Thread: DIY Rendering????

Hey everyone,

My other half and I are thinking about rendering our house in our home renovations!

Is it difficult to do? Or house is Brick Veneer.....

And does anyone have any helpful tips or tricks that could help us out?

Thanks
Cathryn

Hmmm
You pose more questions than you think

#1 Is it difficult to do.. Render will stick to a wall almost by itself, so its not difficult to put render on a wall. It does take patience and some skill to finish it to a level that is acceptable. A level that is acceptable to you may not be acceptable to the next buyer of your property and may de-value it.
Are you physically capable? Its hard work! Not something you can do for 1/2 an hour and then say "whew... lets go have a cuppa" Usually you will have to pick a section (ie a whole wall) and do it in one hit. A 15 kg bag of render weigh about 20-25kg when it is mixed with water. The first wall I did used 11 bags....
Do you have the tools? As with any job having the right tools is essential. The cheap ones you can buy, on special, at big hardware stores might look enticing, and can be used, but are not a patch on using good quality professional tools.
How big is the building? If you have any high, or 2 storey parts, then scaffolding is a must. Renting it for the usually extended time that diy-ers take to do a job is just not viable. (it took me 6 months to render my shed from start to finish) so purchasing is the only real option, thankfully it has good re-sale value...... if you keep it clean....
There are heaps of other thing that spring to mind too. I am doing all our rendering at home (360m2) and I am not a renderer.
For a bit more of an insite into the process have a look at our project in the Go to Whoa sub-forum. The bit on rendering starts here. ICF extension project
Scroll down a bit and you will see the process that I am doing. It will be slightly different for you as the base you will be rendering is different, but the concept and techniques are the same. The rendering part of my thread continues on a few pages later as well.

So now the short answer.
Yes its possible to do yourself.
But be prepared for some hard work

we bagged our house about 7 or 8 years ago. Advice was to use a sponge, scoop up the render mix (sand/cement) and apply in an upwards motion so the render squished into the morter joints. After about 4 loads the sponge filled up and began to get heavy, a few more and it was really heavy and I chucked it in the garden in frustration.

Ended up doing the rest of the house 'by hand' - we wore those green rubbery garden gloves, scooped up a handful of mix and used the heel of my hand to push it into the morter joints, working small sections at a time, overlapping as I went. Several pairs of gloves later it was done.

Foolishly we did it in the heat of summer so we mixed a barrowfull, decanted it to a bucket each (and climbed in behind the plants in the garden- covered with old sheets) applied the barrowload then fell into the pool. Wherever possible we worked to a corner.

Good luck
PG

My intro to render was working with my Dad back in those days had to long and high walls (overseas we have shared walls as fences) so my first was a 37x 3.5 metres and that was Summer too although humid. Up I go time and time again when the truck pulled out and offloaded the sand and brought the 50kg cement and 30kg lime bags and there wer quite a few. You see in my old country an unrendered house was was considered unfinished.
Mixers those days only bing trucks carried mixers but I used showels to mix I probably mix half a cubic metre, climb up the ladder and start rendering first the coarse render and later in few days a fine or smooth render all in a days work. Been there done that

Bagging and rendering are quite different in technique and result. Bagging is well within most DIYers capability and requires less skill - it also has a random and uneven look. Rendering can be done DIY, but IMO is best done by pros who will do it in a fraction of the time and give a good even smooth surface and get corners & edges right. At least nowadays both can be done by using pre-mixs (wet or dry) so getting the render/ bagging mix right is less a problem. This is like sanding floors - seems easy and isn't really. Doing it cheaper is one thing doing it badly is quit another - and rendering you really get just one go - bagging is more forgiving.

Originally Posted by Bloss

Bagging and rendering are quite different in technique and result. Bagging is well within most DIYers capability and requires less skill - it also has a random and uneven look. Rendering can be done DIY, but IMO is best done by pros who will do it in a fraction of the time and give a good even smooth surface and get corners & edges right. At least nowadays both can be done by using pre-mixs (wet or dry) so getting the render/ bagging mix right is less a problem. This is like sanding floors - seems easy and isn't really. Doing it cheaper is one thing doing it badly is quit another - and rendering you really get just one go - bagging is more forgiving.

Agree to that! Good renderers are worth the money.
As for bagging; Not so forgiving unless you pay attention to the details. Use white cement and a stronger mix than you would do for mortar, also use an additive like Bondcrete in the water. Otherwise, not only will it look ordinary, it won't last.

Maybe try a premix render in a bucket.In the west there is one called nu coat can be aplied by trowell or sponge and is DIY friendly.

Bunnings is currently selling a product called roll on render. You put it on with a spaghetti roller. .
They have a website - rollonrender.com.au which has better instructions than I can give

My dad is a solid plasterer and I have helped him on a few occasions, it is pretty tough doing it the original way. He's using this roll on product and loves it.

I recently used the Rockote product and was really impressed with the way it went on. I'm not a renderer's distant nephew, but I'm happy with the results.

I used their Keykote product onto old blockwork and new blueboard. It is specifically designed to go over prepainted surfaces. The old blockwork's paint was well powdered so I gave it a pressure wash and then scuffed it with an angle grinder.

I have it a couple of coats of Dulux exterior and close up, you can can see it's not a pro finish, but from a metre or two away it's definately a pass mark and a huge improvement. Don't know what it's worth a bag retail but trade was about $25 per 20kg from memory? I got about 12m^ per 20 kg by troweling on with a sponge finish.


cheers,

Nothing in the tone of this post would make me encourage you to take on a DIY rendering job, unless you are a really top notch and fanatical DYI-er ... and the tone says otherwise!

2 choices (and life always presents more than one):
a) Render and pay the money for a pro to do it properly;
b) Make another choice of finish that is within DYI-er capability range (bagging, painting, commercial products etc)

Fixing the DYI mess is always more expensive - and emotionally draining for the DYI and maybe the tradie - than doing it professionally to start with ...

Good luck

Originally Posted by Compleat Amateu

Nothing in the tone of this post would make me encourage you to take on a DIY rendering job, unless you are a really top notch and fanatical DYI-er ... and the tone says otherwise!

2 choices (and life always presents more than one):
a) Render and pay the money for a pro to do it properly;
b) Make another choice of finish that is within DYI-er capability range (bagging, painting, commercial products etc)

Fixing the DYI mess is always more expensive - and emotionally draining for the DYI and maybe the tradie - than doing it professionally to start with ...

Good luck

Hear hear, well said.
To the original poster: you have to way up if saving a couple hundred bucks is worth the massive amount of researching, energy and f..k ups and a 2nd rate job. Some things are best left for the pros....

Originally Posted by cat.

Hey everyone,

My other half and I are thinking about rendering our house in our home renovations!

Is it difficult to do? Or house is Brick Veneer.....

And does anyone have any helpful tips or tricks that could help us out?

Thanks
Cathryn

Hi there,

I have been rendering for somewhat 10 years now and can say that with the proper editorial you would be able to render your own home. However there are a few things you should consider:

1st: the quality of finish that you desire; although you may be able to get the render onto the wall, whether or not you will be able to achieve a desired finish is questionable
2nd: you say your house is brick veneer, but keep in mind that your typical sand cement mix wont stick to all types of bricks. A base coat may be required to eliminate the risk of inadequate bonding and having the render fall off over the medium to long term (in some instances even the short term)
3rd: Timing: Rendering is a time consuming process not to mention a very messy trade with lengthy clean ups

Overall i'd recommend at least speaking to a professional

Hope this helped

Gotta watch those thread & post dates . . . but I guess bumping up doesn't hurt

Originally Posted by Bloss

Gotta watch those thread & post dates . . . but I guess bumping up doesn't hurt

It's good to freshen up an old thread
(and there goes any idea of doing my own rendering )

Originally Posted by sundancewfs

Hmmm
You pose more questions than you think

#1 Is it difficult to do.. Render will stick to a wall almost by itself, so its not difficult to put render on a wall. It does take patience and some skill to finish it to a level that is acceptable. A level that is acceptable to you may not be acceptable to the next buyer of your property and may de-value it.
Are you physically capable? Its hard work! Not something you can do for 1/2 an hour and then say "whew... lets go have a cuppa" Usually you will have to pick a section (ie a whole wall) and do it in one hit. A 15 kg bag of render weigh about 20-25kg when it is mixed with water. The first wall I did used 11 bags....
Do you have the tools? As with any job having the right tools is essential. The cheap ones you can buy, on special, at big hardware stores might look enticing, and can be used, but are not a patch on using good quality professional tools.
How big is the building? If you have any high, or 2 storey parts, then scaffolding is a must. Renting it for the usually extended time that diy-ers take to do a job is just not viable. (it took me 6 months to render my shed from start to finish) so purchasing is the only real option, thankfully it has good re-sale value...... if you keep it clean....
There are heaps of other thing that spring to mind too. I am doing all our rendering at home (360m2) and I am not a renderer.
For a bit more of an insite into the process have a look at our project in the Go to Whoa sub-forum. The bit on rendering starts here. ICF extension project
Scroll down a bit and you will see the process that I am doing. It will be slightly different for you as the base you will be rendering is different, but the concept and techniques are the same. The rendering part of my thread continues on a few pages later as well.

So now the short answer.
Yes its possible to do yourself.
But be prepared for some hard work

Hi sundancewfs,

Did you use corner bead or just use a corner trowel to finish it off? Which one is better?

I definitely used corner bead