Rendering in Matchams, exposure and weather

Tapping comes before quoting the elevation. A mallet goes over the whole of a Matchams wall with the hollow areas chalked. On an unsheltered building the failures cluster at the corners, reveals and the bottom of the wall, because that is where wind driven water works its way in.

Hacking off and preparing the background. Blown render on a Matchams house comes off to a firm edge, the brick or block behind is made good and given a key, and any friable face is brushed down and stabilised with a primer before a basecoat goes near it.

Silicone thin coat. A mesh reinforced basecoat, a primer and a silicone topcoat, scraped or floated. It is through-coloured, it stays breathable and it sheds water, which is what an exposed elevation needs. Full mesh across the face rather than only at the openings on a wall that takes the weather.

Monocouche and traditional sand and cement. Monocouche goes on in one build and is scraped back the following day. Traditional scratch and floating coats still suit outbuildings, stores and boundary walls out in Matchams and take a knock better than anything modern. Both want settled weather more than a thin coat system does.

Pebbledash and Tyrolean repairs. Cut back to a firm edge, floated out to thickness and re-dashed with matched aggregate. Worth knowing that a heavy dash on an exposed face holds dirt and growth, so on a wall with nothing in front of it a finer float finish stays presentable for longer.

Beads, bellcast and stop ends. Angle beads at every corner, stop beads at the reveals and a bellcast bead well clear of the ground. Corners and openings are exactly where an exposed elevation fails, so the beads are not a detail here, they are the job.

Cracking, delamination and staining. A crack at a reveal on a Matchams wall is a route for driven rain and gets cut out, meshed and made good. Where a coat has delaminated it comes off, because frost behind a parted render takes it off in sheets rather than in patches. Green algae on the shaded side is surface growth and washes down.

Render over external wall insulation. If a wall is coming back to the background anyway, insulation board or a render carrier fixed to the face and rendered over gives the thermal improvement in the same visit, which matters on a building that takes the wind from every side.

The size of the wall is the easy part. What is on it, and what it faces, set the price.

What is there now. Render still bonded to a Matchams wall can be patched and recoated. Hollow sand and cement, or pebbledash that has parted company with the blockwork, must come off first, and that hacking off is the part nobody sees from outside. Thomas taps the whole elevation before quoting.

Exposure. The south west faces in Matchams take wind-driven rain, dry out fast, then soak again. A rigid render crazes under that cycle. A basecoat with mesh bedded in it and a silicone topcoat copes better, and monocouche carries its colour right through, so a knock does not show a different shade.

Details that keep water out. A bellcast bead at the base, stop ends at openings and sills that throw water clear matter more on a wall that takes the weather.

The platform. Tower or scaffold, and for how long, since each coat must cure before the next. The work at height rules mean it is costed as an item.

Ask any rival quote what system they propose and in how many coats, whether they will hack off or render over, whether mesh and a bellcast bead are allowed for, and whether the scaffold is in.

Thomas Hannen runs the business and taps your walls and prices the render himself. Boscombe, where we are based, is about five and a half miles away. From there we render across Matchams, St Leonards, Ashley Heath and the lanes towards Ringwood, a stretch of BH24 that falls to Dorset Council.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd: registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. A customer of ours left a verified 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Both the visit and the written, itemised quote are free, and there is no obligation. Before you book a visit in Matchams, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Matchams 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.