Rendering

[Shedhand]

Wow! It looks really good. Do you have any close up pictures of the finish on the walls?

I've toyed with the idea of as I have grown to despise the brick colour over the years. The price seems really attractive, just not sure how the finished product would look close up.

My son-in-law had his new 40sq home rendered about 12 months ago and it is covered in cracks.
I like render but I'm yet to see an example that doesn't crack. The first house he rendered was a new home and the render was applied on that blue coloured cement type board and it cracked terribly (the render I mean). That was about 7 years ago. The new house has been rendered over that 50mmm thick polystyrene stuff.
Anybody know of a render that won't crack and if so what is the best substrate for it? I have an architect drawing up plans for an extension and don't know what to finish it with.:confused:

[Harry72]

The best substrate is brick/concrete and brick/concrete only, render will not tolerate any flex!
Come to my place I'll show you lots of 50yr old render/plastering with no cracks...

[lnt9000]

Wow! It looks really good. Do you have any close up pictures of the finish on the walls?

I've toyed with the idea of rendering my place as I have grown to despise the brick colour over the years. The price seems really attractive, just not sure how the finished product would look close up.

Not right up close, but those I posted are 5meg however I had to reduce the resolution so this forum would accept, shame about that otherwise you could see much better, the finish is on the par of what I've seen elsewhere, not the worst but not the best either, from the footpath the finish looks flawless, get up close and you will see minor imperfections but quite satisfactory.
When rendering brick (not blueboard etc)there are a number of ways to achieve this depending on what your missus likes and not you, some like it rough and some not so rough (I'm talking rendering here) when you look at a brick house with raked cement, it is pleasing to the eye and you dont start eying the lines and checking for trueness etc etc because there is no need, It looks perfectly fine, Then put a thin layer of render just enough to fill in the raked joins and flatten slightly, and then have a look when the sun shines on that wall, It reveals all the booboo's the bricky made when laying those bricks, no bricky is perfect although some would argue otherwise, now to cover up all those imperfections and be left with a perfect wall one would have to lay a render to a thickness of 12mm plus, which I would not recommend any newby to contemplate, It requires the skills of a solid plasterer, with such a thickness It is quite heavy and needs a solid clean adhesion area otherwise (I have seen this) chunks may break off and mar an otherwise perfect creation, my job sees me attending many houses under construction and from what I have seen they basically take the same approach as I took, if you have a rendered houses in your street take a side-on look at the walls when the sun is shining and you will see Imperfections.
It is a little difficult to explain but I'll try, slap some render on some bricks, now using a steel trowel remove most of the render till your trowel is scraping bricks, when you look now you will see some brick surface and some parts covered by render thats because the bricks aint straight and the render fills in the low spots and evens out the wall to a degree, follow up using a second coat and remembering that your not trying to build any render your just following the contours of your wall you will find the finish quite acceptable.
I hope this helps.

[kenjake1972]

Hi , the best product to use for rendering is ROCKCOAT and a close second is SUPERCOAT , these are pre mixed blends that have everything in them just add water , as you're project is a brick home its pretty straight forward , if you're bricks are very straight use liquid nails to attach you're corner beads 3mm ones will be fine , apply one thin coat of render to fill in the mortar joints and then a second coat to fill out the corner beads , apply AL15 or simular product to the bricks before starting , if you're bricks are all over the show like a lot of building and houses i have come across , apply a first coat of render , attach you're beads ( go for 6mm beads) and then apply the second coat , one word of warning if you never done rendering before it is not easy to get a prefect flat wall , and when the sun is on it you may wish you didn't try , hope this helps

[lnt9000]

Anyone got the notion that they might want give it a go in the near future should have a look at the link below, go to the clearance bin, Only wish they had these prices when I was doing mine.
http://www.dectech.com.au/Files/home.htm