Rendering in York

That depends on how many walls, how many storeys, what is already on them and what access the job needs. A single gable behind a drive and a four-sided detached on a narrow city street are entirely different propositions.

You get one number, in writing, with access already inside it. Nothing gets added later without you agreeing it first.

Quite possibly. York has an unusually high number of them for a city this size, and they reach well beyond the walls into Holgate, Clifton, Fulford, South Bank and several of the villages.

Inside one, external alterations can need consent that would be permitted development anywhere else. Check with City of York Council before agreeing anything. We will put the system specification in writing for whatever they ask you for.

Sometimes, but the question needs asking properly rather than waved through. Walls built without a cavity get rid of moisture by letting it evaporate off the outer face.

Trap that behind something dense and impermeable and the water has to go somewhere else, which turns out to be your plaster and skirtings. On those walls we look at a breathable build-up, or we tell you rendering is the wrong answer.

For the render itself, mostly no. What it changes is what we check before starting. Properties that have taken water before often have residual moisture low down, and a coat laid over a wall that is still drying will not bond properly.

If you are in one of the areas that floods, say so when you ring. It affects the timing more than the specification.

Only if you choose to. Plenty of houses here look better with render taken to the upper elevation and the original bay, plinth or arch left showing.

Where a property has moulded stone or decorative brick we cut round it rather than over it. That is slower and it is the difference between restoring a front and erasing one.

Slightly longer than we are. It arrives a day or two ahead of us and stays a few days past the final coat, because knocking a green finish about undoes the week's work.

The rendering itself runs three to five working days on an average semi. Both scaffold dates are printed on your quotation so deliveries, visitors and parking can be arranged around them.

It is a real consideration in the older parts of the city, and we would rather raise it at the quoting stage than on the first morning.

Where a street is tight we work out the loading and scaffold arrangement in advance, and tell you honestly if a permit or a suspended bay is going to be needed.

Barely. Keep the gutters clear so water is not running down the face of the wall, and keep shrubs and climbers off it.

A rinse down every few years stops a pale shade dulling on the side that gets least sun. Through-coloured systems never need a decorator.

Yes. A porch, a single dormer cheek, one gable, a cracked section of wall. All of them deserve doing properly and all of them are work we take.

Bear in mind that a small area still needs the correct access and the same layered build-up, so the figure reflects the setting up rather than the square metres alone.

Put three questions to everybody. Does the figure include the scaffold or is that separate? Is the material named as a specific product? And if debonded render is found after work starts, what happens to the price?

Any quotation that goes quiet on all three is rarely the bargain it appears to be. Put the same three to us and see what comes back.

Regularly. A lot of our work sits inside somebody else's programme, sharing scaffold with roofers and glaziers.

Tell us the schedule and we will say honestly whether we can fit it, rather than taking a slot we will overrun.

Quoting visits are usually within a few days. Start dates depend on the diary and the weather, and we will give you a realistic window rather than an optimistic one.

If a sale or a deadline is driving it, say so first. We will tell you straight away if it is not achievable.