled cavity may already be fine, a solid wall gains a lot. We will tell you which you have.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Boldre
Nearby places we also cover for rendering, with straight-line distances from Boldre, and the other trades we offer in Boldre itself.
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Our other trades in Boldre
Rendering guides
Silicone, cement or lime: which render? Cracked render: which cracks matter Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingEverything we do in Lymington Rendering, all areas Every area we cover
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Find out if it can be overcoated before you price it
Thomas taps the whole elevation, tells you how much has let go, and prices the strip out or the overcoat with the access, system and beads itemised. The visit and the quote are free.