Rendering a House?

[Wildfire]

We are new to house ownership, having previously lived in a flat, and have inherited a lot of issues with our house due to the previous owners not really taking care of it.

The big one is that the render is blown / going in quite a few places and I think I just need to have it replaced, and then probably damp proofing injected.

But I have no idea how to go about finding someone to do it?

Next door are rebuilding, but they haven't had the house rendered yet and it was supposed to be completed in August, no they are fairly behind.

I'm keen to get someone out, but how to find someone reputable and reliable and who will give me the right advice? Do I just google, and do a lot of research online?

This is on the render only, I know someone who can do the damp work, but they don't know anyone to do the house.

If anyone has any recommendations in Surrey, I'd be grateful.

[C4ME]

First thing you will need to do is determine whether it should have a lime based render or cement based render. Will depend on age of house, what is underneath it and what mortar is in use. If it is an older house then what is currently on it may not be correct (if it has ever been replaced before).

Lime rendering is a much more specialised service.

[BoRED S2upid]

Renderthis should be a big enough franchise to be in your area. No recommendation.

[Aluminati]

Bad time of year for (S&C) render. More modern renders are available, but effing expensive !

Do you have any pics of current ?

[dmsims]

Age of property and construction method

My snake oil radar has already been triggered

[Mr Magooagain]

Chuck some photos up and try to let us know what the walls are built of, brick, block etc solid or cavity construction and age of house.

[Wildfire]

Hi all

Thanks for the reply, so construction is a mix of 1930's brick and then 1990's breeze block for the variety of extensions.

It's definitely had cement render applied in the past, across the whole house and this is what has blown, especially across the front.

The cause of the blowing on the front of the house, is that whoever did the rendering rendered past the DPC. The render goes past down to the ground and into french drains and the previous owners basically had the heating going full blast, all day every day, in the winter.

The side render has blown due to an external tap, that pipes off the en-suite bathroom leaking, very slowly for who knows how long (it was all boxed and tiled in). Aside from where this was leaking, this side of the house is fine, just sadly the patch that came off when I discovered it, is rather big.

[tegwin]

Sounds like a good opportunity to team up with your neighbor and have the outside of the houses insulated before you render over the top.

[Wildfire]

tegwin said:

Sounds like a good opportunity to team up with your neighbor and have the outside of the houses insulated before you render over the top.

I did try to get this sorted, but they knocked all their house down, bar the 10%, and are running very late on their timeframes. Plus we have a bit of a party wall disagreement on the go.