Rendering in Wimborne Minster, lime and solid walls
More houses here predate 1900 than any other period, and a wall of that age needs a coat it can breathe through rather than one that seals it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
More houses in Wimborne date from before 1900 than from any other period, and a wall of that age has no cavity and no damp proof course. It stays dry by letting moisture out through its own face, which is exactly what a modern silicone or cement render stops it doing.
That is why we turn work down here more often than anywhere else on our patch. Somebody has been quoted a smart thin coat system for a solid wall, the price is keen, and the wall will be damp inside within two winters.
What we do instead is look at the wall before the product. Solid or cavity, what the existing coat is made of, how much of it is still bonded, and whether the address sits inside the conservation area. Then the right build goes in a written itemised quote with the access, the preparation, each coat and the beads listed separately. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Lime, cement and the difference it makes
Establishing what the wall is. Wall thickness at a reveal, the age of the property and what the existing render is made of. On a pre-1919 solid wall in the older streets the answer changes the whole specification, and it is a five minute job at a visit rather than something to find out afterwards.
Lime render on solid walls. A scratch coat and a floating coat in a lime mix with a lime finish over it, worked back and protected while it cures. It is porous by design, so the wall carries its moisture out through the render and dries. It goes on slowly and it cannot be hurried, which is most of what it costs.
Taking cement render off an old wall. A common job here, and it is careful work. A hard cement coat on a soft wall has usually been holding water in for years, so it comes off by hand rather than by breaker, the brick or stone behind is allowed to dry, spalled faces are made good, and only then does anything go back on.
Silicone thin coat and monocouche on the newer housing. On the post-war and modern parts of the town a cavity wall takes a modern system happily. A mesh reinforced basecoat, a primer and a silicone topcoat, or a through-coloured monocouche laid in one build. Neither needs painting afterwards.
Traditional sand and cement, dash and Tyrolean. Right where an elevation is being matched into an existing scratch and float build, and on garages and boundary walls. Dashed and Tyrolean panels can be cut back and repaired, though new aggregate reads lighter than weathered aggregate for a season or two.
Beads, bellcast and stop ends. Angle beads at the corners, stop beads at the reveals and a bellcast at the base so water drips clear. On a lime job the arrises are often run by hand instead, because a rigid metal bead in a soft coat cracks the render around it.
Cracking, delamination and staining. Cracks are cut out, meshed and made good. A coat that has parted from the wall has to come off, because frost behind a delaminated render takes it away in sheets. Green algae staining on a shaded elevation near the rivers is surface growth and washes down.
Render over external wall insulation. On a cavity wall coming back to the brick, insulation board or a render carrier fixed to the face and rendered over adds the thermal improvement on the scaffold you are already paying for. On a solid wall it has to be a breathable build or it makes the drying worse.
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.
Repairing a rendered elevation in the same material and the same finish is maintenance. Changing it can be a different matter, because the Wimborne Minster Conservation Area covers much of the older town and there are listed entries through the middle of it, so appearance is controlled and listed building consent is needed before work to a listed building. We look an address up before quoting a change of texture or colour. Insulation behind a render is building control work rather than planning, and Approved Document L sets the Part L standard.
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 town cottage with its front wall on the back edge of the pavement, a Victorian terrace with access only through the house, and a post-war semi with a side gate are three different platforms. 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. We are under seven miles away, so a Wimborne address is normally looked at within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why a solid wall must not get a plastic rich render
Almost one home in five here was built before the First World War, and the single largest group of them predates 1900. Those are solid walls. There is no cavity behind the brick or stone and no barrier at the bottom, and the building was never designed to keep water out with a seal. It was designed to take a certain amount of water in and then give it back to the air through its own surface.
A modern render works on the opposite principle. Silicone, acrylic and cement rich systems are water shedding and comparatively closed, which is right on a cavity wall and wrong on a solid one. Put one on an old wall and the moisture that used to leave through the face is trapped. It takes the only route left, which is inward, and shows as damp and salts on the inside. Outside, water sitting behind the coat freezes and pushes it off in slabs.
So the question to ask any renderer in this town is not what colour or what texture. It is whether the wall is solid or cavity, and if it is solid, what makes their proposed build breathable. A good answer names lime. A poor answer talks about the colour range. If you are being quoted a plastic rich system for a period house here, get a second opinion first.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Wimborne Minster, Colehill, Merley, Pamphill and Corfe Mullen, broadly BH21, under Dorset Council. 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
Wimborne Minster questions we get asked
Why is lime render used on old buildings?
Because it is porous and flexible. A solid wall dries through its face, so the coat over it has to let water vapour through, and it has to move with a wall that has no expansion joints. Lime does both. A cement rich mix does neither.
My old house already has cement render on it. Is that a problem?
It can be. If it is sound and the inside is dry, we would leave it alone. If it is hollow, cracked, or the wall behind it is damp, taking it off and going back in lime usually solves something that no amount of internal work will.
Does the conservation area cover the whole town?
No, it covers much of the older centre rather than the newer estates, and the boundary does not follow the streets you would expect. It is worth checking an address rather than assuming, particularly before changing the colour of a frontage.
Is lime render more fragile than cement?
It is softer, deliberately. That is what lets it move with the wall and take the damage instead of the masonry. A lime coat is meant to be the sacrificial layer, which is why repairing it every few decades is normal rather than a failure.
How long does lime render take to cure?
Weeks rather than days, and it wants protecting from sun, wind and frost while it does. That is why it is a spring and autumn job rather than a midwinter one, and why the scaffold usually stays up a little longer than people expect.
Nearby, and next door
Rendering near Wimborne Minster
Rendering nearby
Our other trades in Wimborne Minster
Everything we do in Wimborne Rendering, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Find out whether your wall wants lime or a modern system
Thomas checks the wall and the address, taps the elevation and prices the right build in writing. The visit and the quote are free.