Does every bungalow wall need the same treatment?

Why the walls differ

Walls age at different rates. The side facing the prevailing weather takes most of the wind and rain. A wall under a short roof overhang gets wet to the top, while one sheltered by a porch or a deep eave stays drier. Extensions and garages are often added years later in different materials. And walls get altered: windows replaced, doors moved, pipes rerouted, each leaving a repaired patch behind.

So the first step is to look at each wall on its own. Tap it with a screwdriver handle and chalk round the dull, hollow areas, look at cracks and the base of the wall, and note the finish and any previous repairs.

External wall insulation ↗

Matching the work to each wall

A wall that rings solid and only looks tired needs cleaning and a coating. A wall with a few hollow patches needs those cut out and repaired. A wall that sounds hollow over most of its area needs re-rendering. A new blockwork extension can take a monocouche or a silicone system designed for that background. Each of these is a different job, and a bungalow can sensibly have more than one going on at once.

Low eaves and short walls make bungalows quicker to access than houses, but the same rules apply to the base of the wall. Render should stop on a bell-cast bead above the damp-proof course; Catnic describes its bell-cast bead for use at DPC level so rainwater drains clear of the wall below.

Keeping it looking like one house

Different work on different walls does not have to look patchy. The usual approach is to finish all the walls in the same colour and, where possible, a similar texture once the repairs and re-rendering are done. A coating over repaired and retained render evens out the colour. New render on one wall next to old on another will look different until both are coated.

If one wall gets a through-coloured monocouche and another a painted finish, choose colours side by side on the walls themselves, because the same named colour can look different in a different product and texture.

Insulating some walls and not others

Bungalows are sometimes insulated externally on their solid walls. If only some walls are done, the junction with an uninsulated wall needs a designed stop, and the insulated walls stand proud by the thickness of the system. With external insulation, the roof overhang matters more on a bungalow than on a house, because the eaves are close above every window. JUB's installation overview for its system shows details for the base rail just above the DPC and for reveals, and asks for sills to overhang the finished face by at least 30mm.

Check the insulation requirement before assigning different finishes to the bungalow's walls. Approved Document L for dwellings uses renovation of more than half of a thermal element or more than a quarter of the external building envelope as the thresholds for an upgrade where feasible. The elevation being stripped is the relevant external-render element. A drawing that shows each affected wall and its area gives the designer a better starting point than a request to 'tidy the outside'. If insulation is needed, resolve the corners between insulated and uninsulated faces before choosing textures; the extra depth changes those junctions.

A worked example

Picture a hypothetical bungalow with a sound front recoated ten years ago, a weather-facing gable with hollow render over most of its area, a rear wall with two blown patches round the kitchen window, and a blockwork garage that has never been rendered. A proportionate plan would be: re-render the gable after hacking off; cut out and repair the two rear patches; render the garage in a system suited to blockwork, with beads where it meets the house; then coat the front, the rear and the gable in one colour once everything has cured. The example is illustrative.

In that plan, only one wall is fully re-rendered, which may keep the job below the point where building regulations come in. That is worth checking with building control rather than assuming, because the Planning Portal and Approved Document L word the threshold differently.

Exposure and materials

Bungalows often stand in open plots, and a gable facing open ground or the estuary may be far more exposed than a sheltered front. Exposure affects the render as well as how fast it fails. The Mineral Products Association data sheet for cement renders recommends three-coat work in severe exposure. Parex asks to be contacted about very severe wind-driven rain, high exposure or coastal locations before its Monorex GM monocouche is specified, because a thicker render or extra surface treatment may be needed.

So it is reasonable for the exposed gable to get a different specification from the sheltered front, even on the same small house. Ask whoever specifies the work what exposure they have assumed for each wall, and why.

Garage, porch and extension walls

Attached garages, porches and extensions are usually built differently from the main walls. A garage in single-skin blockwork, for example, is a different background from the solid or cavity wall of the house. Its render may need a different base coat or key, and where it meets the house there should be a bead or joint rather than a continuous coat across the junction.

Porches and lean-tos also create small, awkward areas of wall and roof junctions. Each junction with a roof needs the render stopped clear of the flashing, not packed down onto it.

Recording what was done

Keep a simple note for each wall: what was found, what was done, the product and colour used and the date. If one wall shows a crack in a few years, that note tells whoever looks at it whether it is the old render, a repair or a new coat. It also helps if the house is sold, because a buyer's surveyor will ask. Add photographs of each wall before and after the work; a bungalow's walls are easy to photograph from the garden, and the pictures show at a glance which wall had which treatment. For other rendering services, see the Hull rendering homepage.