Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 04, 2012 11:39 am Hi all, wanted to understand your opinion on Cement Render & Paint Facade finish. I've been reading past posts to cement render a 30square house, it would cost roughly $30-$35k. Quite a substantial amount. I love the elegant look, however having walked past cemented rendered houses which has been built in the past 2 years, I am concerned about cracks and moisture stains, which will require on going maintenance costs. For those who have cemented rendered their house, have you experienced this or I shouldn't be too concerned because there are techniques these days during initial build to overcome these issues? This is a facade we like: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/715/mainrb.jpg Not sure if the facade can be achieved in the same/similar look using brick finish. Also I am in the Hurstville area, NSW. If you know of any good builders who can do the above facade, please let me know. Thanks, quedee_au Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 2Jul 04, 2012 1:00 pm That sounds about right. While I wasn't a huge fan of rendering, we went with Hebel instead. Same effect but much better thermal/accoustic properties, and a fraction of the cost if you're going for the rendered look all over. Building a Delta 21 at Craigieburn - http://homeofzero.blogspot.com.au/ Deposit: 26/02. Contract: 22/05. Settlement: 29/05. Site start: 18/10. Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 3Jul 04, 2012 1:35 pm When you say Hebel, are you talking the traditional besser-block things; and if so, what are they covered with? And if the answer to that is render, then what's the difference to rendering over bricks? Hebel's a company that makes a variety of building products, however ... are you talking about a different type of cladding, or a construction method which looks a bit like render but isn't? Mind elaborating a little? I suspect we're going to have bricks, it's been what we've discussed at least, but if there're alternatives that aren't too expensive & which allow some of the appearance of all these modern "facades" but without the ongoing maintenance etc I'm all ears! Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 4Jul 04, 2012 3:27 pm Hi akashra, thanks for the info. Skimmed through your blog, worked out that you are in Carlton VIC and building with Metric*n. Looks like Metric*n offers the Hebel finish. Is this a common option other project builders offer? Also further to Forg's post, I went onto Hebel's website and read through this: http://www.hebelaustralia.com.au/Pages/Where-to-use/Houses-external-walls.aspx I am very interested to know if you are using Hebel PowerPanel, PowerClad or PowerBlock. And if this is applied over bricks or straight onto the house frame. If your answer is over bricks and its a fraction of the cost, what a fantastic alternative Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 5Jul 04, 2012 3:52 pm The price you have for a 30 square house seems a bit high to me. We are building a new house with about 55 sq under roof. About 240 sq metres walls and our cost to clad (polystyrene) and render the entire house was about $10K cheaper than your render only cost. I would shop around for a better price given my experience. Settlement 1/2/12 New Shed 23/3/12 Slab poured 27/3/12 Frame complete 4/5/12 Roof complete 1/6/12 LOCKUP 29/6/12 Our new build blog http://kareenhillsownerbuild.blogspot.com/ Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 6Jul 04, 2012 3:58 pm PowerBlock. All uk, it cost about $4k more than brick, but with no cost for doing any render because that's the look the product already has. It effectively has the panel, then a small air gap, then a separated layer/cladding which is a rendered surface. You generally use this in place of brick, not in addition to - though you can use it in conjunction with brick in the same way you would have a double-brick veneer house, at significant extra cost. Total cost for me to render the house, if it were brick, was I think $12k. Building a Delta 21 at Craigieburn - http://homeofzero.blogspot.com.au/ Deposit: 26/02. Contract: 22/05. Settlement: 29/05. Site start: 18/10. Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 7Jul 04, 2012 5:25 pm Thanks delatite13, this forum is a great place to confirm price. akashra, I've read with sand and cement rendering has two distinct drawbacks: firstly, because of its relative inflexibility, it cracks, especially on southerly facing elevations where the thermal effects of summer sunshine can be quite significant. Once this has happened, water gets into the cracks and soaks into any voids between the render and the brick. The older the render, the more chance there is of cracking, and the bigger the voids. Second draw back: Once there, the water can’t get out again, and so instead of evaporating into the open air, it evaporates into the house itself. Result: big patches of moisture on the wall, sometimes quite a way removed from the entry point. Has Hebel's properties overcome the above 2 drawbacks? Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 9Jul 04, 2012 7:17 pm quedee_au, Like everything there is compromise. First the cons of poly. With hard impact - and I mean hard- it will probably dent, but this is repairable. Placing lights, taps or mounting anything into the wall isn't very practical. A noggin in the wall is normal or mount it on a post or similar depending on the weight. The only real finish you can have is a rendered finish - if you call that a con. The pros, Very quick to install. Our cladding took one day. We were told that if needed the whole house could be completed in approx 4 days. Had we use brick or similar it would have taken over 2 weeks! Very lightweight so easy to handle. Can use for a variety of purposes, and shapes. We used it to box beams etc, normally would have to be boxed out and then plastered/clad. Has an R rating of approx R4.0. Brick is much less. Easy to cut/shape. Easily transported if a hard to reach site. Ours fitted on one trailer. It was cheaper for us, but we did shop around for price and quality. There was a fair variation in price and type/brand of panel we sourced. Ours essentially is polystyrene, with all joins "glued" with expanding foam, then covered by fibreglass mesh, then rendered. We chose this over some of the others that have a precoated panel, some of which are sikaflexed. All joins are covered by the mesh when rendered, so providing a seamless finish. re the render. We did use sand and cement render. Ours is a powder formula render. It is much more stable and harder and finer than sand and cement. In the 2 base coats so far they have used over 2 tonne, (should have seen the ute when they arrived ) So, so far very happy with how it's going. Hopefully the colour coat very soon. Settlement 1/2/12 New Shed 23/3/12 Slab poured 27/3/12 Frame complete 4/5/12 Roof complete 1/6/12 LOCKUP 29/6/12 Our new build blog http://kareenhillsownerbuild.blogspot.com/ Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 10Jul 04, 2012 10:24 pm Our builder recommended not getting a render done as most houses take 7 years to settle, and cracks appear which would require getting it redone... Built a Hawthorne 31 with EB nessjeffdreamhouse.blogspot.com.au Building an investment now with New Living homes... We are at nearly finished... Just landscaping and driveway to go! Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 11Jul 04, 2012 11:02 pm If that was the case, given the number of houses with a render finish these days, you would expect a lot more conversation on cracking in render. If you had to wait 7 seven years to avoid cracking the product would be ditched. Settlement 1/2/12 New Shed 23/3/12 Slab poured 27/3/12 Frame complete 4/5/12 Roof complete 1/6/12 LOCKUP 29/6/12 Our new build blog http://kareenhillsownerbuild.blogspot.com/ Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 12Jul 04, 2012 11:22 pm delatite13 If that was the case, given the number of houses with a render finish these days, you would expect a lot more conversation on cracking in render. If you had to wait 7 seven years to avoid cracking the product would be ditched. While I know zero on this topic, looking at generic McMansions it seems to me that a multitude of sh0ddy McSins are ignored in the pursuit of cheapness & being seen to own a new house (on the owner's side) and profit (on the builder's side). It's harsh, but I don't see the argument of "it's commonly used so if there were a problem there would be lots of complaints" as generally holding-up in the building game. Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 13Jul 05, 2012 6:16 am Agree with all your comments. This is the problem, the render looks very beautiful when first built but over the years due to cracking and moisture it looks terrible. Where as bricks seems to last for a life time. Argg... I'm still not clear on my initial concerns, almost giving up on my desire to go down path of building with aesthetically pleasing cement rendering. Thanks very much everyone for your input. The Hebel product seems like an alternative, but it feels like a niche at the moment. Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 15Jul 05, 2012 10:41 am That's what I mentioned 2 posts ago! Settlement 1/2/12 New Shed 23/3/12 Slab poured 27/3/12 Frame complete 4/5/12 Roof complete 1/6/12 LOCKUP 29/6/12 Our new build blog http://kareenhillsownerbuild.blogspot.com/ Cement Render Facade Finish 16Jul 05, 2012 1:12 pm Ah ok. Reason I asked is that we just had our place done with acrylic render. Overall it was about 30% more than standard cement render, but the architect was strongly in favour based on the fact that it is more flexible and water repellent. Our place is about 80 years old, so the brick growth and movement should be minimal. Hopefully this means minimal cracking in future. Very happy with the look- it has transformed a tired old building. Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 17Jul 05, 2012 1:28 pm If we were to render our house it would cost us 2,5k... at first we were going to do it however, we thought about it and decided against it... the major no-no came after we heard that they will do it in lieu of face brick... originally we thought that they will put face brick and then render over it but that's not the case... since then we thought that we can render it anytime but can't put the face brick... Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 18Jul 05, 2012 1:40 pm So offshore & delatite13, are you saying that acrylic renders claim to be more flexible (hence are much less likely to crack when the inevitable house-shifting happens), plus being waterproof means that any cracks that do occur don't cause staining anyway? Cement Render Facade Finish 19Jul 05, 2012 2:53 pm That's my understanding based on discussions with the architect and engineer. Of course these things will have limits though. Eg: houses on reactive clay can move quite a lot, especially if there is a drought or something. The acrylic increases the threshold for cracking but is by no means impervious. We are on sand rather than clay and the house is quite old, so in theory shouldn't have a lot of movement. Re: Cement Render Facade Finish 20Jul 05, 2012 6:42 pm offshore Ah ok. Reason I asked is that we just had our place done with acrylic render. Overall it was about 30% more than standard cement render, but the architect was strongly in favour based on the fact that it is more flexible and water repellent. Our place is about 80 years old, so the brick growth and movement should be minimal. Hopefully this means minimal cracking in future. Very happy with the look- it has transformed a tired old building. This is really interesting. We have a tired old house as well that we are thinking of rendering (or doing anything to change the look). Is it possible to post some before and after photos of what you have done? Building Standards; Getting It Right! But they didn't even leave it at one level it goes up and down along the whole front of the house 4 10945 The mesh is often stuck on wall first then rendered over, which means it does nothing Not to specifications Get a scope of works in writing before start, needs to be… 10 9033 Hi, Currently building, we are on a sloping block so we have from floor level to the roof in axon cladding. Below floor level to the ground I want to put brick facings /… 0 4493 |