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It is always disappointing if you’ve paid for a job and you’re not happy with the result. We get a quite a few queries from people who have had their properties rendered and are sadly not happy with the finish. There are several common issues that tend to arise:
• The render has lots of hairline cracks over it (or even large cracks!)
• The render finish is not consistent across the wall surface
• The render is the wrong colour
• Algae seems to be growing on the newly-rendered wall
• The render seems to be bubbling
Having spent lots of money on giving your home a face lift, it can be pretty gutting if the end result does not live up to expectations. The good news is that at EWI Store we have all the products you will need to help you fix the issue, so you can once again be proud of your home!
Our most popular products are all thin coat render systems. These consist of a 6mm base coat layer with an embedded fibreglass mesh topped with a render textured finish. The beauty of these renders is the fact they are so flexible, meaning they don’t crack!
Cracks forming in your render?
We get lots of people who want to fix cracked render and they ask whether it is enough just to go over their cracked render with our textured render topcoat. The answer here is, sadly, no! The textured render topcoat gets applied extremely thinly – take for example our popular 1.5mm Silicone Silicate render system – this is applied on top of the base coat at a thickness of just 1.5mm. The render can’t be applied directly on top of previous render for two reasons – firstly the surface on which our thin coat renders are applied need to be perfectly flat. If it isn’t flat, it is impossible to achieve the required textured finish – the base coat provides this perfectly flat surface on which the top coat sits. The second reason is that even if the wall was incredibly flat, were you to apply the render topcoat only (i.e. without the base coat layer), it would not have sufficient strength and so would fail in a short period of time.
When applying our render systems on top of another render finish, we would always recommend using EWI-225 Premium Adhesive. This is stronger than the EWI-220, and therefore the whole system will be that little more robust. This is pretty important as, if you’re already replacing one render system with another, the last thing you want to have to do is to replace it again 5 years down the line. Our render-only systems should be crack-free for a minimum of 10 years if installed correctly.
So if you have render that has been newly installed and you are already seeing cracks, use our EWI-225 Premium Adhesive plus EWI-66640 Fibreglass Mesh for the base coat, and then apply our top coat renders (ideally Silicone or Mineral).
The same applies if the render finish is not consistent across the wall surface. To be honest, this often occurs because the installers lack the skill to do the job. If you have had your property rendered and you are not happy with the finish, give us a call – we have a network of approved renderers and external wall insulation installers who will all do a great job! The answer to solving the issue is the same though – a new layer of basecoat, (with embedded fibreglass mesh) and then the render top coat to give the textured finish.
Unhappy with the colour of your render?
If you simply want to change the colour of your home, then the solution is quite a bit cheaper! You just need a bucket of our Silicone Paint. The Silicone Paint is breathable and can be coloured to meet your design requirements. It can be painted on most renders and two coats should do the job, regardless of the colour of the original render. In some cases you will need to prime the existing render before applying our Silicone Paint – the easiest thing to do if you are unsure is give us a call, and one of our team will be happy to help!
Got algae growing on your render?
Unfortunately, algae growth can occur very quickly on new render. There are some renders that are particularly liable to algae growth, and one of these is Acrylic render – many people look to acrylic render since it is the cheapest option to buy and therefore it keeps install costs down. On the other hand, silicone/mineral renders will tend to inhibit algae growth, but be mindful of where you house is situated. If you live in middle of woods, then unfortunately the chances of having no algae growth at all is unlikely, even if you use silicone render. Here you may wish to pick a slightly darker colour so that light algae growth won’t show. If Acrylic render has been installed though, you can apply a new layer of base coat and silicone render and this will certainly help.
If you’re unhappy with a past render job done on your property,just get in touch and we can give you some suggestions of how to improve it!
Hi, is there a way I can get a completely smooth render finish? I want it to be crack free, but I don’t like the textured finish.
Hi Bugbettle, we can get a 0.5mm textured finish, but we don’t offer a totally smooth finish. Some of our customers use the 225 premium adhesive (with the embedded fibreglass mesh) and then paint this with a Silicone paint, but this certainly won’t be as robust as using our render systems.
We had sand and cement render done in April of this year. It is already cracking, to see we are unhappy with our render finish is a bit of an understatement! I know you say your render doesn’t crack, but how is it different from the sand and cement renders?
Hi Gabriel, our render itself is very flexible, so that helps, but the key is actually in the layer underneath the render topcoat. The basecoat layer as it is known is a 6mm layer of cement based adhesive with an embedded fibreglass mesh and it is this that gives the render its strength and flexibility.