Rendering in Tolpuddle, lime and limewash
On the older cottages the render is not a covering over the wall, it is part of how the wall stays dry, and that changes what can go back on it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a solid walled cottage the render is the wall's raincoat and its way of drying out at the same time. Repairing one in lime is a different job from re-rendering a modern house, and the two get confused often enough to cost people a wall.
The calls divide neatly. Either a soft old render is crumbling, spalling at the base or losing its limewash, or somebody has put cement over it and that cement is now hollow, cracked and pulling the face of the wall off with it.
The first is maintenance and often a day or two of patching. The second is a strip and a rebuild. The free site visit is a survey with a hammer: we tap the elevation, tell you honestly which one you have, and put the hack off, the beads, each coat, the scaffold and the waste on separate lines in writing.
The work
Patching a lime render, and undoing a cement one
Repairing what is there. A lime render that has lost patches is usually repairable. We cut back to a firm edge, clean down, dampen the background and work a haired lime basecoat in, then a soft topcoat brought flush with the old surface. Patched lime knits into what it meets rather than sitting on it, which is why the repair disappears in a way a cement patch never does.
Limewash and breathable paint. Limewash is a sacrificial coat: it wears, it is renewed, and it keeps the render underneath sound. Several thin coats beat one thick one. Where a house carries modern masonry paint the face has been sealed and the render under it is damp, so the paint comes off before anything else is worth doing.
When cement has to come off. Sand and cement on a pre-1919 solid wall keeps water in rather than out. It sounds hollow, the cracking spreads, and moisture trapped behind it comes through inside as a damp patch that no amount of decorating fixes. Hacking it off is dirty work and it is the right work. the published guidance on lime and cement renders sets out why a soft breathable coat outlives a hard one on old fabric.
Thin coat and monocouche where they fit. Not every house here is a period one. On a post-war cavity wall a silicone thin coat is the sensible system: prepare and stabilise the background, primer, a mesh and scrim reinforced basecoat, then a through-coloured topcoat scraped or floated to a texture off a sample board. Monocouche suits a large plain elevation, and a key is cut where the background is too smooth. Tyrolean and pebbledash can be thrown back over a fresh backing where that is what the house had. Acrylic and polymer rich finishes craze, and none of them go on an old wall.
The base of the wall, and the beads. Render that runs into the ground wicks water up behind itself. It should stop clear on a bellcast bead that throws the drip off the plinth, with stop beads at reveals and verges, stainless rather than galvanised where the wall gets wet. On a lime job the edges are often formed by hand, which takes longer and looks right.
Cracks, hollows and green faces. A hairline crack in lime closes itself over time; a crack that takes a coin in cement will delaminate the coat around it in a winter. Green algae and staining on a shaded gable is a cleaning job unless the wall behind is wet. Thermal comfort comes up too: EWI, external wall insulation board with a render carrier, is an option on a cavity wall, and Part L is the standard, but it is not something to bolt onto a cottage.
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.
The village sits inside its own conservation area and carries 27 listed entries, the Martyrs' Cottages among them. Inside that boundary appearance is controlled, so a change of finish, texture or colour is a planning matter rather than a repair, and on a listed building the render is part of what is protected and needs listed building consent from Dorset Council before anything comes off. Like for like repair in lime is the one route that is almost never contentious, which is another reason we lead with it here.
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 thatched cottage needs the scaffold set back and boarded so nothing bears on the eaves, a roadside elevation needs the footway managed, and a rear wall behind a narrow side passage 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. Cement that has started to come away from an old wall is worse than no render at all, because the water gets behind it and cannot leave, so that one is worth ringing about rather than watching. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On these cottages the render is the historic finish
It is easy to think of render as decoration over the real wall. On the older buildings here it is not. The wall was built to be covered, the covering was lime, and the lime was limewashed and renewed every few years as ordinary maintenance. That works because each layer is softer and more breathable than the one beneath, so water that gets in leaves through the face rather than through the plaster in your sitting room.
So when you are comparing quotes, ask what mix is going on and why. A modern coloured topcoat on a solid wall is the wrong job however good the price looks, and the damage does not show for three or four winters, by which time the money is spent. Ask whether the old render is being cut back to a firm edge or hacked off wholesale, because on a repairable wall the wholesale answer is wasteful. And on any building inside the conservation area, ask whether the appearance changes at all, because that is what the council will ask you.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Tolpuddle, Affpuddle, Puddletown, Dewlish and the villages along the Piddle valley, 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
Tolpuddle questions we get asked
What is wrong with cement render on an old cottage?
It is harder and less permeable than the wall it is stuck to. Water still gets in at the top, at cracks and around openings, then cannot get back out through the face, so it goes inwards or freezes behind the coat. The render blows off in sheets and takes some of the wall surface with it.
Can a lime render just be patched?
Often, yes, and it is much cheaper than a full elevation. We cut back to a firm edge, dampen the background and work new lime in so it knits to the old. Where a third of a face has gone, patching stops being economic and a full coat is better value.
How often does limewash need doing?
People ask how long it lasts: about five years on an exposed face, longer on a sheltered one. It is meant to wear, because that is how it protects the render underneath. Two or three thin coats renew it, and on a single storey wall it needs no scaffold.
Our cottage has masonry paint on it. Is that a problem?
Usually. Modern masonry paint seals the face, and a solid wall needs that face open. If the render underneath is sounding hollow or the inside walls are damp, the paint is part of the reason. It can be taken off, and then the wall and the render need time to dry before anything is put back.
Do you work on listed buildings?
Yes, and we would rather see the consent in place first. On a listed cottage the render, the limewash and often the outbuildings are all covered. We put the specification in writing for the conservation officer, because taking cement off and returning to lime is usually welcomed rather than resisted.
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Get the render looked at by someone who works in lime
Thomas comes out, taps the elevation, tells you whether it is a patch or a full coat and prices the lime, the beads and the scaffold separately. The visit and the written quote are free.