Rendering in Redlynch, two walls, two answers
A Victorian cottage and a seventies house can sit next to each other on the same lane and need completely different render systems.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Rendering in Redlynch has two right answers, because the lanes mix Victorian cottages with post-war houses. On a solid old wall, cracked or hollow cement comes off and goes back in lime; on a cavity house, a blown area is patched or the elevation re-rendered in silicone thin coat or monocouche. Put the wrong one on either and it does harm. Damp showing inside is a plastering repair once the outside is right.
Render jobs across Redlynch differ as much as the houses do. A modern house may have a cracked, hollow sand and cement finish that wants taking off and replacing with something better. An old cottage may have damp inside and a hard grey coat outside that should never have gone on.
Both are render jobs and neither gets the other one's answer. The free site visit in Redlynch is a survey with a hammer: we tap the elevation, establish what the wall behind is, and only then name a system. It goes in writing after that, with the hack off, the beads, each coat, the scaffold and the waste itemised.
The work
Matching the system to the wall in front of us
Deciding which wall you have. The quick tests are wall thickness at a reveal, the age of the building and what the render sounds like. A cavity wall built after the war can take a modern system. A solid wall built pre-1919 cannot, whatever the product literature says. Where it is not obvious we take a small square of render off out of sight and look.
Modern walls: thin coat and monocouche. Silicone thin coat is primer, a mesh and scrim reinforced basecoat and a through-coloured topcoat, scraped or floated to a texture you pick off a sample board. Monocouche is applied as one coat and stands up well on a long plain elevation. Both come coloured through rather than painted, and both need a sound background, so the prep matters more than the brand. Older acrylic and polymer rich systems are the ones you find crazed.
Old walls: lime. A haired lime basecoat worked into the background, a soft topcoat, then limewash or a breathable mineral paint. Every layer is weaker and more permeable than the one beneath, so moisture is never trapped in the wall. It is slower work and it goes on in thinner coats, and on a period cottage it is the only answer that does not shorten the life of the building.
Hacking off and preparing. Blown areas of a Redlynch wall come off to a firm background, then we clean down, prepare, stabilise anything dusty with a primer and cut a key where the face is too smooth to hold a coat. Spalled brick arrises are cut out and made good. Where a third or more of a face sounds hollow, the whole elevation comes off rather than being patched around.
Insulation, where it fits. On a cold Redlynch cavity wall, EWI is worth pricing next to a plain re-render: external wall insulation board fixed and dowelled on, a render carrier and mesh, then the topcoat, with Part L setting the thermal standard and building control usually involved. On solid masonry that has to breathe it is a different and much more careful specification, not the same boards.
Beads, cracking and staining. A bellcast bead at the base throws water clear of the plinth, stop beads finish the render at reveals and verges, and stainless goes wherever the wall gets wet. A crack that takes a coin lets water behind and the coat will delaminate around it. Pebbledash and Tyrolean hide the lot, so a dashed wall is tapped rather than looked at, and green algae on a shaded face is a clean unless the wall behind is wet.
How it runs
Rendering a wall here, from hacking off to the last coat
Thomas knocks along each elevation with his knuckles, because blown render sounds hollow long before it falls. He wants to know what is underneath: brick or flint on the older cottages, which needs a lime render that lets the wall dry out, or concrete block on a post-war house, which gives you more choice.
The quote for a Redlynch house spells out the scaffold, protecting windows and plants, hacking off or preparing the old surface, which render system and how many coats, the beads at corners and edges, and the making good round pipes and sills. Thomas is your one contact from the first hacking off to the final coat.
The scaffold stays up for the whole system, not a day. On a sloping Redlynch plot it is built up on the downhill side, and on a cottage tight to the lane the verge is protected. Windows, doors and plants are sheeted, and hacked-off render goes away with us. Should the wall behind prove cracked or wet, the next coat waits until you have seen photos and a price for the repair.
Wiltshire Council deals with planning. Redlynch has no conservation area and its listed entries are few, so for most houses it is straightforward: re-rendering the outside of an unlisted house in a finish that looks much like the old one is normally permitted development, as the Planning Portal page on external walls explains, and the government guidance on when permission is required covers the edge cases. Listed buildings are the exception, because their existing render is protected in law and consent must be granted before any is removed.
Cost
The wall behind decides the rendering price
A rate per square metre would hide the part that matters, which is the state of whatever is on the wall now.
The platform. A Redlynch bungalow gable can be done from a tower. A two storey wall needs scaffold for every coat and the drying time between, and a lean-to or conservatory underneath has to be bridged. Under the work at height rules that platform is costed on its own line.
Hacking off. New render on sound brick or block in Redlynch is the simple case. Old sand and cement that has lost its grip, or pebbledash coming away in sheets, all has to come off first, and nobody can see how much from the road. Tapping every elevation is how we find out.
The right render for the wall. A cottage built before the First World War has solid walls that must breathe, so lime is the answer there, and a hard cement or acrylic coat would hold damp in and push it through to the inside. On newer walls silicone thin coat, through-coloured monocouche and traditional sand and cement are all options, each at its own price. Corner beads, a bellcast over the damp course and stop ends at every opening add time.
Insulation. Adding insulation under a new render brings in building regulations and changes the job.
With another quote, find out which render and how many coats, whether the old coat is removed or rendered over, and whether scaffold and beads are counted in.
If it has started to come away
Render that sounds hollow or has cracked open
If a patch of render sounds hollow when you tap it, has bulged, or has a crack you can get a coin into, ring instead of filling in the form. Water gets in behind and the frost pushes it off.
If a piece is hanging over a door or a path, keep people clear. The first visit takes off anything loose, sheets the area if rain is due, and finds how far the blown patch goes before the elevation is priced. On an old cottage where damp is already showing inside, it should not wait for summer. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If no one picks up, we ring back as soon as possible.
Worth knowing
Two houses on the same lane, two different specifications
The housing in Redlynch did not arrive in one wave. Some of it predates 1919 and much of it went up between 1945 and the early eighties, which is why a lane runs from a Victorian pair to a seventies bungalow in fifty yards. From the road that is variety. From a render point of view it is two separate trades sharing a postcode.
The consequence is worth holding on to. When you ask three contractors to price a rendered elevation, listen for whether any of them tells you what your wall is made of. A quote that names a system before it describes the background is a quote for a product, not for your house. On a modern cavity wall almost any current system performs, and the differences come down to texture, colour and how well the beads and base detail are done. On a solid wall from before the First World War, choosing wrong does not show up in year one. It shows up as damp inside in year four and a wall face coming away in year eight, by which time the money has been spent twice.
Who you are dealing with
Who renders your walls in Redlynch and nearby
We are based in Boscombe, 18.2 miles from Redlynch, and render across the village, Morgan's Vale, Woodfalls and Landford, and the villages between the forest and the Avon. Wiltshire Council is the planning authority. Thomas Hannen, who owns the business, is the one who taps your walls and works out the price.
Company details: Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. You will find a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on our Checkatrade profile. Both the site visit and the itemised written quote are free. Before you book a visit in Redlynch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Redlynch?
Most repairs in Redlynch 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 Redlynch |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Wiltshire Council is the planning authority for Redlynch. |
| Conservation area | None covers Redlynch, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Redlynch. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Redlynch. |
Questions
Questions about rendering in Redlynch
How can we tell whether our wall is solid or cavity?
Measure the thickness at a window reveal and look at the bond on any unrendered section. A solid wall is usually about nine inches through with headers showing; a cavity is wider with no headers. Where the whole house is rendered we take a small square off out of sight.
Can one contractor do both kinds of work?
They should be able to, and plenty cannot. Lime is a different material with a different rhythm: thinner coats, longer waits, more protection from sun and frost. If somebody offers you the same system for a Victorian cottage and a seventies semi, that is the answer to your question.
Our neighbour had silicone render and it looks good. Why not us?
If your walls are the same construction, there is no reason why not. If theirs is a post-war house and yours is a cottage from the 1880s, the same product will behave completely differently, because it is the wall behind that decides whether a coat can be sealed.
Do you render garages and outbuildings too?
Yes, and they are priced as separate lines so you can drop one without redoing the whole quote. Outbuildings usually take a simpler specification, and traditional sand and cement is often the sensible choice on a garage or a store, not a full modern system.
How long will the scaffold be up?
Usually a week to a fortnight for a two storey elevation, longer if the old render has to come off first or if a lime system is going on, because each coat has to be given time. We put the expected duration on the quote rather than leaving it open.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Redlynch
Nearby places we also cover for rendering, with straight-line distances from Redlynch, and the other trades we offer in Redlynch itself.
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Find out what your wall is before you pick a finish
Thomas comes out, taps the elevation, works out what the background is and prices the right system for it. The site visit and the written itemised quote are free.