Rendering in Furzehill

The survey, and the walk round the plot. We sound every elevation with a light hammer, and we also walk the access: gate widths, the state of the ground, where a lorry can stand, what has to be lifted over a hedge. Hollow render has parted from the background and cannot be saved by a coat over the top, so the blown areas are marked, photographed and measured.

Hacking off and preparation. Where a coat has failed we hack off to the background, clean down, cut out anything loose or spalled, and let the wall dry out. A primer or a slurry key goes on a dense or dusty background. Beads next: angle beads on the corners, stop beads at reveals and against frames, and a bellcast at the base so water drips clear rather than tracking back under the render.

Silicone thin coat. A polymer basecoat with alkali resistant mesh in it, then a flexible through-coloured topcoat scraped to a fine texture. On the post-war cavity blockwork that makes up most of the housing here it is the system we recommend most often, because it moves a little with the wall, sheds driven rain and stays breathable.

Monocouche and traditional render. Monocouche is one thick through-coloured coat, ruled and scraped the next day, and it suits new blockwork and extensions. Traditional sand and cement, scratched and floated, still belongs on plinths, garages, chimneys, outbuildings and boundary walls, and takes paint, dry dash or a Tyrolean finish.

The older cottages. There are listed farmhouses and cottages around Furzehill, Wilksworth Farmhouse among them, and plenty of unlisted solid walled buildings too. Those want lime render and a mineral finish, because a solid wall dries through its own face and a plastic-rich system traps the moisture and pushes it inside.

Pebbledash, cracking and staining. Where a dashed elevation still has a sound backing we stabilise it, patch the bald areas and re-dash to match. Fine crazing is shrinkage in the coat. A crack out of a window corner is movement. Green and black streaking on a shaded wall is algae and only wants washing.

Render over external wall insulation. On a detached house with a lot of external wall, EWI board with a render carrier or a mesh basecoat is worth pricing, and the thermal benefit stands or falls on the detailing at the sills, the eaves and the base.

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 house behind a hedge with a single track drive, a cottage on a lane with no standing at all and a modern detached with a wide side gate are three different set ups. 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.

People are often surprised that the platform is the biggest single variable on a render quote out here. It is not the height. It is how long it has to stand and how hard it is to get up. A rendering job is a sequence with waiting built into it: hack off, let it dry, prepare and bead, basecoat, let that cure, mesh and float, then topcoat. Every one of those stages happens off the same platform, so the scaffold is hired for the length of the job rather than for a day.

Add to that a plot with a soft verge, a narrow side access or a mature hedge along the boundary, and the scaffold takes longer to put up, sometimes needs hand balling in section by section, and occasionally needs a different design altogether. None of that is padding. It is the reason two quotes for the same elevation can look nothing like each other, and it is why the access is always its own line on ours.

The second half of the programme is weather. Render will not go on into frost, and it should not go on into hard sun or drying wind either, because a coat that goes off too fast cracks. In practice that means we would rather start a full elevation in the settled part of the year, and it means a firm promising you a house rendered in three days in January is either overlaying something they have not tapped or planning to skip the drying time. Ask any quote how long the scaffold is priced for, and how many days each coat is being given.

We cover Furzehill, Holt, Colehill, Wimborne and the BH21 addresses around them, under Dorset 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.