Rendering in Merritown, walls that take the weather
With nothing in front of the south west wall the render is a rain screen rather than a finish, and it wants specifying accordingly.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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At Merritown a render is a rain screen before it is a finish. Nothing stands between the south west wall and the weather, so cracked or blown render there is cut back and re-rendered at full thickness with mesh across the whole face, in a silicone thin coat or monocouche that sheds water, and each elevation is priced on its own. Sheltered walls may only need patching. Damp on inside walls is a plastering repair.
In Merritown the pattern is easy to spot once you know it. The sheltered side of a building looks fine. The side that takes the weather has open cracks at the corners, a chalky face where the topcoat has gone, and a wet band along the bottom that never quite dries.
So we quote elevation by elevation, not by the building. We tap each Merritown wall, look at what the weather has done to each one separately, and often recommend a different answer on the exposed face from the sheltered one. Everything goes in a written itemised quote, with the access, the preparation, each coat and the beads on their own lines. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Rendering on buildings with nothing in front of them
Tapping every elevation, not the building. A mallet over each wall in turn, with the hollow areas chalked. On an exposed plot the difference between two faces of the same house can be twenty years of wear, and quoting them as one job either overspends on the sheltered side or underspecifies the exposed one.
Hacking off and preparing the background. Blown render on a Merritown wall comes off with a breaker back to a firm edge. The brickwork or blockwork behind is made good and given a key, and any friable face is brushed down and stabilised with a primer before the basecoat goes on.
Silicone thin coat, specified for weather. On a wall that takes driven rain the basecoat goes on at full thickness with mesh across the whole face, not just at the corners and openings, and the topcoat is chosen for how it sheds water before its colour. Silicone does that better than acrylic, and it stays breathable.
Monocouche and traditional sand and cement. Monocouche is through-coloured and goes on in one build, scraped back the next day. Traditional scratch and floating coats still suit outbuildings and older walls, and they take a knock better than anything modern. Both are perfectly good out in Merritown provided the thickness is right.
Texture, and why it matters more here. A deep scraped texture or a heavy dash holds dirt and organic growth on a face that never gets a sheltered dry spell. On an exposed elevation a finer float finish stays cleaner and washes down more easily, so the texture is a weather decision as much as a look.
Beads, bellcast and the base. Angle beads at the corners, stop beads at the reveals and a bellcast bead well clear of the ground. Surface water sits high around Merritown after heavy rain, so keeping the bottom of the render above the splash line is not a detail worth saving money on.
Cracking, delamination and staining. Open cracks at corners and around openings are the classic exposed elevation failure, because that is where wind driven water works. They are cut out, meshed and made good. Green algae staining on the shaded face is a surface matter and washes off.
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 and the weather protection in the same visit.
How it runs
Re-rendering an exposed wall, coat by coat
Thomas walks each elevation tapping for hollow patches, and puts the price together himself. The quote lists access and scaffold, protecting windows and paths, hacking off or preparing the old render, the render system and number of coats, beads, bellcast and stop ends, and making good.
In Merritown the scaffold is set on boards if the ground is soft, and it stays up for the whole job, because each coat needs time to cure before the next goes on. Windows, doors and planting are sheeted, and hacked-off render leaves with us. Work stops in frost or heavy rain, since render that freezes or washes out before it sets will fail. If the wall behind turns out to have cracked brick or a failed lintel, a photograph and a price come to you before any extra work.
Re-rendering in the same finish is maintenance and needs no application. Merritown has no conservation area, and the council keeps the list for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole if you want to check an address. Adding insulation behind a render is building control work rather than planning, and Approved Document L sets the Part L standard.
Cost
The render already on the wall sets the price
Rendering in Merritown has no rate per square metre. What is on the wall now decides most of it. The old render. Sound render over good brick may only need repair and a new top coat. Sand and cement that has blown, or pebbledash that has come away from the wall, has to be hacked off, and the wall then needs preparing before anything new goes on. We tap every elevation before quoting, because the hollow areas set the hours.
Which system. Traditional sand and cement, a through-coloured monocouche, or a silicone thin coat over insulation board all price differently. On a solid wall that needs to breathe, a lime render is often the right choice, because a plastic-rich system traps moisture and moves the problem inside.
Exposure. The south west elevation takes the wind-driven rain. BS 8104 is the standard for assessing that exposure, and on the weather side the specification may need to be heavier.
Access. A single storey wall comes off a tower. A two storey gable needs a scaffold standing for the whole job, and the work at height rules are why it appears as a separate item.
Ask any other firm: which system, and how many coats? Is the old render coming off or being covered over? Are beads, bellcast and stop ends included?
If it has started to come away
Render that has cracked or started to blow
Phone us instead of using the form. A patch that sounds hollow when tapped, or a crack wide enough to take a coin, is letting rain in behind the render, and frost then pushes it off. If a piece is loose above a door or a path, keep people away from it.
We make the loose area of a Merritown wall safe, sheet it if the weather is bad, and price the elevation once we know how far the hollow area runs. Rendering is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If the line is busy or we are up a scaffold, expect a call back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Exposure decides the specification, not the colour
The most exposed face of a building here looks south west, straight into the prevailing wind, and there is very little between it and the weather. That matters because wind driven rain does not behave like rain falling on a wall. It is pushed into the face, and it finds every corner, reveal, bead junction and hairline crack rather than running politely down the middle of the elevation.
On a sheltered street a slightly thin basecoat, mesh only at the openings and a topcoat picked off a colour chart will last a long time. On an open Merritown plot the same specification fails at the edges within a few winters, and it fails from the outside in: the topcoat goes chalky, the water gets into the basecoat, the frost lifts it and the coat parts from the background in sheets rather than in patches.
So when you compare quotes out in Merritown, the questions are about specification, not price per metre. Is the mesh across the whole elevation or only at the corners. Is the basecoat going on at full thickness. Is the topcoat one that sheds water and stays breathable. And is the render stopping high enough above the ground that the splash from a saturated garden does not reach it.
Who you are dealing with
Who renders your house
Merritown is in Hurn parish, BH23, 3.6 miles from Boscombe where we are based, and it falls to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. We render houses in Hurn, Parley and Christchurch too.
The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, number 15471719, and it is run by Thomas Hannen, who taps your walls and writes the price himself. A verified customer left us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. You will not be charged for the site visit or the written quote, and the quote lists every item. Before you book a visit in Merritown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Merritown?
Most repairs in Merritown 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 Merritown |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Merritown. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Merritown, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Merritown. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Merritown. |
Questions
Questions about rendering in Merritown
Why has only one side of my building failed?
Because only one side takes the weather. The south west face gets wind driven rain pushed into it, and that finds the corners, reveals and bead junctions. The sheltered elevations on the same building are often decades behind it.
Does an exposed wall need a thicker render?
It needs the basecoat at its proper thickness with mesh across the full face, which is not always what gets quoted. That is what stops a crack at a corner turning into water in the basecoat and a coat that lets go in sheets.
Which finish stays cleanest on an open site?
A finer float texture, generally: a deep scraped or heavily dashed face holds dirt and growth on a wall that never gets a sheltered dry spell, so out in Merritown texture is a weather decision instead of only a look.
Can you work on a site with no hard standing?
Yes, but it shows in the access line. A tower needs a level base and a scaffold needs something to stand on, so on soft ground we allow for boarding out and do not pretend the ground is not there.
How does wind affect when you can render?
As much as rain does. A strong drying wind takes water out of a fresh coat too quickly and it cracks, so on an exposed elevation the scaffold is sheeted and the work is timed around the forecast rather than the diary.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Merritown
Nearby places we also cover for rendering, with straight-line distances from Merritown, and the other trades we offer in Merritown itself.
Rendering nearby
Our other trades in Merritown
Rendering guides
Silicone, cement or lime: which render? Cracked render: which cracks matter Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingEverything we do in Moordown Rendering, all areas Every area we cover
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Get each elevation quoted for the weather it actually takes
Thomas comes out, taps each wall separately and prices the specification each one needs in writing. The visit and the quote are free.