Rendering in Everton, low walls and long gables
Four homes in ten here are bungalows, where the render finishes close to the ground and the bottom of the wall decides how long the whole job lasts.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a bungalow the render finishes close to the ground, and that bottom 300mm decides whether the job lasts. Get the bellcast bead above the damp proof course with a clear gap under it and the wall drains. Run the render down into the soil and you have bridged the damp course with a hard skin.
Four homes in ten here are bungalows, so most of what we look at is a long low elevation. That makes the work easier in some ways and fussier in others: the whole house is within reach of a tower, but a long gable with two windows in it shows every day joint and every shade difference.
The usual reasons for a call are a hollow patch near the base of a wall, crazing across an old sand and cement elevation, or a dry dash that has started to shed. We tap the whole wall, look at what the render is standing on at the bottom, and put the system, the beads, the scaffold and the making good on separate lines. The visit and the written quote are free.
What we get called out to
Long low elevations, and the bottom of the wall
Tapping before pricing. 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 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 here. 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 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.
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.
Like for like re-rendering is maintenance and needs no planning application. A change of external appearance is a planning question, and the Planning Portal sets out the line. There is no conservation area covering the village and 15 listed entries in the parish, so for most addresses here the finish is your choice. Building control can engage on a whole elevation, because Approved Document L asks for the thermal element to be improved once enough of it is renewed.
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 single storey bungalow comes off a tower or a low scaffold, a chalet bungalow with dormers wants a full platform on that elevation, and a detached house with a conservatory in the way wants the conservatory protecting and working over. 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. Damage low down on a wall matters more here than most people think, because on a bungalow the loose section is usually sitting right at the damp proof course. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why the bottom 300mm of a bungalow wall is the part that fails
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.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover the village, Hordle, Tiptoe and the lanes towards Downton, broadly SO41, under New Forest District Council. 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
Everton questions we get asked
How close to the ground should render finish?
It should stop on a bellcast bead above the damp proof course, with a visible gap below. Render carried into a path or a border bridges the damp course and lets moisture climb, which shows up as damp indoors rather than a fault outside.
Why is the access line smaller on a single storey job?
Because most of the wall is reachable from a tower rather than a full scaffold. The area to be rendered is not much smaller, since a bungalow spreads out rather than up, so the saving lands on the platform line and not on the render itself.
Will a day joint show on a long gable?
It can, which is why we plan where the work stops before we start. On a low elevation we can usually run a whole wall out and finish it wet, so there is no joint to see. Where a break cannot be avoided it goes on a corner or behind a downpipe.
Can I render over the existing pebbledash instead of removing it?
Only where the dash is still firmly stuck, and we tap it to find out. Sound dash can be prepared and used as a background for a basecoat, which saves a lot of mess. Dash that sounds hollow has let go already, and anything over it goes when it goes.
Do you have to move the meter box and the outside tap?
On a thin coat system, no. On external wall insulation, yes, because the wall gets thicker. Boxes, taps, vents and downpipes come off and go back on extended fixings, and that reinstatement is a quote line rather than a surprise.
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Get the base of the wall looked at, not just the crack
Thomas comes out, taps every elevation, checks what the render is standing on at the bottom, and itemises the system, the beads and the access. The visit and the quote are free.