Rendering in Owermoigne, repairs and full elevations
We are twenty miles out from the yard, so the visit, the materials and the scaffold get planned around one journey rather than five.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A render repair and a full re-render are priced differently here for a reason that has nothing to do with the wall. At twenty miles out, a job that needs four separate visits costs more to run than one that is done in a single stretch, and we would rather tell you that than pad a rate.
The everyday calls are a cracked panel under a window, a bay of render that has dropped off a gable, staining and algae down a shaded elevation, and the occasional whole face that has finally given up after decades.
All of it is ordinary work. What we do differently at this distance is plan it properly: one site visit that covers the whole property rather than one elevation, a written itemised quote that lets you decide how much to do in one go, and materials and scaffold ordered to arrive together.
The work
Panel repairs, patching, and when a face has to come off
Panel and bay repairs. Where a discrete area has blown, it is cut back to a firm edge with a straight line rather than a ragged one, then we clean down, prepare and stabilise the background and cut a key where it is too smooth, and the coat is built back up to meet the old surface. Matching a smooth finish is straightforward. Matching pebbledash or Tyrolean is honest work rather than invisible work, and we say so before you spend the money.
Tapping, and knowing when patching stops paying. Every elevation gets tapped, not just the bit you have noticed. Sound render rings and blown render sounds hollow, and hollow areas have already parted from the wall. Once a third or so of a face is loose, patching stops being economic and it is cheaper and better to hack off the whole elevation. That figure goes on the quote so the decision is yours.
Cracking, staining and green faces. A hairline crack is cosmetic. A crack that takes a coin is a route for water and the coat around it will delaminate over a winter, so it is cut out rather than filled. Green algae on a shaded elevation, and the streaking under a leaking gutter or a blocked downpipe, is a cleaning job unless the wall behind it is wet, which is why the rainwater goods get looked at during the survey.
Full elevations, modern systems. On a sound cavity wall a silicone thin coat is the usual answer: primer, a mesh and scrim reinforced basecoat, then a through-coloured topcoat scraped or floated to a texture off a sample board. Monocouche does it in one applied coat and suits a long plain elevation, sand and cement still does for garages and plinths, and older acrylic and polymer rich finishes are the crazed ones.
Lime on the older houses. A period cottage built pre-1919 has solid walls that stay sound by breathing. A plastic rich topcoat leaves moisture trapped, drives damp inside and blows the render off in sheets within a few winters. Those get a haired lime basecoat, a soft topcoat and limewash or a breathable mineral paint instead.
Beads, base and insulation. A bellcast bead at the bottom throws water clear of the plinth, stop beads finish the render at reveals and verges, and stainless goes anywhere the wall gets wet, because galvanised beads rust and stain the face. Where a spalled brick arris turns up it is cut out and made good first. On a cold cavity wall, EWI, external wall insulation board with a render carrier, is worth pricing while the scaffold is there, with Part L setting the thermal standard.
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.
There is no conservation area over the village and 13 listed entries in the parish, among them the parish church and Moignes Court, so most addresses are straightforward. rendering an external wall on an unlisted house is normally permitted development where the new finish is similar in appearance to the old one. On a listed building the render is protected fabric and needs listed building consent from Dorset Council before anything comes off, and a listing can also cover outbuildings and walls in the same curtilage. We check an address before quoting rather than after.
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 single storey rear elevation comes off a tower on firm ground, a two storey gable wants a full scaffold, and a wall reached only through a farm gate has to be hand loaded. 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. If a bay has already dropped off and left the wall behind it open, sheet it or ring us, because an open wall through a wet fortnight turns a panel repair into an elevation. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
What twenty miles means for a small job
We are about twenty miles from the yard here, and it would be dishonest to pretend that makes no difference. It does not change the price per elevation, but it does change how a job is best organised, and being straight about it usually saves the customer money rather than costing it.
So we do three things differently on this side of the county. The site visit covers the whole property, not the one wall you rang about, because a second trip for a garage gable nobody mentioned is waste that ends up in somebody's price. The quote is itemised elevation by elevation, so you can take the weather side this year and the rest later with your eyes open rather than being handed one figure. And where a small repair genuinely is not worth a trip on its own, we will say so and suggest holding it until it can go with something else, or tell you it is a job for somebody round the corner. That last one costs us work occasionally. It is still the right answer, and it is why people here ring us back for the bigger job when it comes.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Owermoigne, Crossways, Warmwell, Winfrith Newburgh and the villages between Dorchester and the coast road, broadly DT2, with Dorset Council for planning and building control. 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
Owermoigne questions we get asked
Is a small render repair worth calling you out for?
Sometimes, and sometimes not, and we will tell you which. If it can wait and go alongside other work, that is usually better value for you. If it is letting water into the wall, it goes to the front of the queue whatever its size.
Can you look at the whole house while you are here?
Please ask us to. One visit covering every elevation, the garage and the boundary walls gives you a proper picture and one itemised quote, and it saves a second journey. There is no charge for the visit or for the extra half hour.
Can we do one elevation at a time?
Yes, and on an older property that is often the sensible way. The quote is broken down elevation by elevation so you can start with the weather side. The only thing to watch is scaffold, since bringing it back twice costs more than keeping it up once.
Where does the hacked off render end up?
With us. It leaves as we go and the site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job. Hacked off render is heavy and there is far more of it than people expect, so the disposal is a line on the quote rather than a surprise.
How long will a single elevation take?
A panel repair is usually a day or two. A full face on a two storey house is a week to ten days once the scaffold is up, plus drying between coats, and a lime system takes longer again. Wet or freezing weather stops the coats going on rather than slowing them down.
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One visit, the whole property, one itemised quote
Thomas comes out, taps every elevation, prices the repairs and the full faces separately and tells you honestly what can wait. The site visit and the written quote are free.