Small areas, real work
Render Repair and Single-Wall Costs in Sheffield
No prices are shown on this site. For small render jobs, the useful thing to know is why a patch that looks the same size on two walls can be quite different work. Height, how far the hollow render really runs, how hard the finish is to match, and the number of visits the materials need all change the job more than the area of the patch.
On this page
Where the patch is
A patch at head height on a front wall can be reached from a hop-up or a small tower. The same patch at the top of a gable needs scaffold, sometimes over a lean-to roof or a neighbour's garden, and anything put up on the footway has to be licensed by the council first. For small jobs, access is often the biggest single part of the work, which is why it can make sense to group several small repairs on the same face into one visit.
How far the damage goes
Render is cut back until the edge sounds solid when tapped, and the hollow area is often larger than the visible crack or bulge. A quotation based on what can be seen from the ground is a starting point; agree how a larger area found on the day will be handled. Behind the render there may be loose brick, crumbling joints or a cause still at work, such as a leaking gutter or a sill with no drip, and fixing the cause is part of a repair that lasts.
| Factor | Smaller job | Bigger job |
|---|---|---|
| Height | Reachable from the ground or a small tower | Gable apex, over a roof or on the pavement |
| Extent | Hollow area matches what is visible | Tapping finds the render loose well beyond the crack |
| Finish | Painted render that is recoated anyway | Scraped monocouche, silicone grain or pebbledash to match |
| Material | Modern render on brick or block | Lime on old stone, built up in three coats |
| Details | Plain wall | Corner beads, a sill, the damp-proof course or a fitting |
Matching, details and visits
Matching changes the scope more than most people expect. A patch on a painted wall is simply painted with the rest of the face. A patch in scraped monocouche, silicone or pebbledash is hard to make invisible, so the realistic choices are an accepted difference, taking the repair to a corner or other natural break, or coating the whole wall afterwards. Each of those is a different amount of work.
Small jobs still need beads at corners and at the damp-proof course, and the materials set the number of visits. A silicone system needs its base coat to cure for at least 14 days before priming, and lime is built up in coats about a week apart, so a small lime repair can take several short visits. Re-rendering more than half of an elevation can also bring Approved Document L into play, so ask building control if a repair is growing into a whole-wall job.
See housing and planning information for Sheffield and nearby places, including the source and geography behind each figure.