Hornchurch and the streets around it are full of interwar and post-war terraces, many still wearing the pebbledash they were built with. This page follows one of our Hornchurch jobs, from the old pebbledash to an insulated, freshly rendered front.
Much of Hornchurch, Elm Park, Harold Wood and the rest of Havering was built out from the 1920s onwards: long runs of two-storey terraces and semis with simple fronts and a pebbledash finish. Decades on, that pebbledash is often cracked, patched or coming away, and the solid walls behind it lose a lot of heat.
Houses from this period were not all built the same way, so we check what your wall is actually made of before recommending anything.
The insulation boards are fixed to the wall and mechanically anchored, with the joints staggered and tight. Around the new windows the boards are cut in carefully, because that is where water and cold would otherwise find a way in.
In a terrace, the job also has to finish neatly where your house meets your neighbour's. Here the neighbours kept their pebbledash, so the new wall ends in a clean, weathered edge on each side.
Next comes the reinforced base coat: a layer of render with glass-fibre mesh bedded into it across the whole wall. It is the layer that holds everything together and stops cracks, so every strip is lapped and fully covered before the finish goes on.
The finish is a light grey through-coloured render, with new sills and clean edges round the windows. Next to the pebbledash on either side, the difference is plain to see.
A surveyor visits, looks at the whole elevation and checks the wall build-up, damp risks, access and the planning position for your address. You get an itemised written quote that separates preparation, the system proposed, detailing around windows and sills, and scaffolding. On site the preparation is done first and properly, each coat is given its curing time, and the job ends with inspection, sign-off and warranty paperwork.
All of Hornchurch and the wider borough, including Elm Park, Upminster, Romford, Harold Wood, Harold Hill, Emerson Park and Rainham, plus neighbouring Dagenham and Chadwell Heath and the surrounding RM postcodes.
If it is sound and only needs cleaning or small repairs, sometimes. If it sounds hollow in places, has been patched more than once or the walls feel cold and damp inside, insulating and re-rendering usually makes more sense. We tap-test the walls and explain what we find.
No. Most of our terrace jobs are single houses. We finish the new wall with a clean, weathered edge where it meets next door, as on the job shown on this page.
Yes. It is often a good time to do both, because the reveals and sills can be detailed round the new frames in one go. We plan the order of work with you and your window fitter.
We work on solid-wall and period homes across East London and beyond, including:
One short form, or a WhatsApp message with a few photos and your postcode. A real surveyor takes it from there.