Wall rendering in Scarborough

When one wall is the job

One elevation often gives up before the others because it takes more weather. The end wall of a terrace with no neighbour to shelter it, or a gable that faces the sea, can crack and blow while the front and back are still sound. Other common starting points are a new block extension that needs finishing, a painted brick side wall that keeps peeling, and a garden wall whose face is breaking up.

Tap-test the wall before deciding. If hollow areas are scattered in a few patches, cutting them out and patching them as render repairs keeps more sound material. If most of the face sounds hollow, or old patches of different texture cover much of it, renewing the whole elevation gives a cleaner result and leaves one new edge to manage rather than a dozen small ones.

How a single elevation is rendered

The old finish is hacked off the whole face, back to straight lines at the corners rather than a ragged edge part-way across. The background is repaired and, where brick or block is dense or smooth, given a bonding or stipple coat so the base coat has something to grip. Beads go on next: an angle bead at each external corner, a stop bead where new work finishes against retained render or brick, and a bellcast or drip bead above the damp-proof course.

The base coat follows, with alkali-resistant mesh bedded into it around windows and doors, where K Rend's guidance places it at stress points. The finish goes on last. Thin coats and through-coloured renders have to be completed across a face in one continuous operation, because stopping half-way leaves a visible joint; on a tall gable that means planning scaffold lifts and labour so the face can be finished without a break.

1. 1

   Tap-test and photograph the face and its edges

2. 2

   Hack off to defined stopping lines at the corners

3. 3

   Repair the background; bonding coat where suction or key is poor

4. 4

   Fix corner, stop and base beads

5. 5

   Base coat with mesh at openings

6. 6

   Finish coat across the whole face in one operation

Where new render meets the rest of the house

The edge against retained work matters more than the middle of the wall. Stopping on an external corner with an angle bead hides the change best, because you rarely see both faces in the same light. Stopping in the middle of a flat face, or against old render of a different thickness, leaves a line that will always show. If the new face stands proud of the old, check how it meets the roof verge, downpipe brackets and any window that is not being replaced.

Colour is the other edge. New render beside an older face will not match exactly, even in the same named colour, because the old surface has weathered. Decide before work starts whether that difference is acceptable or whether the adjoining walls should be cleaned or recoated at the same time to tie the house together.

Garden and boundary walls

A freestanding wall is exposed on both faces and along its top, so the coping and its drips belong to the render job. Ask what coping is proposed, whether it oversails both faces with a drip, and where the damp-proof course sits near the ground, because the render should stop above it on a bead. Render carried down to the soil keeps the base of the wall wet.

A retaining wall holding back soil is a different case again, because ground moisture reaches it from behind. Have its drainage looked at before deciding whether render belongs on it at all.

Access and the first winter

On Scarborough's taller terraces a single gable can still mean scaffold three to five storeys high. If it stands on the pavement, the scaffolding company must register with North Yorkshire Council, apply for a licence with at least seven days' notice and normally keep the scaffold on the footway rather than the road or a back street. Allow for that notice before fixing start dates.

Look at the new wall after heavy rain in its first winter. Dark patches that stay wet for days, cracks opening at window corners, or water running behind a downpipe are worth reporting while the work is fresh. K Rend advises leaving a crack to stabilise before it is repaired, so record its length and width with dated photographs.