Plastering & Rendering in Holsworthy

Holsworthy is a working market town about 15 miles east of Bude, and it's firmly part of our regular patch. The character of properties here is quite different from coastal Bude — more agricultural, more traditional, with a lot of older stone buildings that have very specific requirements when it comes to rendering.

The most common call we get from Holsworthy is about farmhouses and agricultural conversions. Old Devon longhouses and stone cottages often have failed render that was replaced at some point in the 20th century with hard cement — which is usually the wrong call for these buildings. Cement render doesn't let the walls breathe, traps moisture, and eventually causes more damage than the original problem.

For older stone properties in this area, we almost always recommend a breathable render system. It lets moisture vapour pass through, allows the walls to dry out naturally, and is far more sympathetic to the original building fabric. It also looks better on traditional Cornish and Devon stone — cement render can make these properties look out of character.

For newer builds and extensions — and Holsworthy has a fair amount of modern housing estate development — monocouche or silicone render is the right choice. The town gets plenty of rain, and mid-Devon clay soil means damp can be persistent, so a good quality waterproof render system is a sound investment on any property here.

The Tuesday market town traffic and tight lanes around the surrounding parishes — Bridgerule, Pyworthy, Pancrasweek — mean we often plan jobs to avoid market days when access is harder. The properties out in the lanes are typically larger, with more wall area, and the work is rarely a quick day-job. We'd rather quote for a proper week's work and do it well than rush it.