External render … any good

[Mudball]

Never lived in any house with external render before.
Other things permitting, we may do a small extension to the front of the house. House is traditional brick & mortar with cavity wall. One of the design option suggested is to render the extension and parts of the old wall.

Mrs likes idea but worried about render cracking and having to patch every time. With my lack of DIY, that will be a hack job and look terrible. Part of the rendered wall will be under the porch and part exposed. I am told that newer techniques like monoque guarantee colour quality. Finally, does Rendering provide any insulation benefits.

 

[Tashyboy]

missis Ts parents are having there house re rendered in a couple of weeks. The old stuff was cement or plaster based. It is rammel. The newer stuff is having something like this in it.

• Additives: These are chemicals that are added to the mortar mix to alter the characteristics of the render. Common additives include silicon, polymers and acrylic. These are added to change the properties of the render, particularly the workability, elasticity, durability and the colour

Hopefully it will look much better.

Problem being with the old render. FIL is a tight sod, so he would of had the cheapest quote. Now he has dementia he don’t know what it costs. So it should be a good job. I say that because we have looked at some of his other work.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

My mum lives on a 60's estate with houses with wooden fronts. We live on a 70's estate with pebble dash fronts. People on my mum's estate started changing to render about 10-15 years ago, it's happening now on our estate. The improvement is massive, they look great. Looking at my mum's estate when I visit none have degraded, cracked etc. The colours still look spot on, no patchiness, no fading.

It sounds obvious but go with someone who does this properly, not an odd job man. There are plenty of plasterers who do this, plenty who just render. You don't want a bodge job.

We would love to do ours but unfortunately the idiot house builder who did ours designed it with major amounts of pebble dash and the cost to cover it all was scary ?

 

[Tashyboy]

My mum lives on a 60's estate with houses with wooden fronts. We live on a 70's estate with pebble dash fronts. People on my mum's estate started changing to render about 10-15 years ago, it's happening now on our estate. The improvement is massive, they look great. Looking at my mum's estate when I visit none have degraded, cracked etc. The colours still look spot on, no patchiness, no fading.

It sounds obvious but go with someone who does this properly, not an odd job man. There are plenty of plasterers who do this, plenty who just render. You don't want a bodge job.

We would love to do ours but unfortunately the idiot house builder who did ours designed it with major amounts of pebble dash and the cost to cover it all was scary ?

This? The builder we recommended to do some work for the in laws actually recommended a guy who specialises in rendering

 

[jim8flog]

I can only answer the last question

Any thickening of walls improves insulation.

The question really is by how much?

 

[SatchFan]

Our original extension had render on one wall and was still sound after 20 years. New extension was recently completed and we are just waiting on the rendering to finish the job. The guys doing it specialise in plastering and rendering so I'm confident it will be done well.

 

[PJ87]

Get k render

Stuffs amazing. Next door has it

Colour built into the render so no painting and it lasts brilliantly

 

[rudebhoy]

My mum lives on a 60's estate with houses with wooden fronts. We live on a 70's estate with pebble dash fronts. People on my mum's estate started changing to render about 10-15 years ago, it's happening now on our estate. The improvement is massive, they look great. Looking at my mum's estate when I visit none have degraded, cracked etc. The colours still look spot on, no patchiness, no fading.

It sounds obvious but go with someone who does this properly, not an odd job man. There are plenty of plasterers who do this, plenty who just render. You don't want a bodge job.

We would love to do ours but unfortunately the idiot house builder who did ours designed it with major amounts of pebble dash and the cost to cover it all was scary ?

We had pebble dash on our 30s semi. A big chunk fell off the gable wall during a storm, so we bit the bullet and got it properly rendered. That was about 7 years ago, it still looks like new. Wasn't cheap but was money well spent.

 

[backwoodsman]

Ours was rendered when it was built in 1928. Render is still fine. (Ok, it actually has one or two hairline cracks, but thats because the whole house has moved rather than the render being at fault)

 

[chrisd]

Houses with render always threw up the "wonder what they are trying to cover up" question. It maybe the answer is "nothing" but that's the question

 

[Mudball]

We had pebble dash on our 30s semi. A big chunk fell off the gable wall during a storm, so we bit the bullet and got it properly rendered. That was about 7 years ago, it still looks like new. Wasn't cheap but was money well spent.

When you look at Pebble dash.. you wonder what they were thinking!!. It does not even look good (or they havent aged well since the 30s. Our prev place had artex ceiling... did not stand the test of time. So got someone to plaster over. The plasterer who did covered it, said that the artex we had was very good quality and no one does this kind of work anymore and is a dying skill.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

The original pebbledash (render) of our 1918 Arts and Crafts house was knackered and leaking - when the wind blew against the front of the house water dripped down inside - it clearly had to be sorted. We decided to do it properly which meant hacking back the original - though not right back to the brick - that wasn't necessary. We had the pebbledashing done by a specialist who does pebbledash rendering for National Trust properties so we knew it would be done properly - but it wasn't cheap. That said what we now have looks superb and is much admired by friends, neighbours and passers-bye - and it is such a relief to now not be worrying about water getting in.

BTW - simple rendering would have been a LOT cheaper than pebbledash - but would have been completely the wrong thing to do for our property.

But as @chrisd says - beware of doing a job that could be seen to be or looks like a patch up job. A house in our road have done that - and we know that it covers quite serious cracking in a gable the result of subsidence (due to poor construction) that ideally required underpinning that was not done.

 

[Fade and Die]

When you look at Pebble dash.. you wonder what they were thinking!!. It does not even look good (or they havent aged well since the 30s. Our prev place had artex ceiling... did not stand the test of time. So got someone to plaster over. The plasterer who did covered it, said that the artex we had was very good quality and no one does this kind of work anymore and is a dying skill.

Mainly because they have all died of asbestosis.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I live on an estate less than 10 years old. A lot of the houses especially the Redrow near us are rendered and as you drive round you can see massive damp patches on external walls. faded paintwork and cracks. It was one of the reasons we picked this house as it was all in brick. I wouldn't buy a rendered house

 

[Rooter]

I live on an estate less than 10 years old. A lot of the houses especially the Redrow near us are rendered and as you drive round you can see massive damp patches on external walls. faded paintwork and cracks. It was one of the reasons we picked this house as it was all in brick. I wouldn't buy a rendered house

You shouldn't buy a cheaply rendered house! Redrow and all of those ilk are the same, profits before quality. Properly done, Render should last and look good for a very long time!! North facing with no sun, it may get mouldy so be conscious of direction the wall is facing!

 

[Tashyboy]

Houses with render always threw up the "wonder what they are trying to cover up" question. It maybe the answer is "nothing" but that's the question

It most certainly is. FIL has damp, we know what is causing it and that will be addresses before any rendering is done.Most of the avenues have been rendered/ pebble dashed where he lives. It all looks shocking now.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

We had pebble dash on our 30s semi. A big chunk fell off the gable wall during a storm, so we bit the bullet and got it properly rendered. That was about 7 years ago, it still looks like new. Wasn't cheap but was money well spent.

Whatever you paid then, I reckon it will be double that now. Like all things trades, prices have exploded in the last 18 months. That storm did you a favour ?

Totally agree with @Mudball . Who thought pebble dash improved the look of somewhere ?‍

 

[Deleted member 3432]

I live on an estate less than 10 years old. A lot of the houses especially the Redrow near us are rendered and as you drive round you can see massive damp patches on external walls. faded paintwork and cracks. It was one of the reasons we picked this house as it was all in brick. I wouldn't buy a rendered house

I'm the total opposite, hate brick finish.

Done by a quality trademan a render finish looks great especially older houses that suit the look much better.

The houses you are describing sound as though they were done by Cowboys..

 

[Deleted member 3432]

Houses with render always threw up the "wonder what they are trying to cover up" question. It maybe the answer is "nothing" but that's the question

Depends where you live in the country.

Up here in Cumbria a 'wet dash' render finish is the traditional exterior wall finish. Used to be whitewashed and more recently painted.

Modern silicone, coloured renders have done away with the need for painting and look great.

 

[PJ87]

I live on an estate less than 10 years old. A lot of the houses especially the Redrow near us are rendered and as you drive round you can see massive damp patches on external walls. faded paintwork and cracks. It was one of the reasons we picked this house as it was all in brick. I wouldn't buy a rendered house

Good job you don't want to live here lol every house is rendered


The only house I see regularly thats not is my parents who have horrible pebble dash