Rendering in Iwerne Minster, lime as the default
Close to two in five houses here were built before 1919, so on this village street the safe starting assumption is a solid wall until we prove otherwise.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
In most villages you ask whether a house is old. Here it is quicker to assume it is: close to two in five of the houses predate 1919, so the default working assumption on any render enquiry is a solid breathable wall that must not be sealed.
The calls are usually one of three. A hard grey render cracked and hollow on an old cottage. Damp on an inside wall that has been decorated twice already. Or somebody who wants a tired elevation brought back and does not know what it should be done in.
All three start the same way, by tapping the elevation and establishing what is behind it. The work is then set out in writing, stage by stage, with the scaffold, the hack off, each coat, the beads and the waste on separate lines so you can see what you are buying.
The work
How a full elevation actually runs, stage by stage
Survey and scaffold. The whole face is tapped before a price is written, because the hollow percentage sets the hours. Once booked, the scaffold goes up first and stays for the duration, sheeted where the weather or the dust needs it. On a cottage tight to the street the footway is managed as part of the setting up rather than on the day.
Hacking off and preparing. The blown render comes off to a firm background. On soft old brick or a rubble wall that is careful work with hand tools, not a breaker. Then we clean down, prepare, stabilise anything friable with a primer and cut a key where the face is too smooth. Spalled arrises are cut out and made good, and old chases and filled openings dealt with so they do not read through the finish.
The basecoat. On a period solid wall this is a haired lime coat worked into the background and ruled out, left to take up over days rather than hours and protected from sun and frost. On a modern cavity wall it is a mesh and scrim reinforced basecoat over a primer. Either way the basecoat decides how long the job lasts, and it is the one nobody sees.
The topcoat and the finish. Lime gets a soft topcoat and then limewash or a breathable mineral paint, renewed every few years as ordinary maintenance. A modern wall gets a through-coloured silicone topcoat scraped or floated to a texture chosen off a sample board, or monocouche where a long plain elevation suits it. Pebbledash and Tyrolean can be thrown back where that is the existing character. Acrylic and polymer rich finishes craze and belong on no old wall. the published guidance on lime and cement renders sets out why.
Beads, edges and the base. A bellcast bead at the bottom throws water clear of the plinth, stop beads finish the render at reveals and verges, and stainless is used wherever the wall gets wet, because galvanised rusts through and leaves staining down the face. On a lime job the arrises are often run by hand. Where the render stops is where the job is judged from the pavement. Cracking that takes a coin gets cut out rather than filled, since a coat that has begun to delaminate keeps going, and green algae on a shaded elevation is a clean rather than a render job unless the wall is wet.
Making good and clearing. Downpipes, brackets, meter boxes and outside taps go back on, the ground is cleaned off and the scaffold comes down. If EWI was part of it, external wall insulation board and a render carrier move the face out and the sills, reveals and eaves move with it, with Part L setting the thermal standard. Everything that came off leaves with us.
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.
The village has its own conservation area and 40 listed entries, and it sits within the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, so appearance carries weight. Outside the boundary rendering an external wall on an unlisted house is normally permitted development where the new finish is similar in appearance to the old. Inside it, a change of texture, material or colour is a planning matter, and on a listed building the render itself is protected fabric needing listed building consent from Dorset Council. Taking cement off a solid wall and going back to lime is usually welcomed rather than resisted, and we put that specification in writing for a conservation officer.
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 the village street needs the scaffold set with the footway managed, a two storey gable wants a full lift tied properly, and a rear elevation behind a garden wall has to be hand loaded. 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. On an old wall with a hard coat on it, a crack that has already opened is letting water into a wall that cannot dry, so it is worth a call now rather than at the end of the winter. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Assume a solid wall here until somebody proves otherwise
Close to two in five of the houses here were built before 1919, and that one fact should shape how you approach a render quote in this village. A pre-1919 house has solid walls, no cavity and no reliable damp course. It stays sound by taking in a little water and letting it out again through its own face, so moisture is never trapped, which is why it was originally finished in lime or left bare.
The consequence is a test you can apply to anyone pricing your job. Ask what your wall is made of before you ask what the render will cost. If the answer is a system name, a colour chart and a rate with no mention of the background, the quote is for a product rather than for your house. A hard modern coat on one of these walls performs well for ten or twelve years, long enough for everyone to have moved on, and then damp appears inside and the render comes away in sheets with the face of the wall attached. Getting that right at the start is worth more than any other choice on the job, colour included.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Iwerne Minster, Fontmell Magna, Child Okeford, Shroton and the villages under the chase, broadly DT11, with Dorset Council for planning and building control. 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
Iwerne Minster questions we get asked
How do we know whether our wall is solid?
Wall thickness at a window reveal is the quickest check, with the brick bond on any uncovered section. A solid wall is usually about nine inches through with headers showing. Where everything is rendered we take a small square off out of sight on the site visit.
Why does lime take so much longer than cement?
Because it sets slowly, and that is the point of it. Each coat goes on thinner and has to be left to take up, so a two storey face is often three weeks rather than one. The scaffold stays up throughout and gets sheeted if the weather turns.
Can lime render be coloured?
It can be pigmented, and more often it is limewashed in a colour instead, which is a coat you renew rather than a permanent finish. The palette is softer than a modern through-coloured render and it moves with the light, which is part of why it suits these buildings.
Is it worth patching rather than doing a whole elevation?
Frequently, on lime. New lime knits into old, so a patch disappears once it has weathered. On cement it rarely works, because the patch is harder than what surrounds it and the crack reappears at the join within a couple of winters.
Will the conservation area stop us changing the finish?
Not automatically. It means the change gets considered rather than assumed. Like for like repair is maintenance. A different texture, material or colour is worth asking about first, and on a listed building that is a consent rather than a conversation.
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Get the wall identified before anyone names a system
Thomas comes out, taps the elevation, works out what the background is and prices the right specification for it stage by stage. The visit and the written itemised quote are free.