Rendering in Holt
Render repairs, dash matching and full elevations around Holt, starting with whether the wall is failing or just green.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A green wall is not a failed wall. Most of the render we get called out to look at around Holt is discoloured rather than defective, and washing it costs a fraction of rendering it. The test is the hammer, not the colour.
Out on these lanes the houses sit among trees and tall hedges. Shade, still air and leaf litter keep an elevation damp for longer after rain, and algae only needs a damp surface and a little light. So the north and east walls green over, the streaks run down from the gutter line, and people assume the render has had it.
Sometimes it has. Often it has not. We come out, tap the whole elevation, and tell you which of the two you have before anyone quotes for new work. The site visit and the written itemised quote cost you nothing either way.
The work
Telling a dirty wall from a failing one
Sounding it. A light hammer over every rendered elevation. A sound coat rings hard against the background. A blown one answers hollow, has already delaminated, and no coating applied over the top will hold it on. We mark the hollow areas, photograph them and measure them, because that area rather than the state of the surface is what decides the price.
When it is only growth. Green and black staining is algae, and it lives on the surface. A soft wash, a treatment and the shade dealt with where it can be, and the wall looks like itself again. Where the growth is heavy it will come back sooner on a shaded elevation, which is a maintenance rhythm rather than a fault in the render. Cutting a hedge back off a wall does more for it than most coatings do.
When it is the render. Hollow areas, a crack you can get a coin into, dash shedding in plates, a coat that has parted along the bottom edge. That is a job. The coat comes off back to the background, the wall is cleaned down, loose and spalled material is cut out and it is left to dry.
What goes back on. Beads first: angle beads on the corners, stop beads at reveals and against frames, a bellcast at the base so water leaves the wall rather than tracking back under it. Then a primer or a slurry key on dense block, a mesh reinforced polymer basecoat, and a topcoat. Silicone thin coat, through-coloured and scraped to a fine texture, is our usual answer on cavity blockwork.
Monocouche, sand and cement and dash. Monocouche is one thick through-coloured coat for new blockwork and extensions. Traditional two coat sand and cement, scratched and floated, still belongs on plinths, garages, outbuildings and boundary walls and takes paint, dry dash or a Tyrolean finish. Existing pebbledash with a sound backing can be stabilised, patched and re-dashed to match.
The older cottages. The solid walled buildings out here have no cavity and dry through their own face, so they take lime render and a breathable mineral finish rather than a plastic-rich modern system. On those walls a heavy coat of masonry paint applied to hide algae does real harm, because it seals the surface the wall was drying through.
Render over external wall insulation. Where EWI board goes on, the render becomes the weather skin over a render carrier or a mesh basecoat, and the thermal benefit rests on the sill, eaves and base detailing.
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.
Renewing render that is already on a wall is maintenance. Rendering one that never was, or changing the finish, is a planning question and the Planning Portal sets out where the line falls. There is no conservation area here, though there are thirteen listed entries in the area, and on a listed building consent comes before any work. Renewing a whole elevation brings Part L and building control in.
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 cottage on a lane with no standing, a house set back behind mature trees and a run of outbuildings each need a different platform. 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 coat that has parted along the bottom of a wall gets worse fast once autumn arrives, so it is worth a look before the wet months. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Washing a wall is not a repair, and rendering it is not a clean
The two jobs get confused constantly, and both directions cost money. Rendering a wall that only needed washing is the expensive mistake. Washing a wall that is actually blown is the one that comes back, because you have made a failing coat look presentable for a season while water carries on getting behind it.
There is a further trap on the older buildings here. A shaded solid wall that has gone green tempts people towards a thick masonry paint, and that is the worst answer available. It seals the face the wall dries through, so the moisture goes inwards, and within a few winters the paint film is lifting in patches with damp behind it. If an old wall is discoloured, the answer is a gentle wash and a breathable mineral finish, not a coating that promises to solve it permanently.
So the sequence we would suggest is boring and it works. Tap it first. If it is sound, wash it and cut back whatever is shading it, and see how it looks after a summer. If it is hollow, get the hollow areas measured and priced properly, and do the render for the right reason. Anyone who quotes to re-render an elevation without having sounded it has told you they have not looked at your wall.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Holt, Furzehill, Broad Oak, 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.
Questions
Holt questions we get asked
Our render has gone green. Does it need replacing?
Usually not. Algae lives on the surface and comes off with a soft wash and a treatment. What matters is what is underneath, so we tap the elevation first. If it rings hard, you have a cleaning job. If it sounds hollow, the growth is the least of it and the coat needs attention.
Will masonry paint stop it coming back?
It will hide it for a while and on an old solid wall it can do real damage, because it seals the surface the wall dries through. On modern blockwork a breathable through-coloured render is a better answer than paint, and cutting back whatever is shading the wall helps more than either.
How often will a shaded wall need washing?
More often than a sunny one, and that is a fact of the setting rather than a fault. A north or east elevation under trees stays damp longer after rain, so growth returns sooner. Treat it as maintenance on a rhythm, in the same way you would clear a gutter.
What does hollow render actually sound like?
Like a drum, or a hollow box, against the flat ring of a sound coat. You can usually hear the difference yourself with a knuckle at ground level. We go over the whole elevation with a light hammer, including the parts you cannot reach, since a hollow area high up is the one that eventually drops.
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Get it tapped before you pay to have it rendered
Thomas sounds the whole elevation, tells you honestly whether it is a clean or a render, and puts whichever it is in a free written itemised quote.