Rendering in Cadnam and Bartley, warmer walls
Most of the housing here went up in the late sixties and early seventies, which is the stock where render and insulation are worth pricing as one job rather than two.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a house from the late sixties or early seventies, a re-render is the one chance you get to make the wall warmer at the same time. The scaffold, the strip and the making good are already paid for, and the insulation is the only part you are adding.
Two calls dominate. A rendered elevation cracked and hollow after fifty odd winters, and a house that is expensive to heat with a cold wall on the weather side and nowhere obvious to insulate inside.
They are often the same house. On the free site visit we tap the elevation, work out what the wall is and how much of the coat has gone, then price the plain re-render and the insulated version side by side. Both go in writing, itemised, with the hack off, the scaffold and the waste on their own lines.
The work
Re-rendering seventies walls, with or without insulation
What has usually failed. A render of that age is normally sand and cement, sometimes finished in Tyrolean or pebbledash. The cracking starts at window heads and under sills, then the coat parts from the block behind and the whole panel sounds hollow. We tap the elevation on the survey, because a dashed wall gives nothing away by eye.
Hacking off and preparing. The blown areas come off to a firm background. We clean down, prepare and stabilise anything dusty with a primer, cut a key where the block face is too smooth, and cut out any spalled arris before a basecoat goes near it. Where more than a third of a face is hollow, the whole elevation comes off.
A plain re-render. On a sound cavity wall, a silicone thin coat: primer, a mesh and scrim reinforced basecoat, then a through-coloured topcoat scraped or floated to a texture off a sample board. Monocouche does it in one applied coat and suits a long plain elevation. Older acrylic and polymer rich finishes craze, which is what a lot of the crazing round here is.
Render over external wall insulation. EWI is board fixed and dowelled to the wall, a render carrier and mesh over it, then the same topcoat. It is the version worth pricing on this stock, because a cavity that was built before insulation was taken seriously is the wall that loses the heat. Approved Document L, Part L, sets what a renewed external wall is expected to reach thermally, and it is why a building control notice can be part of the job rather than an afterthought.
The detailing that decides whether EWI works. Insulation thickens the wall, so everything at the edges moves with it: reveals lined and beaded, sills extended so the drip clears the new face, eaves and verges checked for overhang, soil pipes, gutters, meter boxes and outside taps refixed forward. This is where a cheap insulated render quote saves its money and where it fails two winters later.
Beads, cracks and staining. A bellcast bead at the base throws water clear of the plinth, stop beads finish the render at reveals and verges, and stainless goes anywhere the wall gets wet. A crack that takes a coin will delaminate the coat around it. Green algae and staining on the shaded side is a cleaning job unless the wall behind is wet. On a period solid walled cottage built pre-1919, of which there are a few here, none of this applies: those walls are breathable, a plastic rich coat leaves moisture trapped in them, and lime is the answer instead.
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.
Rendering an unlisted house is normally permitted development where the finish is similar in appearance to what it replaces, and the Planning Portal guidance on external walls sets that out, but here the authority applying it is the New Forest National Park rather than a district council. There is no conservation area over the village and there are 10 listed entries in the parish, so most addresses are straightforward. the National Park property map will confirm yours. Insulated render is the one version that can also engage building control, because it changes the thermal performance of the wall, and we say so on the quote rather than leaving you to find out.
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 detached bungalow comes off a tower on firm ground, a two storey house with a garage in the way wants a bridged lift, and an elevation behind a conservatory needs the scaffold designed around the glass. 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. A cracked render on the exposed face is the one to ring about in autumn, because water behind a coat and a frost on top of it will turn a panel repair into a full elevation. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why insulation belongs in the same quote as the render
The housing here is mostly late sixties and early seventies, with a lot of detached houses and bungalows. That is a particular kind of wall: a cavity built when the cavity was there to stop rain rather than hold insulation, often with nothing in it or with the first generation of thin batts. It is why so many houses on these lanes feel cold on one side.
The practical point is timing. Insulating that wall from outside is worth doing on its own account, but it costs a scaffold, a strip of the old finish, new sills and reveals and a full render on top. If the render is failing anyway you are already paying for all of those, and adding the board and the carrier is a smaller step than doing it from scratch in five years. So when the render goes, get both prices. Sometimes the answer is still the plain re-render, because the wall has a decent fill already or the elevations that matter are sheltered. It is a decision worth making with two numbers in front of you rather than one.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Cadnam, Bartley, Copythorne, Netley Marsh and the villages on the northern edge of the forest, broadly SO40, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning. 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
Cadnam and Bartley questions we get asked
Is insulated render worth it on a seventies house?
Often, and the test is whether the render is failing anyway. If it is, the scaffold and the strip are already in the price and the insulation is the only extra. If the render is sound the payback is much longer, and we will say so rather than talk you into it.
Will insulated render change how the house looks?
Yes, a little. The walls become thicker, so the windows sit deeper in their reveals and the sills project further. Most people like the effect. It is worth looking at a finished elevation before you commit, and worth checking that the eaves overhang is enough for the new wall thickness.
Do we need building control for it?
Usually yes, because it changes the thermal element of the wall. It is a straightforward notice rather than an obstacle, and we flag it on the quote. A plain like for like re-render does not normally engage it at all.
What happens to the gutters, pipes and the outside tap?
They come off and go back on the new face, as a priced line rather than a surprise. Downpipes need longer offsets, meter boxes are reset, and the supplier is involved where a box has to move. Skipping that step is how a cheap job ends up with a downpipe discharging behind the render.
What sort of programme should we plan for?
People always ask how long it takes. A plain re-render on a straightforward two storey face is a week to ten days once the scaffold is up, plus drying between coats. An insulated system adds several days for the boarding and the reveal work, and cold or wet weather stops the coats going on rather than slowing them.
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Get both prices, the re-render and the insulated version
Thomas comes out, taps the wall, tells you what has blown and prices the plain re-render and the insulated system side by side. The visit and the written quote are free.