Rendering in Hamworthy

Tapping it comes first. Every Hamworthy quote starts with a mallet. Sound render rings, blown render gives a dull knock. On a house of this age the render is often a panel under the windows, a gable end or the ground floor only, with brick or tile hanging above, so the job can be a morning on a panel or a week on an elevation. We find that out before anyone talks about a system.

Cracks and patch repairs. Hairline crazing in old sand and cement is usually cosmetic. A crack you can get a coin into is letting water behind the render, and the frost does the rest. We cut it back to a firm edge, form a key, and patch in matching sand and cement, then deal with why it cracked, which on these houses is often a lintel, a window frame or the joint where an extension meets the original wall. Where that joint keeps moving, a movement bead does more good than more filler.

Hacking off and re-rendering. When a panel or an elevation is hollow across most of its area, patching is money wasted. The old render comes off back to the blockwork or brick, the background is brushed down, stabilised with a primer where it is friable, and given a key. Then a scratch coat and a floating coat in sand and cement, or a mesh-reinforced basecoat ready for a modern topcoat. Beads go on at the corners and reveals, and a bellcast bead above the damp course so water drips clear instead of wicking back up.

Silicone thin coat and monocouche. A silicone topcoat over a basecoat with scrim in it sheds water and stays cleaner for longer, which matters on a wall that faces the harbour. Monocouche is through-coloured and scraped back, so the colour is in the material rather than on it. We put a sample on your wall before ordering, because a colour chart and a north-facing gable are two different things. Newer houses and flats with a monocouche that has gone green usually want a clean down and a breathable coating, not a new render.

Pebbledash and Tyrolean. Both can be repaired. New dash beside old will not match in colour for years, so where a patch would show from the road we would rather do the whole elevation and tell you that up front.

The older houses. Only a small share of Hamworthy was built before the First World War, and some of it is stucco, like the listed mid-Victorian terrace at 5 to 11 Blandford Road. Walls of that age are solid and need to breathe. A hard cement patch on old stucco traps moisture, pushes the damp inside and lets go at the edges, so on those we use lime or a breathable system, and a listed front needs consent before anything changes.

External wall insulation. Most houses in Hamworthy are cavity built. If the cavity has never been filled, that is usually the cheaper first step, and we would talk you out of external wall insulation until it has been looked at. On a solid wall that is coming back to brick anyway, EWI boards under the render are worth pricing on the same scaffold, and Approved Document L sets the thermal standard it has to meet.

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 bungalow in Lake, a three-storey block of flats near Carter's Quay and a semi on Turlin Moor with a shared path at the side need three different platforms. 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 for a Hamworthy render? 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.

We render across the Hamworthy peninsula in BH15, from Lower Hamworthy and the port by the bridges through Central Hamworthy and Lake to Rockley, Cobbs Quay and Turlin Moor, about 7.7 miles from our base in Boscombe. BCP Council handles planning and building control here.

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. Before you book a visit in Hamworthy, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Hamworthy 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.