Rendering in Oakdale

Tapping it comes first. Every Oakdale quote starts with a tap test. Sound render rings, blown render gives a dull knock. On a 1930s semi the upper storey or the bay is often dashed while the ground floor is brick, so the job can be anything from one bay to a whole upper elevation, and we find that out before talking about a system.

Pebbledash repairs. Where a patch of dash has parted from the background, we cut back to a firm edge, key the wall, apply a sand and cement basecoat and throw on new dash while it is wet. New stones never quite match old ones for colour, so a small patch on a side wall is fine, but on a front we would rather talk about the whole elevation.

Hacking off and re-rendering. When most of an elevation is hollow, patching is money wasted. The old render or dash is hacked off back to the brick, the background is brushed down and stabilised with a primer if it is friable, and new beads are fixed at corners and reveals. A bellcast bead above the damp course lets water drip clear. Then a scratch coat and a float coat in sand and cement, or a mesh reinforced basecoat for a modern topcoat.

Modern finishes. A silicone thin coat over a basecoat with scrim in it sheds water and stays cleaner for longer. Monocouche is through-coloured and scraped back, so there is no paint to renew. Both come in many colours, and we put a sample on your wall first, because a colour chart and a north-facing wall look very different.

Post-war houses and bungalows. Oakdale houses and bungalows from the fifties to the seventies often have rendered panels under windows or a rendered gable. They crack where a lintel or a frame moves, and the fix is often a movement bead as well as new render.

The few older walls. A small number of houses in Oakdale are older than the estates around them, built before 1919 with solid walls and no cavity. Those walls stay dry by letting moisture out through their face. A hard cement render on a solid wall traps that moisture, pushes damp inside and lets go at the edges, so there we use lime or a breathable system instead.

Green walls and cracks. Algae staining on a north-facing wall can often be cleaned off and treated, with a breathable coating after, not re-rendered. A crack is different: water gets behind it, the frost opens it, and the render starts to delaminate from the wall around it. Those cracks are cut out and repaired before they spread.

Insulation under the render. Most houses in Oakdale have cavity walls. If the cavity is empty, filling it is usually the cheaper first step, so we would talk you out of external wall insulation until that has been checked. Where a wall is coming back to brick anyway, EWI boards under the new render can be priced on the same scaffold, built to Approved Document L.

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 single storey bungalow wall off a tower, a two storey 1930s bay that needs scaffold, and the gable of a semi reached down a narrow side path all need different access. 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 for an Oakdale render? 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.

We render across Oakdale and BH15, from Fleetsbridge down Wimborne Road towards Poole, and over to Creekmoor, Canford Heath and Parkstone. BCP Council handles planning and building control, and our base in Boscombe is about six miles away.

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. Before you book a visit in Oakdale, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Oakdale 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.