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Guide to Rendering
If you want to give your home a complete new look or simply cover some surface imperfections on your exterior walls, then rendering might be the answer. Since the rise and fall of imitation stone cladding in the nineteen eighties, more people are looking for ways to make their home look fresher and smarter. For those of you new to the idea of exterior wall coverings, a short and simple guide to rendering might be the answer. Rendering a wall involves adding a layer or sometimes several layers of coating to protect and enhance your exterior walls. Materials used for rendering include cement, lime, stone and acrylic as well as specially made products for insulating and damp proofing renders. Some renders are suitable for both new and old properties while others are specially made as a refurbishing render, designed to help stem the degeneration of exterior walls. It is worth while taking a look at a guide to rendering before you decide whether the process is suitable for your home.
What Type of Rendering is Good for Your Home?
As any good guide to rendering will tell you, there are renders that suit some properties better than others. You should always look for a render that will go with the rest of your home as the aforementioned craze for stone cladding demonstrated, this particular render did not suit many of the homes that were given that type of coating. Renders are not just designed to give your home style, some rendering processes, lime in particular, are useful for restricting the amount of moisture in your exterior walls.
Renders That Need Professional Application
Some specific rendering products, which should always be applied by professionals, are meant to increase the insulation in a building while others are designed to provide an exterior damp course for buildings where cavity wall insulation is not an option. Needless to say, the more complicated the render you choose, the more expensive it will be. Many a guide to rendering will tell you that some traditional renders, e.g. cement with a masonry paint finish, can restrict a building’s ability to shed moisture and may cause serious damp problems over time.
Cleaning Surfaces for Rendering
As any sensible guide to rendering will tell you, the finished render will adhere to the walls better and longer if the surface of those walls has been thoroughly cleaned beforehand. The best way to prepare walls for rendering is to use a power washer or a garden hose with a power spray attachment. Once you have removed any pre-existing render or paint and treated any mould with a suitable fungicide, the next thing is to give the walls a thorough hosing down. If you decide to use a traditional lime or cement render then you need to recognise that these take around 28days to dry out. Acrylic renderings dry in just a couple of days and can be purchased in different colours, obviating the need for paint. If your surface is not properly prepared as any guide to rendering will tell you, you could find it peeling off the walls.
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