Getting new render on a house - how much bother?

[NotJustACigar]

The house we're buying is a semi-detached and the front is rendered but has a lot of cracks in it. We're getting a full structural survey to make sure the cracks aren't from subsidence and if not we plan to proceed with purchasing. Then we'll want to get the old render removed from our "half" of the house and have it redone.

Have you ever done this? How did it go? How expensive was it? Were you happy with the result? we have a double bay window thats wooden that will need painting at the same time.

if you've had this done in a semi or terrace did the neighbours have anything to say about it? Did it have any effect on the neighbours at all? Their rendering looks a lot more recent than the on our house but still has some small cracks.

Any advice you can give me would be great. This is the first time we've bought a house that needed work doing right away and it's a bit daunting. But I feel like we're getting a decent price on the house because of it.

It can be fairly expensive as it will require a fair bit of scaffolding, which can be dear. Do try to get an estimate from some decent builders before you decide to proceed with the purchase.

We had our house rerendered a couple of years ago. It is weather dependent and any builder who doesn't wait for a dry spell needs to be avoided. All the old render must be removed which is messy and noisy. We had coloured pebble dash (recommended for the weather conditions locally) more expensive but does not need painting, just jet washing every few years to clean up.
We were quoted about £8.5K but eventually cost £10k due to some interesting features exposed when the old render was removed. So allow another 10% for unexpected findings.
Our house is old so we used a local builder who has a lot of experience of local building techniques and materials.
House looks fab now and it has solved the problems we were having with water and damp (old house with 3 foot thick solid walls water was seeping through the cracks in the old render).
It took a couple of weeks and we had to wait most of the summer for a window of suitable weather.

Just had a look at the photo you have posted. I would say rendered area is half the size of ours.

Thanks, both. Will, that's a lot more than I was anticipating - had budgeted around £3k. We will get some quotes from local builders. One mentioned krend and I've googled it - some people swear by it and others say it grows mouldy, chips and is impossible to patch.

My biggest worry is that we'll spend a fortune and end up having to redo it in a few years. TBH I'm wondering whether to even proceed with the sale. This house is on at about £35k less than a similar brick house but I'm starting to wonder if, given the render problem plus all the interior decorating stuff it desperately needs, it's really much of a bargain after all. Getting cold feet, but then I always do with any major purchase!

Will was that price for the entire house? I posted a thread the other day as I am trying to get some prices for pebble dash for our house and it seems impossible! Pebble dash is on the first floor of my (2 bed) house so just to compare your cost.

and sorry Not for crashing your thread!

KRend is a good product as is Weber and Sto.
But a render is only as good as it's application and to be honest this is where most of them fail.
You need a good rendering company, preferably recommended but either way with examples of their work you can actually see. Check for smooth finishes and detailing around windows etc.
I'd go for a through colour silicone render which would mean you shouldn't need to repaint - coloured all the way through and should if applied properly with proper detailing should shrug of dirt and avoid staining.
It's a dirty messy job but can really be worth it as it can make huge difference to a house.
I got ILs to do theirs a couple of years ago and wow what a difference. It's a sparkly White one. It was expensive but has made their house look much more expensive and I have no doubt will have added value. There's is a semi and i've noticed it's inspired both neighbours to get theirs redone too.

As part of our extension, we got a quote for chipping off our existing render and replacing with a smooth flat white render. It would be about £2000 (and we're overbudget already) so we decided in the end to just tidy up and repaint our brown pebbledash. The render on the extension is being done from a scaffold tower though, as we have awkward access, and the scaffolding from our build is almost totally down now.

Wonky, that's really encouraging, and thanks for the advice. MummytoMog, that price sounds pretty good and hopefully ours will be similar. As the bay windows on the house are pretty big and only need painting there isn't that much surface area of front wall that needs rendering.

Feeling much more positive now - having house buying mood swings is awful! But will get a full structural survey and see what that says before deciding anything. All this cracking is a bit worrying!

Whatasook sorry went out for a rare dinner date with DH last night. The price was for front and one end gable plus some work to reseal chimneys. Probably the equivalent of 3-4 small terraced houses. It included the hire of the scaffolding which was about a quarter of the cost! They have to erect proper scaffold and put in place all the H&S stuff re general public even if its only the postman that's likely to walk under it.