Rendering in Winfrith Newburgh, weather side first
The south west elevation takes the driven rain, so that is the wall that cracks, blows and greens while the other three still look sound.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Render rarely fails on all four walls at once. It goes on the side that takes the weather, and here that is the south west, so the cracking, the hollow patches and the green staining start on one elevation while the other three still look sound.
People ring about three things. A crack down from a window corner wide enough to take a coin. A patch that sounds hollow when you knock it, usually low on the wall. And one face gone green and streaked while the rest of the house has not.
All three are the same story at different speeds. Water gets behind the render, cannot get back out, and frost breaks the bond. What we do depends on what the wall behind is made of, so the free site visit is spent tapping the elevation rather than measuring it. Then you get a written itemised quote with the hack off, the beads, each coat and the scaffold on separate lines.
The work
Weather side first, then the rest of the house
We survey and work an elevation at a time here, because that is how the wall fails.
Tapping and hacking off. Before anything is priced the elevation is tapped with a scutch hammer. Sound render rings, blown render sounds like a drum. Hollow areas come off to a firm background, and if a third of a face is loose it is cheaper to hack off the lot than chase patches for a week. Then we clean down, prepare and stabilise a soft background with a primer, and cut a key where the wall is too smooth to hold a coat.
Pebbledash and Tyrolean. Plenty of houses here carry a dash finish thrown over sand and cement. It sheds water well while it is stuck, and it is a nuisance once it has parted because the dash hides the crack that let the water in. Bays can be cut and matched, though matching thrown dash is honest work rather than invisible work.
Modern systems. On a cavity wall in good order we use a silicone thin coat: primer, a mesh and scrim reinforced basecoat, then a through-coloured topcoat scraped or floated to a texture you pick off a sample board. Monocouche is the one coat alternative, tougher on a big plain elevation. Older acrylic and polymer rich finishes tend to craze.
Traditional and lime. Sand and cement still has its place on garages, outbuildings and plinths. On a period solid wall built pre-1919 it does not, and neither does anything plastic rich. Those walls shed moisture through the face. A modern topcoat leaves it trapped, pushes the damp inside and blows the render off in sheets. There the answer is lime under limewash or a breathable mineral paint.
Render over external wall insulation. On a cold wall EWI is worth asking about: insulation board fixed and dowelled on, a render carrier and mesh over it, then the same silicone topcoat. It is the one job where a thermal gain pays for the render, and Part L sets what a renewed wall should reach. It also thickens the wall, so sills, reveals, eaves and pipework all move out.
Beads, cracks and staining. A bellcast bead at the base throws water off the plinth, stop beads finish the render at reveals and verges, and stainless beads go on wet walls because galvanised ones rust and stain the face. A hairline crack is cosmetic; one that takes a coin will delaminate the coat around it over a winter and spall the arris off a brick behind. Green algae on a shaded face is a cleaning job unless the wall behind is wet.
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.
Most houses can be rendered under permitted development, but only where the finish is similar in appearance to what is there, which is the line a change from dash to smooth crosses. rendering an outside wall is the Planning Portal page on it. The village has its own conservation area and 58 listed entries in and around it, and inside those boundaries appearance is controlled, so a change of material or colour needs listed building consent or a word with Dorset Council first.
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 single storey extension comes off a tower, a two storey cottage on the village street wants a scaffold with the footway managed, and a detached house with a conservatory on the back wall needs the platform built around it. 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. On a west or south west wall that has already cracked, one wet fortnight turns a repair into a full elevation, so that is a call we would rather take in October than in March. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why the south west wall costs more than the other three
Buildings do not weather evenly. Wind driven rain arrives from one prevailing direction, here the south west, so one face gets far more water thrown at it than the other three. That is why you can stand on the lane and see a cottage with a perfect front and a green, cracked, patched flank, and why a render quote priced as one figure for the whole house is usually wrong in both directions.
It changes three things. The specification: the exposed face wants the mesh reinforced basecoat, stainless beads and a proper bellcast, and the money is better spent there than spread evenly. BS 8104 is the code used to grade a wall's exposure to driven rain, and it is why a sheltered courtyard wall and an open field elevation are not treated alike. The order of work: if the budget stretches to one face this year, do the weather side rather than the one you see from the drive. And the edges, because driven rain works at openings, verges and the base of a wall rather than the middle of a surface, so that is where the hours go and where a cheap quote quietly saves money.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winfrith Newburgh, Wool, East Knighton, Chaldon Herring and the villages along the Frome valley, broadly DT2, with Dorset Council as the planning and building control authority. 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
Winfrith Newburgh questions we get asked
Which wall should we do first if we cannot do all of them?
The one facing south west. It takes the driven rain, so it cracks, blows and greens first, and it is the face where waiting costs you money. The sheltered elevations usually go another few years without getting worse.
How do you know whether the old render has to come off?
We tap it. Sound render rings solid and blown render sounds hollow, and the hollow areas have parted from the wall behind. We do the whole elevation on the site visit and tell you how much has gone, because that is the number that sets the price, not the square metres.
Our cottage has solid walls. Can we still have a silicone finish?
Usually not, and we would talk you out of it. A solid wall sheds moisture through its face and a plastic rich topcoat seals that face. The damp goes inwards instead and the render comes off in sheets, taking some of the wall with it. Those walls get lime and limewash.
Can you match a patch of pebbledash?
We can get close and we will not pretend it is invisible. Thrown dash varies with the aggregate, the mix and the day, so a patched bay shows in low sun even when the texture is right. On a small area that is fine. On a full face, take it off.
How long does a rendered elevation take?
On a straightforward two storey face, a week to ten days once the scaffold is up, plus drying time between coats. Hacking off blown render adds days, and cold or wet weather stops work rather than slowing it, because render put on in a frost will not hold.
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Get the weather side tapped before the winter
Thomas comes out, taps the elevation, tells you what has actually blown and prices the hack off, the system and the scaffold line by line. The visit and the quote are free.