Rendering Tutorial

1. Any job always starts with having the right tools and a clean area to work with. To render effectively, you'll need trowels, an eagle and a way to mix up render. This can be done in a wheelbarrow, bucket or something similar.
   
   
2. When it comes to buying render, there are many choices - mixing your own is cheaper, but bags of premix render save so much time and ensures a consistent mix. If you mix your own it'll probably cost a great deal more when you factor in time and other considerations.
   
   
3. One of the most important parts of our rendering tutorial and in rendering is ensuring that you have a clean surface to work with. If the brickwork has been rendered before, then take care when cleaning the old render because you may inadvertently do damage to the wall. After ensuring the structure is free from old render, wash it down with water. In addition 'scratch' the surface with a nail.
   
   
4. When it comes to mixing the render, we recommend following our rendering tutorial and using premix. Simply follow the instructions on the bag and you're guaranteed a good mix. Don't mix too much. It's much better to run out, than to have a batch of render drying on you!
   
   
5. When starting to render the wall, remember your aiming for a coating that's around 10mm thick. This doesn't mean 10 mm in one coat! Ideally you want to be doing 3 – 4 coats of approximately 2 mm each. Find some battens which are 10mm thick and affix them along the wall. This serves as a guide to let you know that everything's thick enough.
   
   
6. One of the best tips we can give in our rendering tutorial is to have a spray bottle of water ready to wet keep the render slightly moist so that it new coats adhere better.
   
   
7. As you finish a layer of render, check that you've filled in holes and cracks and that the coat you've just applied is level. Slowly keep applying layers until you've reached the optimal thickness which is 10 mm.