OB in SA

Having a go at rendering. Primer done. I've helped! Doing the inside of the garage so painting can be done after in there. We are also doing a bit at the side of the house where the bins go. Lol! Picking spots so if we majorly stuffed up, it's not at the front.

Primer done on garage side of the house. Hombre will try to do one coat of render in the garage and continue tomorrow.

Hombre doing render for the first time. First coat. Looks better already.

I cement rendered the inside of my OB house. The first room (a bedroom), I did not like my results and I re-rendered the entire room. The second bedroom was not good but I never got around to re-rendering (I just put a dim globe in the light fitting). By the time I got to rendering the public rooms, (Living/Dining etc) I had got the knack and the finish is superb. Too late, as I will never need to render another house again.
You seem to be getting a good finish on your first room, good luck with the rest of your house.
The outside walls will be a challenge as you need to keep a wet edge as you work along the wall. This will be tiring for just one renderer..

Wow, he's certainly very skilled, seems to be doing a great job at all he turns his hand to

What float did you use Beetaloo for your final coat? We have tried a spongy float and a steel float. They both look OK, but it just seems that using the spongy float, it's got a bit more texture. I prefer a bit more smooth finish which the steel float gives. But just wondering if using something else will give me that better. Both are OK, just different so it's just a personal preference I guess. We used the sponge float for our first coat finish, thinking that it will give a bit more grip for the second coat.

We are only rendering the outside walls and the only thing inside is the garage piers. Will see how hombre goes doing the outside wall tomorrow.
We are very happy that we can do it ourselves it seems. And be happy with the results. We were quoted $30m2 but it became $50m2 because we have different bricks throughout the house. If we are able to do it ourselves, that's a lot of money saved there. More to spend somewhere else!

Yep, we are doing the sides and the back of the house first. So hopefully when it's time to do the front, it will be flawless. Haha!

I ended up using a sponge float on my build. It gave the best results for me. (I tried steel & wood floats but my attempts with these were a fail). I really liked the results I got with the sponge float but timing was everything.

Cheers Marshall! He was a bit worried about doing it. So we thought if it didn't work and not up to the standards*, we will pay someone skilled to do it. Very happy, it actually came up a treat. Second coat will be done tomorrow. Letting it set overnight.

*our standards, might not live up to to others'.

Hombre actually is happy with the finish of the sponge float. It's me that is wanting a bit more smooth finish. See what we end up with between the two. We also saw on YouTube that they used a plastic float. Not sure we will try that.

I did use a large plastic float before the sponge float. I used a steel float to initially apply the render, then wood or plastic float to smooth the wall, and finally, after the render had started to go off, I use a sponge to finish. I also filled the mortar joints the day before I starting the rendering.

Yep, will do the same thing in terms of filling missing mortar joints.

Beetaloo, would you mind posting a close-up pic of your rendered wall? I know you used cement render not the granosite material but would like to see the difference. I know ours is only the first coat and Hombre will try to make the final coat more refined, but I am not too sure if I am happy with the textured finish. Causing a little bit of friction at home. Lol! I am just wondering if the top coat should use a different product if I expect a bit of a smoother finish.

Also, if anyone else has used granosite (whether DIY or applied by a pro), would appreciate if you have photos to share.

Cheers!

This is a photo of an unpainted wall. The photo is uncompressed so if it is downloaded to PC, one should be able to zoom in.
I like the textured finish. The wall also has some bumps where some bricks were sticking out a bit. I like the rustic look. It suits my house. I did however use steel angles in all external corners. This allowed me to have nice straight edges at corners.
Unpainted walls

This is the painted walls. The render soaked up an enormous amount of paint and 3 coats were required.

Cheers for the photos Beetaloo. Appreciate your reply. It looks good. I might be just panicking a little. Will wait how the final coat turn up for us. I might be OK with the textured finish.

We will still be using all Saturn switches but only selected ones for Saturn power points. Our sparky rang to suggest getting the below for the rest of our power points. Also looks nice at a fraction of the price of the Saturn ones.

Looking at flipping the colours in the laundry. Will be white for cabinetry and the grey for the bench top instead. Kitchen will be the opposite.

So we have stopped with rendering using granosite. I'm not totally happy with the results, Hombre is the same. It's also a lot of house for him to do the rendering. We are having someone to come out this week to give us a proper quote. We got the bricks for nothing and to lay them was free too. So we will just spend the money and get a pro to do it for us. We would have spent that money anyway if we wanted the face bricks (ie we would have needed to buy new bricks instead of recycled ones).

We bought one of those gigantic tiles to see how it will look like in the space. And because Hombre will do the bathroom and laundry floors first, he needed to know how thick the big tiles are so there will be no lip when we finally lay the latter later on. Love the tile! Got a sheen but nothing major that you can see your reflection through it. And the size! Hombre says they're laid with thin grout.



Our sample stone colour for the kitchen and grey is our kitchen cupboards too.






Also got our washer and dryer


Our dishwasher and the rest of kitchen stuff required for cabinetry have been dropped off yesterday to the kitchen mob.
Exciting times ahead!!!

Looks nice Twy.. Exciting times ahead