Rendering at Thorney Hill
Pebbledash repairs, full re-dashing and modern systems around Thorney Hill and Bransgore, decided by what the backing coat is doing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Rendering at Thorney Hill is mostly pebbledash repair and replacement. The dash itself rarely fails; the backing coat underneath parts from the wall. Where tapping finds it sound, hollow patches are cut out and re-dashed to match. Where the backing has let go widely, the elevation is hacked off and re-dashed or re-rendered in silicone or monocouche, and older solid walls get lime. For inside walls, see plastering at Thorney Hill.
Dash was thrown at the Thorney Hill houses for a good reason. Aggregate cast into a wet coat gives a rough face that sheds driven rain and hides small movement, and on an exposed wall it outlasted a smooth finish by a wide margin. Fifty or eighty years on, some of it is still sound and some of it is hollow.
The choice people are trying to make is whether to repair the dash, re-dash the whole elevation, or take it off and go to something smooth and modern. All three are legitimate. We tap the Thorney Hill wall and tell you which ones are actually available to you.
The work
Dash, and what comes after it
The survey on a dashed wall. Dash hides its condition, which is why it has to be tapped rather than looked at. A sound elevation rings hard through the aggregate. A hollow note means the backing coat has delaminated from the brick or block behind it. Bald patches where the stone has come away are a symptom of the same thing. We map it, photograph it and measure it.
Repairing dash. Where the backing on a Thorney Hill wall is stuck, this is good honest work. Cut the failed area back to a firm edge, stabilise the surround, fill with a matching backing mix, then throw dash of the same aggregate and size into it. Matching the stone matters more than matching the colour, because at any distance your eye reads the texture. We put a sample up first.
Re-dashing a whole elevation. Where the dash on a Thorney Hill house is tired everywhere but the backing is sound, the wall can be washed, keyed, given a fresh floating coat and re-dashed corner to corner. It keeps the character of the building and it is the option a National Park setting tends to favour.
Taking dash off and going smooth. We hack off back to the background, clean down the Thorney Hill wall, cut out loose and spalled material, and let it dry. Then beads, a primer or slurry key on dense block, a mesh reinforced polymer basecoat and a through-coloured silicone topcoat scraped to a fine texture. It looks completely different, and on this land that change of appearance is a planning matter as well as a taste one.
Tyrolean, monocouche and traditional render. Tyrolean is a lighter thrown finish applied with a hand flicker rather than a scoop, and it suits a wall where full dash would look heavy. Monocouche is one thick through-coloured coat for new blockwork and extensions. Two coat sand and cement, scratched and floated, still belongs on plinths, garages, chimneys and boundary walls.
Render over external wall insulation. Where EWI board goes on outside, the render is the weather skin over a render carrier or a mesh basecoat on the board. In the park it changes the look of the building, so the thermal case and the planning case get made together.
The old cottages. Better than one house in five in Thorney Hill predates 1919, so a solid wall with no cavity is common. Those dry through their own face and take lime render with a breathable finish. Dash on a lime backing can be sound for a very long time, and it is worth repairing rather than replacing.
Cracking, staining and moss. A crack out of a window corner is movement. Fine crazing is shrinkage. Moss and green algae sit in the hollows of a dashed surface and are cosmetic, though heavy growth holds water against the coat and is worth washing off.
How it runs
Re-rendering or repairing dash on an exposed wall
Tell us what the render is doing: cracked, hollow, or pebbledash coming off in plates. Many of the post-war houses in Thorney Hill were dashed or rendered when built, and the south west elevation takes the worst of the weather. Thomas comes out, sounds the wall with a tap to find what has come away, and prices it himself. Thomas is your one contact for the scaffold, the hacking off and every coat.
On a Thorney Hill quote you will see scaffold and access, sheeting and masking, hacking off back to sound wall, which render system and how many coats, beading at corners, stop ends at the edges and a bellcast over the damp course, and making good round the sills and pipework. Most plots have room for a scaffold and mixer without blocking the lane. Coats only go on when the weather allows, never in frost or driving wind, and each one is protected while it cures. The site is swept each day. Blockwork cracked by ground movement behind the old render is photographed and priced before the new coat goes on.
Because the village is National Park land, the permitted development right to clad or render a house does not apply, so changing the outside finish needs a planning application; patching existing render like for like does not. The park authority publishes its heritage and conservation guidance, and listed buildings are rare here, with no conservation area at all. Re-rendering a whole elevation is also a building regulations matter under Part L, because the wall may need insulating at the same time.
Cost
What decides the cost of re-rendering a gable
What is already on the wall decides the price more than its area does. The platform. A cottage on a lane with no standing, a detached house behind a hedge and a run of outbuildings each want different access, and the scaffold has to stay up for the whole system. Work at height rules are why it is costed as its own item.
Taking off the old dash. Pebbledash that has parted from a Thorney Hill wall comes off back to sound blockwork. That is heavy, noisy work that nobody can see from the lane, and we tap the whole elevation before quoting because the hollow areas set the hours.
Movement. On shrinking clay, cracks in render often follow cracks in the wall behind. Mesh and movement beads over those lines cost more, and they stop the crack coming straight back through the new coat.
The system. A silicone thin coat, a one coat monocouche and a traditional sand and cement render all cost and perform differently. A solid wall on an older cottage needs lime so it can breathe, because a plastic-rich modern coat traps moisture.
Ask any quote which system and how many coats, whether old render is hacked off or overlaid, and whether beads and bellcast are included.
If it has started to come away
Dash falling off or render cracked open
Dash dropping off a wall in plates, render that sounds hollow, or a crack you can push a coin into lets water in behind, and frost does the rest. Call us rather than sending the form.
Anything loose over a Thorney Hill door or path comes down on the first visit and the worst is sheeted if rain is due, then the whole wall is priced when we know how much has blown. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Where something might drop, call, and if nobody answers, you will be called back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Deciding what happens to a pebbledashed house
The honest starting point is that dash is not a cheap old finish somebody inflicted on the village. It was the right specification for an exposed wall before flexible modern systems existed, and where the backing coat has stayed bonded it can still have decades left. So the first question is never what you would like instead. It is how much of the backing is still stuck.
If most of it is, repairing or re-dashing is the sensible answer and by some distance the least disruptive. If the backing has gone over a large part of the wall, you are having a strip out whatever you choose, and at that point the decision genuinely is open: dash again, or a mesh reinforced basecoat with a modern topcoat. Inside the National Park that second option changes the appearance of the building and so needs a planning application, which is a conversation to have before you book anybody rather than after.
What we would steer you away from is dashing over a hollow backing to make a wall look presentable. It buys a season, it adds weight to a coat that is already struggling to hang on, and when it does let go it comes off in a much bigger piece. If a quote offers to re-dash without anyone having tapped the elevation, that is the thing to ask about.
Who you are dealing with
Who renders walls around Sopley and Bransgore
We are 6.8 miles from Thorney Hill, at 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe, and render walls across Thorney Hill, Bransgore, Burley, Sopley and the BH23 addresses around them, under the New Forest National Park Authority. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales with company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Thorney Hill, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who taps your wall and works out the render price himself. A customer's verified 10 out of 10 is on Checkatrade. Coming out costs you nothing, and neither does the written quote, which lists every item.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Thorney Hill?
Most repairs in Thorney Hill 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 Thorney Hill |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Thorney Hill. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Thorney Hill, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Thorney Hill. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about rendering in Thorney Hill
Is our pebbledash finished, or can it be repaired?
Whether pebbledash in Thorney Hill can be repaired depends entirely on the backing coat under the aggregate, and you cannot tell by looking. We tap the elevation: a hard ring means the backing is still bonded and the dash can be cut back, patched and thrown to match. A hollow note over a large area means the wall wants stripping instead.
Can we take the dash off and have a smooth finish?
Physically yes, and it looks completely different afterwards. Inside the National Park a change of external finish is a planning application, not permitted development, so that has to be agreed before the scaffold is booked. Repairing or re-dashing what is already there does not need permission.
Will new dash match the old?
Close, if the aggregate is right. We match the stone size and type first and the mortar colour second, because from the pavement the texture is what registers. A sample panel goes up on the wall so you can see it against the existing dash before the main work starts.
Why is there moss in our render?
Because a dashed surface has thousands of small hollows that hold moisture, and this is a sheltered, wooded spot. It is cosmetic in itself, though heavy growth keeps the coat damp, so it is worth washing off. It is not a sign that the render has failed, which is a separate test with a hammer.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Thorney Hill
Nearby places we also cover for rendering, with straight-line distances from Thorney Hill, and the other trades we offer in Thorney Hill itself.
Rendering nearby
Our other trades in Thorney Hill
Rendering guides
Silicone, cement or lime: which render? Cracked render: which cracks matter Listed building consent for repointing and re-renderingEverything we do in New Milton Rendering, all areas Every area we cover
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Get the dash tapped before you decide its future
Thomas sounds the elevation, tells you how much of the backing is still stuck, and prices the repair, the re-dash and the strip out in a free written itemised quote.