Rendering in Brockenhurst, walls that go green
Shaded elevations under trees stay damp for days after rain, so on this side of a house the finish should be chosen for how fast it dries as much as how it looks.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Rendering in Brockenhurst means choosing a finish for walls that stay damp. The village sits low by the river under trees, so shaded render greens over and old cement cracks and blows. Solid walled cottages get lime or a breathable repair; newer houses can be re-rendered in a silicone thin coat, which dries fastest and washes clean. Tap-test first, then patch or re-render. Damp on the inside face is a plastering repair.
Render problems in Brockenhurst split between how a wall looks and how it holds together. Some are about appearance: a north facing wall gone dark and streaky, a render that will not stay clean for a season, a painted elevation flaking. Others are structural: hollow patches, cracks around openings, and old cement render on a period wall letting water behind it.
Plenty of the older cottages in Brockenhurst are solid walled, and those need a breathable answer. We tap every elevation, work out what is behind the finish, and put the access, the preparation, the system, the beads and the making good on separate lines of a written quote. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Shaded elevations, old walls and what will stay clean
Tapping the wall comes first. On a Brockenhurst house, sound render rings hard; render that has parted from the background sounds hollow and drummy. We go over every elevation and mark the hollow areas, since they are always bigger than the crack that prompted the call.
Hacking off and rebuilding. Blown render on a Brockenhurst wall comes off back to sound masonry. Open joints are repointed, the background is cleaned down and stabilised where it is dusty, then a mesh reinforced basecoat and a finish coat go on. Putting a new system over a hollow wall is throwing money at it.
Choosing a finish for a shaded wall. Algae stays off render that dries fast and has a smooth face. A fine textured through coloured silicone topcoat sheds water and washes down easily. A deep scraped texture on a wall that never sees the sun holds moisture in every groove. On the shaded side we recommend the finer finish.
Cleaning down and treating. Green and black staining lifts with a soft wash and a treatment rather than a pressure washer, which drives water into the render and strips the topcoat. Treatments are biocidal products and are regulated as such, so they get used at the stated rate and kept out of the watercourse.
Recoat or clean. If the topcoat comes off on your hand it has chalked and a wash only takes more of it away, so that wall wants recoating. If it wipes clean and the colour under is sound, it is a cleaning job. We say which one you have rather than sell the bigger one.
Lime on period solid walls. A pre-1919 Brockenhurst wall has no cavity and was built breathable so moisture soaks in and dries back out through the face. Lime render keeps that open, moves with the wall and patches invisibly. A plastic rich modern system on the same wall leaves the moisture trapped and pushes it through to the inside.
Sand and cement, pebbledash and Tyrolean. Scratch coat, float coat and dash where the elevation carries it, patched to a sample panel where the aggregate can still be had. Dash on a shaded wall greens quickly, which is worth knowing before you choose to keep it.
Beads, bellcast and stop ends. Bellcast at the base to throw water clear, stop beads at reveals and eaves, angle beads on corners, and a movement joint where an elevation is long. On older fabric we hand form the arris instead of using a hard bead.
External wall insulation. Board fixed outside and rendered over, on a render carrier where the background needs it. Good on a modern house, awkward on a designated frontage because it thickens the wall and changes every reveal.
How it runs
Repairing render on shaded, older walls
Render in Brockenhurst is often on an older solid wall, shaded by trees and slow to dry, so it goes green and lets go at the base. Thomas taps across each elevation before pricing, marks the hollow areas, and checks what the render is: lime on the older houses, sand and cement on the later ones.
The quote itemises access and scaffold, protection, preparation of the existing wall, the system and number of coats, beads and stop ends, and making good. Thomas stays your contact from hacking off to the final coat. Windows and plants are sheeted, nothing is left open overnight, and rubble is bagged and removed. If the wall behind the old render is damaged, Thomas photographs it and prices the repair before we go on.
Any consent comes from the New Forest National Park Authority. Repairing a finish in the same material is maintenance, changing it is not, and the Brockenhurst Conservation Area covers the village core, so check whether your address falls inside it. With 23 listed entries in the parish, bear in mind that render on a listed building is part of the fabric. The Park explains what its heritage designations cover, and we check the address before quoting. Insulation behind a new render brings in building control and Approved Document L.
Cost
Why a breathable render costs what it does
Rendering in Brockenhurst has no rate per square metre. What is already on the wall decides the price. The wall behind. Rendering over sound brick is one job. Hacking off blown sand and cement, or a pebbledash that has parted, is another. On a solid Victorian wall, cement render traps moisture and moves the problem indoors, so a lime render or a breathable system is usually right. That is a wall decision, not a colour decision.
The system. Lime in coats, silicone thin coat, monocouche through-coloured, and sand and cement all price and behave differently. Under trees, a finish with a biocide or a smoother texture holds less algae.
Getting to it. A low gable can come off a tower, but a Brockenhurst cottage tight to the road needs a platform clear of the footway. A large detached with trees against it needs branches dealt with first, and a two storey gable over a lean-to needs the roof below protected. The work at height rules are why the platform is priced separately.
Details. Beads, bellcast and stop ends go round every opening and along the eaves, and sills and pipework are lifted and refitted.
Ask any quote which system and how many coats, whether the old render is hacked off or overlaid, and whether the scaffold is included.
If it has started to come away
Render blown, cracked or coming away at the base
Tap all round the affected area. If it sounds hollow, or a crack will take a coin, water is getting behind the render and the frost does the rest. On low ground near the river, a wall that has lost render at the base takes up water quickly.
If a piece has fallen from a Brockenhurst wall, keep people away from beneath it. Ring us. The first visit takes off what is loose, sheets the wall if the weather is against us, and we price the elevation once we see how far the blown area goes. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Falling render is worth a call rather than a form, and we call back anyone we miss as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Green on a wall is a drying problem, not a dirt problem
Algae is not dirt blown onto a wall. It is a living thing that needs three conditions: a surface, moisture and low light. Shaded elevations under trees supply all three for most of the year, which is why the same render can look spotless on the south gable and dark green on the north wall of the same house. Washing it off works, and it comes back on the same timetable, because nothing about the wall has changed.
What changes it on a Brockenhurst wall is drying time and texture. A finish that sheds water and dries in an hour gives algae less to work with than one holding a film of moisture in a scraped texture. Cutting back overhanging branches helps for nothing, and so does a gutter that is not spilling down one section of wall, which is behind more green stripes than anything else. Comparing quotes for a shaded elevation, ask what texture is proposed and how it is meant to be cleaned in five years.
Who you are dealing with
Rendering from a firm you can look up
Our base is 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe, 12.7 miles from Brockenhurst. We render in the village, Sway, Boldre and the lanes across to Lyndhurst, broadly SO42, all inside the National Park boundary. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Brockenhurst, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
The owner, Thomas Hannen, taps the wall and works out the price himself. There is a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on our Checkatrade profile. We charge nothing to come out, and the written quote, with every item listed, is free.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Brockenhurst?
Most repairs in Brockenhurst 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 Brockenhurst |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Brockenhurst. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Brockenhurst Conservation Area and The Weirs Conservation Area. They cover parts of Brockenhurst, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Brockenhurst. 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 Brockenhurst
Why does one wall go green and the others stay clean?
Because that wall stays damp. Algae needs a surface, moisture and low light, and a shaded elevation under trees gives it all three most of the year. The sunny gable dries within the hour and never gets going. Nothing is wrong with the render; it is the drying time.
Will a pressure washer clean the render?
It will, and it will take the topcoat with it. High pressure drives water into the render and strips the coloured surface, so the wall looks worse a year later and greens back faster. A soft wash with a treatment left to work is slower on the day and far better afterwards.
Does a smoother texture really stay cleaner?
It does on a shaded wall. A deep scraped texture has more surface and holds a film of moisture in every groove. A fine texture sheds water and dries quickly, so there is less for algae to live on. On a sunny elevation the difference matters much less.
Should I cut the trees back before you render?
Overhanging branches touching or dripping on a wall are worth dealing with, and they also get in the way of the scaffold. We are not tree surgeons, but we will tell you what needs clearing to get a platform up safely and to give the finished wall a chance to dry.
Can the render be treated as part of the job?
Yes, where the wall is being cleaned rather than replaced. On a new system the topcoat already resists growth, so a treatment on top is unnecessary. On an existing wall a wash and a treatment is a separate priced line, and we will say how long it should hold on your elevation.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Brockenhurst
Nearby places we also cover for rendering, with straight-line distances from Brockenhurst, and the other trades we offer in Brockenhurst itself.
Rendering nearby
Our other trades in Brockenhurst
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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Choose a finish for the shaded wall, not the sunny one
Thomas comes out, taps every elevation, works out which walls will hold damp and prices the system, texture and any treatment separately. The visit and the quote are free.