Rendering in Shirley, Solihull B90

Looking for rendering in Shirley, or K-Rend in Shirley? Rendering protects a house from the weather and changes the way it looks from the street more than almost any other job. RCR Connections Ltd is Birmingham based, covering the whole of the Midlands, and Shirley in Solihull’s B90 area is well inside the area we cover, from the Stratford Road and Parkgate out to Shirley Heath, Hillfield, Monkspath, Solihull Lodge, Major’s Green, Dickens Heath, Cheswick Green, Blythe Valley and the Stratford Road side towards Hockley Heath. We render houses, extensions, garage conversions, garden walls and garden rooms, and we repair and re-coat render that has cracked, blown or simply gone tired. Between us we have 62 years of combined experience, and rendering is the work the business was built on.

Rendering in Shirley, B90: RCR Connections Ltd renders houses in Shirley with K-Rend monocouche and silicone, plus sand and cement and render repairs.

Free rendering quote in Shirley: Call 07453 614095 or WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 or message the page. A photo of each side of the house and your postcode are enough to get started.

This page is all about rendering in Shirley: the houses, the render systems, how a job runs, planning, timing, repairs and aftercare. If it’s indoor work you need, see our page for a plasterer in Shirley.

Rendering services in Shirley

K-Rend monocouche render

Many Shirley homeowners want to replace tired pebbledash or patchy brickwork with a clean, modern finish. K-Rend monocouche is a well-known one-coat render with the pigment mixed right through it, so it never needs painting. It’s applied, left to firm up and then scraped back to a fine, even texture. It suits block extensions and houses getting a full makeover.

Silicone render

Silicone render is a thin, textured finish applied over a mesh-reinforced base coat. It sheds water, resists green staining, copes well with slight movement and comes in a wide choice of colours. It’s a good choice for walls that face north or sit under trees. Most of the time we use K-Rend monocouche and silicone as a combined system; our page on K-Rend monocouche vs silicone in Shirley compares the two in detail.

Sand and cement render

The traditional option, mixed on site, applied by hand in layers and painted once cured. Many of Shirley’s interwar semis already have painted sand and cement render, especially on the upper storey or the rear. It’s simple to mix on site and easy to repair, and it’s often the sensible choice for patch repairs, garden walls and garages, but it needs repainting every several years and is more prone to fine cracking.

Lime render

For the odd older cottage around Major’s Green or Cheswick Green with solid walls and lime mortar. Lime lets the wall breathe, whereas a hard cement render on these walls can trap moisture and cause damp inside.

Insulated render

Insulated render fixes insulation boards to the outside of the wall, then covers them with a reinforced base coat and a decorative finish. It’s mostly used on solid-walled houses to cut heat loss. It’s a bigger project, with sills, pipes and roof edges to adjust, and it always needs building regulations approval. We’ll explain what’s involved for your house before you decide.

Render repairs

Cracks, hollow patches and crumbling bases are the usual faults. We find the cause, cut out the defective render, renew beads and rebuild the patch. There’s more on this further down the page.

Shirley houses and their render

Shirley grew up along the Stratford Road, so the housing changes as you move away from it, and so does the rendering work. Its streets have a real mix of finishes: bare brick, pebbledash, painted render, and more and more modern through-coloured render on houses that have been updated.

Interwar semis off the Stratford Road

The roads around Shirley Park, Haslucks Green Road, Marshall Lake Road and down towards Solihull Lodge are full of 1920s and 1930s semis. Many were finished with pebbledash or a painted sand and cement render on the upper storey and the bays. Ninety years on, that coating is often cracked, patched in different colours, or hollow in places. Some of the earliest have solid walls rather than cavities, which matters if you’re thinking about insulation. The usual choices are to repair and repaint, or to cover the old finish with a modern through-coloured render so it never needs painting again.

Post-war houses and bungalows

Towards Shirley Heath, Major’s Green and Cheswick Green there are 1950s and 60s houses and plenty of bungalows. Bungalows are often a straightforward render job because there’s less height to deal with, and a fresh render can make a dated bungalow look like a new build. Many of these houses have plain brick that has weathered unevenly, or painted brick that peels every few years.

Monkspath, Hillfield and Blythe Valley

Monkspath and Hillfield are mostly 1970s to 1990s estates, and the newer homes around Blythe Valley Park and off the Stratford Road towards Hockley Heath are more recent still. Here the rendering work tends to be on extensions, garage conversions and gable ends, or matching a new extension to an existing rendered front. Some newer homes have render panels between brick sections that need patching after damage or a change of windows.

Dickens Heath and the canal side

Dickens Heath was built from the late 1990s onwards, and parts of the village centre and some of the houses around it already have render. The jobs there are mostly repairs, re-coating faded or stained render, and rendering garden walls and garden rooms so they match the house.

Neighbourhood by neighbourhood

• Around the Stratford Road and Parkgate. Interwar semis and terraces, some with flats above shops. Tired pebbledash, painted render on bays and patch repairs around new windows.
• Solihull Lodge. Family houses from between the wars and just after, close to the River Cole. Expect pebbledash and painted render on upper storeys.
• Shirley Heath and Shirley Park. A spread of houses built over about forty years. Re-rendering bays and upper storeys, and rendering rear extensions.
• Hillfield and Monkspath. Later estates where garage conversions and extensions leave new blockwork to render.
• The Stratford Road towards Hockley Heath. Beyond junction 4 of the M42, homes get bigger and more spread out, with the odd older property among them. Full re-renders and rendering extensions are typical here.
• Major’s Green and Cheswick Green. Lots of bungalows alongside family homes. Re-rendering bungalows and the odd lime render repair on an older cottage.

Shirley streets we render on

We render homes all over B90. Here are some roads we know well, and what the houses there tend to need.

• Stratford Road, Haslucks Green Road and Marshall Lake Road. 1920s and 1930s semis. Old pebble-dash and painted render on bays and top floors.
• Solihull Road, Union Road and Longmore Road. Semis from between the wars and just after. Re-renders over pebble-dash and rear extensions.
• Burman Road and Bills Lane. Post-war homes with weathered brick or flaking paint. A fresh K-Rend face changes the whole look.
• Tanworth Lane, Dog Kennel Lane and Monkspath Hall Road. 1970s to 1990s homes in Monkspath and Hillfield. Gables, extensions and garage fronts.
• Aqueduct Road and Peterbrook Road. Solihull Lodge and Major’s Green. Semis, bungalows and some older homes that may need lime.

What a K-Rend job in Shirley involves

We check the wall, then put up scaffold and cover windows, doors, paths and plants. Loose render or pebble-dash comes off and cracks are fixed. Beads go on at corners and the base, with mesh where it is needed. Then the K-Rend monocouche or silicone goes on and is finished to an even texture. We clean up and walk round with you at the end. RCR Connections Ltd has 62 years of combined experience, and we only render in dry, mild weather.

Indoors, see our plasterer in Shirley page. Out towards Wythall and Hollywood we cover Bromsgrove District too, see rendering in Bromsgrove.

Nearby, we also cover rendering in Yardley.

Rendering quote in Shirley: Call 07453 614095 or WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 or message the page. Mon-Fri 7am-5pm, Sat 7am-1pm.

K-Rend in Shirley: your local renderer in B90

Shirley sits on the Stratford Road (the A34) between Hall Green and the M42, and the whole of it is in the B90 postcode area. From our Birmingham base it’s a straight run out along the A34, so a visit to look at your walls is easy to arrange. K-Rend monocouche and silicone render is the finish most Shirley homeowners ask us about, and it suits almost every kind of house here.

• Shirley High Street, the Stratford Road and Parkgate. Flats above shops, short terraces and interwar semis behind the main road. Bays and upper storeys with tired pebbledash are the classic K-Rend job.
• Near Shirley station and Shirley Park. 1930s semis and family homes, many with painted render that peels every few years. A through-coloured K-Rend finish ends the repainting.
• Cranmore and Hillfield. Homes from the 1960s onward between Shirley and Solihull town. Gable ends, rear extensions and garage fronts.
• Monkspath and Blythe Valley. 1980s and 1990s estates and new homes near Blythe Valley Park and the M42. Render panels, extensions and garage conversions.
• Dickens Heath and Cheswick Green. The newer village by the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, and the bungalows and family homes nearby. Re-coating faded render, garden walls and garden rooms.

Wherever you are in B90, the first step is the same: Call 07453 614095 or WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 or message the page with a photo of each side of the house and your road or postcode.

Why Shirley homeowners choose RCR Connections Ltd for rendering

• 62 years of combined experience across the team, and rendering is the work the business was built on.
• Birmingham based, covering the whole of the Midlands, with Shirley one of our regular areas.
• K-Rend monocouche and silicone as our main systems, plus sand and cement and lime where the wall needs it.
• Free quotes from photos. Call 07453 614095 or WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 or message the page.
• Careful protection. Windows, doors, paths, drives and plants covered, and a clean site at the end.
• Set hours. Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 7am to 1pm.

Which parts of the house?

On interwar semis, it’s common to render just the upper storey or the bay, leaving brick below, which mirrors how many were built. Others go for the whole house. Rear extensions are often rendered in a lighter colour to brighten a garden. Garden walls, garage sides and chimney stacks can be done at the same time so the whole property ties together. If you’re only rendering the front, think about how the sides will look against it; many people do the front and any visible side together.

Extensions and garage conversions

New single and two-storey rear extensions are everywhere in Shirley, and garage conversions are especially popular in Monkspath and Hillfield. Once the blockwork is up, the windows are in and the roof is on, we can render an extension in monocouche or silicone, either to match the main house or to contrast with the brick. On a garage conversion, the new blockwork under the window where the garage door used to be can be rendered to hide the join, or the whole front can be done so the old door opening disappears completely.

Gable ends, chimneys and weather-facing walls

Most of the weather in Shirley comes from the west and south-west, so gable ends and rear walls facing that way take the brunt of the rain. That’s often where old render cracks first, where pebbledash comes loose, and where damp patches show up inside on solid-walled houses. Rendering or re-rendering a single weather-facing gable is a common job in its own right, and it’s often the best value way to stop rain soaking into a wall. Chimney stacks are similar: exposed on all sides, they’re prone to cracked render and loose pebbledash, and they’re best tackled while scaffold is already up for other work. North-facing walls, on the other hand, stay damp for longer and tend to go green, which is where a silicone finish earns its keep.

Colour and texture

Monocouche and silicone renders come in hundreds of colours. Off-whites, light greys and creams are the most popular choices locally, with darker greys for plinths and contrasting bands. A scraped monocouche finish gives a soft, even texture, while silicone has a fine, sandy grain. We bring sample cards, and it’s worth looking at them outside in daylight, next to your brick, windows and roof.

Rendering over pebbledash

This is one of the most common questions from owners of interwar houses in Shirley. In most cases you can render over pebbledash without hacking it all off, as long as it’s well bonded. We tap the whole wall to find any hollow areas and remove those, then apply a levelling coat to fill the stones and give a flat base, with mesh where needed. The finish goes on top. Where the pebbledash is loose over large areas, it’s better to take it off and start from the brick. We’ll tell you which it is after looking at it properly.

How a rendering job runs

1. Photos and a look at the house. Send a photo of each side on WhatsApp and we’ll arrange a visit to check the walls, the access and any problem areas.
2. Quote and colour. You get a written quote that sets out the system, the preparation and what’s included, and we bring colour samples.
3. Scaffolding and protection. Scaffold goes up for anything above ground-floor height. Windows, doors, paths, drives and plants are covered.
4. Preparation. Good rendering depends on good preparation: removing loose or hollow coatings, treating any algae, dealing with cracks, and cleaning and priming the walls. Gutters, downpipes, lights and satellite dishes may need to come off and go back on.
5. Beads. Beads go on corners, around openings and along the base, with mesh where different materials meet. The base bead keeps the render clear of the ground so it doesn’t draw up damp.
6. Base coat and mesh. Where the system needs it, a base coat with reinforcing mesh goes over the whole wall to stop cracks coming through.
7. Finish coat. The finish is applied and textured, keeping each elevation going in one go so there are no joins.
8. Tidy and check. Protection comes off, fittings go back, we clean down and walk round the house with you before the scaffold comes down.

Weather and timing

Render shouldn’t go on in frost, heavy rain or very strong sun. It needs temperatures above about five degrees while it goes on and a few dry, mild days to cure; frost in the first day or two can ruin it and heavy rain can wash out a fresh coat. Spring through to early autumn is the most reliable time, although mild winter spells can work for smaller areas. Slots fill quickly, so if you’re thinking about rendering next year it pays to get a quote in early. We keep an eye on the forecast and move days if we have to rather than risk your finish.

Render repairs

Not every house needs a full re-render. Common repairs include:

• cracks around window and door openings, where old render had no beads or mesh
• hollow, blown patches that sound dull when tapped and eventually fall away
• render that runs down into the ground and draws damp up the wall
• patches left after new windows, a new boiler flue or an old porch being removed
• green or black staining on north-facing walls

Small areas can be cut out and patched. On painted render, the patch can be blended in when the wall is repainted. On through-coloured render, an exact colour match on a small patch is harder, so sometimes it’s better to re-coat the whole elevation. Our page on render repairs and our article on signs your render needs repairing before winter go into more detail.

Render and damp

Good render keeps driving rain out of a wall, but it won’t cure rising damp, and badly detailed render can cause damp of its own. The common culprits are render taken right down into the ground or over the damp course, cracks that let water in behind a hard coating, and missing drips over windows. A proper base bead, sound detailing around openings and the right render for the wall avoid most of it. On solid-walled older houses, a breathable render matters.

Planning permission and building regulations

Shirley is part of Solihull Metropolitan Borough, so Solihull Council is the planning authority and also runs a building control service.

Houses have permitted development rights, and under the national rules, materials used on the outside should be similar in appearance to the existing ones. Replacing render with render of a similar look is normally permitted development. Rendering bare brick, switching from pebbledash to a smooth render or changing the colour noticeably may need planning permission. Flats and maisonettes don’t have these permitted development rights, and listed buildings need listed building consent.

In a conservation area, rendering any part of the outside of a house isn’t permitted development. Solihull Council lists 20 conservation areas, and none of them carries Shirley’s name, but boundaries don’t always follow what people think of as Shirley, so use the council’s conservation and heritage map to check your address, or email planning@solihull.gov.uk. Some newer estates, including parts of Dickens Heath and Monkspath, have planning conditions or covenants that control materials, so check your deeds before changing the outside.

Rendering can also come under the energy rules in Approved Document L. Putting render on a wall, or stripping a wall back and rebuilding it, counts as work on a thermal element, and if that covers more than half a wall, the whole wall may need upgrading to improve its insulation, where that’s technically, functionally and economically feasible. Insulated render always needs approval. For that, either Solihull Council’s building control team or a registered building control approver can sign the work off.

Hall Green and Yardley Wood, to the north-west, are in Birmingham, so Birmingham City Council deals with planning there. Wythall and Hollywood, to the south-west, are in Bromsgrove District. Near the borough edge, it’s worth confirming which council covers your address. We’re happy to talk through what we see on site, but we can’t give planning advice on the council’s behalf.

What shapes your rendering quote in Shirley

Every house is different, so every quote is too. The things that make the biggest difference to a rendering quote in Shirley are:

• Wall area. How many elevations, and whether it’s the whole house or just the upper storey or an extension.
• The render system. Sand and cement, silicone, monocouche and insulated render differ in materials and stages.
• Preparation. Removing loose pebbledash or failed render, treating algae and repairing cracks.
• Access. Scaffold for two-storey walls, tight side passages and conservatories in the way.
• Detail. Window reveals, bays, sills, corners and changes in the wall surface.

Call 07453 614095 or WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 or message the page with a photo of each side of the house, and we’ll set everything out in a free written quote.

Choosing a renderer in Shirley

Whoever you choose, ask which system they plan to use and why, how they’ll prepare the walls, whether mesh and beads are included, how they’ll protect your windows and paving, and who will actually be doing the work. A good renderer will happily explain all of that, and will tell you if your walls aren’t right for the finish you have in mind. Be wary of anyone who wants to render in frost or rain to fit a job in, and ask what aftercare the finish needs so you know what you’re signing up for.

Looking after new render

Through-coloured and silicone finishes don’t need painting. Sand and cement render should be fully cured before you paint it with a breathable masonry paint, and it’ll need repainting every several years. Over the years, keep gutters clear and fix leaks quickly so dirty water doesn’t run down the face, keep soil, paving and climbing plants below and off the render, and clean off any algae gently with a soft brush and water rather than a close-range pressure washer. If a crack appears, get it looked at early.

Rendering in Shirley: common questions

Do you do K-Rend in Shirley?

Yes. K-Rend monocouche and silicone render is our main rendering system, and we use it on houses, extensions, garage conversions and garden walls right across Shirley and B90.

Which parts of Shirley do you cover for rendering?

All of it. That includes the Stratford Road and Parkgate, Shirley Park, Shirley Heath, Cranmore, Hillfield, Monkspath, Solihull Lodge, Major’s Green, Dickens Heath, Cheswick Green and Blythe Valley.

Can you render over pebbledash on a Shirley semi?

Usually, yes. If the pebbledash is well bonded we fix any hollow areas, apply a levelling coat with mesh where needed, and finish in K-Rend monocouche or silicone. If it’s loose over large areas, we take it off and start from the brick.

What should I send for a rendering quote?

A photo of each side of the house, a rough idea of what you’d like rendered, and your road or postcode in Shirley. WhatsApp them to 07453 614095 or message the page, and we’ll come back with a free quote.

Do you render garden walls and garden rooms?

Yes. Garden walls, boundary walls, garden rooms and outbuildings are all common, and a rendered garden room can be finished to match the house.

Can you match the render on my extension to the house?

Usually. Painted render is easy to match, because both can be painted. Older through-coloured render that has weathered is harder to match exactly, so we may suggest a contrast or re-coating the whole elevation.

Do you render new extensions?

Yes. Once the blockwork is up, the windows are in and the roof is on, we can render it in the system that suits the house.

Does through-coloured render need painting?

No. The colour runs right through K-Rend monocouche and silicone finishes, so there’s no paint to fade or peel.

What hours do you work?

Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 7am to 1pm. We’re closed on Sundays.

More from RCR Connections Ltd in Shirley

• K-Rend monocouche vs silicone in Shirley
• Plasterer in Shirley for plastering walls and ceilings indoors
• Shirley plastering and rendering FAQs
• Plasterer in Solihull for plastering across the rest of the borough
• Rendering in Solihull, rendering in Birmingham, rendering in Hollywood and rendering in Bromsgrove
• K-Rend monocouche, silicone and sand and cement render compared
• All our rendering areas
• All our plastering and rendering services, or the RCR Connections Ltd home page

More services: Rendering with sand and cement · Rendering new extensions.

Get a free rendering quote in Shirley

Call 07453 614095 or WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 or message the page. Send a photo of each side of the house, tell us roughly what you’d like, and include your postcode. Quotes are free and there’s no obligation. We work Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 7am to 1pm, and we’re closed on Sundays.