Questions, Answered Straight

Both are real answers and which one applies is decided by tapping the wall rather than by looking at it. Sound render rings and render that has let go sounds hollow. If the hollow area is one patch on an otherwise sound wall, that is a repair. If it is half an elevation, patching it is chasing the problem round the house.

Harling is the old Scottish word for roughcasting and means the same thing. Wet dash has the stone chips mixed into the mortar and the whole lot thrown at the wall. Dry dash has the mortar on first and the chips thrown onto it while it is still green, which gives the sharper, more even look most people mean by pebble dash.

Yes, and it is one of the things we are asked for most. The dash comes off, the wall is brought properly flat and a smooth render goes on. It is more work than a re-dash because there is no texture to hide a ripple in, so the levelling coat underneath is the whole job.

Yes, and it is the same firm either way. Skimming, boarding, ceilings, coving, Artex and polished plaster inside; roughcast, dash and render outside. It means one person to deal with and nobody waiting on anybody else.

We do not scrape it. The ceiling is either overboarded or the texture is prepared and skimmed over, which keeps the dust down and avoids disturbing a material that on ceilings of that age is better left where it is.

Ring and ask and you will get a real day rather than a vague one. Most of our work is within a short run of Renfrew, so coming out to look at a wall is not an expedition.

Outside work depends on the weather rather than the month. Render and dash will not go on in a frost or into driving rain, and forcing it is how a wall cracks in its first year. Inside work carries on regardless.

That new work will match a wall that has weathered for twenty years, because nothing matches that. A fixed day months out, because nobody honest can give you one. And we will not tell you a repair will hold when the wall behind it is the problem.

Fraser, and whoever is working with him on the day. The person who prices the job is the person who does it.

No, and that is the point. You are dealing with the person on the tools rather than with an office.

Because anything on here should be something you can check. The photographs are of real jobs and the phone number gets answered. Ask us anything else on the phone and you will get a straight answer.

Sometimes, and when we can we will say so. A single failed area on an otherwise sound wall is a repair. The problem is colour: a patch of new dash on a wall that has weathered for twenty years will not match, and on a front elevation that is usually worse to look at than what you started with. On a gable or a back wall it often does not matter at all.

Wet dash has the chips mixed into the mortar and the whole lot is thrown at the wall, which gives a rougher, more random finish. Dry dash has the mortar on first and the chips thrown onto it, which gives a more even, sharper look. Dry dash is what most people picture when they say pebble dash.

We would not. Rendering over an old dash means the new finish is only as well stuck as the coat underneath it, and old dash is usually the thing that failed in the first place. It also leaves a very thick build up at every reveal and sill.

Any render can crack. What matters is whether it cracks because the wall behind it is moving, which is a building issue, or because the render was put on too thick, too fast or in the wrong weather, which is a rendering issue. Beads at the corners and openings and a properly levelled backing coat deal with most of the second kind.

Possibly not. A crack is where the render failed first, not necessarily where it has failed. We sound the wall round it, and the hollow area is usually wider than the crack. We will show you where the line falls before anything comes off.

That is usually water getting in at the crack, running behind the render and bringing dirt and organic growth out with it. It is a sign the water has a path, which means the repair has to stop the path as well as fill the crack.

Long enough, and it varies with the weather and the block. Forcing it on too soon is one of the main reasons a new extension cracks along the block joints in its first couple of winters. We would rather come back than rush that.

That is an external wall insulation system rather than a plain render, and the insulation, the fixings, the mesh and the render are all part of one specified system. Tell us if that is what the drawings say and we will tell you plainly whether it is work we are taking on.

We tap them and find out. A lot of walls people assume need hacking off can be prepared and skimmed, which is far less mess. Walls that sound hollow need to come off, and no amount of hoping changes that.

It needs to be fully dry, and drying time depends on how thick the coat is, the time of year and how well the room is ventilated. The colour tells you: fresh plaster goes from dark brown to a pale, even pink. Painting while there are dark patches left traps the moisture in.

Artex from the sixties through to the mid eighties can contain a small amount, and the only way to know for certain is a sample test by a testing laboratory. Our method avoids disturbing it either way: we cover it rather than scrape or sand it.

Overboarding adds the thickness of a board and a skim, so a little. Skimming over the texture adds a few millimetres. In a room with low ceilings that difference is worth talking about before we start.

Not always. A single crack in a sound ceiling can be taped and skimmed. A crack that has been filled before and come back, or a ceiling that gives when you push it, is a different conversation.

It is the older construction: thin timber laths with plaster pushed through them from above. Tap it and it sounds dull and solid rather than hollow like plasterboard, and it is common in older properties round here.

Ring or message us and we will go through it with you. There are no finished photographs of it on this site yet, and we would rather tell you that than put somebody else's work up.

It can. Sealed properly it is wipeable and it handles the damp in a bathroom, which is one of the places it is traditionally used. Behind a hob or a sink needs a conversation about the sealer.

Yes, as long as it is sound and the top of it is dealt with. We will tell you if we think the wall itself is the problem rather than the finish on it.

It can, and on most plots that is what people want. Bring us the house and the wall in the same visit and we will quote them together.