Rendering in Post Green

Tapping and recording come first. A light hammer goes over every Post Green elevation. Hollow render has delaminated from the background and cannot be held on by a coating. We mark the areas, photograph them and measure them, and in a conservation area those photographs are also what a planning officer wants to see if consent is ever needed.

Like for like repairs. Where a Post Green wall is mostly sound, the right job is usually a repair rather than a replacement: cut out the loose, stabilise the backing, patch in with a matching mix, then re-dash or re-texture to blend. Done properly a patch disappears. Done badly it reads as a rectangle for the life of the wall, which is why the texture and the aggregate are matched on a sample before anyone starts.

Hacking off and rebuilding. Where a coat on a Post Green wall has gone we hack off to the background, clean down, cut out loose or spalled material and let the wall dry. Then beads: angle beads on corners, stop beads at reveals, a bellcast at the base to throw water clear. A primer or slurry key where the block is dense.

The systems, and where each belongs. Silicone thin coat, a mesh reinforced polymer basecoat under a flexible through-coloured topcoat, is our preferred answer on the post-war cavity blockwork. Monocouche gives a single thick through-coloured coat on new blockwork and extensions. Traditional sand and cement, scratched and floated, still suits plinths, garages and boundary walls and takes paint, dry dash or Tyrolean.

Old walls, and why lime is not optional on them. The older houses around Post Green are solid walled with no cavity. They have to dry through their own face, so a lime render and a mineral finish belong on them and a plastic-rich modern system does not. Wrap a breathing wall in something impermeable and the trapped moisture moves inside, which is where the damp patch at skirting level comes from.

Cracking, staining and algae. Fine crazing is shrinkage. A single crack out of a window corner is movement. Green and black streaking is algae and wants a wash. We tell you which of the three you are looking at before anyone quotes to re-render.

Render over external wall insulation. EWI board with a render carrier or a mesh basecoat is a real option on the newer houses, though on this land it changes the outward appearance of the building and so is a planning question as well as a thermal one.

What is on the wall now. Rendering over sound brick is one job. Hacking off blown sand and cement or pebbledash that has come away is another, and you cannot tell which from the road. We tap every elevation before pricing.

The system. Traditional sand and cement, through-coloured monocouche, and silicone thin coat over a basecoat and mesh all cost different amounts. On an older solid wall, a lime render lets it breathe; a plastic-rich system would trap damp.

Height. A Post Green bungalow wall off a tower is far cheaper to reach than a two storey gable on scaffold, and the platform stays for every coat and the drying time between. Access is priced separately because the work at height rules govern it.

Movement. On clay, walls move a little with the seasons. Render on a wall with old cracks needs mesh and movement joints, or the cracks come straight back through.

Details. Sills, pipework taken off and refitted, and a bellcast at the damp course all add time.

Ask any other quote which system and how many coats, whether old render is coming off or being overlaid, and whether beads, bellcast and stop ends are included.

The thing people find surprising is which half of the job is controlled. Nobody is going to stop you repairing render that is failing. What the designation bites on is a change to the look of the building, and rendering is one of the specific alterations the regulations single out on this kind of land, alongside cladding in stone, timber, tiles and pebbledash.

In Post Green the conversation depends on what you want to change. If your wall is already rendered and you want it renewed in the same texture and a similar colour, you are doing maintenance and you can get on with it. If you want to take a dashed elevation back to a smooth modern finish, or to render brickwork that has always been brickwork, or to go from an off white to something strong, that is a change of appearance, and it wants a conversation with the planning department before a scaffold arrives rather than after.

What helps is evidence. We photograph the elevation as it stands, put a sample of the proposed texture and colour on the wall, and let you look at it in daylight against the neighbouring buildings. That sample is worth more than any brochure, both to you and to a planning officer, and it costs nothing to do at the survey stage. If the answer turns out to be a like for like repair, we will tell you that too.

Getting to Post Green from our base in Boscombe is a trip of about nine and a half miles. We render in Post Green, Lytchett Minster, Upton, Lytchett Matravers and the BH16 addresses around them, under Dorset Council.

You deal with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. It is Thomas Hannen's business, and he taps the walls and prices the render himself. A customer verified on Checkatrade marked us 10 out of 10. Visiting is free, and so is the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Post Green, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Post Green 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.