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DIY Rendering
Rendering is extremely popular and can make your home look more attractive while at the same time hiding any surface cracks and imperfections. If you want to have the exterior walls of your property rendered but don’t want to go to the expense of hiring a professional renderer then you may want to try a spot of diy rendering. You should be quite clear about the kind of render you want and recognise that many types of render can take up to twenty eight days before they have dried out enough to be painted. The most important first step if you are going to opt for diy rendering is to make sure that the surfaces are properly prepared.
Preparing the Walls
Before you can apply a render the wall surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned, this is normally done by hosing down the exterior walls of the property. If there is any mould on the walls then this needs to be treated with a fungicide and removed before you apply the render otherwise it will not adhere properly to the wall’s surface. It is a good idea to try and roughen the surface of the walls a little as this makes it more likely that your diy rendering will adhere better to the surfaces. If you intend to render a large area then you should attach 10mm wide vertical batons to the walls, approximately one to one and a half metres apart so that the render stays flat and is more even.
Rendering with Bondcrete
To make sure that the batons adhere properly to the walls it is a good idea to give them a coat of Bondcrete. You will need to mix your render. Most diy rendering is done with cement. To mix a cement render you will need one part of cement and one part of lime to six parts of fine sand. The lime is designed to make the render easier to work with and less prone to cracking during the application.
Applying Your Render
Make sure that the weather is fine if you are going to do diy rendering because of the time that a render takes to dry out. Try not to work in direct sunlight, and you need to make sure that the surface is damp before you begin to apply your diy rendering. Two or three coats of render are needed and the first coat should be of dry, coarse sand and then the finer sand mix for the next coat. The render needs to be about 10 mm thick and after you have applied the mixture it will need about three days before it is firm, and several weeks before it is properly dry and ready for painting. You can apply the diy rendering with either a brush or a trowel, but it usually goes on more evenly and smoothly when you use a trowel. Don’t have the render mix too dry because it could crack when it starts to firm and dry out.
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