Rendering in Spetisbury, one half of a pair

Tapping comes first. A hammer handle down a Spetisbury wall tells you more than any photograph. Sound render rings hard, blown render sounds hollow. On a semi the blown area frequently carries on past the party line, because both halves were rendered on the same day by the same builder.

Hacking off and rebuilding. Where render on a Spetisbury house has parted from the background it comes off, back to sound brick. Loose joints behind it are repaired, the background is primed if it is dusty, then a mesh reinforced basecoat and the finish. We cut a clean vertical stop at the party line rather than feathering the new work into the old.

Silicone thin coat. Through coloured, applied thin over a reinforced basecoat, flexible and easy to wash down. It is the usual choice on the post-war cavity walled stock in Spetisbury, and on a shared elevation it has the advantage that the colour can be matched close to whatever is next door.

Monocouche. One thick through coloured coat, ruled and scraped back to an even texture. Good on a plain gable, and no painting afterwards. It needs a stable background and a planned stopping point, which on a terrace means the corner or a bead on the party line.

Sand and cement, pebbledash and Tyrolean. Traditional scratch and float coats, and dash where the elevation already carries it. On a matching pair the aggregate match matters more than anywhere else, so we put a sample panel up and let you look at it in daylight before committing.

Older solid walls. Some of the homes in Spetisbury predate 1919. A solid wall has no cavity and was built breathable, taking moisture in and letting it dry back out. A plastic rich modern system leaves that moisture trapped and pushes it through to the inside face. On period fabric we render in lime, which stays open and moves with the wall.

Beads, bellcast and stop ends. A bellcast throws water clear at the base, a stop bead gives a clean edge at a reveal or against a neighbour, and an angle bead keeps a corner true. A movement joint goes in where the elevation is long or where two structures meet, because that is where a crack will otherwise choose to appear.

Cracks, delamination and green staining. A hairline crack running straight across a panel is shrinkage. A crack that steps through the render and into the brickwork behind is movement, and covering it up wastes your money. Algae on a shaded wall is a wash and a treatment; a topcoat that chalks off is a recoat.

External wall insulation. Board fixed outside and rendered over, on a render carrier where the background will not take a direct fix. On a semi it changes the wall thickness on one side only, so the junction at the party line and the eaves needs designing rather than improvising.

Rendering in Spetisbury has no fixed rate per square metre. What is already on the wall matters most. Taking off the old. Blown sand and cement, or pebbledash that has parted from the brick, has to be hacked off completely. That is heavy, slow work, and it fills a skip.

The system. Sand and cement in coats, a through-coloured monocouche, a silicone thin coat, or lime for an older wall. Each is priced differently and suits a different wall, and a solid wall needs something that lets it breathe.

The scaffold. The whole elevation has to be reachable for the whole job. A Spetisbury bungalow gable is small; a two storey gable, or a semi with a conservatory at the back, needs more platform for longer. The work at height rules make it its own item.

The details. Beads at every corner and window, a bellcast above the damp course, stop ends against next door, and sills and pipes taken off and refitted all take time.

Ask other quotes whether the old render is hacked off or covered over, which system and how many coats, and whether the beads, bellcast and scaffold are included.

On a semi or in a terrace the elevation was built as one wall and finished as one wall, and it still reads as one wall from the road. So the first decision is not the colour, it is the stop.

A clean vertical bead on the party line gives a deliberate edge that looks like a design choice. Feathering the new render out into the old gives a wavy join that catches the light and looks like a repair for the next thirty years.

The second decision is your neighbour. You do not need their permission to render your own wall, but you do need access to work on it, and where the job means cutting into or fixing to a party wall there are formal notices under the party wall procedure. The pairs that end up looking best are the ones done at the same time on a shared scaffold, and we will quote both halves and split it.

Rendering jobs in Spetisbury sit 14.2 miles out from Boscombe, where our base is, and we also cover the Winterbornes, Blandford St Mary and Sturminster Marshall too. A change of finish on any of them is a question for Dorset Council.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. The man tapping your render to price it is Thomas Hannen, the owner. A verified customer's score on Checkatrade is 10 out of 10. You pay nothing for us to come and look, and the written quote with every item set out is free. Before you book a visit in Spetisbury, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Spetisbury 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.