Browse Forums DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair 1 Sep 04, 2015 4:54 pm Hi, I'm wondering whether to attempt a job or not and looking for advice We gutted the downstairs section of our home with success. As part of this, there was an old garage with a tilting door on the side of the house, this was removed and turned into an en-site. A smokey glass bathroom window was put in and any old bricks that didn't match the house were used to fill the hole. I've been quoted $1100 to render and paint the downstairs area on this side of the house so if I can do it myself I will. To give an idea of my skill level I did a fair bit of the work on the renovation, layed most of the tiles, painted inside, fitted skirting, vanity etc. So I'm not a rookie (but no tradesman either ) and have the tools needed. So...a few friends of wife etc have said things like 'we rendered and it looked awful' but I'm assuming (with all due respect) that...well, you know. The job would total 25 square metres approx. Is outdoor rendering difficult? What sort of products would I use for this (rendering brickwork through to paint) Any good videos etc. Somewhat vague question I know but I'm trying to get a feel on whether I want to tackle this one. Thanks for reading! Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 2Sep 09, 2015 8:50 pm I am an accredited dulux texture coater and I genuinely believe this trade is over rated. They key to success, is to practice on a pretend wall first. If you just start rendering, it will look terrible. Get some bricks, from anywhere, grab some mortar, and add some sand to it to make a really weak mortar mix and build a small wall (letterbox size) and practice on that. If you use an acrylic modified cement render you will find it a lot easier, not to mention a stronger bond to the substrate. DO NOT mix your own render with sand and cement. It simply doesn't work. Purchase the right tools, dont try get away with a pointing trowel and float haha. u need, black plastic (as a dropsheet) spray bottle with ability to spray a fine mist, any cheap steel plasterers hawk a wide plasterers trowel, preferably with rounded ends (rounded ends are easier, but can lead to overconfidence and an uneven finish) A wooden float grinding block enough bags of P400 renderwall (from dulux) From there, once you are ready to tackle the house: Watch this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2s8KWL6ABE Use this 4 coat system system or else you will very soon see the brick lines through your new render! Dulux P400 Renderwall (one or 2 coats) Dulux Acratex Coventry Coarse or Sand finish Dulux Acratex Acrashield Matt (tinted to whatever colour under the sun you want) That last step is your most important, it is a flexible membrane which will last a long time and wont look liek those terribel patchy render jobs. Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 3Sep 10, 2015 3:03 am Hi rebuilder86, Thanks for your detailed reply! That's what I was hoping to hear, I can find a lot of uses for $1100 elsewhere at the moment, still have 2 bathrooms to renovate so I was hoping to do this myself. There is two small areas under the verandah where someone previously rendered but stopped short of doing the whole wall as it was out of view, I can have a practice there Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 5Oct 22, 2015 9:59 am Funny you ask now, I started yesterday. I'll give you an account and provide some pics as I go along if you like so that you can make your mind up. The job is around 13 sq metres so I bought for 15 thinking I'll waste a bit, so I got 8 bags of the p400 and a 15 litre tin of the two other products. The guy says in the video outside walls need an acid wash so I did that as it was quite dirty, then I used a concrete grinder attachment to clean off the mortar chunks etc. The wall was a slightly concave so I built that up with leftover tile cement as I went along tiling the inside of the house (hope that's OK, seems solid) I got some of the edge bead for the door and window and some Rock cote prep and patch to glue that in and level some of the tricky edges on the door and window where broken bricks were used, going to do that today and base coat behind the plumbing etc. So here is the total job, I'll be doing the bottom story, up to about one brick above the door. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 6Oct 22, 2015 10:09 am rebuilder86, if you happen to come back here... you can see in that photo on the very right on the corner of the house the wall going the other way has render and paint on it. It has a pattern in the render. If it's a simple job I'll make it the same finish as the new wall as this section is only 3 feet wide. I read that because it's painted I can't put base coat on it, what product could I trowel onto that surface and then paint with the Acratex Acrashield? And if I decide not to render it, can I just paint over a painted surface with the Acratex Acrashield? Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 7Oct 22, 2015 12:44 pm I have not done any external DIY rendering but have done internal rendering. In my first attempt I used hand mixed plasterers sand and cement. It was a disaster as most of the render slid down the wall. I then tried acrylic render, it easily stuck to the wall but the working time was too quick for me. I ended up only using acrylic render when working upside down i.e. when plastering the underside of lintels. Finally I settled on polymer modified cement render. This easily came off the trowel and stuck to the wall and the working time was longer. This allowed me to finish one wall before the render was too hard to work. The first room (bedroom) I rendered was awful. The second room (bedroom) a bit better so I went back and redid the first room again. The third room (bedroom) was better again. Finally I moved onto the livings areas. My now I had got my eye and arm in and am proud the finish I got in the living areas. Lesson learnt is that it takes practice to get a good finish so practice on a small wall which is not in a prominent location until you are satisfied with your results. I also found that I needed to use expanded angles for external angles to get a satisfactory straight line. To maximise the working time of the render, work on the shady side of the house and preferably avoid working during the hottest part of the day. Photos of before and after on my build. Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 8Oct 23, 2015 1:38 am Beetaloo, that is a good white set job too if you did that!! Logman, you can use a product called acrapatch coarse (Also by dulux acratex available at Dulux trade centre), which is an acrylic patching compound normally used in the jointing of exterior fibre cement sheeting (harditexe blueboard etc) but you must add the 10% cement as labelled on the lid. If applied thin enough (100 microns, or 1 mm) you should be able to get away with one tub for a 3 x 2.4 m section. As for how deep a crevice it should fill, From our duspec service: DULUX AcraPatch Coarse can be used as a base filler for filling larger surface irregularities & blemishes of up to 4mm per coat. Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 9Oct 25, 2015 12:14 pm Another question rebuilder86, that steel support beam above the window and door, do I render onto that or will it fall off i.e. should I just do the part I base coated in the picture and paint the steel with something else? It's quite hidden anyway... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here's what I did on the weekend, had a practice on a small hidden brick section around the corner, from there I decided to do as many fiddly bits as possible to get used to the cement. It's amazing stuff how hard it sets! So I did things like remove an electrical conduit and did behind that and plumbing, did the top line between the first and second storey etc. By then I had the confidence to do the door and window angle and then base coat the sides. So far so good Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 10Oct 25, 2015 4:15 pm theres far too much cement in ur render mix. SHoul be one part cement to about 4 parts sand. It shouldnt be rock hard. It should have a sandy texture and be floated as it is only just dry to the hand. Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 12Oct 27, 2015 10:11 am why are you using exsulite???? stop. Thats for EPS. Go back and get cement render, or P400 renderwall. Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 13Oct 27, 2015 10:21 am I went to Dulux trade centre (Burleigh Heads), told them what I was doing and that's what he gave me....I had P400 renderwall on the piece of paper I gave him, I assumed it was re-branded or something when he gave me that. I had copied it onto the paper exactly as you wrote above, probably still have the paper in my ute.... Dulux P400 Renderwall Dulux Acratex Coventry Coarse or Sand finish Dulux Acratex Acrashield Matt Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 14Oct 27, 2015 10:28 am Yep, just found the piece of paper I gave him and it's written exactly like this... Dulux P400 Renderwall Dulux Acratex Coventry Coarse or Sand finish Dulux Acratex Acrashield Matt and I told him I was rendering over a brick wall, that's what he gave me. Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 16Oct 27, 2015 7:03 pm Dulux Australia is dulux australia. I was an employee of a trade centre in her in WA up until last month. The Australia wide specification sheet specifies renderwall. http://www.duspec.com.au/pdfs/specifica ... 0a6f2b2840 Maybe those crazy QLD staff want their own product names tho.... Just to confirm, we are talkign about that light grey screed around the windows where we can see the brick lines coming through slightly,, yes? Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 17Oct 27, 2015 8:51 pm No, no - I mentioned earlier that the wall was very concave, I've done about 90 sq metres of tiling on the house, any leftover tile glue was thrown into the concave area over the last 6 months to build it up. The product I'm rendering with is what you can see on the inside of the window and above the plastic angle on the right but only for a few inches, then it's tile glue.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Can I ask another couple of questions please In the above picture, can you see that blue/grey metal support bar above the security screen where I only did about a one inch strip of render - should I be putting render over that? Also, the line where the render of the lower storey meets the brick of the upper storey, would aluminium angle or something normally be put there? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 18Oct 29, 2015 12:16 am ahhh I see, sorry I should have realised that!! In that case it looks good! haha For the lintel above the window, just oil based primer it, and then paint or texture it with the acrylic texture coat. As for the top of the render, you want what is called a 'stop bead'. Google it. Glue it to the bricks using liquid nails, and make sure you get it as straight and level as possible. Then render up to this using it as a guide for the trowel so there is a perfect straight line. once rendered, you can texture up to this point and just leave the beading strip showing through at the top. Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 19Oct 29, 2015 12:17 am stop bead of the PVC variety I should clarify Re: Outdoor rendering for the first time 20Oct 29, 2015 8:24 am I had imagined that there must have been a plastic bead like the angle but wasn't coming across it online, I'll get that today. OK, coming along pretty well, got the cracks filled yesterday (started to rain when I was 2/3 through the bucket ). In this photo there are still patches of tiling glue. The far left section is all basecoat (I took the photo when I had just finished applying so it's wet). Question...There is one deep depression next to the window, is there a depth limit on the basecoat, or can I keep layering it until I'm happy with the level as long as I don't do each layer too thick? 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