Rendering in Longham, bungalow walls
On a low elevation the render fails from the ground up, so the detail at the bottom of the wall decides how long everything above it lasts.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Rendering in Longham is mostly bungalow walls, and on a bungalow the render fails from the ground up. Rain bounces off a path onto the bottom foot of wall, a border sits against it, and a coat run down past the damp proof course wicks water up behind itself. So a re-render starts at the base with a bellcast bead, then a silicone or monocouche over a sound or rebuilt background. For inside walls, see plastering in Longham.
More than a third of the homes in Longham are bungalows, so this is the commonest render problem on the village's walls. The wall is fine at eye level and crumbling at the skirting of the house, and people assume the whole elevation has gone when it has not.
What we do in Longham is straightforward. We tap the elevation from the eaves down, look hardest at the base and the corners, check where the render stops against the ground, and then tell you what needs cutting out and what only needs cleaning. It goes in a written itemised quote with the access, the preparation, the coats and the beads listed separately. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
What a rendered bungalow actually needs
Tapping, and looking at the base. The mallet goes over the whole wall, but on a single storey Longham house the interesting part is the last two courses. Render carried down to the ground, or a path laid up against it, will bridge the damp proof course and keep the bottom of the coat permanently wet.
Cutting back and rebuilding the base detail. Where that has happened on a Longham house the render is cut back to a clean horizontal line above the damp course and a bellcast bead is fitted so water throws clear of the wall instead of running back under. It is a small piece of work that decides how long the rest of the elevation lasts.
Hacking off blown render. Anywhere the coat on a Longham wall has parted from the background it comes off with a breaker back to a firm edge. The brick or block behind is made good and given a key, and anything friable is brushed down and stabilised with a primer.
Silicone thin coat. The usual replacement in Longham. A mesh reinforced basecoat over the prepared background, a primer, then a silicone topcoat scraped or floated. Through-coloured, so there is no painting to redo, and it copes well with the movement a long low elevation makes.
Monocouche and traditional sand and cement. Monocouche goes on in one build and is scraped back the next day for a heavier grain. Sand and cement is still right where an elevation is being patched into an existing scratch and float build, or where a dashed finish is being matched.
Pebbledash and Tyrolean repairs. A lot of Longham houses carry a dry dash or a Tyrolean coat. Damaged areas are cut out, floated back to thickness and re-dashed with matched aggregate. New dash reads lighter than weathered dash for a season or two, which is worth knowing before you choose where to stop.
Cracking, algae and green staining. A crack you can get a coin into is letting water behind and gets cut out, meshed and made good. Green growth low down on a shaded elevation is almost always splash back rather than a failure in the render, and a wash, a treatment and a breathable coating deal with it.
Render over external wall insulation. A wide single storey Longham elevation is a good candidate for EWI, because there is a lot of wall for the floor area. Insulation board or a render carrier is fixed to the face and takes the same basecoat and topcoat, so the thermal work and the finish happen together.
How it runs
Re-rendering a bungalow or chalet: how it runs
Thomas taps the wall himself before he prices it, because hollow render rings differently, and he chalks round the patches that have blown. On houses of this age in Longham, render is usually sand and cement on block or brick, on gables, on bungalow walls or on the panels under windows, and it tends to give way at the base and at the corners first.
His quote lists the scaffold, sheeting and masking, hacking off and preparing the wall, the render system with its coat count, the beads and stop ends, and the making good round sills and pipes. Thomas is your one contact from the visit to the last coat. A bungalow wall often comes off a tower. Glass, sills and the drive are covered, a wall is never left stripped with rain on the way, and hacked-off render goes in our skip daily. If cracked blockwork or rusting ties show once the old coat is off, a photo and a price come to you first.
Re-rendering the same way is maintenance, with no application needed. There is no conservation area over Longham, though a listed building needs listed building consent before any coat is touched. The Green Belt does not affect a repair. Putting insulation behind a new render makes it building control work, with Approved Document L setting the Part L figure to hit.
Cost
Hacking off, the system and the scaffold
A rate per square metre would mislead you. What is already on the wall decides the price. What comes off. Rendering sound blockwork that has never been rendered is one job. Hacking off old sand and cement that has lost its grip, or pebbledash parting from the wall, is heavy, dusty work, and nobody can see how much from the road. Tapping every elevation before the quote is how we avoid surprises.
The system. Traditional sand and cement painted after, a through-coloured monocouche, or a silicone thin coat over a base coat and mesh all price differently. On a Longham cavity wall of this age most systems suit. On a solid older wall a breathable lime render is the right call, because a hard coat traps damp.
Access. A Longham bungalow gable comes off a tower. A two storey elevation, or a chalet with a dormer in the roof slope, needs full scaffold standing through every coat, and under the work at height rules that is a cost you should see written down.
The detail. A bellcast bead at the base, stop ends at windows, and sills and pipework taken off and refitted all add time, and they are where render usually fails.
Ask other quotes: is the old render coming off or being covered over? Which system, and how many coats? Are the beads, bellcast and scaffold included?
If it has started to come away
Render cracked open or sounding hollow
Ring rather than use the form. A patch that sounds hollow when you knock it, a crack wide enough to take a coin, or a chunk already lying on the path means rain is getting in behind, and every frost will prise more away.
Keep people clear of anything loose above a door or path. On the first visit anything about to drop is taken down, the area is sheeted if the weather is turning, and we work out how far the hollow section spreads before pricing the repair. If damp is showing inside behind the patch, mention it. Timetabled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If nobody is free to answer, we will get back to you as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
The bottom foot of a bungalow wall is the whole game
Bungalows are a third of the housing in Longham, and they fail differently from two storey houses. Everything that damages a render is concentrated at the bottom. Rain hits a path or a drive and bounces back up the wall. A flower border holds wet soil against it.
A patio gets relaid a little higher than the last one. On a two storey house that band is a small share of the wall; on a bungalow it is the part you look at every day.
The detail that matters is where the render stops. It should finish on a bellcast bead a good clear height above the damp proof course, so water runs off the face and drips away from the brickwork. A common fault is render taken all the way down to the ground. That bridges the damp course, holds moisture in the base of the coat and lets frost take it apart from below.
So if your bungalow has a damp patch inside a low wall, look outside before you look for a damp proofing company. Check whether the render runs into the ground, whether a path has been laid over the old level, and whether there is a border banked against the house. Fixing that first is cheaper than any treatment, and it is what stops the same repair being needed again in five years.
Who you are dealing with
Who renders your walls, and how to check us
We are 4.7 miles from Longham at our base in Boscombe, and we cover the village with Hampreston, Stapehill, Parley and the Ferndown side of the Ringwood Road. Dorset Council is the council here.
The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, and company number 15471719 is on the public register at Companies House. Thomas Hannen owns it, and he taps the wall and prices the render himself. A verified Checkatrade customer scored the firm 10 out of 10. We do not charge for the site visit or the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Longham, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Longham?
Most repairs in Longham 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.
| Question | In Longham |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Longham. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Longham, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Longham. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Longham. |
Questions
Questions about rendering in Longham
My render is crumbling at the bottom of the wall only. Why?
Nearly always because it carries on down past the damp proof course, or a path or border sits against it. The base of the coat stays wet, the frost breaks it up and it goes chalky. Cutting it back to a bellcast bead above the damp course fixes the cause.
Should the render touch the ground?
No, it wants to stop clear above the damp proof course on a bead that throws water off the face. Render taken into the ground bridges the damp course and gives moisture a route straight into the wall behind it.
Do you need a full scaffold on a single storey house?
Often not: a single storey elevation can usually be reached from a tower or a light independent platform, which is quicker to put up and cheaper to leave standing. Anything with a dormer or a high gable still needs a proper scaffold.
Will new render make the house warmer?
Render on its own does very little for heat. If you want that, the insulation has to go on first and the render over the top of it, which is a bigger job on a wide bungalow but a good one, because there is a lot of wall for the floor area.
How long will the job take from start to finish?
A base repair on one elevation is a couple of days. A whole bungalow in a thin coat system usually runs to a week or so, because each coat needs its drying time and the topcoat cannot be rushed onto a green basecoat.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Longham
Nearby places we also cover for rendering, with straight-line distances from Longham, and the other trades we offer in Longham itself.
Rendering nearby
Our other trades in Longham
Rendering guides
Silicone, cement or lime: which render? Cracked render: which cracks matter Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingEverything we do in Kinson Rendering, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the base of the wall looked at before it takes the rest
Thomas comes out, taps the elevation, checks where the render stops against the ground and prices it in writing. The visit and the quote are free.