Rendering in Wool

Sand and cement, pebbledash and Tyrolean. The finish most of these houses already carry. A scratch coat, a float coat and then a smooth face, a dry dash thrown on while the coat is green, or a Tyrolean flicked on. Patching one properly means matching aggregate size and colour, so we mix a sample panel and let you see it dry before the main wall goes on.

Hacking off what has blown. Blown render has parted from the block or brick behind it and it sounds hollow when you tap it. On this age of house in Wool the hollow band is usually low down, where splash back and a missing bellcast have let water sit for forty years. How far it runs decides whether you cut out panels or strip the wall.

Silicone thin coat. The usual replacement in Wool. Primer, a polymer basecoat with glass fibre mesh bedded into it, then a through-coloured silicone topcoat scraped to an even texture. It flexes a little, sheds water and holds colour, and on cavity blockwork it is a good match. Beads and stop ends at every opening and a bellcast at the base this time.

Monocouche. One through-coloured coat put on thick and scraped back the following day. Quick and hard wearing on a plain elevation with a sound background. Not the system for a wall carrying thirty years of patch repairs.

Lime render. The older cottages in the Wool village centre are solid walled with no cavity and dry out through their own face, so they want lime rather than cement, two or three coats with hair gauged into the base. Cement on one of those traps moisture and puts damp inside a house that was dry.

Cracking, delamination and staining. Fine crazing across a float coat is shrinkage and cosmetic. A crack you can get a coin into is movement or a failed bead and wants opening up and reinforcing. Green algae and black staining on a shaded gable come off with a soft wash, never pressure, which strips the surface.

Render over external wall insulation. Insulation board fixed to the wall as a render carrier, then mesh, basecoat and topcoat over it. On a cold estate house it is the one render job that makes a real difference to the heating, and Approved Document L sets what a renovated wall is expected to reach. It also thickens every reveal, so the cills and the pipework have to be planned rather than discovered.

Measuring the wall is easy. What is already on it, and how we reach it, set the price. Access. A semi on one of the estates, a detached bungalow with a carport in the way and a cottage on the village street are three different platforms.

A bungalow gable can come off a tower, a two storey elevation needs a scaffold, and it stands for the whole system, not a day. The work at height rules make it a priced line.

What comes off. Much of the render in Wool went on in the seventies and early eighties, and after this long the south west facing walls often have blown patches and cracks. Sound render can be repaired and recoated. Blown sand and cement, or pebbledash parting from the block, has to be hacked off first, and that is heavy, slow work.

The system. A silicone thin coat, a through-coloured monocouche and traditional sand and cement all cost and behave differently. On a solid brick or stone cottage that needs to breathe, a sealed modern system traps damp, so lime is often right there.

Details. Beads at corners, a bellcast over the damp course, stop ends round windows and dealing with sills and pipes all take time.

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

More than half the homes in Wool were built between 1945 and the early 1980s, and the peak years were the 1970s and early 1980s. Houses built within a few years of each other were rendered with the same materials by the same trades to the same details, so they do not fail at random.

They fail together, in the same places: the base course where there was never a bellcast, the corners where the bead has gone, and the sills where water has been dripping onto the same spot since the house was new.

In Wool that can save money twice. First, a neighbour's wall is a fair preview of yours, so if the house next door has just had a hollow band cut out at the bottom, tap yours before it opens up. Second, there is the scaffold. It is a priced line on any two storey job and it does not care how many houses it serves. Where two neighbours in a semi or a short terrace want the same work, one platform across both is a genuinely cheaper way to buy it, and it also means the finish matches across the join instead of stopping in the middle of a wall. Ring together and we will price it that way.

We render in Wool, Bovington, East Burton, Coombe Keynes and the villages towards Wareham, broadly BH20. Planning and building control for all of them is Dorset Council. Our Boscombe base is 17.1 miles off. The firm on your paperwork is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Wool, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen is the owner, and he knocks along your walls himself before writing a figure. A verified customer left us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. You pay nothing for the visit or for the written quote.

Most repairs in Wool 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.