Rendering home

[ElliotHand]

Hi all,

I'm currently renovating my home and looking to render the property. Currently debating between sand and cement and K-Render.

Can anyone share your opinions of the two?

My understanding is that K-render is more expensive but doesn't need painting however, once you include the cost of painting then K-render is approximately the same cost.

Also, is it possible to get a smooth finish (which I prefer) with k-render or would I need to have sand and cement for that?

Thanks
Elliot

 

[sovietspybob]

I've got Krend and i really love it, it's not completely smooth however and im not sure you can get that but it'd be worth speaking to someone as they may do.

We went with it as we wanted the house to be coloured but didn't want the hassle of getting it painted every few years and looking grubby in between, ours has a very slight sparkle which makes it really catch the sun.

This is the best close up i can find of it.

The only thing i do have to do is spray it with an anti fungal spray maybe once a year on the weather facing sides of the house as they tend to get either green in our case or red algae growth which looks a bit pants but it's much much easier than getting it re-painted as it only takes 20 minutes with a pump up spray bottle.

 

[200sols]

My understanding is that K-render is more expensive but doesn't need painting

I've not rendered a house only smaller garden buildings but you can use normal sand/cement for your base coats and K rend for the top coat. Its also possible to colour a sand/cement render mix but by the time you add the additives etc its probably cheaper to just go K rend. I like to use lime in render its easier to work with if mixing your own.

 

[balls]

We've got Krend on our house extension, quite impressive finish - not completely smooth though, uniformly uneven

 

[ANDARIAL]

K-render
Nuff Said!

 

[PiKe]

k-rend is pretty expensive isnt it? At least when I was quoted, it was like 4000 for the gable end wall.

 

[ElliotHand]

Thanks for the feedback all, think I'll try and go for K-Rend then.

 

[ElliotHand]

k-rend is pretty expensive isnt it? At least when I was quoted, it was like 4000 for the gable end wall.

I'm meeting the plasterer / renderer tonight but had quotes from another guy that only did sand and cement and once I'd added cost of painting I thought that the price would be pretty close to the k-rendering

 

[psd99]

I have wondered what this rendering is called now I know

why is it so expensive though? 40 bags for about £440 here http://www.builderdepot.co.uk/drylining-insulation/plasters-renders/k-rend-render.html

surely the labour is the same as a pea shingle/ sand/cement finish?

 

[jellybeard999]

I had a wall rendered in Parex.

https://www.parex.co.uk/Render_Systems

The guy I used said he found it better than K-Rend, but I'm sure that's just his opinion.

My research on Parex seemed to back this up with various plasterers/renderers/builders on plastering/building forums citing it as their preferred choice, but I'm sure you could find just as many backing K-Rend if you research K-Rend!

It's been on a couple of years and is fine

 

[Skiddley]

Just Krended mine.

bear in mind there are different products under that range, with different finished. Scraped, Thin Coat 15 (1.5mm), TC 30 etc....

 

[psd99]

who here has k render and found it incredibly difficult to clean?

 

[Skiddley]

Prices ranged from 50-60 per sqm. + scaffold, and any existing render removal (10-20 per sqm) to give you an idea.

 

[JRJ]

I had a wall rendered in Parex.

https://www.parex.co.uk/Render_Systems

The guy I used said he found it better than K-Rend, but I'm sure that's just his opinion.

My research on Parex seemed to back this up with various plasterers/renderers/builders on plastering/building forums citing it as their preferred choice, but I'm sure you could find just as many backing K-Rend if you research K-Rend!

It's been on a couple of years and is fine

We've just had our renovation rendered in Parex (275m2), personally I wanted a fine roughcast/terrolean finish whereby the wife wanted a coloured smooth coat, the wife won!

Doing research prior confirmed the above that Parex is preferred in the industry to k-rend, but digging deeper it appears that the negative press that k-rend gets is down to the maintenance advice given, both are marketed as maintenance free where in fact they aren't. Both are sprayed on then scratched back to give the finished texture in doing so opening up the material allowing dirt/debris etc to settle leading to the colour change problems, the longer this is left the harder it is to maintain and keep clean. In addition to this both should be sealed but due to the added cost this doesn't get done in particular on developments, from a personal point of view if I went with Paraguard which is Parex own brand sealer it would have cost me £1000 for materials alone as an example. I followed recommendations from plastering forums and went with Everbuild 402 water seal which has cost me £200 in the end, all the sealers can be put on with a garden sprayer.

I'm not a fan of seeing beading everywhere but we were able to get coloured beading which was a very close match to the finish render colour so not as obvious as some properties, we spoke with several plasterers who solely used white beading whatever colour render they used, they were either unware or couldn't be bothered with the hassle of colour matching the beading.

One thing that bugs me with it is the fact its not forgiving if you have uneven walls, half our property is an old detached stone house with bows and curves in all the walls these can only be pulled out to a certain extent, the other half is timber frame/block and is square and flat.

Parex comes in a fine and medium grade we opted for the fine, its probably close to 60grit sandpaper for texture.