Rendering in Bransgore

The survey comes first. A light hammer goes over every Bransgore elevation, starting with the exposed one. Blown render sounds hollow and has already delaminated from the background, so no topcoat will rescue it. We mark it, photograph it, measure it and price it. It is common to find one elevation needing a full strip and the other three needing patching and a wash.

Hacking off and preparing the wall. Where the coat on a Bransgore wall has gone we hack off to the background, clean down, cut out anything loose or spalled, and let it dry properly before anything new goes on. A primer or a slurry key on dense block. Then beads: angle beads on the corners, stop beads at reveals, and a bellcast at the base so water leaves the wall instead of running back under it.

Silicone thin coat, and why it suits an exposed wall. A polymer basecoat with alkali resistant mesh worked into it, then a flexible through-coloured topcoat scraped to a fine texture. The mesh spreads the stress so the coat does not crack at the corners of openings, the topcoat moves a little with the wall, and it stays breathable while shedding driven rain. On the modern blockwork here it is what we would put forward.

Monocouche and traditional render. A single through-coloured coat ruled and scraped suits new blockwork and extensions. Traditional sand and cement, scratched and floated, still belongs on plinths, garages, chimneys and boundary walls, and it can be painted, dashed or given a Tyrolean finish. Both are rigid, which is why we do not put either on a sheltered guess: they want a background that is not moving.

Pebbledash on the older cottages. Getting on for one house in five in Bransgore predates 1919. Dash on a solid wall can be sound for a century when the backing is lime and has stayed stuck. We tap it, repair and stabilise where the backing holds, and only take it off where it has parted.

Openings, drips and sills. Wind driven rain works at edges rather than the middle of a wall. Every head needs a drip or a bell so water is thrown clear of the reveal below, every sill needs a stop bead and a proper end, and the render must not bridge the damp proof course.

Render over external wall insulation. Where EWI board goes on, the render is the weather skin over a render carrier or a mesh basecoat on the board, and on an exposed elevation the reveals and the base detailing carry the whole thermal benefit.

What is already on the wall. Rendering over sound brick is one job. Hacking off blown sand and cement or pebbledash that has come away from the brick is another, and it is slow and dusty. The hollow areas, found by tapping, set the hours.

Exposure. Most of the weather in Bransgore comes from the south west. On that elevation, the detail at the edges matters most: a bellcast bead over the damp proof course so water drips clear, stop ends at openings, and properly sealed sills. That detail takes time, and cutting it short is where water gets in.

The system. Traditional sand and cement, a through-coloured monocouche and a silicone thin coat over a base coat all cost and behave differently. On an older solid Bransgore wall that needs to breathe, a lime render is often the right choice, because a hard render traps moisture and moves the damp inside.

Cracks from the ground. On this clay, a wall that moves a little with the seasons will crack a rigid render. Mesh in the base coat at corners and openings helps, and it is worth pricing.

Access. The platform has to stay up until the last coat has cured, and work at height rules apply throughout, so it is priced separately.

Ask any other quote which system and how many coats, whether the old render comes off or is overlaid, and whether beads and mesh are included.

Exposure here runs from the south west, and the difference between that elevation and a sheltered one is not a matter of degree. A sheltered wall gets wet occasionally and dries between times.

The weather wall is wetted repeatedly during a wet spell, so it never gets back to dry, and any water that has found its way behind the coat has nowhere to go. That is why the same render can last thirty years on the back of a house and fail in eight on the front.

What copes is not a thicker coat. It is a basecoat with mesh in it under a topcoat that can move, and it is drips at every head so the water is thrown off rather than run down the reveal. The assessment of how hard a wall is hit is a real piece of engineering, set out in the British Standard on wind driven rain, and it is why an exposed elevation is specified differently from the one behind it.

The practical upshot for you is simple. Do not let anyone quote one system for the whole house without saying which way it faces. Ask whether the basecoat on the weather elevation is mesh reinforced, whether a drip or bell is being formed over every window and door head, and whether the render is being stopped clear of the ground. Then ask whether the sheltered walls actually need doing at all, because quite often they do not, and that is money you can keep.

Thomas Hannen is the owner, and he is the one who taps your walls and writes the price. The business is based in Boscombe, 5.6 miles off, and renders walls in every corner of Bransgore and out at Thorney Hill, Burley and Sopley.

Planning and building control sit with New Forest District Council. You can confirm the firm in a minute: Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. A 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade came from a verified customer. The site visit is free, and so is the written quote with each part priced separately. Before you book a visit in Bransgore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Bransgore 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.