Rendering in Everton, low walls and long gables

Tapping comes before pricing. On an Everton wall, a hollow note means the render has parted from the background and nothing is holding it on. We go over every elevation, not the one you rang about, and chalk the edges of the blown areas so you can see the size of the job.

Hacking off and rebuilding. Blown render on an Everton house comes off back to sound masonry. What is loose behind it is repaired, the background primed where it is dusty, then a mesh reinforced basecoat and the finish over that. Overlaying a new system on a wall that is already hollow buys two years and then fails twice as badly.

Silicone thin coat. The usual answer on the post-war cavity walled stock in Everton. Through coloured, thin over a reinforced basecoat, flexible enough for small movement and easy to wash down. Colour comes off a sample panel on your own wall rather than a card, because a long gable in full sun reads lighter.

Monocouche. One through coloured coat applied thick and scraped back. It suits a bungalow, because the elevations are low enough to finish in one continuous run and that is what stops a day joint showing halfway along a gable.

Sand and cement, pebbledash and Tyrolean. Traditional scratch and float coats, still right on some walls and on any patch to a matching elevation. Dash and Tyrolean are matched by sample panel, and where the aggregate went out of production thirty years ago we say the patch will read differently.

Older solid walls. The pre-1919 cottages in the Everton lanes are a different building. A solid wall has no cavity and was built breathable, so moisture soaks in and dries back out. A plastic rich modern system leaves it trapped and pushes it inside. Those walls get a lime render, which stays open and moves with the period fabric.

Beads, bellcast and the base detail. A bellcast bead throws water clear of the wall below. It has to sit above the damp proof course with a gap under it, and on a bungalow that gap is often two brick courses off a path. Where a previous job rendered straight past the damp course we cut it back and reform the stop.

External wall insulation. Board fixed outside and rendered over, on a render carrier where the background will not take a direct fix. It thickens the wall, so reveals, sills, eaves and meter boxes all get reworked. On a bungalow the thermal gain is worth having, because the wall area is large for the floor area.

Cracks, delamination and green staining. A straight hairline crack across a panel is usually shrinkage. One that steps or widens is movement and wants looking at before anything covers it. Algae on a shaded elevation is a wash and a treatment; a topcoat that chalks onto your hand is a recoat.

Render is not priced per square metre. What is on the wall already decides the price more than its size does.

Access. An Everton bungalow can be done from a tower or low scaffold. A chalet bungalow with dormers needs a full platform on that side, and a conservatory in the way has to be protected and worked over. Under the work at height rules, a platform left standing through every coat is a real cost, so it has its own line.

Taking the old off. Going over sound brick is one job. Stripping render that has blown, or pebbledash that has lost its grip on the wall, is another, and you cannot see it from the road. Hacking off is slow, so we tap every wall before quoting to find how much is hollow.

Which render. A silicone thin coat laid over insulation, a through-coloured monocouche, and traditional sand and cement each behave differently and cost differently. An older solid wall that needs to breathe is usually better with lime.

Facing the sea. The south west walls take the driven rain and the salt, so render there needs a good key, sound beads and a proper bellcast to throw water clear.

Ask any competing quote which render and how many coats, whether the old render comes off, whether beads, bellcast and stop ends are included, and what happens to the sills and pipework.

A bungalow has the footprint of a house and half the height, so far more of its render is within splash range of the ground. Rain off a low roof hits a path and bounces back onto the bottom of the wall, and that band stays wet for hours after the rest has dried. Frost then works on the wettest part, which is why the hollow areas sit below sill level.

The other half is the damp proof course. It is a barrier a couple of courses above ground and it only works if nothing bridges it. Render taken past it, or a border built up against the wall, gives moisture a hard path around the barrier. So we look at the base first: the bead stops above the damp course, there is a clear gap under it, and the ground stays low enough for the gap to remain a gap.

We render houses in Everton, Hordle, Tiptoe and Downton and through the SO41 lanes. The village is 10.8 miles from our base in Boscombe, and anything needing consent goes to New Forest District Council.

You would be contracting with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up on the public register. The man who owns the firm, Thomas Hannen, comes out to tap the walls and price the job himself. A verified customer gave us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit is free, and so is the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Everton, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Everton 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.