Rendering across Harrogate

On most houses rendering counts as permitted development and no application is needed. That changes if you live in a conservation area, if the property is listed, or if a planning condition or an Article 4 direction applies to your street.

Parts of central Harrogate, Knaresborough and several of the villages fall into those categories. Ring Harrogate Borough planning before you commit, and we will happily supply a written specification for the system we intend to use.

Sometimes, but not always, and it depends entirely on how the wall was built. Solid walls built without a cavity rely on being able to dry outwards. Seal one with a dense modern render and the moisture has nowhere to go but inwards.

On that kind of wall we would look at a breathable system or advise against rendering altogether. We would rather lose the job than leave you with a damp problem in three winters.

The pigment is mixed into the material itself rather than painted on afterwards, so the colour goes all the way through the thickness of the coat.

The practical upshot is that a chip or a scuff shows the same colour underneath instead of a grey patch, and you never have to book a decorator to go back over it.

It matters a great deal. A sheltered town-centre terrace and a farmhouse gable facing up Nidderdale are two different jobs, even with identical walls.

Driving rain and freeze-thaw cycles are what finish render off early. On exposed elevations we specify accordingly rather than applying the same build-up everywhere.

Often yes, particularly on a semi or a terrace where a matching finish makes the pair read as one building.

Bring us the name of the system if you know it, or point us at the house. We can usually identify the product from the texture and the way the edges have been detailed.

The wall gets tapped across its whole area to find anything hollow, washed down, and checked for the things that cause render to fail later — blocked cavities, defective sills, gutters running down the face of the wall.

Beads are then set true to give straight arrises and a proper drip at the bottom edge. None of this is visible when we have finished, and all of it determines how long the job lasts.

Longer than we are on site, generally. Scaffold typically goes up a day or two before we start and comes down a few days after the last coat, because fresh render should not be knocked about while it is still green.

We will give you the erection and dismantle dates at the quoting stage so you can plan around it.

Very little. Keep gutters and downpipes clear so water is not constantly running over the face, and cut back anything growing against the wall.

A wash down every few years keeps a pale colour looking pale. That is the extent of it on a through-coloured system.

Yes. A single gable, a dormer cheek, a porch or a stretch of wall that has cracked are all worth doing and all worth doing properly.

Small jobs still need the right access and the right build-up, so the price reflects that rather than the square metres alone.

Check three things: whether scaffold is included or extra, which system is actually named on the quote, and what happens to any hollow render found once work starts.

A cheap price that goes quiet on all three usually is not cheaper by the end. Ask us the same questions — we would rather answer them now.