I did do a rendering a 20'x5' wall job many years ago and yeh, not too bad.
Nothing broken off in 20 years +
If I remember rightly it was just plain sand and cement, one coat on
untreated wall.
Now though, after getting a price for rendering my bungalow (seemes quite
high) I may have a go at it myself.

Could someone tell me the proper procedure.

Wall treatment ?
Sand cement ratio ?
Lime ?
Any other additives ?
2 coats ?
If 2 coats dry before 2nd coat ?
Trowel finish or sponge finish ?
Any other tips ?

Of course I will practise on the neighbours house first

Any advice appreciated

Justin Time wrote:
I did do a rendering a 20'x5' wall job many years ago and yeh, not
too bad. Nothing broken off in 20 years +
If I remember rightly it was just plain sand and cement, one coat on
untreated wall.
Now though, after getting a price for rendering my bungalow (seemes
quite high) I may have a go at it myself.

Could someone tell me the proper procedure.

Wall treatment ?
Sand cement ratio ?
Lime ?
Any other additives ?
2 coats ?
If 2 coats dry before 2nd coat ?
Trowel finish or sponge finish ?
Any other tips ?

Of course I will practise on the neighbours house first

Any advice appreciated

My advice is don't do it.

If you insist on doing it then you'll need bell beads for the bottoms
(slightly above the DPC) and corner beads for any corners, these will need
to be stainless steel otherwise they will rust away and fall off.

The final finish *will* look like a ploughed field in the right (wrong?)
light, when the sun shines along it for example and you may want to tyrolean
it to avoid this.

Whichever finish you decide on your better doing it in two coats, but before
this you need to go all over the wall and remove any screws, nails, bits of
wood and other pieces of crap that the wall has acumulated over the decades,
along with any pipe clips etc.
Then you need a strong coat of PVA diluted 1:1 with water.
You can either give it the first coat now while wet or leave it to dry and
give it another immediately before starting rendering.
The render should be about 4:1 for the backing coat and 5:1 for the 'face'.
Leave the first coat overnight to dry but you should scratch it all over
while damp so that you have a good key for the following day, you can do
this with four nails knocked into a small piece of timber, knock them
through about quarter of an inch and in a row, so that when you run it along
the wall, you are left with 4 wavy lines...you can splash the wall with PVA
prior to second coating but it's not imperative.
Trying to get any kind of a decent finish with a trowel is nigh on
impossible with render, wait until it's almost dry and go over it with a wet
sponge, but even then it will show every imperfection when the suns on it,
but nevertheless you are better spongeing it even if you are tyroleaning it
afterwards.
Also if you do decide to tyrolean it, give it a couple of coats of white
masonry paint(and allow to dry between coats) before getting the tyrolean
gun out, (you'll thank me afterwards :-p ) and just give it a light misting
of tyrolean, it shouldn't need painting for a few years.

Phil L wrote:
Justin Time wrote:
I did do a rendering a 20'x5' wall job many years ago and yeh, not
too bad. Nothing broken off in 20 years +
If I remember rightly it was just plain sand and cement, one coat on
untreated wall.
Now though, after getting a price for rendering my bungalow (seemes
quite high) I may have a go at it myself.

Could someone tell me the proper procedure.

Wall treatment ?
Sand cement ratio ?
Lime ?
Any other additives ?
2 coats ?
If 2 coats dry before 2nd coat ?
Trowel finish or sponge finish ?
Any other tips ?

Of course I will practise on the neighbours house first

Any advice appreciated

My advice is don't do it.

If you insist on doing it then you'll need bell beads for the bottoms
(slightly above the DPC) and corner beads for any corners, these will need
to be stainless steel otherwise they will rust away and fall off.

The final finish *will* look like a ploughed field in the right (wrong?)
light, when the sun shines along it for example and you may want to tyrolean
it to avoid this.

Whichever finish you decide on your better doing it in two coats, but before
this you need to go all over the wall and remove any screws, nails, bits of
wood and other pieces of crap that the wall has acumulated over the decades,
along with any pipe clips etc.
Then you need a strong coat of PVA diluted 1:1 with water.
You can either give it the first coat now while wet or leave it to dry and
give it another immediately before starting rendering.
The render should be about 4:1 for the backing coat and 5:1 for the 'face'.
Leave the first coat overnight to dry but you should scratch it all over
while damp so that you have a good key for the following day, you can do
this with four nails knocked into a small piece of timber, knock them
through about quarter of an inch and in a row, so that when you run it along
the wall, you are left with 4 wavy lines...you can splash the wall with PVA
prior to second coating but it's not imperative.
Trying to get any kind of a decent finish with a trowel is nigh on
impossible with render, wait until it's almost dry and go over it with a wet
sponge, but even then it will show every imperfection when the suns on it,
but nevertheless you are better spongeing it even if you are tyroleaning it
afterwards.
Also if you do decide to tyrolean it, give it a couple of coats of white
masonry paint(and allow to dry between coats) before getting the tyrolean
gun out, (you'll thank me afterwards :-p ) and just give it a light misting
of tyrolean, it shouldn't need painting for a few years.


Plus waterproofe rand masticiser in both mixes, hydrated lime X1 per
mix helps it along too !!

Staffbull wrote:
Phil L wrote:
Justin Time wrote:

I did do a rendering a 20'x5' wall job many years ago and yeh, not
too bad. Nothing broken off in 20 years +
If I remember rightly it was just plain sand and cement, one coat on
untreated wall.
Now though, after getting a price for rendering my bungalow (seemes
quite high) I may have a go at it myself.

Could someone tell me the proper procedure.

Wall treatment ?
Sand cement ratio ?
Lime ?
Any other additives ?
2 coats ?
If 2 coats dry before 2nd coat ?
Trowel finish or sponge finish ?
Any other tips ?

Of course I will practise on the neighbours house first

Any advice appreciated

the right answers depend entirely on what material youre rendering.
What age is the building and what material?


NT