Rendering the front of the house.

innaroot

Hi.

I am in the process of buying my first house and haverecently had the survey back. The main point of concern is as follows.



External walls are made of solid brick ie there is nocavity. The outer faces are covered by a coating of cement render whichcontinues down to ground level, covering any damp-proof course or DPC, whichmay be present and is likely to allow dampness to 'bridge' (by-pass) it. The renderingbelow the DPC should be removed. The exposed walls should then be painted with bitumenbefore being re-rendered and finished off with a 'bell-drip' (a bottom lipcurving outwards to deflect rainwater).



It is a pretty standard two-storey, mid-terraced house.The front of the house is currently pebbledash.



Would like to know a rough cost of how much it might costto do the work mentioned above?



Regards



Joel

1st_and_last

Hi there,

These sort of works would take less than a day to complete, in good weather conditions when it's dry etc..

The cost of materials to do the front would be as follows...

2 bags clean washed sand @ less than £5

Bag of cement @ less than £5

20mm bell cast drip bead 3 meter length x 2 and fixings @ less than £8

Small 1 ltr tin bitumen paint @ less than £5

Might take half a day to a day so would be looking anywhere between £60-£120, depending on who you hire. Most tradesmen worth their salt will not work for any less than £80-£100 per day bare minimum. This is the rate for one bloke on his own.

If the wall is painted render further preparation would be required before rendering the bell drip onto the painted surface.

After rendering in the bell drip, when it's dry it will need painting, so painting the whole of the front would seem a sensible option. This is again half a day to a day for a decorator @ around £60-£120 depending on who you hire, and the number of things to be painted and any preparation work to be done. The paint would cost between £10 and £25, depending on the brand etc...

So all in all, To have the bell drip done shouldn't cost any more than around £85-£150.

To have it painted shouldn't cost any more than £85-£150.

If it's a pebbledash (the kind that has coloured pebbles) then matching the bell drip to it will be difficult and will probably stand out a mile. It's best to texture it with pebbles/tyrolean and then paint the whole lot to make uniform.

Hope this helps! :money:

nobulljusttruth

Good luck finding a professional for that kind of money....


DIY maybe, or a cowboy.

DaftyDuck

What age is the house? If there's no DPC to cover (and no evidence of damp inside) then the surveyor is waffling to cover himself...and he should really be able to tell if there is a DPC. Bitumen coating of lower walls only ever gives an advantage from penetrating damp, and is detrimental to a DPC working anyway.

Given it's a terrace, how are the neighbouring houses faced?