Rendering in Minstead
Houses among mature trees, where render rarely wears out and almost always goes green first.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Most render round here does not wear out, it goes green. Houses sit among mature trees, the shaded elevations stay damp for hours after everyone else's have dried, and algae only needs moisture and something to grow on. Knowing whether a wall wants cleaning or recoating saves a lot of money.
The calls are split. Half are about appearance: a north wall gone dark and streaky, black staining under a gutter line, green growth creeping up from the base. The other half are about the coat itself, a hollow patch found by knocking, a crack from a window head, dash flaking on a weather elevation.
We tap the whole elevation and look at what is overhanging it before we say anything. A wall that is sound but filthy is a wash. A wall that is soft, hollow or cracked behind the growth is a render job, and the growth was a symptom. Either way it goes in writing item by item. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free.
The work
Render, and the green that grows on it
Cleaning down, and knowing when not to. Algae, lichen and black spot come off a sound render with a soft wash and a treatment left to work, never with a pressure lance, which drives water into the coat and takes the face off it. Anything applied is used to its label; the rules on biocidal products are not optional. On a soft or failing coat we say it is past cleaning rather than take your money twice.
Silicone thin coat. Primer, a polymer basecoat with glass fibre mesh bedded into it, then a through-coloured silicone topcoat scraped to an even texture. It sheds water quickly and stays cleaner than most finishes, which is worth real money on a shaded elevation. Beads and stop ends at every opening and a bellcast at the base.
Monocouche. One through-coloured coat laid thick and scraped back the next day. Hard wearing on a plain elevation with a sound background, fussier about weather, and its more granular face holds a little more dirt than a fine silicone finish does under trees.
Sand and cement, pebbledash and Tyrolean. Scratch coat, float coat and then a smooth face, a dry dash thrown on green, or a Tyrolean flicked on. Older dashed walls here green over readily because the texture holds moisture. Patching means matching aggregate size and colour, and a sample panel goes up first.
Lime render. Solid walls with no cavity dry out through their own face and want lime, two or three coats, hair gauged in the base. A cement or acrylic coat on one of those traps the moisture and puts the damp inside, which under heavy tree cover happens sooner rather than later.
Tapping, hacking off and cracks. Blown render has parted from its background and sounds hollow. We mark every hollow area, because their extent decides between cutting out panels and stripping the wall. Fine crazing is shrinkage; an open crack is movement or a failed bead and needs cutting out and reinforcing.
Render over external wall insulation. Board fixed as a render carrier, then mesh, basecoat and topcoat over it, with Approved Document L setting what a renovated wall is expected to reach. It is warmer and it is thicker, so every reveal changes, and in the National Park how the finished building reads is a design question as well as a technical one.
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.
Cleaning and renewing an existing finish like for like is maintenance and needs nothing. A change of material or a markedly different colour is a change of appearance, and here the application goes to the National Park Authority rather than the district council. Forest Central (South) is the conservation area covering this ground, and the Park publishes a map showing what applies to each property. We check the address before quoting.
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 down a gravel track with trees to the wall, a house on the village road and a detached garage or outbuilding each need a different platform before any material is ordered. 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. Under heavy tree cover a wall with the background exposed will not dry between showers, so covering it quickly matters more here than it does on an open site. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Green walls are a drying problem, not a cleaning problem
Algae is not dirt and it does not arrive from anywhere in particular. The spores are everywhere, all the time, and they grow wherever a surface stays damp long enough. A wall in full sun dries within an hour or two of rain stopping and never gives them the chance. A wall under oaks, with a hedge or a shrub against it and a canopy dripping on it for hours after the rain has passed, can stay wet most of a winter's day. That is why one elevation is spotless and the one round the corner is dark green, on the same house, with the same render, put on by the same people on the same day.
Which means that washing it is treating the symptom. The wash is worth doing and it lasts a season or two, but if nothing else changes it comes straight back. The things that actually shift the odds are getting light and air onto the wall by cutting back what overhangs and stands against it, making sure the gutter above is not dribbling down the face, keeping soil and mulch off the base, and, when the coat is next renewed, choosing a smoother water shedding finish rather than a deeply textured one. Do those and a wash lasts years instead of months. Skip them and you are buying the same clean over and over.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Minstead, Emery Down, Lyndhurst, Cadnam and the lanes across the north of the Forest, broadly SO43, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning. 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
Minstead questions we get asked
Does our wall need cleaning or re-rendering?
Tapping tells you. If the coat under the growth is solid, well bonded and only crazed, it is a wash and a treatment. If it sounds hollow, feels soft, or is cracked open where water can get behind it, cleaning it just makes a failing wall look better for a season. We give you the answer before we quote either job.
Why does the green come back so quickly?
Because the conditions that grew it have not changed. Shade, still air and a wall that stays wet for hours after rain will regrow algae whatever you clean it with. Cutting back overhanging branches and planting off the wall, and sorting any gutter that drips down the face, does more for the next five years than a stronger chemical does.
Can you jet wash render to get it clean?
We will not. Pressure drives water into the coat, opens up crazing and strips the surface off a textured finish, so the wall looks worse a year later and holds dirt faster. Soft washing with a treatment left to do the work takes longer on the day and is the only method that does not shorten the life of the render.
Which finish stays cleanest under trees?
A finer, smoother, water shedding topcoat. Silicone systems shed rain quickly and self clean better than a coarse dash or a heavily scraped monocouche, which hold moisture in the texture. Colour matters less than people think, although a very pale wall simply shows growth sooner than a mid tone does.
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Find out if it is a wash or a re-render
Thomas taps the elevation, tells you honestly whether the coat is sound under the growth and itemises either job. The visit and the quote are free.