External rendering in North West London

One area, two very different housing stocks

North West London is not one thing. The inner stretch, closer to Willesden, Cricklewood and Kilburn, is largely pre-1920s and often solid-wall, with no cavity to speak of. Further out, along the routes the Metropolitan and Northern lines opened up in the 1920s and 1930s, you get street after street of semis and terraces built to a pattern, many of them finished in pebbledash or roughcast from new.

That distinction matters, because it changes what the right answer is. A solid-wall Edwardian house has different needs from a 1930s semi with a narrow cavity, and both differ again from a property that has already been rendered once and is now on its second failure. We survey before recommending, rather than applying one system to everything.

Rendering in Cricklewood and Willesden

Cricklewood straddles three boroughs, Barnet, Brent and Camden, and much of its housing went up between the 1880s and the First World War. That means long runs of two-storey terraces and larger semis in solid nine-inch brick, many with bay fronts, decorative stucco or a painted render that has been patched more times than anyone remembers.

Those walls have no cavity, so they rely on the outer face to deal with rain. A common problem on these houses is a hard cement render, added decades later, that has cracked and is now holding water against the brick behind it. Patching it with more cement rarely lasts. The better repairs use a breathable render that lets the wall dry out, and where the old render is failing across the whole front, the answer is usually to take it off and start again.

• Cracked or hollow cement render on Victorian and Edwardian fronts
• Bay fronts and stucco detailing that need repairing by hand, not covering over
• Damp inside solid walls where the outer finish has stopped shedding water
• Full re-rendering, or an insulated render system on side and rear walls

Parts of the area sit in conservation areas, such as Mapesbury on the Brent side, where changes to a front elevation can need consent. We check the position for your street at survey, before you commit to anything.

What we do

Areas we cover in North West London

We work across the HA and NW postcodes and into the neighbouring North London boroughs. The pages below go into detail on individual areas.

• Harrow, Wealdstone and Rayners Lane
• Edgware, Burnt Oak and Canons Park
• Wembley and Wembley Park
• Mill Hill and Hendon
• Barnet, Finchley and Whetstone
• Stanmore and Pinner
• Golders Green and Kingsbury
• Cricklewood and Willesden

If your postcode is not listed, ask anyway. The boundary is about travel time, not a fixed line on a map.

How a job runs

A real surveyor visits, measures up and checks the wall build-up, damp risks, access and the planning context for your street. You receive an itemised written quote covering the system, the render type, the detailing and scaffolding, so you can compare it properly against anything else you have been sent. On site, preparation comes first, then the system and finish, with a clean-down at the end of each day and sign-off and warranty paperwork at the end.

North West London questions